Amnesty International Report 1996 - France

Dozens of imprisoned conscientious objectors to national service were considered prisoners of conscience. There were reports of shootings, killings and ill-treatment by law enforcement officers, sometimes accompanied by racial insults. Judicial investigations into such incidents were subject to long delays, although in some cases law enforcement officers were brought to trial. Presidential elections were held in April. Jacques Chirac of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), Rally for the Republic Party, was elected President and Alain Juppé was appointed Prime Minister. The new government pursued a severe policy on immigration and border control. Specially chartered planes were used to deport illegal immigrants. A wave of bombings started in July, killing eight people and wounding more than 170. The Groupe islamique armé (GIA), Armed Islamic Group, an Algerian armed group, claimed responsibility for some of the attacks. A draft bill expanding anti-terrorism legislation was still under discussion at the end of the year. It aimed to broaden the definition of crimes that could be considered as "terrorist", to increase police powers, and to impose heavier sentences for attacks on the police and related offences. A major security operation, code-named "Vigipirate", was launched in September to combat attacks by armed groups. By the end of the year, over a million random identity checks had been made and thousands of extra police and military personnel deployed on street patrols. There were dozens of imprisoned conscientious objectors during the year; they were prisoners of conscience. There was still no right to claim conscientious objector status during military service and the alternative civilian service available to recognized objectors remained, at 20 months, twice the length of ordinary military service. Conscientious objectors refusing to conform to the national service laws continued to be liable to prison sentences. The majority of conscientious objectors imprisoned during the year were Jehovah's Witnesses serving sentences imposed in 1994 for their refusal to perform military service. They had not applied for conscientious objector status because they also rejected, on religious grounds, the option of civilian service. However, none entered prison after a Ministry of Defence directive came into force "on an experimental basis" in February. Under its provisions, Jehovah's Witnesses liable for conscription into the armed forces who submitted a request in writing before call-up were referred directly to regional health and social authorities who assigned them to 20 months' civilian work, comparable with that carried out by conscripts with conscientious objector status. Many conscientious objectors to the national service laws also benefited from a law introduced in August which made an amnesty available to conscripts who had failed to report for or deserted from national service before 18 May. However, the amnesty did not exempt them from a future obligation to perform national service. An amnesty was also extended to conscripts accused or convicted of insubordination, a charge frequently brought against conscripts refusing, on grounds of conscience, to put on military uniform and perform military service. However, such conscripts had to agree to carry out their national service. Conscientious objectors imprisoned during the year included Alain Cazaux, from the Basque region, who entered prison in October 1994 to serve a sentence of 10 months' imprisonment for desertion and insubordination, as a result of his refusal to put on military uniform and perform military service. He based his objection to military service on his anti-militarist and political beliefs. He did not apply for civilian service, because, among other objections, he considered its length to be punitive. He was released in June. There were further shootings and killings of unarmed people by police during the year. In August a police officer shot and killed Todor Bogdanovic, an eight-year-old Rom from Serbia. The officer was at a road-block on a remote mountain road in southern France when 43 Roma approached in a convoy of four cars and two trailers. The officer claimed that the first car did not obey his order to stop and he used a shotgun to fire a rubber bullet. He then reloaded and fired two metal charges at very close range at the second vehicle. The second shot pierced the rear window, killing the child who was asleep in the back. Judicial and administrative inquiries were immediately opened. The administrative inquiry, conducted by the General Inspectorate of the National Police, found that the shots had been fired prematurely. Numerous reports of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials were received during the year. In August Sid Ahmed Amiri, of dual French and Algerian nationality, was detained in Marseilles. He claimed that he was beaten and threatened by three officers of a transport police unit, the Unité de surveillance des transports en commun (ustc), who checked his identity papers, then handcuffed him, placed him in a police car, and hit him several times with a truncheon. The car did not take him to a police station but instead drove to an isolated quarry to the north of the city. He alleged that ustc officers then kicked him and beat him with fists and truncheons and threatened him with a gun. Sid Ahmed Amiri tried to seize the weapon and attempted unsuccessfully to escape. He was then handcuffed again and placed in one of the metal containers in the quarry. He stated that the officers fired three shots at the container before taking his wallet and leaving. An hour later he was picked up by another police patrol who took him to hospital for treatment to an open fracture