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- <text id=90TT0987>
- <title>
- Apr. 23, 1990: World Notes:Hostages
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Apr. 23, 1990 Dan Quayle:No Joke
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 59
- World Notes
- HOSTAGES
- Waltzing with The Colonel
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Ordinarily, the freeing of hostages is cause for
- celebration. But when a Frenchwoman, her Belgian companion and
- their young daughter were released last week after being held
- for 2 1/2 years by Abu Nidal's Fatah-Revolutionary Council, a
- Libyan-backed militant organization, there were as many
- questions as cheers.
- </p>
- <p> Two weeks ago, Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi called for
- the hostages' release. After the three were set free in Beirut
- and safely returned to Paris, French President Francois
- Mitterrand expressed his "personal thanks" to Gaddafi, and
- French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas effusively praised the
- Libyan leader for his "noble and humanitarian gesture." But
- suspicious Frenchmen and other Europeans noted that last
- January France returned to Libya three Mirage jet fighters that
- had been grounded in France since 1986, when the European
- Community imposed an arms embargo against Libya. Many denounced
- the release as part of an arms-for-hostages deal.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-