FRANCE/IRAQ: Claims by the driver of the two French hostages have added to the mystery, writes Lara Marlowe in Paris
The case of two French journalists who were kidnapped south of Baghdad on August 20th grows curiouser and curiouser.
At a press conference here yesterday, their guide and driver, Mohamed al-Joundi, revealed that he was a member of the Iraqi Ba'ath party and called the group holding Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, the Islamic Army in Iraq, a "nationalist resistance to occupation".
Mr al-Joundi evaded questions, contradicted himself and said that a video of Chesnot and Malbrunot released by the kidnappers on August 28th was made in "friendly" conditions.
US marines found Mr al-Joundi in a house in Falluja on November 10th, after his captors fled. He says the marines held him for one week before leaving him in the nearby town of Saklawiya with about 100 freed Iraqi prisoners. "I heard on television that the French embassy was asking US forces for access to Mohamed al-Joundi, so I went straight to the embassy," he said.
The charitable group Reporters Without Borders and the families of Chesnot and Malbrunot also campaigned for Mr al-Joundi's release.
His photograph hung outside the Paris town hall alongside those of the journalists, but was taken down once US troops confirmed they'd found him.
President Jacques Chirac insisted that Mr al-Joundi's wife and children be brought to Paris with him. They have lived in an undisclosed location, under protection of the French foreign ministry, since their arrival here on November 20th.
Mr al-Joundi was separated from Chesnot and Malbrunot two weeks after their abduction.
Last weekend marked the journalists' 100th day in captivity. An Egyptian truck driver who was freed on November 13th was held in Latifiya, 40km south of Baghdad. He heard Frenchmen talking in the next room, and overheard the kidnappers discussing the possibility of moving them to Falluja.
This same area south of Baghdad is now the scene of a US offensive.
On August 28th, the Islamic Army in Iraq threatened to murder the Frenchmen if France did not rescind its ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves in schools. A video and a CD showing the hostages alive have been released since the deadline set for their killing. An internet site claimed they were continuing their work as journalists with the "resistance".
The Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for the beheading of the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who was kidnapped on the same, Baghdad-Najaf road on August 26th. It also said it was behind the lynching of four US contractors in Falluja on March 31st.
Yet Mr al-Joundi said he and the Frenchmen were relieved to learn that they had been kidnapped by the Islamic Army in Iraq. "When you learn that your kidnappers are not a band who want to kill you gratuitously, but a political group not asking for ransom, you feel relieved," he said.
He had the impression their kidnapping "was part of the daily activities of this group, that they were part of the national resistance, but not extremists."
The French hostages and Mr al-Joundi did not know of Enzo Baldoni's killing by the same group. "The communiques I had seen from the Islamic Army in Iraq until then were calm. I had no reason to be afraid," Mr al-Joundi said. "I think they are nationalist resistance to occupation."
Referring to the first video, in which Chesnot and Malbrunot pleaded for abolition of the headscarf ban, Mr al-Joundi said: "We were kidnapped on a Friday. On Sunday they came to film us. They were very friendly. They reimbursed us for the telephones we'd lost and gave us our watches and passports. They said, 'Your problem will be solved in a few days.' They transferred us to a three-star room. None of us were badly treated. The only unpleasantness was the food, which we weren't accustomed to, and sleeping without air conditioning."
Mr al-Joundi is a Syrian who lived as a political exile in Iraq for the past 30 years. When The Irish Times asked him what he did before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, he did not answer. But in response to a question from Voice of America radio, Mr al-Joundi confirmed he was a member of the Iraqi Ba'ath party, and that his father had been an intelligence officer.
Mr al-Joundi said he met Chesnot and Malbrunot, both of whom speak Arabic, shortly after the fall of the regime.
They were investigating the collapse of the Iraqi armed forces, and he introduced them "to friends in the military and civilians who had worked for the previous regime and were able to help them."