[12]
”Op de politie werd bezuinigd, de wijkagent verdween, en sommige banlieues werden ministaatjes in Frankrijk, waar het recht van de sterkste geldt: de politie komt er nauwelijks meer, de dealers zijn er de baas, de criminaliteit grijpt om zich heen.
De meeste bewoners doen daar niet aan mee maar hebben er wel volop last van. In veel banlieues zijn bewonerscomités opgericht: mensen die in actie komen en protesteren tegen armoede en criminaliteit, zelfs in de wijk Pablo Picasso in Nanterre, waar de 17-jarige Nahel vandaan kwam die ruim een week geleden werd doodgeschoten door een agent.”
AD
FRANKRIJK LIKT ZIJN WONDEN NA RELLEN IN BUITENWIJKEN:
”BANLIEUES KRIJGEN GEEN ADEM MEER”
4 JULI 2023
ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 9
[13]
”WE’RE NOT MARTYRS”
A Message from Serge, Who Survived Attempted Murder at
the Hands of the French Police
21 JUNE 2023
Below, we present a translation of the first message from Serge since French police seriously injured him along with many other people during a protest in Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023. Serge spent a month in a coma after a policeman shot a grenade at his head. We have been following his situation with anxiety and it is with great relief that we report that he has recovered enough to post this message.
We are grateful that Serge remains among the living, just as we give thanks that the Italian anarchist Alfredo Cospito miraculously survived after more than 180 days of hunger strike against the solitary confinement regime of the Italian prison system. It’s heartening to see that the margin between life and death is sometimes a little wider than it appears, especially we have recently lost so many comrades. A little good news makes it easier to keep going.
Yesterday, French police arrested 18 people accused of connection to the Soulevements de la Terre (“Earth Uprising”), one of the movements that took part in the protests in Sainte-Soline. The dissolution of the Soulevements de la Terre, declared by the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is scheduled to take place today. As usual, the state endangers the lives of those it claims to protect, blames the victims of its attacks, and then takes steps to silence the survivors.
You can learn more about the Soulevements and how to support them in the face of state repression here. You can read more about the clashes in Sainte-Soline here. To learn more about the social movement that erupted in France over the past few months in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular efforts to force French workers to work longer hours before retiring, start here.A MESSAGE FROM S,. JUNE 17, 2023
Hello everyone,
My name is Serge and I was seriously injured, like many others, at the demonstration against the Sainte-Soline mega-basin on March 25, 2023. I was hit in the head by a grenade, probably a direct shot fired by a police officer equipped with a Cougar grenade launcher. I suffered a serious head injury which put me in an absolutely critical condition, a situation made worse by the fact that emergency services were unable to care for me during the demonstration. After a month in an induced coma and six weeks spent in intensive care, I was first transferred to a neurosurgery unit, and then to a rehabilitation center. Right now, I feel that I have made enormous progress in my ability to move, eat, and simply talk and think. It’s going to be an extremely long road, but I’m determined to give it everything I have, to fight to get back what I once had, both physically and mentally. Of course, I’m doing it for myself, but also because I believe that refusing to give in, refusing to be crushed by the repressive machine, is a political necessity at a time when the states are betting on using terror and on us remaining passive.
First of all, I would like to thank all those who, in that minefield, carried me, held my hand, protected me, gave me first aid (slowing the bleeding, cardiac massage, intubation, etc.) and quite simply enabled me to stay alive. I would also like to thank the caregivers who, at every stage, took care of me and are still helping me today to regain my body and mind. I can only tell you how good I felt when I came out of my coma and saw the tremendous solidarity that people have expressed: assemblies, texts, tags, donations, shows, actions, and various messages from comrades all over the world. The echo of your voices and the roar of the streets helped me and my loved ones to keep going. For all this, I say to all of you a big thank you. You have been amazing.
All this reminds us that it is vital that no beating, no incarceration, no mutilation, no murder by the forces of capitalist social order should go unnoticed. They mutilate and murder people so often that it is no accident, it’s part of their job. Far too many stories around the world remind us that there’s no truer statement than the formula “ACAB.” All cops are indeed bastards. They are and will remain the minions of the bourgeoisie whose interests they protect and ensure along with, at least until now, their continuing survive.
The only prospect that the capitalist class offers us is the deterioration of our living conditions on a massive scale, and all proletarians here and abroad are currently experiencing this bitter reality. Confronting the struggles we are waging to thwart this disastrous destiny, they have clearly chosen to drastically increase repression, both through new repressive laws and by giving carte blanche to law enforcement, as seen in Sainte-Soline. We must take note of this, and collectively promote the idea that it is out of the question to take part in a struggle without effective protection and the capacity to resist. We are not martyrs.