of his nose and injuries to his legs and shoulders. The police returned to the quarry where they found one of the ustc officers who had returned to retrieve a truncheon marked with his name which he had apparently left there. Administrative and judicial inquiries were immediately opened and the ustc officers were suspended and provisionally detained. In August they were placed under judicial investigation on charges of illegal detention, premeditated assault and theft. In September, 16 trade unionists were detained in Papeete, the Tahitian capital of the French overseas territory of French Polynesia, by troops from the garde mobile (anti-riot police) of the Gendarmerie nationale (national gendarmerie). Armed officers reportedly burst into the A Tia I Mua union headquarters shortly before a news conference was due to begin. The authorities claimed that the trade unionists were detained in connection with a judicial inquiry into serious rioting, looting and arson which had destroyed the airport terminus and severely damaged the centre of Papeete. These incidents followed the resumption of nuclear testing by France on Mururoa atoll. Some of the detainees claimed to have been kicked and punched, including Henri Temaititahio, a union representative of the Office des Postes et Télécommunications, Post Office, who was reportedly knocked unconscious with a truncheon blow to the head. He was subsequently taken to hospital suffering from progressive paralysis of the left side. The detainees were handcuffed and stacked face downwards in a military lorry which took them to the barracks. According to reports, the detainees were forced to kneel in the parking area of the barracks with their hands still handcuffed behind their backs and their faces to the ground for approximately 45 minutes after arrival. Administrative and judicial inquiries were opened into the incidents and the judicial complaints from the trade unionists. Judicial inquiries into many cases of shootings, killings and ill-treatment from previous years were still unfinished. However, in a few instances officers were brought to trial. In March, two police officers were given suspended prison sentences of 18 months and ordered to pay damages for using unlawful violence and causing injuries to a motor-cyclist. In 1989 Lucien Djossouvi had been knocked off his motor cycle in Paris by an unmarked police car. Other officers arrived at the scene and he was handcuffed, subjected to racist insults, repeatedly punched, beaten with truncheons and kicked in the testicles. He was only allowed to go after stating that he would not press charges. He later received emergency hospital treatment for serious injuries to his head, face, stomach and testicles (see Amnesty International Reports 1990 to 1995). In September an officer from the border police, the Direction centrale du contrôle de l'immigration et de la lutte contre l'emploi des clandestins (DICCILEC) – formerly known as the Police de l'Air et des Frontières (PAF) – was sentenced in Nice to 24 months' imprisonment, with 16 months suspended, and fined. Moufida Ksouri, a French citizen of Tunisian origin, had been sexually assaulted in 1993 by the officer in a French border post at the Menton-Ventimiglia crossing. She had previously been raped by two Italian police officers, who were both sentenced to five years and eight months' imprisonment in 1994 (see Amnesty International Report 1995). In October a police officer was sentenced to 24 months' imprisonment, with 16 months suspended, fined and banned from carrying a firearm for five years. He had been accused of involuntary homicide after shooting and fatally wounding Rachid Ardjouni, a 17-year-old of Algerian origin, in Wattrelos in 1993. The officer shot him in the back of the head when he was reportedly face downwards on the ground (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995). The court ruled that the officer should not have taken his weapon out; should not have pursued the deceased with a weapon in his hand; was personally not in danger; and was also drunk at the time. An appeal against the sentence was lodged by the defence. Amnesty International continued to express concern that, because of its punitive length, civilian service did not provide an acceptable alternative to military service. The organization was also concerned that there was still no provision for conscientious objection developed after joining the armed forces and reiterated its belief that conscientious objectors to military service should be able to seek conscientious objector status at any time. Amnesty International called for the release of conscientious objectors whom it considered to be prisoners of conscience. In January the French authorities wrote in answer to some of the issues raised in Amnesty International's 1994 report, France: Shootings, killings and alleged ill-treatment by law enforcement officers (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Subsequently, the authorities agreed to a meeting to discuss Amnesty International's concerns in early 1996. Amnesty International sought information from the authorities about the progress of investigations into incidents of shootings, killings and ill-treatment. The Ministry of Defence informed Amnesty International in November that the preliminary results of the administrative inquiry in Tahiti, French Polynesia, into the complaints by trade unionists of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment showed that they were without foundation. Also in November the Attorney General supplied details of the continuing judicial investigation. Amnesty International delegates attended the trials of police officers accused of the ill-treatment and racist abuse of Lucien Djossouvi and of the involuntary homicide of Rachid Ardjouni.