France in crisis as Iraqis threaten to kill hostages over headscarf ban
30.08.2004
1.00pm - By JOHN LICHFIELD in Paris
A threat by a militant Islamic group in Iraq to murder two French hostages unless Paris abandons a law banning muslim headscarves in schools was being treated as a national crisis by the French government last night.
After two emergency sessions of the government, the Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, met with President Jacques Chirac in the Elysee Palace last night. The President also sent his Foreign Minister, Michel Barnier, to the Middle East to help gain the hostages' release.
All French political parties and the main Islamic groups rejected with horror a threat by a group calling themselves the Islamic Army in Iraq to murder the two journalists unless the law banning the hajib and other religious symbols in state schools is revoked.
Georges Malbrunot, 41, and Christian Chesnot, 37, vanished a week ago while travelling from Baghdad to the besieged city of Najaf. Al-Jazeera television broadcast two short videotapes on Saturday night in which the journalists said they had been captured by the same group which murdered an Italian correspondent last week.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, believed to be a radical Sunni muslim group, possibly linked with al Qaeda, said it would murder the French journalists within 48 hours.
Although France has a history of negotiating with terror groups and paying ransom demands for hostages, the country's political leaders were united yesterday in condemning the political "blackmail".
Officials said the linking of the kidnapping to the headscarf law, which takes effect with the start of the new school year this week, was almost certainly opportunistic.
However, the threat to kill the correspondents was being taken seriously, not only as a threat against the lives of the captives but as a threat against France.
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