Kidnapped reporter's plea for help

Kidnapped French journalist Florence Aubenas appeared on a video today almost eight weeks since she disappeared after leaving her Baghdad hotel.

Appearing distraught and tired, Aubenas was alone in front of a maroon-coloured background and said she was in bad health.

The veteran newspaper war correspondent called on a French MP to help release her.

“Please help me, my health is very bad,” she said in English. “Please, it’s urgent now. I also expect Mr Didier Julia, the French deputy to help me. Please Mr Julia help me, it’s urgent, help me.

The 43-year-old and her Iraqi translator are believed to have been snatched from their car in Baghdad on January 5.

The video was dropped at the offices of an international news agency in Baghdad today and it was not possible to verify its authenticity or when it was made.

Before the video, there had been no firm word on the fate of the reporter who previously has covered Kosovo, Algeria, Rwanda, and Afghanistan in her 19 years with newspaper Liberation.

Julia, a headstrong MP from President Jacques Chirac’s governing party, caused an uproar in September when he mediated unsuccessfully for the release of two other kidnapped French journalists. The two men were released in December after four months of captivity.

He was accused by French authorities of meddling in the government’s attempts to release the two men, almost sabotaging it.