French Reporter Seized in Beirut; Another Flees : Both Were Covering Waite’s Attempt to Free More Hostages; No Group Claims Responsibility

Gunmen kidnaped a French journalist in Beirut on Tuesday, but a colleague slipped out of the grasp of his abductors and escaped as they opened fire. Both were covering the latest attempt by Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite to free hostages in Lebanon.

Roger Auque, a 31-year-old free-lance reporter and photographer, was seized by two gunmen as he stepped out of his apartment building in West Beirut, the capital’s Muslim sector.

‘Get Out of There!’

The colleague, Paul Marchand, a French reporter for Radio Monte Carlo, who had freed himself moments before on a nearby street, said later on French television:

“I shouted at Roger: ‘Get out of there! Get out!’ ”

But Auque was unable to escape.

By late Tuesday, none of the secret, extremist organizations operating in Lebanon had made any claim of responsibility for the incident.

The kidnaping darkened the mood of Waite’s mission. When Waite, a lay assistant to Robert A. K. Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was advised of what had happened, he said, “I’m very, very sorry to hear that.”

The seizure of Auque was also seen as a blow to the Middle East policy of French Premier Jacques Chirac, which has generated a good deal of skepticism in France. Chirac has been trying to repair relations with Iran as a way of freeing French hostages. Most of the terrorist groups holding Western hostages are believed to be loyal to Iran.

When word of Tuesday’s kidnaping reached Paris, Chirac was immediately criticized by a party on the extreme right and a small, moderate leftist party for dealing with blackmailers. But most leading politicians withheld comment.

Counting Auque, there are now six Frenchmen missing in Lebanon. In all, 16 foreigners, including five Americans, are believed to be in the hands of extremist Shia Muslim organizations.

Marchand, interviewed on French television after the kidnaping, said that eight gunmen in two cars, a Volvo and a Mercedes-Benz, stopped in front of Auque’s apartment building while Marchand was waiting outside with a taxi. Two of the gunmen, one armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the other with a pistol, grabbed Marchand’s jacket and shouted at him in English, “Follow us! Come with us!”

Marchand said that he struggled free and that the youth with the Kalashnikov shouted, “I’m going to kill you!” Shots were fired as Marchand rushed away. Auque came out of the building at that moment and was grabbed by the gunmen.

Marchand took refuge in the walled French Embassy compound in West Beirut. The embassy is no longer used by French diplomats but is still guarded.

Auque, a French national who also holds a Canadian passport, went to Lebanon in 1984 and quickly drew assignments from French, Belgian and Canadian radio and photo organizations. He was one of the few foreigners who still lived in Muslim-controlled West Beirut.

‘You Must Master Your Fear’

In an interview some time ago on French television, he said: “If you want to be a foreign correspondent, a war correspondent, you have to be a fatalist. The threat of kidnaping is just another risk, like any other. To do the job right, you must master your fear.”

Auque’s abduction took place less than an hour after Auque and Marchand had photographed Waite’s early morning stroll in a nearby quarter.

Waite was informed of the kidnaping after spending an hour with Druze militia leader Walid Jumblatt. Heavily armed Druze fighters, members of an offshoot sect of Islam, have escorted Waite ever since he arrived in Beirut on Monday on his latest mission. Speaking with reporters, Waite said that both he and Jumblatt recognize the need for freeing the hostages.

“If we have releases,” Waite said, “that is a sign to the world that there are movements in Lebanon to help toward peace. I will continue my humanitarian work towards the release of people.”

Waite said he had met with a contact Monday and now plans to avoid reporters and hold secret meetings. In the past, the Anglican official has said that his meetings with the kidnapers have taken place in deserted buildings while he was blindfolded, sometimes with a gun at his back.

American Hostage Freed

Waite’s last visit to Lebanon, in November, ended with the release of hospital administrator David P. Jacobsen by Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a shadowy Shia group that had held the American captive for 17 months.

Jacobsen’s release was followed by the disclosure that the Reagan Administration had shipped arms to Iran with the aim, among others, of obtaining the release of all the American hostages in Lebanon. But Waite insists that his mission has nothing to do with arms.

“I’ve no knowledge about arms dealings,” he recently told the British news agency Reuters. “I’ve never discussed the arms deals in my negotiations because I don’t believe it is the job of any humanitarian.”

The French External Relations Ministry issued a statement deploring Auque’s abduction. But the statement, in an evident defense of France’s dealings with Iran and Syria, added that the ministry “intends to pursue its efforts to reach a settlement of the entire hostage problem and, in this perspective, remains in close contact with the states in the region which could play a role in this domain.”

Syria, the dominant foreign power in Lebanon, has been accused by European nations of supporting international terrorism.

A Grim Accounting

Auque’s kidnaping presented the Chirac government with a grim accounting. Since he came to power last March, Chirac’s controversial policies have accounted for the release of five hostages, the most recent on Christmas Eve. But one of those five was kidnaped after Chirac took office, and the addition of a new hostage made the total releases seem relatively insignificant.

Chirac has tried hard to repair relations with both Syria and Iran. The wooing of Iran has been dramatic, since France is a major supplier of arms to Iraq, which is at war with Iran. To soothe Iran, the French government threw the leader of the main Iranian opposition party out of France and has paid $330 million to Iran as part payment for a $1-billion loan made to France by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran before he was deposed in 1980. Still, France has refused to heed the demand of pro-Iranian Shia organizations in Lebanon that it stop selling arms to Iraq.

In a radio interview last Wednesday, Minister for External Relations Jean-Bernard Raimond said France was disappointed with the results of its Iranian policy, especially since only one French hostage, television sound technician Aurel Cornea, was released on Christmas Eve.

“When Cornea was liberated,” Raimond said, “we expected better. I have written to my Iranian colleague, Ali Akbar Velayati, to tell him that we expected better and that our general policy of confidence in Iran must enable us swiftly to come to the end of this affair of detained Frenchmen in Lebanon.”

No Thanks

Raimond said the release of Cornea alone was one of the reasons Chirac refused to thank Iran in an airport speech welcoming Cornea home on Christmas Day. Chirac instead thanked only Syrian, Lebanese, Algerian and Palestinian officials.

Aside from Auque, the French hostages in Lebanon are diplomats Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine, journalist Jean-Paul Kauffman, academic researcher Michel Seurat and television crewman Jean-Louis Normandin.

Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for abducting all but one of these hostages, announced months ago that it had executed Seurat, but his body has never been found. Normandin, the hostage not held by Islamic Jihad, was kidnaped by a group known as the Revolutionary Justice Organization.