While French officials are never at a loss for dopey comments and useless advice on Iraq, we don't see them holding forth on Côte d'Ivoire to the press.

FRENCH ARMY 'USED EXCESSIVE FORCE IN IVORY COAST'

PARIS October 26, 2005 (AFP) - French troops deployed in the west African state of Ivory Coast made disproportionate use of lethal force during the past year, according to a report released on Wednesday by the French section of Amnesty International

The AI report buries this in a single paragraph at the end of the report:

In November 2004 fours days of confrontations between Ivorian civilians and French soldiers of the Force Licorne resulted in dozens of dead and injured. Having visited Côte d’Ivoire to investigate these incidents, Amnesty International obtained information indicating that French forces had, in some instances, resorted to excessive and disproportionate use of force when confronted by demonstrators who posed no direct threat to either their lives or that of a third party.

Huh? Where did all the buckets of spent Kalashnikov cartridges go? Back in December Colonel Patrick Destremeau, who commanded the French contingent implicated in the unrest outside the Hotel Ivoire, assured us "his troops had gathered up spent Kalashnikov cartridges, which proved that 'people in the crowd had shot at them'."

Several [sic, SEVERAL: Being of a number more than two or three but not many. Between 57 people and 64 people were reported killed.] people were killed and hundreds [1,300 to 2,200] injured in the clashes, which opposed French forces to militants loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo.

The report comes a week after the Frenchman who led the force from May 2004 to June this year, General Henri Poncet, was suspended, reportedly because he is thought to have approved a false report on an illegal killing by his men.

Clearly Côte d'Ivoire is a story the French would like to go untold. ¡No Pasarán! reports that a clamp down on investigative programs at French station Canal + "occurred a couple of weeks after the broadcast of a report with exclusive video on French soldiers shooting on the crowd in front of the Hôtel Ivoire in Abijan on November 6, 2004. A shooting that resulted in several deaths. The scenes broadcast on Canal + irritated France's defence ministry who, after the shooting, affirmed that the soldiers had fired in 'self-defense'."

[All emphases added.]

Asked to comment, the French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said, through her spokesperson, she had only one word: Abu Ghraib. Abu Ghraib !

PFFT (What is this?): Back-page tongue-clucking 4 | Rayonnement français 0