Hopes Grow That French Journalists Will Be Freed In Iraq

by Sylvie Briand
BAGHDAD, Sept 2 (AFP) - Hopes rose Thursday for two French journalists held hostage in Iraq after the French ambassador said they were alive and well and a visiting group of French Muslims voiced confidence the pair would be freed.
However, three Turkish hostages were reportedly killed by their kidnappers in a jarring reminder of the high stakes for the journalists -- Le Figaro reporter Georges Malbrunot and Radio France correspondent Christian Chesnot.
"They are alive, in good health and well treated," Ambassador Bernard Bajolet told AFP Thursday evening. "That is the information we have received today."
His comments came after a delegation from the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM) flew in to Baghdad on a lightning mission, then departed after saying they were reassured about the fate of the journalists following talks with influential religious leaders.
"We leave with confidence and full of hope," delegation chief Abdullah Zekhri told AFP.
"The kidnappers wish to free them but they do not know how to do it because they are afraid about the Americans and also that the hostages could fall into the hands of another group. These are the obstacles to freeing them."
Another member of the delegation, Fouad Allaoui, also sounded upbeat after talks with the influential Council of the Muslim Ulema, an association of conservative Sunni clerics who have helped mediate previous hostage releases in Iraq.
"There are many reasons to be confident and not the contrary. Our mission is finished and I believe it was not in vain."
Earlier, Le Figaro editor-in-chief Jean de Belot told media that French officials were "nearly certain" the pair were alive and that he was holding out "cautious hope" for the two men.
But he steered clear of any prediction as to when they might be released, telling AFP the complicated situation on the ground was disturbing.
The most positive remarks in days came after France went ahead Thursday with implementing a controversial ban on the Islamic headscarf in state schools.
The self-styled Islamic Army of Iraq, which seized Chesnot and Malbrunot on August 20, had demanded that France rescind the ban. The latest deadline for Paris to agree passed on Wednesday.
The flurry of activity came as Arabic-language satellite television Al-Jazeera said it had a video showing the execution of three Turkish hostages in Iraq.
Police and medical officers in Iraq told AFP that the bullet-riddled bodies of three Turkish drivers had been found on the roadside outside the rebel bastion of Samarra north of Baghdad, possibly the hostages.
In Ankara, a Turkish official said the Al-Jazeera report about the execution of the men, held by a group linked to alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, "seems credible."
Al-Jazeera said the Tawhid wal Jihad group had threatened to kill foreigners in Iraq and warned: "The time for mercy is over."
Islamist militants have captured dozens of foreigners in a bid to destabilise efforts by the interim Iraqi government and US troops to restore security to the violence-torn country.
The capture of the two French journalists has drawn international condemnation and unprecedented appeals for their release from Muslim leaders across the globe.
A member of the French Muslim delegation told Le Figaro the visit showed their solidarity with the French state despite the controversy over the headscarf ban.
"We want to show our attachment to the republic, to the nation and to French society. Everyone must understand that laying a hand on a member of French society affects all French people, all members of the Muslim community," Mohammed Bechari told the newspaper.
The hostages warned in a video that they faced death if France did not revoke the headscarf law, but Paris vowed to stand its ground, saying it must protect the country's strictly secular traditions.
The law prohibiting the wearing of headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious insignia such as Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses went into effect Thursday with the start of the academic year in France.
"We are evaluating the situation moment by moment," said a diplomatic source in Amman.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was in Amman after visits to Egypt and Qatar, where he met with political and religious leaders on the crisis.
Another seven hostages from Kenya, India and Egypt were released on Wednesday after their Kuwaiti employer paid more than half a million dollars in ransom, but 12 Nepalese workers have been killed by their captors.