New Beirut Group Says It Holds French Newsmen

A previously unknown group calling itself the Revolutionary Justice Organization claimed responsibility Friday for seizing four French television journalists.

In a statement delivered to a Western news agency in Beirut, the group said it kidnaped the four last Saturday “as a warning to France and in the hope that the French people will . . . stop any (French) military or political intervention in Lebanon.”

The four were seized at gunpoint as they returned from filming a rally of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah (Party of God), an extremist Shia Muslim faction, in Beirut’s Shia suburbs.

An anonymous caller to an international news agency claimed responsibility for their abduction on behalf of Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), but Islamic Jihad later denied responsibility.

However, Islamic Jihad on Thursday night warned France to meet its demands and delivered a videotape of three other kidnaped Frenchmen, who urged Paris to comply.

The 6 1/2-minute film showed diplomats Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann. All were bearded and appeared haggard. Last week, Islamic Jihad announced the “execution” of another of its French hostages, researcher Michel Seurat, but authorities have so far been unable to confirm Seurat’s fate.

Apparently referring to French naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean, Islamic Jihad said that “military parades by the French government will complicate the problem further.”

Islamic Jihad has linked the hostages’ freedom to French support for Iran’s enemy Iraq in the Persian Gulf War and the jailing in France of five men who tried to kill former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar.

Meanwhile, Lebanese-born French mediator Razah Raad arrived in Damascus, Syria, after spending three days in Beirut’s Shia suburbs. He told a reporter for the Beirut newspaper An Nahar in Damascus that he had achieved progress on unspecified proposals that he brought with him, but he gave no details.

“The important thing is that tension has been eased,” said Raad, who is on a semi-official mission to free the hostages.