Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Annan hopes for quick release of Romanian journalists, guide taken hostage in Iraq

5 May 2005 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today expressed concern about three Romanian journalists and their guide who were taken hostage in Iraq in March and deplored all abduction and killing of innocent civilians.

Mr. Annan "expresses the hope that they will be released quickly and safely and reiterates his condemnation of all hostage-takings and killings of innocent civilians, which no cause can ever justify," a UN spokesman said.

The Romanian Government has identified the three journalists, who were kidnapped with their guide on 28 March, as Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, both of Prima TV, and Ovidiu Ohanesian.