Motto: "Before becoming history and even before taking place, a lot of major events are prepared in laboratories" Three Romanian journalists have been taken hostage in Iraq a few hours ago. I am trying to put myself in their shoes, but I just can't. I simply refuse to picture them grabbed to some dungeons by some common attackers who want money. Or, God forbid it, maybe the latter represent some irregular army and really believe they are entitled to set conditions. I just can't imagine the expressions on the faces of my colleagues Marie Jeanne Ion and Dan Dumitru working for Prima TV and Ovidiu Ohanesian, a journalist employed by "Romania libera" daily. I can't imagine their faces when they are deprived of their cell phones, the only connection they have with families and colleagues. I can neither picture their terror when their cameras, the only witnesses they have got, have been seized. For the three journalists, for their families and friends, the nightmare has begun. And only two nights and one day have elapsed. Although right now I am at the bottom on the earth in Yakkut, I have instantly got into the shoes of Romanians at home. At 1: 00 p.m., while in Yakkut, I can picture myself at home in Bucharest, in a country where people are still asleep, for it is 6 in the morning. And I am waiting for reactions that don't seem to be coming, just as I am waiting for the Romanian officials' tough action. Right now three Romanian journalists are in pain in some Baghdad dungeons. They don't know if tomorrow they are in the same place or in a different one, they don't know if they get released or chopped or killed, just as it happened to so many people. The Romanian president has just visited Iraq and said he will not diminish Romanian troops there. In one single minute the three journalists have become heroes, since they are the collateral victims hopefully alive of a misfortunate context. Unlike all the other people, except for soldiers in mission, journalists can never be said to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. No way! The three of them set out for Iraq just to do their job. Three unlucky people have been kidnapped just a few hours after a state chief just getting mandate left Baghdad and announced journalists and official representatives were no longer welcome in the presidential plane, because the institution he was in charge of was no tourism agency. It is useful to mention at this point that when a powerful president found his way to Cotroceni, journalists had to behave. Maybe this is why the journalists from Prima TV and "Romania libera" have been to Iraq not as members of the presidential team, but on their own. Leaving anxiety aside, I believe we must meditate on some points as seriously as possible. Yugoslavia war was not popular among Romanians, but it was necessary to Romania's future status and this did not prevent Constantinescu's regime from paying electoral costs. Just like this, morally speaking, Romanians are blaming the Iraqi war. What are Romanian soldiers doing at such a great distance from home, in a country that hasn't attacked us? Yesterday the Romanian press published opinion poll expressing citizens' reactions. I can only congratulate my colleagues from "The Guardian" for they knew how to outline this. But citizens' will and state reasons are not always the same. As far as Romania's vital interests are concerned, the presence of Romanian troops in Iraq is motivated. This is why, no matter the number of Romanian soldiers to be kidnapped and killed, ZIUA is not one of the voices calling Executive and presidency names out of political reasons or humanitarian ones, whether real or fake. Some state institutions must be as speedy and efficient as possible and save the three Romanian journalists. The president can and must take action. But beware: it is not statements that are needed now, but tough action. The foreign affairs and defense ministers have also got some parts to play, as well as the secret services in the Defense Ministry and SIE (the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service). The latter were founded to face such contexts, but not to collect newspaper scraps. Let's remember that for the Italian journalist kidnapped and recently released the government paid substantial ransom through a secret agent. Even if it is immoral to negotiate with kidnappers, there is a higher principle telling us that no price is too high when a human life is in question. Given the present circumstances, we just can't wait to see how the wretched Bucharest bureaucracy will manage. We are also eager to see if high officials and politicians, in the habit of disdaining press freedom, are able and powerful enough to save the three journalists who have done their duty. Our days should begin and end with meditation about them till they are set free.

Sorin ROSCA STANESCU