French President Francois Mitterrand has come under fire at home and abroad for praising the Libyan role in securing the release of three hostages held by a radical Palestinian terrorist group.
The hostages, held by Abu Nidal’s notorious Fatah Revolutionary Council, were released Tuesday, ostensibly after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi intervened on their behalf.
Coinciding with the release, Mitterrand heaped effusive praise on Gadhafi and lifted an embargo on three Libyan jets grounded in France for the past four years.
Mitterrand personally thanked Gadhafi for his help. And Foreign Minister Roland Dumas paid tribute in Parliament to the Libyan leader’s “noble and humanitarian gesture.”
Opposition leaders promptly condemned what many described as the French administration’s humiliating fawning on Gadhafi, who in all probability, they said, originally instigated the kidnappings.
In Britain and Italy, media commentary resorted to such words as “nauseating” and “hypocrisy.”
Only one of the freed hostages is a French national: Jacqueline Valente, 32. Released with her was her Belgian lover, Ferdinand Houtekins, 43, and their 2-year-old daughter, Sophie-Liberte, born during the couple’s 30 months in captivity.
Valente’s two older children were released to her estranged husband in 1988. Five other Belgian hostages, including Houtekins’ brother, remain prisoners.
Valente’s two children by her marriage to a Frenchman and the Belgian Houtekins family were hijacked at sea in November 1987.
The hostages were accused of spying for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, though none of them is Jewish or known to have Jewish or Israeli contacts.
The latest gesture has gotten Gadhafi’s jets back. The three French-built Mirage fighters flew to France for repairs in 1986 and were seized after the European Community imposed sanctions on Libya for abetting international terrorism.
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