Freed Australian says Iraqi militants not savages
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-20 09:53

An Australian journalist held hostage in Iraq for 24 hours before being released after his captors established his independence by searching for his name on the Internet said the militants who took him were not "savages".

John Martinkus, a reporter for Australia's SBS Television Dateline programme, was released unharmed at the weekend and arrived back in Australia's southern city of Melbourne late on Tuesday. "These guys ... (are) not stupid. They're fighting a war but they're not savages. They're not actually just killing people willy-nilly. They talk to you, they think about things," Martinkus told reporters at Melbourne airport.

"(From their perspective) there was a reason to kill (British hostage Ken) Bigley, there was a reason to kill the Americans; there was not a reason to kill me -- luckily I managed to convince them of that," he said.

Martinkus demanded an apology from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who on Monday said the journalist had been taken hostage in a dangerous part of Baghdad to which he had been advised not to go.

"Alexander Downer doesn't know his geography very well. I was actually across the road from the Australian embassy when I was kidnapped. He should apologise to me, actually -- personally," Martinkus said.

SBS executive producer Mike Carey told local media Martinkus was released after his captors used popular Internet search engine Google to establish he was an independent reporter who did not support the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, kidnapped in Iraq on Aug. 20 are believed to be still alive. The kidnappers have demanded France scrap a law banning the wearing of Muslim headscarves in state schools. France has refused.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Talks to be held on disputes with Japan         Earthquake injured 12 in Southwest China         China's GDP to exceed 8% in 2005         Traditional friendship with DPRK flourishes         Myanmar PM ousted, under house arrest         Forest fire under control in Northeast	Bush, Kerry campaign for senior votes       Thailand confirms 23 tigers die of bird flu       Myanmar PM ousted, under house arrest       Typhoon Tokage hits Japan with heavy rain, winds       Sinclair says won't show entire anti-Kerry film       Peres: Israeli extremists may try to kill Sharon