PRESIDENT NICOLAS Sarkozy has said French government policy will not be dictated by terrorists after Osama bin Laden threatened the country in a new audio message.
In a recording broadcast by Al Jazeera television, bin Laden said France would not be safe until it withdrew its troops from Afghanistan and halted “its injustices” towards Muslims. He said the kidnapping of French citizens in the Sahel region of north Africa was justified and criticised the state’s decision to ban face veils.
“How is it right for you to occupy our countries and kill our women and children and expect to live in peace and security?” bin Laden said in the message, which the foreign ministry in Paris said appeared to be authentic.
“The equation is clear: you are killed as you kill and abducted as you abduct, and as you damage our security we damage your security.” Commenting on the threat, Mr Sarkozy said the decision to ban the niqab and burqa was taken democratically and would not be reversed. “France will not allow anyone dictate its policies, and certainly not terrorists,” the president said.
“The law on the burqa was approved and promulgated. The French Republic has clearly indicated its choice. It does not wish for it to be possible for women to be shut away behind a piece of cloth on its territory. It’s a decision taken by the French Republic.” Parliament definitively approved the ban on face veils in September and it is due to come into force next spring, subject to approval by the constitutional council.
Five French nationals were among seven people kidnapped in Niger in September, in an operation for which al-Qaeda’s north African wing claimed responsibility. The kidnapping marked an increase in hostilities between the militant group and France after an elderly French hostage was killed in July following an unsuccessful French commando raid.
On the hostages, Mr Sarkozy said that “not a day passes that we are not working towards their liberation. I didn’t need a message from Mr bin Laden to be worried about them, or about all the others whose situation we are working on.” Two French journalists have been held hostage by suspected insurgents in Afghanistan for more than 300 days, but bin Laden did not refer to them.
Defence minister Hervé Morin said this week that France could begin withdrawing its 3,500 soldiers from Afghanistan next year but that this had “absolutely no link” to any threat.