French appeal for hostages’ lives

PARIS – Two French journalists held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq appealed late Monday for their countrymen and president to save their lives by giving in to their captors’ demand to rescind a ban on Muslim head scarves in French schools.

A video of the reporters was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television hours after France insisted it would go ahead with the ban when schools open Thursday.

“I appeal to the French people to go to the streets … because our lives are threatened,” journalist Georges Malbrunot said in English on the video. Speaking in French, fellow hostage Christian Chesnot called on French President Jacques Chirac and his government to drop the ban, according to the Al-Jazeera newsreader, who interpreted his remarks into Arabic.

The two unshaven men, who had gone missing Aug. 19, sat together in front of a gray, mud wall with a small window above them.

In a video broadcast Saturday, a militant group calling itself “The Islam Army in Iraq,” gave the French government 48 hours to overturn the ban, but mentioned no threat against the men’s lives. However, a militant group with a similar name was believed to have killed an Italian freelance journalist last week after Italy’s government rejected a demand that it withdraw its 3,000 soldiers in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera said the group holding the two Frenchmen had extended its deadline by 24 hours, to late today.

There was no immediate reaction from France’s government, but earlier Monday it was unequivocal about keeping the ban.

“The law will be applied,” spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said.

While the law bans all “conspicuous” religious apparel, such as Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, it is aimed at Muslim head scarves in public schools. Many French fear their secular nation, which has the biggest Islamic population in western Europe with 5 million Muslims, is under threat from a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.