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Middle East
Scuffles at rally for BBC reporter
Police officers pushed and shoved journalists as they tried to enter parliament.
Last Modified: 17 Apr 2007 18:12 GMT
Three journalists were slightly injured as they tried
to get into the Palestinian parliament [AFP]
Palestinian police scuffled with journalists during a solidarity protest in Gaza City in support of Alan Johnston, the BBC reoporter kidnapped more than a month ago.

Police officers pushed and shoved the reporters as they tried to enter the Palestinian parliament building on Tuesday.

Three journalists were slightly injured in the melee.
"Free, free Alan Johnston!", "No, no to kidnappings!" more than 100 journalist chanted as they tried to gain entry to parliament.

Eventually they gave up trying to force their way into the building and staged a sit-in outside the government compound in Gaza City.
Johnston was snatched at gunpoint from his car as he drove home from work in Gaza City on March 12.

The Palestinian journalists' union has accused the authorities of not doing enough to secure the BBC journalist's release.

"We came to ask those lawmakers about the facts and the truth on the fate of our kidnapped colleague," Shohdy al-Kashef, a member of the local journalists' union, said.

"It's more than a month right now and we are concerned for Alan's life after the statement released two days ago. We came peacefully, but we are being assaulted now."

Last Sunday, a little-known group, Kataeb al-Jihad al-Tawheed (The Brigades of Holy War and Unity), claimed it had killed Johnston, one of the few Western reporters to have both lived and worked in the territory.

The Palestinian government has said that so far there was no proof that the claim is true and the government inisists it is still working to secure his freedom.
Source:
Agencies
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