Related story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4319191.stm
Posted on 06/12/2005 5:38:30 AM PDT by indcons
French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi have been freed after five months of captivity in Iraq.
President Jacques Chirac said Ms Aubenas - who works for Liberation newspaper - was "in good health" and already on her way to France.
No details have been given about Ms Aubenas, 44, and Mr Saadi's ordeal.
They were seized on 5 January. French media have been running high-profile campaigns to have them freed.
After the abduction in Baghdad their captors issued videotapes in which Ms Aubenas appealed to the French government for help.
But there is total mystery over the identity of her kidnappers.
No claim was ever issued and it seems likely that they were acting under criminal rather than political motives, says Hugh Schofield in Paris.
More than 20 foreign hostages are still being held in Iraq.
Many more Iraqis have also been kidnapped - several have been killed.
Nightmare over
Family members and colleagues of Ms Aubenas expressed relief at the news of her release on Saturday afternoon.
Her sister, Silvie Aubenas, said the family was "overcome with joy".
"We are all extremely relieved, happy, especially for her, and very, very grateful to all the services that got her out of there," she told AFP news agency.
"The two [ex-hostages] are free and in good health," Liberation's managing editor said.
"We are completely swept away with joy at Liberation. It's a huge relief, after five months of nightmare," he said.
Mr Chirac paid tribute to the services of his country which were engaged in securing the journalist's release "at the end of a long and painful captivity of 157 days, shared by all of France".
Huge support
Florence Aubenas has left Iraq bound for Paris via Cyprus, where she will be met by the French Foreign Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, and her editor Serge July.
She is due back in France on Sunday evening. Her supporters have called on people to gather in central Paris to welcome her arrival.
Ms Aubenas is a senior correspondent who has covered many of the world's hot spots in more than 18 years with Liberation.
The journalist and her interpreter were abducted by Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad as they left their hotel.
When she was seized in Baghdad, she was reporting on the fate of Iraqis driven out of their homes after the US military assault on the city of Falluja.
Rumours of a ransom payment have been firmly denied by the French foreign ministry.
In France, the plight of the journalist and her translator prompted a massive campaign of solidarity.
Their pictures are on display in public squares, newspapers carry daily messages of support and there have been scores of initiatives to keep their names to the fore.
Two other French reporters seized in Iraq last year, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, were released in December after four months in captivity.
French officials have also denied that a ransom was paid for their release.
That's a lie!! The Frogs must have surrendered something in return for this favor by islamic terrorists.
I thought they released her a long time ago.
Perhaps she wasn't a hostage
Why is she half green? Eating too much of that munster cheese I guess.
Sounds like Mexico!
Yes, French Secret Services have especially never tell to US Army, in order to liberate Aubenas alive....wouhahahah.
By Kerstin Gehmlich 54 minutes ago
A French journalist held hostage in Iraq for five months arrived back in Paris on Sunday looking drawn but happy, after what the French ambassador said had been a dangerous operation to bring her home.
Florence Aubenas, 44, was freed with her driver, Hussein Hanun al-Saadi, on Saturday.
"I feel good," a smiling Aubenas told reporters at the Villacoublay airport outside Paris, where she was greeted by President Jacques Chirac, her friends and family.
"These were harsh conditions," she said of her captivity, adding that her kidnappers had allowed her to lift her blindfold at one point to watch a French television program which broadcast a message of support for her.
"You're so happy when you see that," she said, visibly moved, referring to rallies and concerts held in her support.
Chirac announced the release of Aubenas, a reporter for the French daily Liberation, and her driver in a televised address.
They were snatched after leaving their Baghdad hotel on Jan. 5. Little had been known about their fate since then, or the circumstances surrounding their release.
"It wasn't easy at all. It was a dangerous operation for our people, extremely dangerous," Bernard Bajolet, France's ambassador in Iraq, told France Info radio.
The head of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Saturday Aubenas' kidnappers could have asked for a ransom, but he later withdrew his comments. France's government denied it had paid any money for her release.
"There's been absolutely no demand for money," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told Europe 1 radio. "No ransom was paid," he said.
Insurgents in Iraq released video footage of Aubenas on March 1. Looking distraught and fragile, she appealed for help.
A Romanian reporter, who was held hostage in Iraq for 55 days before being released last month, said for the first time on Sunday that Aubenas had been held in the same cell with her.
"Our mattresses were next to each other," Romanian journalist Marie Jeanne Ion told private television Antena 1.
"She was telling me all the time 'of course we won't die, of course we'll get out, they won't kill us'. If she wasn't there, we would have gone crazy," Ion said, her voice trembling.
Ion and two other Romanian journalists were kidnapped in Baghdad on March 28. They were freed on May 22 but held back from talking about the circumstances in which they were held for fear this could endanger the lives of others.
TEARS OF JOY
Colleagues at Liberation newspaper broke out in tears when they heard of the release of Aubenas, who had also reported from countries such as Rwanda, Algeria and Afghanistan in the past.
"I thought I knew what the word happiness meant ... but it is so much better than I thought," the journalist's mother, Jacqueline Aubenas, said.
French officials drove Saadi to his home in central Baghdad, where relatives and neighbors crowded round and slaughtered a sheep in the street as a mark of thanksgiving, witnesses said. His wife wept as his daughter hugged her father.
"I'm very happy to be with my family," Saadi told Europe 1.
France, which opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, secured the release of two French journalists in December after they were held hostage for four months by Iraqi militants.
France said then the captors had never asked for a ransom.
About 150 foreigners have been seized in Iraq over the last two years. Many more Iraqis have been abducted.
The release of the French hostage came as rare positive news for Chirac, who suffered a humiliating defeat when French voters rejected the European Union constitution on May 29.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Gerard Bon in Paris, Salem al-Ureibi, Diala Saadeh in Baghdad, Antonia Oprita in Bucharest, Michele Kambas in Nicosia)
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