The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

FRANCE

Acts of solidarity were planned across France on Wednesday, December 29, which marked the one-year anniversary of the abduction of French journalists Stéphane Taponier and Hervé Ghesquière along with their three Afghan accompaniers in a region northeast of Kabul, BBC reported. Images of the two France-3 journalists were projected onto the Arc de Triomphe. The mother of Taponier announced before Paris’s Hôtel de Ville that the situation had gone on too long, showing frustration toward a lack of process in negotiating the freedom of the journalists, according to the Nouvel Observateur. On Tuesday, December 28, a video filmed in mid-November and released to French authorities this month was shown to relatives of the two; it showed the journalists looking thin but overall healthy, Le Point reported. Michèle Alliot-Marie, named Foreign Minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent ministerial reshuffle, recently stated that guaranteeing the freedom of the two journalists and of six other French nationals being held hostage around the world was an “absolute priority.”

France’s secret service agency, DGSE, announced on Tuesday, December 28, that it had received proof on December 6 that another of France’s eight hostages worldwide, Denis Allex, was alive, the Nouvel Observateur reported. Allex was taken hostage in July 2009 by a Somali Islamist group while in Mogadishu training government forces to combat Islamist militia. Allex was taken hostage with a colleague, who was released in August 2009, according to Le Post. Officials have said the negotiations have been particularly difficult. The Associated Press explored how France is boosting its secret service as the nation finds itself faced with greater terrorist threats and hostage situations abroad. In an austere 2011 budget featuring decreases for a number of France’s sectors, the DGSE received a 13-percent funding increase.

The Elysée Web site declared that France’s naval industry had “won” on December 24, referring to a deal to sale at least two warships to Russia, the New York Times reported. The sale, worth at least $1.3 billion, includes Mistral-class helicopter carriers, a 600-foot long vessel that can carry a fleet of helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles and 450 troops for up to six months. This is Russia’s largest military purchase since the end of the Cold War and the first from a NATO country, according to the LA Times. The sale has created controversy among other NATO nations, especially Russia’s Eastern European neighbors, such as Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Georgia, which entered into a five-day war with Russia in 2008. Aware of the concerns, a high-ranking military general told the Moscow Times that the ships would be used in the Pacific to defend the Kuril Islands, claimed by both Russia and Japan.

A Brazilian judge ordered on Monday, December 27, that Air France pay more than $700,000 to the family of four victims killed in the crash of flight AF447, Bloomberg reported. The crash in the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, claimed the lives of 228 aboard the aircraft. This is the first suit in which Air France, deemed partially responsible for the accident, has been ordered to pay the families of a victim from the company’s worst crash ever, according to AFP. While Air France has refused comment on the ruling and has not declared whether the airline will appeal the decision, analysts believe the ruling could set a precedent for more families of the crash’s victims.