JAKARTA, Indonesia (June 28, 2001 - Joyo Indonesian News/Dow Jones Newswires/AP/TAPOL)---The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release Thursday of two Belgian filmmakers kidnapped by separatists in Indonesia’s remote Irian Jaya province.
"Kidnapping journalists violates international humanitarian law and is certainly not a good public relations strategy," said the committee’s deputy director, Joel Simon, in a statement.
Johan van Den Eynde, 47, and Philippe Simon, 49, were taken hostage last month by the rebel Free Papua Movement.
The kidnappers have demanded permission to raise their outlawed separatist flag. There has been no demand for a monetary ransom.
The rebels have been involved in several kidnappings in Irian Jaya, which is also known as West Papua, and takes up the western half of New Guinea Island, about 4,000 kilometers (2,400 miles) east of Jakarta.
In 1996, the same group kidnapped several...