MIDDLE EAST:Alan Johnston, the kidnapped BBC Gaza correspondent, appeared in a video released by his captors yesterday, nearly 12 weeks after he was seized, in which he says he is healthy and being well treated.
It is the first time the journalist has been seen since he disappeared on March 12th and he seems to be unhurt. Some in Gaza suggested the appearance of the video, on a website used by Islamic radicals, meant negotiations with his kidnappers were progressing. But it was not clear when the film was shot.
Mr Johnston (45) is shown seated in front of the camera in a red sweatshirt. "First of all, my captors have treated me very well," he says. "They've fed me well. There has been no violence towards me at all and I'm in good health."
He then makes a series of what appear to be scripted political statements critical of Israel and the West. "In three years here in the Palestinian territories I have witnessed the huge suffering of the Palestinian people and my message is that their suffering is continuing and that it is unacceptable," he says.
He then condemns Britain and the US for their support of Israel and for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He later begins to address his family, saying: "To my family, my family." But the video is cut and a message appears on the screen saying: "BBC refused to take this message to his family." Mr Johnston's family in Scotland, who have made a number of broadcasts urging him to keep his spirits up, welcomed the news that he was alive.
"We are very pleased to see Alan and to hear him say that he is not being ill-treated - although it is clearly distressing for us to see him in these circumstances," they said in a statement.
A BBC spokesperson said it was studying the video and confirmed that a specific address to Mr Johnston's family was part of the original message. The insignia of a group calling itself the Army of Islam appears on the video and a voice in Arabic says it demands the release of Abu Qatada, a radical cleric in jail in Britain awaiting deportation to Jordan for alleged terrorist offences. -