Nevertheless, our strength has little to do with what happens on the battlefield. Our strength is in our numbers, in our place in society and the better world we aspire to. Against the handful of organizations of leaders and bureaucrats who would like to send us home once they have earned their place in the sun on our backs, we need a thousand ways of organizing ourselves at a grassroots level through and for concrete solidarity, for the comrades in the movement but also, and perhaps above all, for all those who will join future revolutionary movements.
Strength to comrades currently in the sights of the states!
Long live the Revolution!
See you soon in the fights.
Le S
EINDE BERICHT
BNN VARA
ZO HAKTE DE FRANSE OPROERPOLITIE MET GROF GEWELD
IN OP VREEDZAME DEMONSTRANTEN
5 JANUARI 2021
De Franse site voor onderzoeksjournalistiek Mediapart heeft aan de hand van talloze videobeelden en andere informatie nauwgezet gereconstrueerd hoe de Franse oproerpolitie langdurig grof geweld heeft gebruikt tegen vreedzame demonstranten. De autoriteiten gaven daarbij via sociale media een volstrekt verkeerde voorstelling van zaken en de verantwoordelijk minister loog er vervolgens over in het parlement.
Het gaat om een demonstratie die op 12 december plaatsvond in Parijs uit protest tegen de omstreden nieuwe veiligheidswet Sécurité globale. Die wet maakte het aanvankelijk onder meer strafbaar om beelden van politiegeweld te publiceren als de betrokken agenten herkenbaar waren. Dat aspect werd in november na talloze protesten geschrapt en er werd een aangepast wetsvoorstel beloofd. De demonstranten willen dat de hele wet geschrapt wordt.
De NOS citeerde op 12 december in een verslag van de demonstratie de minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Gérald Darmanin:
“Volgens Darmanin zijn honderden gewelddadige hooligans op het protest afgekomen, die “gereedschap meenemen dat niet hoort bij een demonstratie”. Hij prijst de standvastigheid van de politie, die de Parijse winkeliers heeft beschermd tegen mogelijke plunderingen en vernielingen.”
Talloze media gingen mee in het frame van politie en regering. Er zouden ‘ultra gewelddadige elementen’ bij de demonstratie aanwezig zijn geweest die uit waren op rellen. De politie sprak van leden van het beruchte ‘zwarte blok’.
Mediapart laat zien dat de werkelijkheid totaal anders is. Tegen de circa 5000 demonstranten werden 3000 agenten en vijf waterkanonnen ingezet. Gedurende de mars door de stad voerde de ME 38 keer een charge uit waarbij demonstranten tot bloedens toe werden geslagen. Voor geen van die charges was er een dwingende reden. De demonstranten gebruikten geen geweld. 142 betogers werden gearresteerd. Van hen zijn er uiteindelijk slechts twee door de rechter veroordeeld.
De Franse politie komt steeds meer onder vuur te liggen wegens extreem gewelddadig gedrag en racisme.
EINDE BERICHT
BNN VARA
FRANSE POLITIE MAAKT ZICH SCHULDIG AAN ZEER GROF
GEWELD TEGEN DEMONSTRANTEN
22 MAART 2023
De afgelopen dagen vinden in Frankrijk op grote schaal protesten plaats tegen de manier waarop de regering van president Emmanuel Macron de bezuinigingen op de pensioenen er doorheen drukt. Om te voorkomen dat het parlement de ingrijpende wetswijziging zou verwerpen of aanpassen werd die met beroep op een grondwetsartikel voor zeer speciale situaties, 49.3, ingevoerd zonder stemming.
Fransen die demonstreren tegen de aantasting van de democratische spelregels krijgen te maken met ongekend politiegeweld waar zelfs rechtse media zich zorgen over maken. Op beelden is te bijvoorbeeld te zien hoe een burger uit het niets door een agent met de vuist knock out wordt geslagen. Hij ligt minutenlang buiten kennis op het plaveisel.
Andere beelden tonen hoe burgers met grof geweld in elkaar worden geslagen door leden van de gemotoriseerde politie. In Straatsburg werden demonstranten een steeg ingedreven waarna bespoten werden met traangas. Vrouwen klagen dat ze na hun arrestatie onzedelijk betast zijn door agenten.
Honderden demonstranten zijn opgepakt maar slechts enkele tientallen zijn in staat van beschuldiging gesteld.
De minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Darmanin beweert dat het geweld een gevolg is van “provocaties van extreemlinks”. Donderdag zijn er weer grote demonstraties, georganiseerd door de vakbonden. Er worden 12.000 agenten ingezet om de protesten te beteugelen.
