Daughter pleads for hostage

2005-12-30 10:58

Dubai - The family of a French hostage held in Iraq has appealed through an Arab satellite channel for his release, saying he was in Iraq only to help the people of the war-torn country.

The daughter of Bernard Planche, Isabelle, and his brother, Gille, pleaded for his release in a videotape broadcast on Friday by the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel.

Isabelle Planche said, as an interpreter dubbed her appeal into Arabic: "He came to Iraq to help in its reconstruction and aid the Iraqi people.

"Please release him. He is my father, and I love him," she pleaded.

Her uncle, Gille, said that his brother was in Iraq only to help its people, appealing for his release "only for the sake of his daughter, Isabelle."

Planche, a 52-year-old engineer, was in Iraq doing water-distribution work for a non-governmental group called Aaccess when he was seized on December 5 at his home in an upmarket Baghdad neighborhood.

Issued death threat

A previously unknown group calling itself the Battalion of the Lookout for Iraq claimed his abduction in a video broadcast by Al-Arabiya on Wednesday.

In it they issued a death threat against him unless Paris ended its "illegitimate presence".

The group did not say whether they were referring to a military, diplomatic or other form of French presence.

France appealed on Thursday to Planche's captors to release him, saying it had no troops in the country.

Months in captivity

"I emphasise that France has no military presence in Iraq and that it has always argued for full sovereignty to be restored to the country," said French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.

Since August 2004, three other French citizens, all journalists, have been kidnapped in two separate incidents by armed groups in Iraq.

All three were released after months in captivity following high-profile campaigns for their freedom in France and rumours of ransom payments.

- AFP