The University Plaza: "We Want Them Alive!"

Tens of people gathered in the University Plaza on Wednesday as well and they wanted to show their solidarity with the four Romanians kidnapped in Iraq. This time, slogans were shouted and the people asked for the withdrawal of the troops from Iraq. The people present at the meeting, together with a lot of passers by, signed in a notebook for the withdrawal of the troops.

There was a man at the table where the signatures were gathered who told us he was there at the initiative of a lawyer, but he refused telling us his name. He said that, by 3 o’clock in the afternoon, more than 7,000 people signed.

VIPS .Several personalities took part in this meeting as well and here we remind the coaches of the national women’s gymnastics team, together with some of the gymnasts. "They were only some people doing their jobs. We believe that these will be the toughest hours. We don’t want to get involved in political related comments. We came here to show our solidarity and I believe each one of us should do this", Mariana Bitang stated for us. For a few moments, the former tennis player Ilie Nastase was there too, and he said he didn’t understand why the inhabitants of Bucharest didn’t go out in the streets. "I hope this situation will have an end without any dead journalists, even if the Romanian troops don’t retreat from Iraq. I would like to ask Basescu why he doesn’t ask for 50 million USD from the Americans to give to the kidnappers", Ilie Nastase said. Former GRP (the Great Romania Party) senator, George Pruteanu, also present in the University Plaza, told us: "The rope is getting thinner. I made some research on the Internet and I found out this is a cynical terrorist organization that is trying to get higher. So, it is very possible for this to have a bad ending. An army can be moved from here to there, but you cannot do the same thing with a human life". A pupil from Tonitza commented: "There are too little people, there are a few more minutes…"

THE HOPE. At a certain time, a girl said: "Let’s go to Cotroceni, there is no point in staying here", but her words didn’t receive any feedback. Another voice rises from the crowd: "They are going to kill them. These Arabians don’t give any importance to human lives." In the following minutes, the people shouted: Marie-Jeanne, Sorin, Ovidiu, Munaf. Posters with the three journalists and Xerox copies of Munaf were being held in the air. Wednesday’s Jurnalul National was being held as a poster. A lady was holding in her hand a sacred image of the Holly Virgin, a wooden cross and a picture of Munaf. "I also have two children at home. We were supposed to go to church, but this is a church too. I don’t understand how the other mothers can stay home. What kind of models are we for the youth?"

SLOGANS. The people gathered in the University Plaza shouted: "Don’t let them die!", "Romania in the streets!", "Withdraw the troops!", "Basescu, help!", Basescu, you promised!", "We don’t want mourning!", "Like in Timisoara!", "We are not leaving!", "Basescu, you have children!", "This is not our war!", "We want them alive!". In Buzau, Marie-Jeanne’s native town, 200 people gathered to show their support for the three Romanian journalists kept hostages in Iraq. The meeting, where the freeing of Marie-Jeanne Ion, Sorin Miscoci and Ovidiu Ohanesian was asked, began at 10 o’clock in the morning, in the Dacia Plaza. Its initiators have been some local journalists and correspondents of the central publications and TV stations.

THE STONED GOVERNMENT. About two or three hundreds of people left the University Plaza for the Victoria Palace. Many of them were students and pensioners. Slogans like "Free them!", "Come with us!" or the names of the kidnapped journalists didn’t have much of an effect on the hurried passers by. An old man was standing in front of the column showing his watch to show that time was running out for our colleagues. In front of the DP (Democratic Party) headquarters on the Ana Ipatescu Boulevard, the column shouted: "The Alliance is sleeping!" and "Shame!". In front of the Victoria Palace, the people sat on their knees and prayed under the untouched eyes of the guards. The shouting continued, a group of women was crying while holding in there hands pictures of Marie-Jeanne, Eduard and Sorin. Nothing moved in the Government building. One of the protesters said: "We have probably disturbed Tariceanu from lunch. I hope he swallows the wrong way."