Did Nothing Dishonorable to Get Hostages, Chirac Says

Premier Jacques Chirac, welcoming the last three French hostages home from Beirut on Thursday, praised the Iranian government for its help in bringing about their release but insisted that France did nothing dishonorable in exchange for their freedom.

Struggling against heavy odds to defeat President Francois Mitterrand in the final round of the presidential election Sunday, Chirac sounded a defensive note in an airport welcoming speech. He was trying to head off suspicion that France had paid a heavy price for the hostages in money and concessions, but the belief is widespread nonetheless.

There were reports from Beirut that the French had, among other things, paid a ransom of 10 million francs--$1.8 million--to the pro-Iranian Shia Muslim extremists who had held the hostages for more than three years. French officials denied it, however.

“We did not pay a single franc, a single dollar, a single mark, a single yen,” Interior Minister Charles Pasqua said.

Despite the controversy, some political analysts believe that the emotional excitement in France over the release of the hostages has somewhat improved Chirac’s electoral chances, although hardly enough to bring off an upset victory. Chirac, a 55-year-old conservative who is responsible for French policy on hostages, had assigned Pasqua, his confidant and campaign strategist, to supervise the negotiations for the release.

It was more difficult to assess whether Chirac’s campaign had benefited from a show of force in the South Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where the French army, in a bloody assault Thursday, freed 23 hostages held in a cave by Melanesian separatists. Chirac lieutenants gloated over the victory, but the death toll of 15 Melanesians and two French soldiers was disquieting for many others.

There was a poignant moment on national television when one of the Beirut hostages, Jean-Paul Kauffmann, a 45-year-old journalist, told reporters a few minutes after he arrived at the Villacoublay military airport near of Paris that “in a way I feel a little ashamed to be here.”

He said this was because of the death of a fourth French hostage in captivity and the continued detention of 18 other foreign hostages in Beirut.

“We have lived a nightmare for 24 out of every 24 hours,” Kauffmann said. “The other hostages and I have had chains on our feet since February of 1987. We did not live. We survived.”

Kauffmann said that Michel Seurat, a researcher abducted with him in 1985, had died of cancer during the ordeal.

“He died all alone,” Kauffmann said. “It was frightful.” Their captors, members of Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a terrorist organization of Shia fundamentalists, reported that Seurat was executed in 1986, but his body was never found.

Islamic Jihad released Kauffmann, diplomats Marcel Carton, 64, and Marcel Fontaine, 46, into the custody of Syrian soldiers in West Beirut on Wednesday evening. After their plane landed at Villacoublay on Thursday morning, the three found themselves caught up in a welcome from members of their families that included hugs, laughter, kisses and tears. Chirac and several members of his Cabinet looked on.

Kauffmann, Carton and Fontaine were then taken to a military hospital in Paris for two days of medical examinations. Mitterrand called on them at the hospital later in the day.

In a carefully worded statement read at the airport, Chirac thanked the Iranian government, Syrian President Hafez Assad, Lebanese military authorities and an unnamed “friend of Iran and France” for their help in obtaining the hostages’ release.

He singled out Iran for the most praise, saying that “it was the Tehran authorities who interceded with the kidnapers to release our compatriots.” As a result, he said, a resumption of diplomatic relations between France and Iran, broken last summer, “can be envisaged.”

Then, anticipating suspicions about the price paid for the hostages’ freedom, Chirac said, “I simply affirm that, throughout this painful affair of the hostages, the government, with perseverance, has never ceased to act with dignity and honor.”

Despite this assurance by Chirac, there was a good deal of speculation in Paris about concessions made to Iran. Chirac himself had mentioned the possible resumption of diplomatic relations, and Denis Baudouin, Chirac’s spokesman, confirmed to reporters later that negotiations were under way for repayment of the final third of a $1-billion loan to France by the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi before the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Much of the speculation involved the possible release of convicted terrorists from French prisons, shipment of arms to Iran through a third country and payment of a ransom to the abductors. But it was assumed that none of this would become clear until after the election Sunday.