STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What a decadance! The "country of the human rights" using torturers as regular officers! In fact this is not a new story. It openly known the past of France as colonial force recurring regurlary to torture to defend its regime. Exactly the same story about 15 years ago when LePen lost a defamation trial against the paper "Canard Enchaine" who has been maintaining that LePen was a torturer as an army lieutenant during the Algeria war in 1959. So "Canard Enchaine" invited 4 people tortured by Le Pen to testify during the trial. And of course this is to point that these are not isolated examples but the main policy of France or any other country tearing its clothes for human rights while torturing and killing people for its profit. Who remembers McTaggart of GreenPeace who lost an eye during a clash with french "barbouzes" abord the "Rainbow warrior"? Indocine, Algeria, Paris, Tchad, etc. It is all the same, everywhere, all the time. What a pity! > French taught torture to Argentines > > Susan Bell In Paris > FRANCE was responsible for training the Argentine military in the horrific > torture techniques it used on the tens of thousands of political prisoners who > "disappeared" during Argentina�s so-called "dirty war" in the mid-1970s, it > emerged yesterday. > > "We applied the methods which were put into practice by the French in > Indochina and Algeria," General Jorge Rafael Videla, the dictator who seized > power in a military coup in 1976, was quoted as saying by the weekly news > magazine Le Point. > > Videla himself received his military training from senior French officers sent > to Buenos Aires to instruct Argentine cadets in the finer points of torture > and terror tactics honed in France�s wars with its former colonies, Le Point > said. > > From 1956 to 1963, the French trained an entire generation of Argentine > soldiers. Although their influence waned briefly in the late 1960s after yet > another coup brought a pro-US army faction to power, France turned its > attention to arms sales before once again taking over the country�s military > training in 1973 with the brief return to power of President Juan Domingo > Per�n. > > Argentine troops were shown films on French methods in Algeria. "Just the > torture scenes," one former soldier told Le Point. > > According to the late General Ram�n Camps, Videla�s notorious police chief, > France dispatched two senior French officers to Buenos Aires at Argentina�s > request as the military embarked on their "dirty war" against the Left in > which an estimated 30,000 people were killed or disappeared. > > Years earlier, on 11 September, 1958, France authorised 60 Argentine cadets to > go to Algiers to finalise their training. In February 1960, a permanent > three-man French military presence was established in Argentina, whose mission > was "to increase the technical efficiency and preparation of the Argentine > army". > > In 1961, at France�s suggestion, Argentina organised a training conference > attended by 13 Latin American countries and the United States. A memo from the > French ambassador to the Quai d�Orsay speaks of US jealousy at France�s > influence over the Argentine military. > > Among the specialists in anti-subversive warfare which Paris sent to Argentina > in the 1960s and 1970s was the now disgraced French general, Paul Aussaresses. > Aussaresses was stripped of his uniform and legion d�honneur and drummed out > of the armed forces earlier this month by President Jacques Chirac for > publicly defending the torture and murders committed during Algeria�s war of > independence. > > Aussaresses was summoned last month before Paris judge Roger Leloire, who is > investigating the case of French nationals who disappeared in Argentina and > Chile in the early 1970s, to answer questions about the role he and his men > played in training Argentine soldiers in torture techniques. The 83-year-old > general claimed he was unable to remember what he was doing in Latin America, > Le Point said, adding that he confirmed only that he was a "specialist in > anti-subversive struggles" and that he served as French military attach� to > Brazil between 1973 and 1975. > > In Algeria, Aussaresses was the right-hand-man of Lieutenant-Colonel Roger > Trinquier, a self-proclaimed specialist in psychological warfare. Le Point > said Trinquier developed the practice of "disappearances" to instill terror in > local populations, which was later widely used in Argentina. He also > instigated the division of towns into sections for easier control, the > documenting of civilians, the rounding-up of suspects and the extraction of > information by torture. > > Aussaresses stirred up a storm last month by publishing his book, Services > Speciaux Algerie 1955-1957, in which he said the government of the day had > known of, and approved, the use of torture and murder in Algeria. His claims > and largely unrepentant stand have reopened deep wounds from the most painful > chapter of France�s colonial past and revived a debate over whether those > responsible can, and should, be brought to trial for atrocities committed > there. > > France�s military suffered further embarrassment yesterday after an Algerian > woman featured in a TV documentary said she had been tortured in 1957 under > the orders of an officer named Maurice Schmitt. Gen Schmitt, who was later > promoted to commander-in-chief of the army under the late President Fran�ois > Mitterrand, denied the accusations, dismissing them as "the testimony of a > terrorist". > ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
