French Ex-Hostage ‘Can’t Understand’ U.S. Stance

A former French hostage said today he was freed because people back home kept pressure on the government to negotiate, and he appealed to Americans and Britons to do the same.

“There was a consensus among the French that they wanted to free their hostages and they supported what their government did to get us out,” journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann said. He spoke at a packed news conference in a Left Bank theater.

Kauffmann, looking exhausted, emaciated and fragile a week after his arrival in France, said he believes all nine of the American hostages and the three British hostages are alive. They are among 18 foreign hostages in Lebanon.

“I don’t understand the Americans and the British. I have the impression that they have abandoned their hostages. But these men are suffering and what is to be done has to be done very quickly. It is urgent,” Kauffmann said. He was flanked by his wife, Joelle, and the head of the committee of journalists who pressured the government for his release.

The U.S. and British governments have said they will not negotiate with terrorists.

Kauffmann refused to discuss the status of the foreign hostages. He said that doing so could put them in danger or cause them to lose the small privileges that make life bearable--the few books and cigarettes they are sometimes allowed.

David Jacobsen on Hand

Former American hostage David Jacobsen sat in the front row beside Jill Morrell, fiance of British television journalist John McCarthy, 31, kidnaped April 17, 1986.

Peggy Say, sister of Terry Anderson, the longest-held of the American hostages, spoke to Kauffmann and the other two hostages released last week, diplomats Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton. Fontaine shared a cell with Anderson for several months.

Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for Associated Press, was seized in West Beirut on March 16, 1985.

“I have never tried to tell my government exactly what to do,” Say said. “But I think that after more than three years, they could, perhaps, take some pointers from the French and follow the leads and initiatives the French government has provided.”

Say met earlier in the day with outgoing Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, who oversaw negotiations for the hostages and arranged the secret deal that led to their release. She said he was very helpful.

During the two years Pasqua and the government of Premier Jacques Chirac were in office, 10 French hostages were freed in Lebanon. No French hostages are believed to remain in the hands of the Shia Muslims.

Asked what the American government is doing to secure her brother’s release, Say replied: “I’m not exactly sure because they don’t share that with me.

“All they tell me is that there continues to be quiet diplomacy, although I’m not sure what that means. After all this time, I have to wonder if quiet diplomacy is a code word for no diplomacy.”