By Adama Diarra and John Irish
BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - Two French radio journalists were killed by gunmen
in northern Mali on Saturday shortly after being abducted in the town of
Kidal, French and Malian officials said.
The French government confirmed that 58-year old Claude Verlon and Ghislaine
Dupont, 51, both journalists at RFI radio, had been found dead.
"The French president ... expresses his indignation over this heinous act,"
Francois Hollande's office said in a statement.
Kidal is the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising last year that plunged Mali
into chaos, leading to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of
the northern half of the country by militants linked to al Qaeda.
A French-led military intervention drove out the militants but there are
still pockets of insurgents and the incident dramatically highlighted the
continuing security risks.
France still has about 3,000 soldiers in the country, alongside Malian
troops and U.N. peacekeepers (MINUSMA), although it only has about 200
troops in Kidal and another 100 in Tessalit, several hundred kilometers away
in the northwest.
A local prefect, sources from the Tuareg separatist group MNLA and Malian
security services told Reuters the two reporters had been killed outside the
town after their abduction.
"A few minutes after a pursuit began for the abductors of the two French, we
were informed that their bodies were found riddled with bullets outside the
town," said Paul-Marie Sidibe, prefect of the town of Tinzawaten, who is
based in Kidal.
A senior MNLA military official said the bodies had been recovered outside
Kidal and a Malian security source said the journalists were killed about 12
km (8 miles) from the town.
Full details of how the journalists died were not immediately clear,
although the French forces said their bodies were found by a patrol that had
been told of the kidnapping.
"At no point did our forces come into visual or physical contact with the
moving vehicle," army spokesman Gilles Jaron told Reuters. "The bodies were
found by the French patrol around a 4x4 that had stopped."
He said that two French helicopters had been dispatched from Tessalit to
track the hostage takers, but they arrived in the area 50 minutes after the
bodies were discovered. Earlier, several French media reports said a French
helicopter had tracked the kidnappers's vehicles after the abduction
Jarron said at this stage there was no information as to who was behind the
attack.
Hollande said his cabinet would meet on Sunday to work with the U.N. and
Malian authorities to establish how they had been "assassinated."
JOURNALISTS "ADVISED NOT TO TRAVEL"
France's defense ministry said that the French army had warned the reporters
not to travel to Kidal on October 29 and refused to take them to the town.
"They were advised to not travel there due to insecurity that continues to
reign in the area and the rivalry between different groups operating in the
area," the ministry said.
"Despite this advice, the two journalists took MINSUMA transportation to get
to Kidal," it said.
The journalists were seized after they interviewed Kidal resident Ambeiry Ag
Rhissa, a local official with the MNLA Tuareg separatist group.
"When they left, I heard a strange noise outside. I immediately went out to
see and when I opened my door, a turbaned man pointed a gun at me and told
me go back inside," Rhissa told Reuters by telephone.
"I could not see how many men were there," he said.
RFI confirmed in a news bulletin that Dupont and Verlon were kidnapped in
front of Rhissa's house after the interview by gunmen speaking the local
Tuareg dialect.
"They were put into a beige four-wheel drive vehicle and the kidnappers
fired shots in the air and told Rhissa to go home," RFI said in the report.
"Their driver heard the two reporters protest and resist. It was the last
time they were seen," RFI said.
RFI said in a statement that the journalist were working on stories on
northern Mali for a special broadcast the station was planning from November
7. The broadcast has been cancelled it said.
The kidnapping happened four days after four French hostages kidnapped in
Niger by al Qaeda's north African wing were released following secret talks
with officials from the West African country, ending three years in
captivity.
(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Laurent Prieur in
Nouakchott, Marion Douet in Paris and David Lewis in Dakar; writing by Bate
Felix; editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Barry Moody)
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
