JERUSALEM: Anita McNaugh wife of cameraman Olaf Wig and his colleague Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni, kidnapped by Palestinian gunman appeals in Gaza for their release

The wife of a cameraman kidnapped by Palestinian gunman along with a U.S. television reporter appealed in Gaza on Friday (August 18, 2006) for their release, saying their abduction was pointless. Cameraman Olaf Wiig, from New Zealand, and Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni, an American, were seized by masked gunmen on Monday (August 13) in Gaza City. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. "Four days ago in Gaza armed men came and took him away with his colleague Steve. He has not being heard from since we have had no word. Someone in Gaza must know, someone in Gaza must know where he is. They must know something," said Wiig's wife Anita McNaught, also a journalist who learned of the abduction after she had just completed an assignment covering the war in Lebanon. "He and Steve were here because they wanted to be here, because as journalists they wanted to tell the Palestinian story. He cares about the Palestinian people. He is in the hands of the Palestinian people," McNaught said. "But because of what has happened to him we are all hostages now. We are all in jail. It is so destructive. This achieves nothing." "Please, if somebody knows where he is, if somebody knows any information can you please tell us because I want him home so much," she pleaded. On the verge of tears, she said: "He and his colleagues Steve do not deserve this. They are good men. They are good men and they should be allowed to come home. Please let him go home, Please". Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have ordered all security agencies to search for the two hostages and secure their release. The kidnapping was the first involving foreigners in Gaza since since the Hamas-led government was sworn in in March. Several previous kidnappings were resolved bloodlessly. Kidnappers had often been locked in disputes with the Palestinian Authority over jobs or the release of jailed relatives from prisons.

ITN Source | August 19, 2006

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