FRANCE: Readers of Libération are likely to see a sadly familiar box on the front page of their newspaper this morning. Unless there was extraordinarily good news overnight, it will show the smiling face of Florence Aubenas and her bald, moustached Iraqi interpreter, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, with the headline: "Disparus depuis quatorze jours". (Disappeared 14 days ago.)
Two weeks have passed since Aubenas and al-Saadi were seen leaving the parking lot of the Melia Mansour Hotel, in Baghdad,where Aubenas had stayed since December 16th. They may have attended a press conference by the interim prime minister Iyad Allawi in the protected Green Zone late that morning. One rumour has it they were grabbed on the street near the Green Zone.
Two days after the disappearance, Iraqi reporters, one of whom works for Agence France Presse, were stopped by hooded men on the road at Balad, 75km north of Baghdad. "The lady journalist and the person with her are fine," the gunmen said before ordering the journalists to leave.
Since then, nothing. "We've contacted the Iraqi, US and French authorities," says Antoine de Gaudemar, chief editor at Libération.
"The Iraqis checked the hospitals. The Americans queried their units. The French embassy turned nothing up either. They tell us that two weeks without news is not unusual, that this phase could last a few more days."
In an interview with al-Arabiya television on Monday, Iraq's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, said, "I don't think there is a political party that would have an interest in kidnapping a French person. I think the affair could be linked to a ransom or something like that."
Aubenas (43) has worked as a roving foreign correspondent for Libération for 18 years, covering conflicts in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Algeria. She is the author of books about media reporting and the Rwandan genocide.
Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi (44) began working for Libération in October 2003 as a "fixer", guide and translator. A former colonel in the Iraqi air force, he trained to fly Mirage F-1 fighter aircraft in France.
The disappearance of Aubenas and al-Saadi has prompted an international outpouring of support. Meeting in Dubai earlier this week, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), of which The Irish Times is a member, condemned their apparent kidnapping and called on media in the Middle East to focus attention on their case.
Libération has discussed the disappearance on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya television stations, and has translated Aubenas's finest articles into Arabic, for publication in the region. Aubenas is, as Libération's deputy editor Patrick Sabatier says, "one of our stars".
"She has a gift for making people talk," says Dominique Simonnot, Aubenas's best friend, who covers court cases for Libération.
"Unlike some journalists, she isn't satisfied with two or three quotes. She listens, and listens, for as long as it takes, until something more than superficial comes out." The newspaper has kept its office in the Melia Mansour Hotel, filled with the belongings of Aubenas and other correspondents who take turns covering Iraq. But it is sending no one else for the Iraqi elections on January 30th.
"Our position is that we have a correspondent in Iraq: Florence Aubenas," says Sabatier. "Until we get her back, we're not sending anyone to cover the events that she was supposed to cover."
In Beirut last week, the Association of Arab journalists and the Lebanese, Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian press syndicates, as well as the Hizbullah television station Al Manar (recently banned in France), appealed "for all parties to ensure the security of journalists, so they can bear witness to what is happening in Iraq and Palestine". Earlier, 92 members of the European parliament signed a petition on behalf of Aubenas and al-Saadi. An appeal by the International Writers' Parliament was published by the review Autodafé, to which Aubenas is a contributor. It was signed, among others, by Elfriede Jelinek, Naguib Mahfouz and Wole Soyinka, all winners of the Nobel Prize for literature.
Under the aegis of Reporters Without Borders, an event that was supposed to have celebrated the release of reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot was turned into a show of support for Aubenas and al-Saadi.
The journalist's parents read anguished but dignified statements. "Florence, our daughter, went to Iraq of her own free will, to accomplish her mission as a journalist," Benoît Aubenas said. "She is there for us, but also for the Iraqis. She is bearing witness."
Tomorrow is the Muslim Eid al-Kebir (feast of the sacrifice). After prayers at the Paris Mosque, hundreds of people, Muslims and Christians, will gather to appeal for Aubenas's and al-Saadi's release. "We're asking for a gesture from the kidnappers," explained Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Mosque.
As a third week of waiting begins, the mood at Libération is sombre. "Florence is extremely cheerful," says Simonnot.
"She has a black sense of humour, and a lot of distance from things." So Simonnot tries to laugh at her last text message from Aubenas, sent from Baghdad on January 2nd. "You won't believe this," it says, "but it's quiet here."
