Journalist Micah Garen's fiancée makes an appeal to his kidnappers

"I am appealing to Micah Garen's kidnappers to please release him-he was simply doing his job as a journalist by independently reporting on the outcome of recent events in Iraq and by trying to help preserve Iraq's archaeological heritage," stated Marie-Hélène Carleton, Micah Garen's fiancée, in a telephone conversation with Reporters Without Borders. "We were making a documentary film on the country's cultural history and the archaeological sites at risk inside the war zones, in the hope that they might soon be afforded some protection," she explained from New York City, where she resides. Micah Garen went missing on 13 August 2004, but for Ms. Marie-Hélène Carleton, kidnapping is the most likely explanation. Reporters Without Borders is very concerned as to the fate of the 36-year-old American reporter who disappeared, along with his Iraqi translator-Amir Doshe-in Nassiriyah (in southern Iraq). "We are urging the Iraqi police, as well as any Italian military authorities present in the area, to do everything possible to locate the two men, but avoid doing anything that may put their lives in danger," the organization declared. Micah Garen is one of the directors of Four Corners Media, a media production company based in New York, which specializes in producing video, photographic and written reports for major media clients. The journalist's family has had no news of him since August 13th. Members of Amir Doshe's family have also protested against their family member's kidnapping. According to several press agencies, the two men may have been kidnapped while visiting a shop in Nassiriyah's market. So far, no one has come forward to claim credit for the kidnapping. There is no indication as to whether Micah Garen was abducted by an Iraqi faction in order to exert pressure on the opposing faction, as was the case with the British journalist, James Brandon, who was abducted in Basra, on August 12th. Other possibilities are that this may have been a kidnapping for ransom, or that looters of archeological relics may have been disturbed by the journalist's work.