Chirac Warns Journalists to Stay Away

President Jacques Chirac warned French journalists not to travel to Iraq yesterday, amid growing concern for the fate of a French reporter who disappeared three days ago.

Florence Aubenas, a journalist with the national daily Libération, was last seen on Wednesday morning with her translator, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, at a hotel in Baghdad.

Her disappearance comes just weeks after two other French journalists, Le Figaro reporter Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale, were released from captivity after four months.

"French authorities formally advise against sending journalists to [Iraq]," President Chirac said yesterday. "For now, security of our press correspondents cannot be assured."

Editors at Libération said they had not heard from Aubenas for nearly two days, which was unusual because she normally telephoned her office twice a day. "We're devastated," said François Sergent, the head of the paper's foreign department.

Although the newspaper is committed to maintaining a presence in Baghdad, reporters are advised not to leave the capital. More than 120 foreigners have been kidnapped since April, of whom more than three dozen have been killed.

Malbrunot echoed the president's words of warning yesterday. "I'm not one to give any advice, but it seems to me extremely, extremely risky, especially given the work conditions now," he said.

"Our kidnappers said to us: 'Don't come back.'"

France's foreign minister, Michel Barnier, said yesterday that officials were checking hospitals in the region and stressed they were not yet sure that Aubenas had been taken hostage.

She is an experienced correspondent who has covered conflicts in Kosovo, Algeria, Rwanda and Afghanistan for Libération.