“Warning Shots”

1:38 pm, 11/30/04

"Warning Shots"
At least now they're admitting they did the shooting.

French soldiers opened fire on crowds of angry youths during days of mob violence and looting in Ivory Coast earlier this month, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.

French forces had previously said they fired warning shots during the unrest, but Alliot-Marie told France's RTL television on Sunday night the troops had most probably "made full use of their weapons" in some cases.

Transatlantic Intelligencer catches this interesting bit.

A colonel of the Ivorian gendarmerie interviewed by Agence France Presse (AFP) has affirmed that French forces on November 9 fired directly and without warning upon the crowd of protestors gathered in front of the Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan. Colonel Georges Guiai Bi Poin, who was in charge of a contingent of Ivorian gendarmes dispatched to control the crowd and coordinate with the French troops, says that the order to fire came from the commander of the latter, colonel D'Estremon.

Colonel Guiai Bi Poin is quoted saying: "French troops fired directly into the crowd. They opened fire on the orders of their chief Colonel D'Estremon. Without warning."

Guiai Bi Poin said the crowd at the Hotel Ivoire was yelling insults but was unarmed.

"Not one of my men fired a shot," he said. "There were no shots from the crowd. None of the demonstrators was armed -- not even with sticks, or knives or rocks."

There's a more complete account there, it sounds like the French were looking for an excuse.

Update: More from VOA.

A new DVD called The Six Day War of France Against Ivory Coast is selling briskly in local markets for $10. The DVD's producer, Gome Gnohite Hilaire, says France has "worn out its welcome" in its former colonies.

Also unsurprising, the Francophone summit in Burkina Faso condemned Ivory Coast's "deadly attacks". This, after seizing all the Ivorian representative's materials. No condemnation for France's "deadly attacks".