Paris – AFP
French President Jacques Chirac on Friday warned journalists to stay out of Iraq, two days after a reporter went missing in Baghdad and two weeks after the release of two correspondents held hostage for months. Chirac said he was “worried” about the fate of Florence Aubenas, 43, a senior correspondent for the French daily Liberation who has not been seen since leaving her hotel in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday.
Just three weeks ahead of planned landmark elections in the country, Chirac said the safety of reporters on the ground could not be guaranteed. “Today, we have no news of your colleague and we are worried. Naturally, we are mobilizing all possible means to obtain information and to find her,” Chirac told reporters attending a New Year’s reception at the Elysee palace. “I want to reiterate that the French authorities have formally advised against sending journalists” to Iraq, Chirac said.
Aubenas and her Iraqi translator Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi left their Baghdad hotel early Wednesday and have not been seen since, Liberation said Thursday. “We don’t know what has happened,” Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told the LCI news channel.
The new drama followed the four-month captivity of French reporters Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper and Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale, who were released by insurgents in Iraq on Dec. 21. “We’re searching, we’re asking for information, we’ve talked with the Iraqi authorities, we have visited the hospitals,” Barnier said.
“Iraq is a dangerous country, one must be very careful – a dozen journalists have been killed, several have gone missing including Fred Nerac, who disappeared more than a year ago, and others have been kidnapped,” he said. “You cannot understand the scope of what we’re obliged to do” to find people missing in Iraq, Chirac told reporters, saying such operations had “a significant total cost for the nation.” Chesnot and Malbrunot, who attended the presidential reception, also questioned the viability of sending special correspondents to Iraq.
“These are extremely dangerous times in Iraq. We should maintain a presence, but maybe we need to rethink the plan of action. Is it worth staying for long periods of time?” Chesnot said, suggesting short stints for reporters. For his part, Malbrunot said: “Isn’t sending journalists to this country just playing the game of kidnappers who are waiting for precisely that?” Liberation said Aubenas, a reporter who had covered conflicts in Rwanda, Kosovo, Algeria and Afghanistan, arrived in Baghdad on Dec. 16. She had been due to return to Paris in the coming days.
8-1-2005
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Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
