Mitterrand statement raises hostage hopes

Press, 8 April 1988, Page 8

Mitterrand statement raises hostage hopes

NZPA-Reuter Paris President Francois Mitterrand has fuelled speculation ( that moves are tinder way to release thrjee remaining French hostages in Lebanon before j France begins its two-round Presidential Elections on April 24. Mr Mitterrand, a Socialist! whose main election opponent is the! Rightwing !Pr me Minister, Jacques dhirac, made a scant but significant reference to th'e hostages in a 26|-page letter released yesterday | outlining his electoral programme. (“At the hour in which I write these lines,” (he said, “l| hope (again that the tragedy that our three (or four) cbmpatriots are living in Beirut is nearing an end.” j ! . ; ■ | Two French diplomats, Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine, and a journalist, Jean-Paul j j Kauffmann, have been held ( by the sliadowy i Islamic Jihad (Holy War) group for about three years.

The group said they murdered a fourth hostage, 1 Michel Seurat, but his body has not been recovered.

Mr I Mitterrand also told a radio interviewer that French efforts on behalf of the hostages were the first subject he and Chirac discussed at their weekly pre-Cabinet meetings. ( He!said both men were working shoulder-to-shoul-der bn the issue. “We share the same feelings on this,” he said. I Mr! Chirac, who trails Mr Mitterrand in opinion polls,' could score a major boost if the Government resolved the three-year hostage crisis.

Government spokesmen have) restricted the release of information about negotiations apparently conducted last week in eastern Bakaa Valley, Lebanon, by the former secret agent, Jean-Charles Marchiani, an emissary of the ! Interior Minister, Charles Pasqua. | ( Mr Marchiani, who helped free two French

hostages in November, flew back to Paris from Damascus on Tuesday night. ( Authoritative French sources said, meanwhile, that Mr Marchiani’sjtrip should be interpreted more as an attempt to soothe Syrian feelings than as a precursor to an immediate resolution to the hostage question.!

They added, however, that envoys from Pasqua, who is in charge of (hos-tage-release ; efforts, | had met a three-member Iranian delegation I in Geneva early last nionth to discuss France's repayment to Iran of a | loan made by the previous government under the Shah.

| The Chirac Government has already repaid ( $330 million of the disputed billion dollar loan, j ' During the meeting, according to the sources, the French told the Iranians that “anything is negotiable ... on condition that the hostages are set free.” I