DAMASCUS/PARIS, 5 October 2004 — A French MP behind a failed bid to free two French reporters held hostage in Iraq defended his free lance operation yesterday amid sharp official and media criticism that he may have endangered their lives.
Didier Julia, a 70-year-old member of President Jacques Chirac’s ruling UMP party, admitted before leaving the Syrian capital of Damascus for Paris that he had lost contact with the group holding reporters Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper and Christian Chesnot of Radio France International and he was now worried about their fate. But he defiantly rejected the accusations prompted by his mission.
“I have done absolutely nothing wrong, nothing obstructive nor dangerous,” he told a French radio station.
“At no moment could it be thought that because of me the life of the hostages would have been put in danger,” he said, adding that his efforts had not run up against any rival operation by the French government. On the weekend, Chirac slammed Julia’s “interference” while Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said such private initiatives could create “a threat for our fellow countrymen”.
