Jul 6, 2023 , French navy investigates claims that off-duty marines beat up suspected rioters
疑似海军陆战队成员殴打暴乱分子？法国海军：正在调查此事
在过去的一周里，因法国警察射杀北非裔少年纳赫尔而引发的骚乱与暴动在法国多地持续。法国部分地方报纸报道称，一些疑似法国海军陆战队成员戴着头罩和面具逮捕并殴打暴乱分子，该事件引发法国海军的持续调查与追踪。
据英国《卫报》7月6日报道，法国海军正在调查关于上周全国骚乱期间，一群戴着面具的休班海军陆战队士兵在西部城市洛里昂殴打骚乱者的指控，洛里昂是法国主要军事基地所在地之一。
法国当地媒体《电讯报》（Le Telegramme）刊登了几组其声称的疑似法国海军陆战队成员的照片，这些人7月2日晚上在该市逮捕和殴打涉嫌暴乱者时戴着头罩和面具。《法兰西西部报》（The Ouest Frence）还刊登了对一名25岁男子的采访，他说自己是法国武装部队成员，与大约30名同事一起介入反暴乱行动，支持警察，以便“使国家不被烧毁”。
一位不愿透露姓名的警官在上周末接受《电讯报》采访时表示，警官们最初允许了法国海军陆战队成员的介入从而“为维持秩序提供帮助”，然而他们似乎“下手有些太重了”。该报援引一名目击者的话说，这些人自称为“爱国者”。
据报道，位于洛里昂的法国海军陆战突击队（FORFUSCO）已经着手调查此事。法国国防部在给法新社的一份声明中说：“在结果出来之前，国防部方面将不会有进一步的评论。”
洛里昂市市长法布里斯·勒厄尔（Fabrice Loher）在接受法新社采访时说，他无法确认发生了什么，但他说“看到有人戴着面具，我们认为这些人是暴乱分子”。勒厄尔补充说，他担心这一事件对洛里昂的城市声誉有所影响。
洛里昂地区检察官斯蒂芬·凯伦伯格（Stephane Kellenberger）7月5日表示，由于尚没有任何诉讼或 “具体或客观因素”来证明调查的合理性，因此目前他还没有进行任何调查。
过去一周内，法国有超过3500人因参与大规模暴力骚乱被捕，这是该国自2005年以来发生的最严重的城市暴力事件。骚乱由警察在巴黎西部进行交通检查时射杀一名北非裔少年而引发，混乱蔓延到法国其他几十个城市，并导致了一场关于法国警察执法中的种族主义和社会不平等的激烈辩论。
French navy investigates claims that off-duty marines beat up suspected rioters
Local papers reported so-called 'anti-rioters' wore hoods and masks to apprehend suspected troublemakers during unrest
The French navy is investigating claims that masked, off-duty marines tackled rioters in the western city of Lorient, home to a major military base, during national unrest last week.
Local newspaper Le Telegramme published pictures of groups of so-called “anti-rioters” who wore hoods and masks as they apprehended and beat up suspected troublemakers in the city on Friday night.
The Ouest France newspaper also published an interview with a 25-year-old man who said he was a member of the armed forces and intervened to support the police along with about 30 colleagues so as to “not leave the country to burn”.
The Forfusco navy unit based in Lorient has “opened an inquiry which is under way. Until the results are known, there will be no further comment,” the defence ministry said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
“What is important to me is what the Forfusco says,” the mayor said, adding that he was worried about the impact of the incident on his town’s reputation.
Lorient prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger said on Wednesday that no investigation was under way in the absence of any legal complaint or “concrete or objective element” to justify it.
An unnamed police officer quoted by Le Telegramme at the weekend said officers initially let the “anti-rioters” intervene “because it was helping us” before they realised “they were going at it a bit too strongly”.
The paper quoted a witness saying the men described themselves as “patriots”.
Forfusco is composed of marine riflemen and special forces commandos, according to the defence ministry website.
More than 3,500 people have been arrested in France over the last week, in what was the country’s worst urban violence since 2005. It was sparked by the fatal shooting of a teenager of north African origin by police during a traffic stop in western Paris.
The unrest spread to dozens of other localities and have led to a bitter debate about racism in the security forces and inequality in society. .
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Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, said the police deployment would be unchanged, with 45,000 officers on duty around the country, after protesters again torched cars, looted shops, damaged infrastructure and clashed with police on Saturday night.
President Emmanuel Macron was due to meet senior ministers on Sunday evening to assess the situation, the Élysée Palace said, after the interior ministry announced 719 arrests overnight, compared with 1,300 on Friday night.
More than 40 officers were injured, 577 vehicles torched, 74 buildings set on fire and 871 fires lit in streets and other public spaces on Saturday night, the ministry said, but added that the massive police presence had “made for a quieter night”.
