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Hamid Albar and Khalil Yaacob must bear full and direct responsibility for the safety and welfare of the journalists in the Joint Media Team Malaysia covering the lawlessness, chaos, and anarchy in post-Saddam Iraq Media Comment by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya,  Sunday): DAP is gravely concerned about the safety of the Malaysian Medical Relief Society (Mercy) and the Joint Media Team Malaysia in the cauldron of lawlessness, chaos and anarchy in post-Saddam Iraq, with reports that Mercy Malaysia doctors have been shot in ambush and the abduction of JMTM journalists. New Straits Times Online "Breaking News" reported that Mercy Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood and her colleague Dr Baba Deni were shot by gunmen during an ambush outside Baghdad this morning (Baghdad time). An Iraqi interpreter was shot dead while three members of the Joint Media Team Malaysia, Anuar Hashim (New Straits Times photographer), Terence Fernandez (The Sun reporter) and Omar Salleh (RTM cameraman), were abducted but were believed to have been released unharmed. The Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and the Information Minister, Tan Sri Khalil Yaacob, must bear full and direct responsibility for the safety and welfare of the journalists in the Joint Media Team Malaysia covering the lawlessness, chaos, and anarchy in post-Saddam Iraq, as they were part of a 28-member team co-ordinated by the two ministries to get first-hand reporting on the Iraq war from a Malaysian perspective rather than from the "biased" Western media. On Friday, Deputy Information Minister, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin, said that the JMTM journalists will probably have to stay longer in Iraq with the fall of Baghdad to enable them to cover the peace-keeping mission. He said information obtained during the coverage would be very useful for future references, especially when sending the Malaysian representatives for the mission. I had been baffled as to why the Foreign and Information Ministries have sent the JMTM to Iraq, with Khalil Yaacob promising that the Malaysian reporters had full freedom to report from any angle - when they do not have such freedom of reporting in Malaysia. Furthermore, if the JMTM is so important for getting proper information from the Malaysian perspective to the government, why the Deputy Information Minister, who was formerly editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia Group, had not led the whole team to Iraq himself. Lim Kit Siang   (13/4/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman