Hussein Frees 9 Hostages in Bid to Court France

President Saddam Hussein freed nine French hostages Monday in a move widely interpreted as another step in his search for a soft spot in the international stranglehold on Iraq.

The hostage announcement came less than 24 hours after Hussein announced plans to contact the government of French President Francois Mitterrand in an effort to negotiate an end to the Persian Gulf crisis.

In Paris, France promptly rejected Hussein’s peace feeler, which was accompanied by word that he intends to stand fast in Kuwait, which Iraq invaded on Aug. 2 and has since annexed.

None of the nine Frenchmen freed Monday were among about 90 French citizens held hostage at strategic locations as part of Iraq’s so-called human shield against attack. And none was either ill or infirm. All nine had been included in a list delivered to Iraqi leaders last week by the Franco-Iraqi Assn.

“They are people who have problems with their family, with their relatives or with their work,” said Gilles Muneir, the association’s general secretary, who arrived in Baghdad 10 days ago hoping to arrange the French hostages’ freedom. About 350 French nationals are believed to still be in Kuwait and Iraq.

Muneir said he was not surprised by Hussein’s announcement, which marks the first time the Iraqi president has released any of his Western and Japanese adult male hostages.

“Today is the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, which is a traditional occasion for such things,” Muneir said. “But I was surprised by the number. I thought they would release only four. Jesse Jackson (the American political leader) asked for many to be released, and he got only 12.”

Muneir said Hussein made the gesture “to show that, on the Iraqi side, they want to have a dialogue with France.”

Asked whether the gesture was important in a larger, political context, Muneir replied: “It is important for the nine people, to begin with. It’s a sign of good will, but it’s also a response to Mitterrand’s proposal in the United Nations.” In a speech last week to the U.N. General Assembly, Mitterrand said that if Iraq frees all foreign hostages and agrees to withdraw from Kuwait, then “everything becomes possible” through negotiations.

Western and Asian diplomats in Baghdad described the release of the French hostages as a transparent attempt by Hussein to court France, which--as Iraqi officials have said privately--Hussein views as one of the weaker links in the international force blockading his country.

In the Western diplomatic corps, there was widespread agreement that the gesture will yield little.

“These are only small gestures that won’t amount to much,” said a senior Western diplomat who represents a country with many civilians being held here against their will.

“The Iraqis don’t want to accept that they are up against a formidable, collective international agreement. They don’t appreciate the gravity of the situation or how annoyed people are getting with them.”

At last official count, the Iraqis were holding 93 Americans at strategic sites, in addition to nearly 1,000 other American men who are not permitted to leave Iraq and Kuwait. At least 220 Britons have also been detained, along with more than 100 Japanese and 77 Germans.

In recent episodes of the brief nightly television feature called “Guest News,” some of the detained hostages say they are eating well, living in adequate quarters and keeping generally fit. Nonetheless, many are reportedly being put to work by the Iraqis at the sites where they are held under military guard.

In one such interview Saturday night, a Briton in a T-shirt and spectacles identified as Glenn Winwood looked into the camera and said: “We get plenty of food. The accommodations are good. Our ‘hosts’ have been pretty good. We play volleyball against them--and beat ‘em.”

However lighthearted, such sentiments are looked on here as an indicator of what an Asian diplomat called an almost universal susceptibility on the hostage issue among the nations directly involved in the gulf crisis.

Referring to Hussein’s gesture to the French, this diplomat said: “He’s looking for soft spots anywhere, and there are many. He knows that (in these circumstances) governments fall and reputations go up and down.”

Increasingly, he said, the Third World nations struggling to bring home their thousands of stranded, impoverished contract workers are questioning the West’s motives in assembling a military force in the gulf. Many influential analysts in Asia, he said, believe that Hussein has been getting the best of it in the war of words.

“It’s a cold-blooded, ruthless game,” he said, “but that’s the way (Hussein) is playing it. And he’s playing it very well. He is saying, ‘I am willing to talk to anyone unconditionally,’ and we have a feeling that the West is playing into his hands. For the past two months, it’s been all reaction, no initiative.”

It was a view echoed by Muneir, who plans to escort the nine freed hostages back to France today and start a campaign to get the French to pull out of the naval force deployed in the gulf, based in part on Hussein’s “humanitarian” moves.

When reminded that Hussein still holds hundreds of foreigners at places that may be bombed or shelled and that thousands of others are prevented from leaving Iraq, Muneir replied:

“There is hope. The Iraqis have a lot of friends in the world. If every friend comes here and takes one of their countrymen out, they will all be gone very soon.”