The grandmother of 17-year-old Nahel M, who was killed during a police traffic stop in a Paris suburb on Tuesday, appealed for calm, saying that while she resented the officers responsible for her son’s death, she did not hate the police.
“Stop rioting, stop destroying,” the grandmother, named as Nadia, told BFMTV. “I say this to those who are rioting: do not smash windows, attack schools and buses. Stop. It’s mothers who take those buses.” The rioters, mostly minors, were “using Nahel as an excuse”, she said. “We want things to calm down.”
In the most serious incident on Saturday night, rioters rammed a burning car into the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, nine miles (15km) south of Paris, at about 1.30am. Jeanbrun was at the town hall at the time, but his wife and one of his two children, aged five and seven, were injured as they fled.
Police officers in front of the damaged home of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses after rioters rammed a vehicle into the building, injuring his wife and one of his children. Photograph: Nassim Gomri/AFP/Getty Images
“Last night was a new milestone in horror and disgrace,” the mayor, from the conservative Les Républicains party, tweeted, condemning “an act of unspeakable cowardice”. The local prosecutor said on Sunday the attack was being investigated for attempted murder.
“First indications suggest the car was driven into the building in order to set fire to it,” Stéphane Hardouin said, adding that a Coca-Cola bottle filled with flammable liquid had also been found at the scene. Jeanbrun’s wife suffered a broken leg.
Visiting the town on Sunday with Darmanin, Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, denounced “an intolerable attack” and pledged those responsible would not get away with it. While the situation was much calmer overall, the attack was particularly shocking, she said.
Rioters also entered the garden of another mayor, in La Riche, outside the city of Tours, and tried to set light to his car, prosecutors said. Politicians of all parties expressed outrage at the attacks, with demonstrations of support planned outside town halls across France on Monday.
Demonstrators are chased by police officers on the Champs Élysées in central Paris. Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters
Elsewhere the worst violence was kept in check on Saturday, with no other significant clashes or incidents recorded. “This was a first night of relative calm after four of fever,” said Le Monde – though it warned the lull could be temporary.
The Paris police chief said it was too early to say the unrest had been quashed. “There was evidently less damage, but we will remain mobilised in the coming days. We are very focused; nobody is claiming victory,” Laurent Nunez said.
The biggest flashpoint was in Marseille, where police fired teargas and fought street battles with youths, many in their early teens, before finally dispersing them from around the city’s central Canebière avenue late in the night.
There were also sporadic skirmishes and multiple arrests in Nice on the Riviera and Strasbourg in eastern France, but in most cities – including Lyon, where police deployed armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter – fewer incidents were reported and fewer arrests made than on Friday, authorities said.
More than 7,000 officers were deployed in the greater Paris region, including along the Champs Élysées in the centre of the capital, after calls on social media to gather there. The avenue, usually packed with tourists, was lined with security forces carrying out spot checks and shop facades were boarded up.
A number of towns have banned demonstrations and declared overnight curfews, with authorities also ordering bus and tram services nationwide to halt at 9pm at the latest and outlawing the sale of large fireworks and inflammable liquids.
Macron has urged parents to take responsibility for their children. The justice ministry has said 30% of those arrested have been minors, while Darmanin said the average age of those arrested was 17.
Nahel’s funeral was held peacefully on Saturday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where he lived. The teenager, of Algerian and Moroccan parents, was known to police for previously failing to comply with traffic stop orders and was driving illegally, prosecutors have said. A 38-year-old police officer has been charged with voluntary homicide over the killing and is in custody.
The protests mark the latest crisis for Macron, who on Saturday was forced to postpone a state visit to Germany, after months of often violent protests that erupted in January over his decision to push through an unpopular pension reform.
A vehicle turned upside-down by demonstrators in Paris. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters
The postponement marks the second time this year the embattled French president has had to cancel a high-level engagement because of domestic trouble. King Charles’s planned state visit was cancelled in March.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said his country was watching events in France with concern. “I very much hope – and I am certainly convinced – that the French president will find ways to ensure that this situation improves quickly,” he added.
The unrest has also raised concerns abroad, with France hosting the Rugby World Cup this autumn and the Paris Olympic Games next summer. The UK, China, the US and other countries have warned tourists to avoid areas affected by rioting.
A police officer clears the way during unrest at the Champs Élysées. Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters
The shooting of the teenager, caught on video, has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism. Macron has denied there is systemic racism in French law enforcement agencies.
There is also a broader anger in the country’s poorest suburbs, where inequalities and crime are rife and French leaders have failed for decades to tackle what some politicians have called a “geographical, social and ethnic apartheid”.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
