BAGHDAD, 4 September 2004 — Iraqi authorities failed to stop worshippers from entering Kufa on the first Friday after a peace deal between the government and Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr as France waited for news on two of its kidnapped journalists. Worshippers set up a makeshift pulpit on the street outside the Kufa Mosque, streaming into the city on foot and ignoring authorities who tried to block traffic because they apparently feared the sermons might spark unrest.
Iraqi police and national guardsmen set up checkpoints, barring all cars from entering the city and limiting the number of worshippers allowed in for the Friday prayers. But the people went anyway, getting out of their cars and streaming into the city in hopes of hearing a sermon by Sadr.
Police and soldiers deployed around the mosque, which shut down last week after militants pulled out of it as part of the peace deal. A banner erected around the structure read “The Kufa Mosque has been closed for maintenance and cleanup.”
Though Sadr abandoned plans to preach apparently in fear of exacerbating tensions, about 2,000 of his followers held the prayers on the street in front of the mosque, setting up a pulpit on the median strip.
Despite the peace deal in Najaf, many members of Sadr’s militia are thought to have returned with their weapons to their Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City and the cleric’s representatives and Iraq’s interim government have been seeking common ground to end fighting there. Jaber Al-Khafaji delivered Sadr’s sermon on his behalf, condemning the kidnapping of the journalists and urging their quick release.
“This is inhumane and I ask that it is not repeated in the future,” the Sadr sermon said. “You should know that such actions are not part of the Iraqi resistance... They tarnish the image of the Iraqi resistance.”
A purported statement from the kidnappers of two French journalists said they would announce soon a decision on their fate and denied they delegated negotiations to any other group, a website reported.
“The Islamic Army’s legal committee will soon announce its decision. We have not delegated any group or person to negotiate or talk on our behalf,” the statement said.
The authenticity of the claim regarding the hostages — Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot — could not be verified.
The website said another website, the Islam Memo, had received the statement, but this could not be found on the named site.
Hopes of a swift release of the two hostages rose Friday after the Le Figaro newspaper, which employs one of the captives, said the men were now being held by Iraqi guerrillas willing to negotiate their release. Senior editors at the Paris-based daily Le Figaro said French officials had been told that the Islamic Army in Iraq had turned the hostages over to the new group.
The kidnappers seized the Frenchmen on Aug. 20 and demanded Paris rescind a law banning Muslim head scarves in state schools. The ban came into force on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said he understood Malbrunot and Chesnot were “alive and getting good treatment”.
— Additional input from agencies
