France presss on with Iraq hostage rescue efforts
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-02 16:47

France pressed on with efforts to save two French journalists held hostage in Iraq on Thursday after a deadline to rescind a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools passed without word from the kidnappers.

The new law, which bars conspicuous religious symbols at school, was in force as pupils began the school year in France on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of any incidents involving pupils trying to enter school in headscarves.

Efforts to rescue reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot are led by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, now in Amman on the fifth leg of a diplomatic mission that has rallied support from the Arab world and Pope John Paul.

French hostages Christian Chesnot (L) and Georges Malbrunot speak in a videotape aired on Arabic television station Al Jazeera, August 30, 2004. France pressed on with efforts to save the journalists held hostage in Iraq on Thursday after a deadline to rescind a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools passed without word from the kidnappers.  [Reuters]

French Muslim leaders arrived in Amman on Wednesday en route to Iraq to demand the journalists' release. French media say General Philippe Rondot, a Middle East specialist, and a team of agents are already in Iraq trying to contact the kidnappers.

"The situation is extremely difficult and the government is doing it utmost to secure the release of our compatriots," Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian told RTL radio in Paris.

He said he could not confirm whether the two reporters were still alive. They were seized by a militant group called the Islamic Army in Iraq on Aug. 20 between Baghdad and Najaf.

MUSLIMS IN FRANCE RESENT INTERFERENCE

Even Muslim leaders who oppose the law barring the headscarf from schools have said they hope for an uneventful return to school and criticized what they regard as the kidnappers' attempts to interfere in French internal matters.

"It is very symbolic that a Muslim delegation goes over there to demand, in the name of Islam, of God and the Muslims of France, that what is being done be stopped because it doesn't help the Muslim cause," said Fouad Alaoui, secretary general of the Union of French Islamic Organizations.

"Those people know nothing about France. France is a law-abiding state and those who don't agree with the law cannot express that disagreement by hostage-taking."

Hostage-taking has became part of a struggle in which insurgents are using everything from suicide bombers to kidnappings to undermine Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

France, whose prestige rose in the Middle East due to its opposition to the U.S.-led Iraq war, has been deeply shocked by the hostage crisis. Paris objected to pre-war sanctions against Iraq and has no troops there.

National unity and hope remain the watchwords.

"I still have hope. I hope logic will prevail," Barnier told Al Jazeera television after talks with Qatar's foreign minister in Doha on Wednesday.

In the Vatican, the Pope urged that the hostages be "treated with humanity and released to their loved ones soon."

The militants have not said what they would do if their demands are not met, but the hostages said in a video broadcast by an Arabic television station they feared they could die soon.

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