BAGHDAD, Aug. 29 — A militant Iraqi Islamic group holding two French journalists has demanded that France annul a new law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools, adding an ominous new transnational dimension to the wave of foreigner kidnappings here.
The journalists, Christian Chesnot of Radio France International and Georges Malbrunot of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro, disappeared on Aug. 20 while driving from Baghad to the Shiite holy center of Najaf, then the scene of heavy fighting between American forces and a Shiite militia.
Nothing was heard of their fates until Saturday night, when the Arab television network Al Jazeera showed videotapes of the two men, looking healthy, and reported that the captors, a little-known group called the Islamic Army in Iraq, were demanding the change in French schools policy. The group called the French law "an injustice and an attack on the Islamic religion and individual freedoms," the network reported, and gave France a deadline of 48 hours to repeal the measure.
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...French reporters and citizens working in Iraq were widely seen as less likely than others to be targets of the insurgents because France opposed the American invasion and has not sent troops. This is the first in a dozen kidnappings of journalists this year in which demands have centered on domestic issues of a country outside the region.
http://nytimes.com/2004/08/29/international/middleeast/29CND-IRAQ.html
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