Today's Date:

Iraq/release of French hostages

Paris, December 22, 2004

Statement made by M. Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, on the release of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot .

My dear compatriots,

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot are now on their way to Paris.

They have been released after a very long wait, shared by all the French. I want to tell them of our joy. Tell their families and loved-ones of it too, they have shown an extraordinary courage and spirit of responsibility. This spirit of responsibility, which has also guided all their colleagues, has, I am sure, been one of the essential guarantees of our compatriots’ safety.

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot put their lives on the line in the service of freedom of expression and the right to information. They have gone through a very harsh ordeal. Personally and on everyone’s behalf, I express to them our sympathy and esteem.

We owe their release to the mobilization and unity of all the French to whom I want to pay tribute. We owe it to the strength with which the nation rallied together, in its diversity, to assert its unity, solidarity and values. We owe it to the responsible and dogged efforts of the government and all the services which mobilized efficiently and with commitment.

I want to thank all the public authorities, all the political leaders and all the religious leaders who, in France and the world, in an exceptional surge of solidarity, gave us their cooperation and their support.

In the joy uniting us today, we must not forget all the people still held hostage, in Iraq and elsewhere. I am thinking particularly today of Ingrid Bétancourt, a prisoner in Colombia for over two years. I am thinking of the hostages who have died. I am thinking of all those lives threatened or broken by terrorist acts which no cause can ever justify.

Rallying round her values and with the strength borne of her unity, France will continue unwaveringly to oppose all forms of terrorism. Everywhere, she will continue to defend human rights, support peoples' freedoms and work tirelessly for peace, democracy and solidarity.

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At this moment, I want above all to tell Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot of my personal joy and that of all the French at the knowledge that they are at last free and will soon be back home./.