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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...&u=/nm/20041001/wl_nm/iraq_france_hostages_dc

Release of French Hostages Fails, Mediator Says

Fri Oct 1, 5:43 PM ET

By Inal Ersan

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A self-appointed mediator said the release of two French journalists held in Iraq (news - web sites) since August fell through Friday when a group of Iraqis transporting them was bombarded by U.S. forces.

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France's Foreign Ministry had no comment on his account of events, which could not be independently verified. The U.S. military in Baghdad said it knew nothing of such an incident.

French MP and mediator Didier Julia told journalists in Damascus Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were due to be released Friday but the route they and their Iraqi guards were to take was blocked by a deployment of U.S. soldiers.

Julia and Philippe Brett, a shadowy figure with a history of political dealings in France and Iraq, are working for the journalists' release as self-appointed mediators, but the French government and French media have cast doubt on their activities.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told reporters on Friday: "We have information which is not complete at this stage."

An aide to Julia said they were no longer in the hands of the Islamist militants who seized them on Aug. 20, but in the custody of members of what he called the "Iraqi resistance" who aimed to bring them to Syria. He gave no details.

"The Americans have multiplied the bombardment (of the area), placing two divisions to fire on all the 'terrorists' who passed down the road. They have set up 20 roadblocks on the route," Julia said.

The journalists were safe and being protected by members of the 'Iraqi resistance', he said. An aide to Julia said Brett was with the journalists.

ENIGMA


France was stung by the kidnapping which undermined a sense that French President Jacques Chirac's vocal opposition to the U.S. invasion gave its citizens some security in Iraq.

Paris mobilized a wide front of friendly Arab leaders and Muslim personalities to call for their release soon after the journalists were captured.

But the diplomatic pressure did not bring them freedom and the government has become increasingly cautious in its comments.

Brett is something of an enigma. A former security adviser to France's hard-right National Front, his organization lobbied for an end to U.N. sanctions against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

He is working on the mediation with Didier, a conservative member of parliament from President Jacques Chirac's party and Le Monde newspaper said both had ties to backroom powerbrokers long active in France's relations with its old African colonies.
Julia said a second group of negotiators had offered cash to the group securing the journalists and that was partly to blame for the delay.

The French Foreign Ministry has sent its own envoy to Jordan to try to help the journalists, who were seized by Islamist militants.

French media have been skeptical about Brett's negotiations, first revealed when he spoke to Arab television this week.

Chirac's office and the defense and foreign ministries have all cast doubt on his bona fides and the government has distanced itself from accompanying mediation efforts by Julia.

Formally, Brett worked for the French Office for the Development of Industry and Culture (OFDIC), which campaigned to end sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Previously, he was a security consultant to Bruno Gollnisch, deputy leader of Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front, which was sympathetic to Saddam.