Journalist Covering Waite Kidnaped in Beirut : Frenchman Abducted Just Minutes After Photographing Hostage Negotiator

A French journalist covering the visit of Anglican Church hostage negotiator Terry Waite was himself kidnaped by gunmen who bundled him into a car on a West Beirut street today minutes after he photographed Waite on a seaside walk.

No group immediately took responsibility for the abduction of free-lance journalist Roger Auque, 31. His kidnaping raised to 16 the number of foreigners kidnaped and missing in Lebanon--five Americans, six Frenchmen, two Britons, an Irishman, a South Korean and an Italian.

Auque’s colleague, Jean Marchand, who broke free of the kidnapers’ grasp, said the gunmen moved in at 9:50 a.m. when Auque returned home after photographing Waite.

Stopped at Apartment

“Roger wanted to stop by his apartment to pick up something and I waited outside,” Marchand said. “At that moment, a white car came by, driving in reverse.”

Two gunmen jumped out of the car, one carrying a pistol and the other a Kalashnikov rifle, while a third stayed inside the vehicle, Marchand said.

“The one with the Kalashnikov came toward me, took hold of my jacket and said to me in English, ‘Follow me, come with us,’ Marchand said. “I managed to get myself free.

“Then the youth with the Kalashnikov said to me, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ and he took a shot in my direction. Then I saw that Roger had come out of the building. I shouted, ‘Run, run!’

Jumped Over a Wall

“I ran away. I heard gunshots and I jumped over a wall and didn’t see what happened after that.”

Marchand’s driver, who was waiting on a side street for the journalists, said Auque was shoved into the car at gunpoint and driven away.

The French Foreign Ministry “strongly” deplored the abduction of Auque, who also holds a Canadian passport and is a free-lance correspondent and photographer for Radio-Television Luxembourg. His friends said he has been in Lebanon since 1982.

When told of the abduction, Waite, a special assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury, said, “I am very sorry to hear it.”

Waite arrived in Beirut on Monday to launch a new effort to win freedom for the hostages.

Guarded by Druze Muslims

Waite, who is being guarded by Druze Muslim militiamen, met today with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, then walked near the seafront for 20 minutes.

He later told reporters, “From today on I have a lot of people to see and I will not be making any more press statements at all because it is necessary for me to be quiet and to be out of the lights for a while.”

Waite has been credited with helping secure the release of three Americans held for more than a year by Lebanon’s Muslim extremists: the Rev. Benjamin Weir in September, 1985; Father Lawrence Martin Jenco in July, 1986, and David Jacobsen, administrator of the American University Hospital in Beirut on Nov. 1, 1986.

All three had been held by the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad group--which claims to be holding two of the five Americans still missing in Lebanon.

However, as details of the U.S. arms sales to Iran have trickled out since November, it has been determined that weapons were shipped to Iran in the weeks before the releases of Weir, Jenco and Jacobsen, raising doubts about Waite’s role. He has said he had nothing to do with the Iran connection.