Saturday, 27 November 2004: 100 days in captivity for French hostages Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot

"One hundred days, but it could be eternity," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said today of French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, who are due to begin their 100th day in captivity in Iraq on Saturday. "What may seem just a number for us represents unbearable suffering for the families, who spend all their time waiting for news, and waiting for the release of their loved-ones," Ménard said. He said Reporters Without Borders calls on all of the French press, the Arab news media and all news organisations throughout the world to launch a campaign against the taking of civilian hostages, especially journalists, and to demand the release of Malbrunot and Chesnot. "Their fate concern all of us who work in the news media and it painfully illustrates the extreme difficulties facing all the journalists currently working in Iraq," Ménard added. Campaign action Reporters Without Borders calls on all news media to remind their public about the captive French journalists by displaying a banner on the front page of their newspapers or on their TV screens on Saturday saying: "100 days of captivity for Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot" Along with their Syrian interpreter Mohammed Al-Joundi, Chesnot and Malbrunot were kidnapped on 20 August 2004 on the road from Baghdad to Najaf. After three months in captivity, Al-Joundi was found by US marines on 11 November during fighting with Islamist militants in the city of Fallujah. The Associated Press news agency quoted Al-Joundi as saying he and his two companions were kidnapped by men in a white Mercedes and a Korean car as they were heading towards the Shiite holy city of Najaf. In a videotape broadcast by the pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera on 28 August, a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for their abduction and demanded the repeal of the French law banning the Islamic head scarf in schools. Malbrunot, 41, is a freelancer with Le Figaro, Ouest-France and RTL. Chesnot, 38, freelances for RFI and Radio France. "Black Book of the War in Iraq" Reporters Without Borders and La Découverte are publishing "The Black Book of the War in Iraq," a survey of the disturbing panorama of human rights violations in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003. Iraqi army abuses, killings of civilians by US and British forces, indiscriminate bombings and violence by the various armed groups, mistreatment of Iraqi detainees, a lack of access to health and education, the threat of violence that prevents journalists and others from working properly - the situation in Iraq is still alarming a year and a half after the war began. This book covers the most serious abuses reported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, as well as the UN High Commission for Human Rights. It also has a postface by journalist Olivier Weber on the many hostage-takings that have been taking place. La Découverte - 220 pp - 16 euros