France ponders next move over Iraq hostages

France’s government today scrambled to map out its response to the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq, but showed no immediate signs of being ready to surrender to the hostage-takers’ reported demands.

Islamic militants released a brief tape of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot on Saturday and said they were holding the men to protest a French law banning Islamic head scarves in public schools, according to Arab TV station Al-Jazeera.

The group gave France 48 hours to overturn the law, Al-Jazeera said.

French Muslim leaders condemned the kidnappings.

“We must not negotiate. It is blackmail which the Muslims of France reject. It is blackmail which does not serve the Muslim cause and which unfortunately holds the Muslim community hostage,” said Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the powerful Union of Islamic Organisations of France.

“The head scarf issue is a solely French affair and we do not accept foreign interference,” he added.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called together the ministers of the interior, foreign affairs and communication to co-ordinate the government’s response. Raffarin also was to discuss the situation with President Jacques Chirac on Sunday afternoon.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, meanwhile, met leaders of the French Council for the Muslim Faith, an umbrella group that serves as a link between Muslims and the government.

The council’s head, Dalil Boubakeur, urged France’s estimated five million-strong Muslim community “to show its disapproval, its condemnation” of the kidnappings.

Without directly referring to the hostage-takers’ reported demands, de Villepin reaffirmed France’s commitment to its secular traditions and called for the journalists’ release.

“We want everyone to know that secularism in our country cannot be divided,” the minister said at the end of the meeting, surrounding by members of the Muslim council.

French law, which takes effect when the school year starts Wednesday, forbids public school students from wearing religious apparel and “conspicuous” signs showing their religious affiliation. That includes Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses.

French authorities have made clear, however, that the ban is aimed at removing Islamic head scarves from classrooms. The law sparked protests at home and abroad, with many Muslims saying they felt unfairly targeted.

Al-Jazeera said the militants claiming to hold the reporters described the law as “an aggression on the Islamic religion and personal freedoms.”

Chesnot, of Radio France-Internationale and Radio France, and Malbrunot, who worked for the dailies Le Figaro and Ouest-France and RTL radio, have not been in touch with their employers since August 19.

Opposition politicians and ordinary French people said the government should not to cave to terrorists.

“Ours is a democratic society. It cannot submit to pressure and blackmail,” said Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande.

“We must not capitulate,” said Alain Paul Nicolas, who runs a newspaper kiosk on the Champs-Elysees. “It won’t prevent anything.”