EINDE BERICHT
[14]
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
FRANCE POLICE VIOLENCE:
A NEW REPORT BY AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
HIGHLIGHTS ABUSIVE AND ILLEGAL USE OF FORCE
DURING THE TEKNIVAL RAVE IN RUDON, IN JUNE 2021
As this week, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, closes the Beauvau security consultations, which aim to “modernise public security policy for the benefit of police officers, gendarmes and all French people”, Amnesty International is publishing a new report entitled “Redon: “Freeparty” repression”. This report highlights human rights violations committed during law enforcement operations at the Teknival festival last June, which had been banned by the lle-et-Vilaine Préfecture.
During the night of 18 to 19 June 2021, gendarmes set off tear gas, sting-ball grenades and explosive GM2L grenades on the Teknival participants over a seven-hour period, and again at the end of the next day, before illegally destroying the sound equipment. The human toll: a young man lost his hand, and eleven gendarmes and dozens of participants were injured (wounds, fractures, burns, respiratory distress, etc.).
Using interviews with a dozen people who were present (journalists, participants and organisation heads), as well as videos and other documents (orders, press releases, press articles, etc.), Amnesty International has analysed the law enforcement response to this event in terms of international human rights law.
The evidence from the Redon policing operation indicates that the use of force was neither necessary nor proportionate, as is required by both French law and the United Nation’s basic principles on the use of force.
Whether the banning of the gathering was legitimate or not, law enforcement officers did not respect the principles of necessity and proportionality on the use of force under international law. Force was used as a first resort, without mediation nor prior communication, without directions on how to evacuate the site, which was in a field, at night. Grenades were thrown at people who were gathered for a party, in extremely dangerous and low-visibility conditions, when such weapons can maim. Neither a ban on the festival nor violence by some participants towards the police can justify the failure of the state and its agents to respect human rights in all circumstances.
Furthermore, Redon is not an isolated case: whether it is the death of Steve Caniço during a night-time police operation in Nantes during a party, or the mutilations and serious injuries observed during demonstrations, Amnesty International has been highlighting abuse by police in France for years. This context of repeated cases of excessive use of force in policing calls for urgent responses from the French authorities to put an end to human rights violations.
In the face of repeated scenes of violence and serious injuries during law enforcement operations, it is high time for de-escalation strategies to be implemented. The police must respect human rights and the UN’s basic principles on the use of force to guarantee people’s safety! Their legitimacy is at stake: the public’s trust in them risks being undermined when force is used excessively, illegally or abusively, says Cécile Coudriou.
Although a preliminary investigation was launched in the case of the young man who lost his hand, the lack of critical assessment on the operation, along with the absence of an independent mechanism for investigating allegations of police violence in France, raises concerns that the gendarmes and their hierarchy will not be held accountable for this operation, nor will the practice of using excessive force be questioned.
When it comes to excessive, arbitrary, abusive or otherwise unlawful use of force, the main factor contributing to such behaviour is the prevalence of impunity. Law enforcement officials, like all people, are more likely to break laws, rules and regulations when they do not have to fear the consequences, concludes Cécile Coudriou.
Amnesty International is calling for the creation of an independent body to investigate complaints against law enforcement officers. The organisation is also asking the French government to ban the use of explosive grenades in police operations and to review intervention tactics to ensure that they are based on dialogue and de-escalation strategies, in order to reduce the use of force and the risk of human rights violations.
NOTES TO EDITORS
29.06.21 I Serious injury in Redon: Amnesty International France calls on the French Interior Minister to hold an impartial and independent enquiry (in French)
22.09.20 I Report: New policing framework: a missed opportunity (in French)
Extracts from the report’s recommendations
The Redon case took place in a context of repeated cases of excessive use of force in law enforcement operations. This situation calls for urgent responses from the French authorities to put an end to these human rights violations:
- ensure that a judicial enquiry is launched as soon as possible to shed light on police interventions, the use of force and the injuries inflicted on the participants at this event, in particular in the case of the person who lost his hand;
- immediately ban the use of sting-ball grenades and explosive tear gas grenades in law enforcement operations;
- initiate structural reforms of policing to develop dialogue and de-escalation strategies;
- issue clear instructions to local authorities and law enforcement agencies on the conditions for the use of force and the risks involved in the event of illegal use of force;
- ensure that local authorities and law enforcement agencies are trained in mediation, negotiation and communication techniques and procedures in order to be able to resolve situations without resorting to force;
- create an independent body with responsibility for investigating complaints against law enforcement officers.
EINDE BERICHT
RAPPORT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
REDON: ”FREEPARTY” DE LA REPRESSION
Analyse d’Amnesty International sur l’usage de la force contre le Teknival de Redon (France) les 18 et 19 juin 2021
15 SEPTEMBER 2021