Arab, foreign condemnation over kidnapping the two French journalists

Paris has intensified its diplomatic efforts to release the two French journalists kidnapped in Baghdad, while Arab and foreign reactions continued deploring this operation.

The former secretary general of the French foreign minister Obert Collen whose mission was extended arrived in Baghdad to follow up the case of the French journalists, who were announced as kidnapped by an armed group demanding France to abrogate the veil banning decision in the educational and government institutions.

This, however, came after the French foreign minister Michael Barnieh extended in Cairo an official appeal via al-Jazeera TV to the kidnappers to release the two journalists "in the name of humanity and honoring human kind." He stressed in his appeal that Christian Shino, the correspondent of France International radio and George Malbarno, the special delegate for Le Figaro were in a mission in Iraq " to explain to the world and testify the reality of the situation there and the difficult life conditions the people of Iraq are facing." The French government rejected demands of the kidnappers and persisted to proceed forward in implementing the law provides for banning the veil.

The European Union backed Paris in dealing with the demands of the kidnappers. The higher representative for the Union's foreign policy Javier Solana extended an appeal for the release of the journalists.

The kidnapping operation provoked Arab official and people condemnation deploring and rejecting the linkage of this operation to the two issues of the veil and Iraq.

The Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on the kidnappers to release them immediately. The King of Jordan deplored targeting media people in Iraq. The spokeswoman for the government said that " this does not serve the causes of the region, nor its image." For its part, the secretary general of the Arab League Amr Moussa extended an urgent appeal to " those who are linked to the kidnapping operation to release the two journalists as soon as possible." This was expressed in a joint press conference with Barnieh.

Moussa said that the Arab League is contacting Iraqi sides -- without naming them -- in an attempt to release the journalists.

At the people's level, the Muslim Brothers group deplored the kidnapping process and demanded in a statement the release of the kidnapped journalists especially " it was not proved they were involved in any act violating the law or the Islamic jurisprudence, rather they contributed to the practices conducted by the occupation forces."

Meantime, the general secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference OIC in Jeddah denounced the kidnapping of journalists rejecting " fragile link between the question of the veil in France and the situation in Iraq." The OIC secretary general Abdul Wahid Balqaziz said that: making friendly states enemies that way, is a matter which is not accepted and does not serve the supreme interests of Muslim nor the Islamic world."