Grave desecration 'monstrous': France

03apr03

THE Vice-Chairman of France's National Assembly has called the defacing of a British war cemetery in northern France as "barbaric, monstrous and despicable."

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.
"No words are too strong to express the revulsion caused by such barbaric, monstrous and utterly despicable acts," Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres told London's Royal Institute for International Affairs.

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 ñ an obelisk topped by a cross. On one side was a swastika and the words "Death to the Yankees."

"This crime was committed in France, but in no any way reflects the true feelings of France," said Donnedieu de Vabres who was France's former Europe minister in the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

"Needless to say, the French Government will spare no effort to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice," he said.

"France condemns these acts of vandalism in the strongest terms," said France's War Veterans Minister Hamlaoui Mekachera.

"The international tension only makes more heinous this violation of the memory of combatants who came to liberate our land," he said.

"I have asked the prefectoral authorities to organise a ceremony at the cemetery to which we shall be inviting the British consular authorities and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission," he said.

President Jacques Chirac's spokesperson expressed outrage and shock at "the desecration of the graves of soldiers from allied countries who fought for our freedom."

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.

Originally posted by Estragon

ìIt is scandalous to make any comparison between these 10,000 soldiers (i.e. the dead ñEstragon) who came to liberate us, and those taking part in the war in Iraq.î

I can see there propaganda. It mean that the British soldier are not fighting against a dictatorship and a tyrant. It's an insinuation the British soldiers are NOT liberating Irak and are NOT fighting for a good cause.

Fu%*®^g french !

I think the perpretrators of that desacration will have a real hard time the rest of their lives if they wish to stay in France.

The french governement is doing something against racism and hatred. What is the american governement doing ? they're fostering it. That is the fundamental difference between a democratic governement and a megalomaniac governing clique.

Exactly so, U-P: I don't doubt their general disgust at this act; but the inference is there to be made: these men fought from 1914-1918 FOR freedom whereas, in 2003......"

SICK French yobs daubed a swastika and vile anti-war slurs at a cemetery for 11,000 British troops.
> The showpiece cenotaph at the graveyard in Northern France was smeared in red paint with the words: > "> Dig up your rubbish. It> '> s fouling our soil.> ">
> Other slogans at the Etaples cemetery near Boulogne included > "> Death to the Yankees> "> and > "> Saddam Hussein will win and spill your blood.> ">
> And the vandals wrote > "> Rosbeefs go home> "> - the French insult for Brits is roast-beefs. Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush were also branded war criminals.
> The graffiti was discovered by a shocked gardener and spotted by around 80 visitors. It was cleaned off the same day.
> Roy Hemmington - spokesman for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - said: > "> We are deeply offended. This is the strongest language and most vile graffiti I have witnessed at a war graves cemetery.
> "> The suggestion that the bodies of soldiers who died for France should be dug up is particularly foul.> ">
>
> Most soldiers buried at the cemetery were defending France at the Somme and Ypres during World War I.
> Another 122 are troops who died fighting the Nazis in World War II.
> Among the dead are a winner of the Victoria Cross, 217 holders of the Military Medal and 69 holders of the Military Cross.
> A number had been awarded France> '> s top military decoration, the Legion d> '> Honneur.
> Roy added: > "> Almost every British regiment has war dead here. This insults just about the entire British Army.> ">
> Anti-British feeling has been whipped up in France since President Jacques Chirac refused to let the UN back action against Iraq.
> Last night Jim Kelleher, chief clerk to the Royal Fusiliers Association, said: > "> No sane person would do this. It is a disgrace. I have family buried in France and if I could get my hands on whoever did this I> '> d bury them too.> ">
> Jeremy Lillies, of the Royal British Legion, added: > "> It is distressing.> ">
> The Sun> '> s Military Adviser Major-General Perkins said: > "> It is despicable.> ">
> Appalled local MP Jacques Lang said: > "> It is an attack on the memory of the British and American soldiers who contributed to the liberation of our soil.> ">
> Police captain Thibault Martin added: > "> It is sick and cowardly.> ">
> The shocking news comes as a new poll reveals that a third of the French want SADDAM to win the war.
> A massive 78 per cent of 1,000 people in the poll by French newspaper Le Monde disapproved of the Allied action.
> But 16 per cent > "> really wish for> "> a Coalition victory - while 37 per cent said they would prefer one.

THE QUEEN has received a letter from French President Jacques Chirac apologising for the desecration of a British War cemetery, Buckingham Palace said today.

In the letter he described the anti-war graffiti plastered over the First World War monuments at Etaples, near Calais, as "inadmissible and shameful."

A reply was being prepared on the advice of government ministers, the Palace said.

The letter, delivered to the Queen at Windsor, read: "From the French people and from me personally, I offer you my deepest regrets."

He also said the thoughts of the French were with British soldiers currently fighting in Iraq, despite recent opinion polls showing 80% of French people being opposed to war.



Sickening ... abuse sprayed on cenotaph


The letter comes a day after we reported how vandalís spray-painted insults including "Dig up your rubbish, itís contaminating our soil," at a cemetery containing the remains of 11,000 British and other allied soldiers.

Franceís Secretary of State for Veteransí Affairs, Hamlaoui Mekachera, was today travelling to Etaples for a wreath-laying ceremony of remembrance, accompanied by representatives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.