Taliban hostage asks Italy to help free him
Source: Reuters
(Updates with Prodi, family reactions) By Phil Stewart ROME, March 14 (Reuters) - An Italian reporter kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan nine days ago appealed to Italy's government to secure his release in a video distributed on Wednesday that proved for the first time he was alive. "I appeal to the Italian government and to Prime Minister Romano Prodi to do everything, work in every direction, to obtain our freedom," Daniele Mastrogiacomo said in the video, shown on Italian state television. He said he was well. Mastrogiacomo was picked up on March 5 in the lawless southern province of Helmand along with two Afghan colleagues and the Taliban said he had confessed to spying for British troops. The Taliban, who often execute Afghans they accuse of spying, have called for Italy to withdraw its 1,900 troops from Afghanistan in order to free him -- something Rome rules out. Prodi's office said in a statement his government was "united and determined to work for the journalist's release as quickly as possible". Mastrogiacomo looked haggard but well in the video, which he said was recorded on Monday morning. He made no mention of his supposed confession to spying for the British and instead he said he was "arrested" for crossing into Taliban territory. "I was arrested by a group of Taliban, who believe that we entered, with two Afghan colleagues, illegally into their territory," he said. He also made an emotional appeal to his wife and children, saying: "Be calm. There's no problem ... they will release me and obviously we just need to have a little patience and I'm sure you're with me in spirit." Mastrogiacomo's brother, Alessandro, was searching the video for clues about the reporter's health. "I was trying to figure out if he had been mistreated in any way. It's hard to say because the quality of the video was not very good," Alessandro said on Italian television. La Repubblica newspaper has repeatedly denied the reporter was a spy and said the Karachi-born man had been writing for it since 1980 and had been reporting from Afghanistan since Feb.28. Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Rome was using humanitarian channels to reach the kidnappers and "create the conditions to win the Italian reporter's release". The video was provided to Italian outlets by an Italian humanitarian group in Afghanistan called Emergency, which describes itself as "independent and neutral", offering medical assistance to people wounded in war. Asked by Italy's ANSA news agency whether Emergency was involved in the kidnap negotiations, the aid group's head, Gino Strada said: "It doesn't involve us and we don't want to know its details". (Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy and Deepa Babington)
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