French protesters deface British war monument of the dead

I don't care if it's only a small group of rufians. This is crossing the line.



Last Update: Wednesday, April 2, 2003. 1:24am (AEST)

Iraq protesters deface British war monument in France

Vandals have defaced one of the biggest British war cemeteries in northern France with graffiti condemning the US-British invasion of Iraq, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) said.

Insults aimed at British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush were sprayed in red paint over a monument to Britain's dead from World War I and discovered by a gardener last Thursday.

"It was removed by the afternoon but not before a couple of coach loads [of visitors] had been through and seen it - we are pretty hacked off and I am pleased to say the French authorities are too," Tim Reeves said, the CWGC's representative in France.

The words "Rosbifs [British] go home! Saddam Hussein will win and spill your blood" were painted in French over the base of the cemetery's main monument - an obelisk topped by a cross.

On one side was a swastika and the words "death to the Yankees".

Also daubed were the words "dig up your garbage, it is fouling our soil," and "Bush, Blair to the TPI (International Court of Justice)".

Some 11,000 British dead are buried at Etaples, which lies on the Channel coast around 24 kilometres south of Boulogne.

It was the site of several hospitals during the 1914-1918 war.

A judicial inquiry has been opened.

"This violation of a burial place, scandalous in itself, is an attack on the memory of the sacrifice made by the British and American soldiers who contributed to the liberation of our soil," local member of parliament, former Socialist arts minister Jack Lang said.

"Our disagreement with the British and American governments [on Iraq] can in no way justify any assault on the memory of men who sacrificed themselves for our country," he said.

 

Analogies are dangerous, but I will trout one out:

Was the hatred of the (almost entire) Southern society in the 1960's responsible for incidents of violence against blacks?

 

The French incidents are outright vile. Their stupidity isn't even funny anymore.

 

They really hate us.

April 02, 2003

One in three French backs Saddam
By Charles Bremner and Alan Hamilton


ILL-FEELING between Britain and France over the
invasion of Iraq has plumbed new depths with the desecration of that most sacred of memorials, a war cemetery.

The defilement of Commonwealth war graves in northern France coincided with a poll for The Times which found that 54 per cent of Britons no longer regarded France as a close ally because of its opposition to the war.

Relations will be further rent by a second poll, in Le Monde, showing that only a third of the French felt that they were on the same side as the Americans and British, and that another third desired outright Iraqi victory over “les anglo-saxons”.

Eleven thousand Allied soldiers lie buried in well- tended peace at Etaples, on the Channel coast near Le Touquet, victims of the struggle by Anglo-Saxons to liberate the French from the German invaders during the First World War.

Last week the obelisk raised in their memory was defiled by red-painted insults such as “Rosbeefs go home”; “May Saddam prevail and spill your blood”; and, in a reference to the long-dead casualties beneath the manicured turf, “They are soiling our land”.

Local gendarmerie have launched an inquiry, but have so far found no clues. They say there had been no significant demonstrations against the war in that area of France.

The graffiti have been scrubbed off, but the incident has provoked outrage among British politicians, war graves staff and the few remaining relatives of those buried at Etaples. French politicians have joined the condemnation.

Bruce George, Labour chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, said: “Remembering what sacrifice these men made for the liberation of France, I cannot believe any mature, sane person would be so stupid as that.”

David Uffold, 63, a Shropshire farmer, is the only surviving relative of Rifleman Frederick Uffold of the London Regiment, who is buried at Etaples. “I find it sickening that anyone would vandalise the cemetery,” he said. “It is the last place they should be protesting about Iraq. These fellows were drafted in to fight for France. I can’t see any connection between the men buried at Etaples and the war in Iraq.”

Peter Francis, of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said he was disgusted that a place remembering those who died defending freedom in world wars long ago should be dragged into a current political debate.

French politicians did their best to portray the desecration as an isolated act, but it nonetheless underlined anti-American and anti-British emotions running through France over what is seen there as a bungled invasion rapidly turning into a humanitarian disaster.

President Chirac’s spokesman said: “We are indignant and shocked by the desecration of the graves of soldiers who fought for our liberty.” Jean- Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, said: “The Americans are not the enemy; just because we are against this war, it does not mean that we want the victory of dictatorship over democracy.”