AIJA PROTESTS MURDERS OF DANIEL PEARLE

PARIS 22 Feb. (IPS)     The Association of Iranian Journalists Abroad (AIJA) condemns in the strongest ways and words the assassination by its Muslim captors of the American journalist Daniel Pearl of Wall Street Journal and called on the Pakistani authorities to deploy all possible efforts to find his assassins.

A well known veteran and carrier journalist, Mr. Daniel Pearl was abducted a month ago in Pakistan, by Islamist terrorist.

His assassination was confirmed Thursday by both the US State Department and the WSJ.

The paper on Thursday said it believes reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped last month in Pakistan, was killed by his captors and the State Department said it had evidence to confirm his death.

A statement issued by Journal Publisher Peter Kann and Managing Editor Paul Steiger said, "We now believe, based on reports from the State Department and police officials of the Pakistani province of Sind, that Danny Pearl was killed by his captors.

"We are heartbroken at his death," they said, calling it "an act of barbarism."

The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan has evidence confirming that Pearl was killed, the State Department added.

"Our Embassy in Pakistan has confirmed today that they have received evidence that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is dead," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement, giving no details of the evidence.

Pearl, 38, disappeared in Karachi, Pakistan, on Jan. 23 as he tried to make contact with Islamic radical groups and investigate links between alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid and Saudi-born extremist Osama Bin Laden's Al Qa'eda network.

In Washington, a U.S. official said Pearl appears to be dead on a videotape reviewed by the FBI in the region.

"My understanding is that the FBI in Pakistan obtained a copy of a videotape on which it appears to be Daniel Pearl and he appears to be dead," the U.S. official, who has not seen the tape, told Reuters.

In a communiqué released late in Paris Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Wall Street Journalist, while deeply regretting the assassination of Mr. Pearle, called on all colleagues to respect the privacy of his family "in these sad hours".

The Rome-based AIJA, in a cable to Pakistan's President General Parviz Mosharraf, while vehemently denouncing the murder of the journalist, called on him to deploy all necessary efforts for finding the murderers and holds Pakistan's "lenient policies" towards Islamist terrorist groups as being "responsible" for the murder of Mr. Pearle. ENDS PEARLE ASSASSINATED 22202