FRANCE: Florence Aubenas, the French journalist who was held hostage with her interpreter-driver Hussein Hanun for 157 days in Iraq, stepped off a government jet at Villacoublay air base near Paris yesterday, grinning and carrying a bag over her shoulder, as if casually returning from a weekend reporting trip.
President Jacques Chirac was the first to greet Ms Aubenas on the tarmac, kissing her on both cheeks. The journalist's engaging smile and the exceptional quality of her reporting sparked unprecedented support and emotion throughout Europe over the past five months.
Ms Aubenas (44) has reported extensively from Algeria, Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Three laureates of the Nobel Prize for literature wrote that "Florence's reports recount a complex, often opaque, sometimes violent world, with the sole purpose of telling the truth."
There were tears in many eyes as Ms Aubenas hugged and kissed her parents, sister, friends and colleagues, but the newly freed journalist seemed euphoric. After a brief reunion in the VIP lounge, she re-emerged to speak to waiting reporters.
"Bonjour tout le monde! I'm like you. I'm waiting for the hostage who's supposed to be coming," she joked.
Ms Aubenas thanked "everyone in Toulouse and Lille, the French men and women, the ministers, journalists, teachers, all those who made it possible for me to be back in France".
Earlier in the day, Mr Chirac went on television to announce Ms Aubenas's imminent arrival. He called the mobilisation for Ms Aubenas and Mr Hanun "a magnificent show of solidarity and hope".
Nearly all of France's 36,000 villages, towns and cities hung photographs of Ms Aubenas and Mr Hanun on their town halls. There were marching bands, concerts, balloon launches, marathons and torch-lit demonstrations in their honour.
Asked how she found the strength to survive more than five months in a cellar, with poor hygiene and little food, she said: "Because you have no choice. You're there and you do what you can." Two Romanian journalists who were freed three weeks ago yesterday said they'd been held with Ms Aubenas, but the Frenchwoman said she was held only with Mr Hanun.
Hussein Hanun was a French-trained Mirage fighter-pilot during the Iran-Iraq war. After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, he became a "fixer" for Libération newspaper, which employs Ms Aubenas. He returned to his wife and four children in Baghdad yesterday.
Those who campaigned to keep Ms Aubenas and Mr Hanun in the public eye did so in the hope the hostages would hear of it and take heart. Ms Aubenas rewarded them yesterday. "One day the hostage-takers said, 'We're going to let you watch television because you seem so depressed.' Everybody knows TV raises your morale," she joked.
"They untied my hands and feet, and so the party would be complete, they told me I could lift my blindfold a little so I could see the screen. It was TV5 (the international French-speaking channel.) There was a woman presenter, and underneath I saw a ribbon that said 'Florence Hussein' and I thought, 'This is a good omen for me. The presenter is called Florence Hussein. This is going to be a good day; maybe I'll get a double ration of vache-qui-rit (processed cheese) or an extra bottle of water.'
"Then I saw it said 140 and after a while I understood it was for our 140 days as hostages . . . When you're crouching on the ground, you're so happy to see that."
Ms Aubenas showed her legendary optimism and strength when asked how long she thought she would be held hostage.
"I was kidnapped on the 5th (of January)," she said. "And on the 5th, I thought I'd be out that evening. The morning of the 6th, same thing. At noon on the 6th too. And every day."
With the exception of a researcher who died of illness in Lebanon in the 1980s, France has never lost a hostage and has gone to extreme lengths to obtain their freedom. The government spokesman yesterday denied that a ransom was paid for Ms Aubenas. But there were strong suspicions that an "exchange" was made, perhaps in the form of "lodging fees".
LCI television speculated that Ms Aubenas and Mr Hanun were kidnapped because Paris did not pay the full amount demanded for journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were freed last December.
Head of Reporters Without Borders Robert Ménard was quoted saying that $15 million had been paid for Ms Aubenas, but he later issued a denial.
Ms Aubenas's and Mr Hanun's kidnappers are believed to be a criminal gang that was not ideologically motivated, possibly former Ba'athists.
Ms Aubenas and Mr Hanun were handed over to French intelligence agents in Baghdad on Saturday afternoon and spent their first night in an embassy safe house.
Mr Aubenas was driven to Baghdad airport by the French ambassador, who said he found her thin "but surprisingly lively and smiling".
The airport had been closed for two days because of sandstorms, and the French jet sent to fetch her was the only aircraft to land and take off. TF1 television reported that she was briefly questioned at a military checkpoint because her Iraqi visa had expired.
While waiting for her daughter's arrival, Ms Aubenas's mother Jacqueline said: "I thought I knew the meaning of happiness; not at all. This is better than I thought it would be. It's an explosion of joy."