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2 French journalists in Afghanistan freed

29 June 2011 21:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Two French journalists held hostage in Afghanistan since December 2009 were freed Wednesday in good health, bringing cheers and joyful tears in France which has been united in its campaign to bring the two men home, APA reports quoting â€œAssociated Pressâ€.
France-3 television said in a flash across its screen that the network’s reporters Stephane Taponier and Herve Ghesquiere have been released.
President Nicolas Sarkozy President Nicolas Sarkozy thanked "everyone who participated in freeing the hostages" and praised Afghan President Hamid Karzai for his management of the hostage situation, without providing further details. The journalists’ translator, Reza Din, was also released.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the two men were in good health and would be returning shortly to their homeland after one of France’s longest hostage ordeals.
Officials in Sarkozy’s office said the newly freed captives would arrive in France on Thursday at Vilacoublay military airport at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT).
The television journalists were kidnapped together with three Afghan associates while working on a story about reconstruction on a road east of Kabul. The Taliban said the insurgency movement was holding them and made a set of demands â€” never fully published â€” in exchange for the men’s freedom.
Ghesquiere, 47, and cameraman Taponier, 46, are seasoned journalists. Ghesquiere specialized in war reporting, covering the Balkans conflict and doing investigative reports from around the globe, from Cambodia to the disputed Western Sahara territory. Taponier had filmed in the past in Afghanistan, notably a 2000 report on the northern commander Massoud, who was later killed.
"For the past several hours our two French hostages in Afghanistan are in the hands of French forces at the Tagab base," Fillon told legislators. "Our two hostages are in good health and will be on French soil in several hours."
It was not immediately known what led to their freedom after some 18 months of near silence. It is a stated French government policy not to pay ransom in exchange for hostages and French authorities have made it a policy to refuse all comment on delicate hostage negotiations. However, Fillon, in response to a lawmakers’ question, thanked "these men and women who worked for this liberation, often from the shadows, taking lots of risks."
Exactly a week ago, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said on French TV that the announcements of staggered French and American troop withdrawals might help the cause of freeing Ghesquiere and Taponier. President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of 33,000 troops by September 2012, and France followed suit, announcing it will pull out a quarter of its force of 4,000.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, accused France on Jan. 1 of "doing nothing" to free the men. In April 2010, after posting a video of the hostages on the Internet, the Taliban said they had submitted a list of prisoners to French authorities that they wanted freed in exchange for the hostages.
With news the journalists were freed, France-3 immediately put up a thumbnail image on the upper left corner of the screen showing the two journalists’ faces, with the word "FREE" in big white letters.
"We’ve lived for a year and a half with this weight ... and this weight has disappeared," said the President of France Television, Remy Pflimlin.
The announcement the captives were freed came amid an outdoor gathering of a support group headed by Florence Aubenas, a journalist who was held hostage in Iraq for 157 days and freed in 2005.
A telephone call broke the news.
"There are magic moments like that. We all fell into each others’ arms," Aubenas said on France-3. "It was a moment of incredible emotion."
However, optimism over obtaining the journalists’ freedom was often wanting.
"We had some encouraging signs," said Thierry Thuillier, executive news director at France-3, but "the (overall) tone was not very encouraging."
With a vibrant campaign launched in France on behalf of the hostages, the men’s faces are familiar to many here.
The channels of France-3’s umbrella group, France Televisions, have long been closing their newscasts with photos of the French journalists and a tally of the days they have been held. Paris City Hall has held rallies with giant posters of Ghesquiere and Taponier and towns have put up banners with their photos. Supporters even hoisted a banner on the top of Mont Blanc in the Alps.
Eight other French citizens remain captive: four thought to be held in Mali, one in Somalia and three aid workers captured in May in Yemen.