http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=5&u=/nm/20050303/wl_nm/france_iraq_hostage_dc
French Government Under Fire Over Iraq Hostage Crisis
Thu Mar 3, 7:14 AM ET
World - Reuters
By Kerstin Gehmlich
PARIS (Reuters) - France's opposition Socialists increased pressure on
the government on Thursday in a growing crisis over a French hostage
held in Iraq (news - web sites), criticizing it for turning to a
controversial rebel parliamentarian for help.
After months of condemning a failed freelance mission by deputy Didier
Julia to free two French hostages in Iraq, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin asked him for help on Wednesday in securing the release of
reporter Florence Aubenas.
Socialist deputies called the government's change of course "pitiful"
and "scandalous," and media speculated that Aubenas may have been
forced to ask for Julia's help by her captors.
"What does this mean? That it's now up to kidnappers to choose the
intermediary through whom they talk to France?" Socialist senator
Jean-Luc Melenchon said.
Raffarin turned to Julia after Aubenas appealed for help in a video
tape released by Iraqi insurgents on Tuesday. Looking distraught and
fragile, she asked "particularly for the help of the French deputy
Didier Julia."
A lawmaker for the ruling UMP party, Julia, 71, built up links with
Syria and former members of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath
party over the last few decades.
He fell out with the government when he made an unauthorized and
unsuccessful bid to secure the release of two other French journalists
in Iraq last September. He now faces a legal investigation into these
efforts.
Raffarin decision to turn to Julia underlined the government's
desperation over the plight of Aubenas, a 43-year old journalist with
French newspaper Liberation who went missing in Baghdad with her Iraqi
driver on Jan. 5.
But Raffarin also sent a clear signal to Julia that he should not
attempt another solo mission and one of his motives appears to be to
rein him in.
Julia has said Aubenas' hostage-takers might know him and has made
clear he would be ready to help secure her release.
A source at Raffarin's office said on Thursday Julia had been called
to order. "If Mr Julia has information, he has to provide it. We are
asking him to explain himself, not to collaborate," the source said.
Raffarin was due to meet leaders of France's main political parties
later on Thursday to discuss the hostage crisis.
Aubenas' colleagues criticized Julia for not appealing to the
kidnappers to free her. Liberation said it had asked him to launch an
appeal via the paper, but Julia had declined.
France had hoped its opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003
would help it secure Aubenas' release, but concerns are growing that
its firm line on Syria after the killing of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik al-Hariri last month may hinder its efforts.
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