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Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
French journalist Georges Malbrunot recounts his horrific days in captivity and how he is now convinced of one thing: America's Iraq policy is doomed.
Jan 22, 2005 | The two cars, one a white Mercedes, came out of nowhere. Within seconds the car carrying French reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, and their driver, skidded to a halt. They were caged between the two other vehicles on a perilous road that headed south from Baghdad to Najaf. The men had known this was a dangerous road. They had even warned colleagues not to take it. Now they were pawns in Iraq's most dangerous game -- abduction.
Immediately, eight men in white hooded robes ripped open the car doors, tied up the reporters and threw them into the Mercedes. Luckily, both speak Arabic, Chesnot more fluently than Malbrunot, so they could talk to their assailants and plead their innocence. Right away, they declared themselves to be reporters, French, men who understood the resistance.
"We immediately distanced ourselves from the Americans and stuck to the French position," Malbrunot said Wednesday from his family's home in Paris. The two were taken to a small cell and interrogated for hours by masked men holding guns. "We told them we were French journalists and that we were there to do our work and show the realities of the resistance."
They thought being French would be the equivalent of a white flag, a "get out of jail free" card or at least a means of assuring a timely release. France has long believed that it has a special relation with the Arab world and that it wields more leverage than other nations. Yet after their capture on Aug. 20, not even the Syrian driver was let go until November. To the shock of French leaders, hostage negotiators and the public, the two reporters remained in captivity. Following the abduction French news organizations ran the men's photos every day, and banners with their faces went up all over Paris. The government sent several teams to negotiate clandestinely. Still, the men remained captives until Dec. 21. Malbrunot is convinced their "Frenchness" kept them alive.
"If we had been American or British or Italian they would have killed us," Malbrunot said. "Being French was the best card we had." If so, then the second best was being well-known. "We had the feeling that our captors were quite proud to negotiate with France, such a big country. And I think it did help that our names were in the news. A dead hostage has no value."
Now safely returned to the arms of his Parisian family, Malbrunot said that he and Chesnot slowly began to realize that they were "living on planet bin Laden." References to "Chief Osama" abounded, he said, and there was much talk of living by Muslim law. Resilient, tough-minded and good-looking, Malbrunot, 41, became an instant celebrity in France the minute that he and Chesnot, 38, disappeared. Now, a month after his release, he offered a curt assessment of where America's Iraq policy is headed: "Straight into a wall." He also had some blunt advice for journalists planning to cover the war. "Don't go to Iraq," he said. "You will be killed. No story is worth your life."
Such skepticism toward the U.S. presence in Iraq is not surprising coming from a Frenchman. After all, France opposed the Iraq war from the start. Yet Malbrunot spoke from a different perspective, one nuanced by four months in captivity. For 124 days, he endured his kidnappers' anger and mercilessness. His life balanced on their fanaticism and ever-changing reasoning.
The two were imprisoned in a cramped cell and Malbrunot admitted that his vision was somewhat limited. Still, he said, his abduction brought him closer to the extremist underbelly of Iraq, closer to "these people who are extremely cruel" and for whom violence is an integral part of daily life. He still has trouble sleeping.
"These people will not surrender," he said. He was referring not only to the estimated 15,000-17,000 members of the Islamic Army in Iraq, which kidnapped him and Chesnot, but also to the dozens of other Islamic fundamentalist groups fighting in the country. "They have time, they have weapons, they have money," Malbrunot said. "And they are fighting at home. I am afraid it will only get worse and they will get more and more power. It frightens me."
What's even worse, he said, is that in President George W. Bush, "they have a great partner." Neither side is willing to budge.
