French Journalists' Captors Were Bin Ladin's Veterans From Bosnia-Herzegovina
Tanjug - December 29, 2004

Paris, 29 December -- French journalist Christian Chesnot, who spent four months with a colleague and compatriot as a hostage of the Islamic Army in Iraq, told Tanjug news agency today that their captors had been veterans of Osama Bin Ladin from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"Our captors told us they had fought in Bosnia," he said. "One of them, a youngish man, aged 30 or so, told us he had been in Bin Ladin's camp in Afghanistan and that he had fought in Bosnia."

In an exclusive interview to the national news agency, Chesnot stated that one of the abductors had run them a tape of Bosnian music and said that two Macedonians and Italian journalist Enzzo Baldoni were among the hostages executed by the Islamic Organization (as published) in Iraq.

"We realized that this was one of the Arab war leaders that had fired rockets in Bosnia and chanted 'Jihad, Jihad,'" the journalist for Radio France Internationale said. "We realized also that some of our abductors were members of what we called Planet Bin Ladin."

During the four months in captivity, which they say was like a "spy novel," Chesnot and his colleague from Le Figaro, Georges Malbrunot, had frequent opportunities to converse with their abductors, thanks to their fair command of the Arabic language.

One of the abductors spoke about "Sheikh Osama," international jihad, the dream of a Muslim state from Andalusia to China, and the fight against Christians.

"They said that, if they shot somebody in the arm, it was not the same as shooting them in the head, which had an incomparably greater effect. Their speech was highly structured and it was clear that it had behind it a developed strategy, the purpose of which is to destabilize the West," Chesnot said.

"One of the abductors told us how, at Bin Ladin's camp, he had learned how to handle various kinds of weapons, how to steel a vehicle, handle chemical weapons, rockets, and this is what he does in Iraq," the French journalist said.

The abductors were interested in why Muslims in France were not rebelling against the Christians, saying he was sure they would come to their aid if they did so.

He described the fate of two Macedonian hostages, with whom the captive Frenchmen had been in touch, as "dramatic and pitiful."

"One of them, a large man, had been wounded in the leg. The abductors asked us if we could translate for them, but the Macedonians spoke not a word of either English or Arabic and their situation was dramatic and pitiful, because they were unable to defend themselves and explain what they were doing there."

"The abductors asked them whether they were Christians or Muslims, but they only kept repeating, 'Yugoslavia, Tito, Yugoslavia, Tito,'" Chesnot said.

"I learned the meaning of the word 'voda' (water), which they also kept repeating. We had the impression that they did not understand their situation," added Chesnot, who described his own mental state as euphoric, which he explained as "only just realizing what they had gone through."

The two Macedonians, who had worked at a US base, were killed after two months in captivity.

The captors told the French that they were lucky, because they had fared better than Baldoni, whom they had not believed was a journalist, but accused him of being a spy and killed him.

"At that time we did not know where he was killed, we had not seen the stage set that they had designed for the video shot of the execution, which they sent to the Italians, but we knew that they had cut his throat," Chesnot said.

The abductors' decision to release the French journalists was the result of a huge campaign mounted in France and Europe for their release, he said.

"They covet publicity, which is why the great solidarity of the French people was so very important for our release, because who had heard of the Islamic Army in Iraq before that time," Chesnot said.

"At one point, I asked them why they were not exchanging US prisoners for their own and they told me they were not interested in that. They said prisoners could wait, but a tape sent to the United States showing them cutting the throat of one of their people had the maximum effect, the effect of shock and fear."

Chesnot described as "good news" today's arrest of two Frenchmen for fraud in an abortive hostage rescue operation, because they had "delayed our release by at least a month."

(Description of Source: Belgrade Tanjug in Serbian -- official state news agency)

French Journalist Freed From Iraq: Bin Ladin's 'Veterans' From B-H Among Captors
Belgrade Tanjug (Domestic Service) in Serbian 0952 GMT 29 Dec 04

Document Type: Daily Report; News
Word Count: 785; FBIS Translated Text

City/Source: Belgrade Tanjug (Domestic Service)
FBIS Document Number: FBIS-EEU-2004-1229

Original Source Language: Serbian
Region: East Europe; West Europe; Near East & South Asia

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