French journalist captured in Iraq makes video plea for help

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2005

BAGHDAD (AFP) — French journalist Florence Aubenas, missing for nearly two months in Iraq, made a desperate plea for help on a video broadcast, saying her health was "very bad."

"I am French. I am a journalist with Liberation. Please help me. My health is very bad. I'm very bad psychologically also," the gaunt and exhausted-looking journalist pleaded in English on the undated video, of which AFP obtained a copy.

The 50-second film showed the veteran reporter for the left-wing daily wearing a pale long-sleeved top, seated on the floor with her knees bent against her chest.

It was the first public confirmation that Aubenas was alive since she and her Iraqi translator Hussein Hanun al-Saadi -- who is still missing but was not shown on the tape -- were seen...