Hostages Tell of Abuse by Iraqis : Gulf crisis: American with an infected arm is near death, a freed Frenchman says. Starvation diet is reported. But there is a ‘strong climate of solidarity.’

French hostages who returned from Iraq after their liberation by Saddam Hussein reported Tuesday that American and other hostages still held captive at strategic sites in Iraq have been subjected to physical and mental abuse.

Many of the 262 freed French hostages included the first large group of so-called human shields released since the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. They said that some Americans were seriously injured and in failing health in confinement at military bases, weapons factories and other strategic sites scattered around Iraq and Kuwait, where they are held as insurance against attack by the multinational forces arrayed against Iraq.

“There is an American who is in terrible condition at a military base,” reported Yann Rivoallan, 34, a French maintenance contractor kept for three months at strategic sites in Iraq and Kuwait. “He has a fractured arm that is highly infected, and his state of health is extremely serious. He could die very soon.”

Another French human shield, Patrick Moniette, said the hostages at the strategic locations were sometimes fed only a bowl of watered-down chicken broth and one hard piece of bread a day. He said the hostages occasionally lived in offices that had been converted into dormitories and were allowed outside only 1 1/2 hours each day.

The French accounts, in which the American and British captives are depicted as suffering the harshest treatment, paint the bleakest picture yet of life as an Iraqi hostage. Their portrayal of constant mental torture stands in stark contrast to the “swimming-pool hostage” image promoted by Iraqi officials in Baghdad.

In general, they confirmed statements about hostage abuse made by U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III in Los Angeles on Monday. In an address before the World Affairs Council, Baker said that American hostages, who number more than 100, are “forced to sleep on vermin-ridden floors.”

“They are kept in the dark during the day and moved only at night,” he added. “They have had their meals cut to two a day, and many are becoming sick as they endure a terrible ordeal.”

All the French hostages spoke of a spirit of fraternity between the hostages of all nationalities, including a large number of Americans, Britons and Japanese kept at strategic sites.

“We left behind our English and American friends who helped us survive,” said a hostage interviewed briefly on French television after his arrival in France early Tuesday morning. “There was a strong climate of solidarity there.”

The returning hostages reported that Americans and British were singled out for particular abuse. Unlike other hostages, they said, the Americans and British were not allowed to receive mail or make telephone calls.

“Everything was done to degrade and lower the people to the level of an animal, especially the Americans and the English,” Rivoallan, the maintenance contractor, told The Times. “The Iraqis especially disliked the Americans. For them, they were Satan.”

Nevertheless, he reported, the American hostages “carried themselves with great dignity.”

Rivoallan described the captives’ world as one of barbed wire, hovering guards, overflowing toilets and near-starvation quantities of food served without plates or utensils.

Attempts to befriend guards proved futile. “I had the impression that if it were necessary to shoot us--if someone gave them the orders to shoot--they would do it without the slightest hesitation,” he said.

In a move widely perceived as a clumsy attempt to divide the Western nations poised against him, Iraq’s President Hussein last week announced the release of all French hostages, including those held at strategic locations.

About three weeks ago, Rivoallan said, the French were given better accommodations and food. “I had the impression that they made the decision to free us about Oct. 8 and for that reason they suddenly transferred us to much better conditions.”

Rivoallan said his release has left him with a bitter feeling of having been used as a propaganda pawn.

“I had a reaction of revulsion,” he said. “We have been freed, but people have been left behind. To know that we have been freed by Saddam for propaganda reasons is nauseating.”

Rivoallan said he took part in a small-scale revolt at one of the military bases where he and others were held under particularly harsh conditions. He said Iraqi retaliation against the rebels resulted in the death of a British hostage and the savage beating of a German hostage.

“The base was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Baghdad at a place where they manufacture artillery shells,” he recalled. “It was a very small base with unbearably unhygienic, humiliating conditions. They were starving us. About five or six of us revolted.”

Rivoallan, who is married and the father of two children, said he agreed to an interview because he promised his fellow hostages that he would tell of the hostages’ living conditions.

“You understand, it was very difficult to leave 50-year-old men who cried when they saw you going,” he said. “We don’t have the right to abandon them, and they have the impression of being abandoned. There is a strange effect of being freed, a feeling of guilt for having departed and having left people behind who are suffering.

“All those who are left behind are going to crack very, very soon,” Rivoallan continued. “They don’t want to stay, and they are no longer able to hold on. Soon, they are going to start trying to escape and take great risks. . . . It is no longer a question of weeks but of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. They are desperate. We must do something to free them very, very quickly.”

Tuesday was a day of celebration and reunion for the 262 French hostages and their families. Many headed directly to restaurants and cafes to reacquaint themselves with steak frites and red wine.

Patrick Moniette played soccer with his 9-year-old son, Alexis, and the family dog, Picsou, on the grounds of his suburban Paris home. He recalled how the hostages had managed to build order in their uncertain lives.

“Each time we changed sites, I spent the first 24 hours finding out where the bomb shelter was, how long it took to get there and the quickest route there,” he said. “I tried to pick out the nice guards and the bad ones and think about how one could escape.” Like other hostages, he said, he thought he might try to escape if war broke out.

He also said he listened to French news broadcasts three times a day, and he spoke of the great joy he felt when he heard the announcement of the release of all French hostages. “But the poor Japanese and Americans around us couldn’t share in our joy,” he said. “It wasn’t the same for them.”

As he was leaving his last confinement, Moniette said he was approached by a British hostage.

“Could you go see my little girl?” Moniette said the Briton asked him. “If anything happens, could you take care of her?”

But before the Frenchman could finish the story, he collapsed in tears, comforted by the caresses of his wife and son.

Another freed hostage, Jean-Michel Leturck, was met at the airport by a delegation from Amiens, his hometown in northern France. Amiens residents had formed a committee calling for his liberation and even sold T-shirts with a message demanding his return.

Leturck was driven to Amiens City Hall in a limousine. When he arrived at 3 a.m. Tuesday, he found dozens of people waiting for him with bottles of champagne. But he said his joy at being home is mixed with worry for the fate of the other hostages left in Iraq.

“In the weeks that come, these people are going to die like animals,” Leturck said. “They are locked up. They are badly treated--not so much physically mistreated but mentally mistreated. They are lost. We must quickly, quickly, quickly get them out.”

Sarah White, The Times’ Paris bureau assistant, contributed to this article.