Abbas: "We know where Johnston is"
Alan Johnston's detention center in the Gaza Strip is known to the Palestinian Authority, says Mahmoud Abbas
The area where BBC correspondent Alan Johnston is being held in the Gaza Strip is known to the Palestinian Authority, but they have refrained from carrying out a life-threatening attack, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today. "The Palestinian Authority knows the detention center but we want him to stay alive and end his detention without risk," Abbas told Ramallah after meeting with Yossi Beilin, leader of Israel's left-wing Merej party. General Rashid Abu Shbak, the head of internal security, said yesterday that London had asked the Palestinian Authority not to resort to violence to secure the release of Alan Johnston. The previous day, the Vice President of the Palestinian Government, Azam al-Ahmad had said that the Palestinian Authority had contacted the kidnappers and sent them a strong message demanding his release. The BBC's Gaza correspondent in April 2004, Alan Johnston, 44, has shown no signs of life since being abducted on March 12 by gunmen as he was driving home. It is the western hostage held for the longest time, to date, in the Gaza Strip.
