Television journalists France 3 Herve Ghesquiere (R) and Stephane Taponier of waves at a press conference after their arrival at the military airport of Villacoublay near Paris on June 30, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jacky NaegelenBy Thierry ChiarelloPARIS. Thursday, June 30, 2011 3 pm IST
PARIS (AFP) - two French television journalists held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban during 18 months arrives back in France on Thursday, pale and Ghent but visibly exalted as they were welcomed by the French President and their families.
France television 3 Herve Ghesquiere reporter and cameraman Stephane Taponier, whose long test became a national cause among the French public, were released Wednesday after a sudden breakthrough in the negotiations.
They were blocked up to 24 hours a day with only two toilets short morning and evening breaks. Inadmissible or windows covered means that little light from the Sun, they have seen.
"We had to be very solid and very strong." We actually structure our time, not get bogged down in boredom and despair, "Ghesquiere said to journalists at a military airport near Paris.
"One day, Stephane said that the difference between us and the regular prisoners is that a prisoner can count the days of his sentence, whereas we could count them, but we knew when he was in the end," said Ghesquiere.
"They were very long days," said Taponier. "But we knew that the most important thing was to follow our morale".
Seized about 60 km (37 miles) outside Kabul, December 30, 2009, Ghesquiere and Taponier captivity was the longest of any French hostages since the crisis of the Lebanese hostages in the 1980s.
The French Government denied any ransom was paid for the release of two men and their Afghan Reza Din interpreter. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said details revealing negotiations could damage efforts to free the other French hostages in Africa.
SARKOZY REMAINS LOW PROFILE
President Nicolas Sarkozy could get a lift to his low popularity of release of the hostages, 10 months before the election presidential, but he and his wife Carla Bruni greeted the pair of television cameras.
Sarkozy telephoned Ghesquiere girlfriend tell him of his release, his capture while she was at a demonstration to mark the anniversary of 18 months of his capture.
The pair said they were treated well and never beaten or bound. Meals consisted of small portions of local food.
"We didn't have much to eat and it is always the same thing," Ghesquiere said. "When you have nothing to do, you really live to eat." It was really hard. Food seems unimportant, but it is really essential.
The France, who has lost 63 soldiers outside its quota of 2 000 troops in Afghanistan, said this month that he would follow the United States by bringing home its soldiers at the beginning.
The France still has eight nationals detained abroad, three Yemen, four in the region of the Sahel and in Somalia.
(Written by Catherine Bremer; editing by Robert Woodward)
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