With Hamas unwilling to act, hope for the journalist is fading again, says philip jacobson |
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It is now more than 80 days since the BBC's respected Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston - seen today in a video from his captives - was kidnapped by gunmen, the longest period that any of the media personnel who have been abducted in the lawless Gaza Strip have been held captive.
Despite demonstrations of solidarity from fellow journalists, echoed by politicians, the Pope and an al-Jazeera cameraman behind bars in Guantanamo Bay, hopes of securing his release were fading.
Then, last weekend, a senior aide to the Palestinian prime minister reported that he was in direct contact with Johnston's captors - a shadowy group calling itself the Army of Islam that posted a photo of his BBC press card on the internet earlier this month. "I'm sure he is alive and well," the aide added, without going into further detail.
While it was obviously encouraging, the |
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| The handling of efforts to free Johnston by Hamas has been anything but reassuring |
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handling of efforts to free Johnston by Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza politically and militarily, has been anything but reassuring. It is an open secret that the Army of Islam is controlled by the Dugmash clan, a thuggish extended family linked to local Islamic extremists and organised crime. They're believed to have been behind the kidnap of two Fox News journalists last summer and to have pocketed $2m for releasing them.
Hamas has the best intelligence network in Gaza and almost certainly knows where Johnston is being held: it also has the muscle to take on the Dugmash gang, but has apparently ruled out the use of force to avoid factional conflict. Yet any resolution that involves a prisoner release or a ransom can only weaken the authorities even more.
The video released by his captors proves that Johnston is, for the moment, alive. But not long before he was abducted, he confided to a visitor that what he feared most about reporting from Gaza's dangerous streets was a kidnapping that went horribly wrong.
FIRST POSTED JUNE 1, 2007
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