Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
29
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
F R A N C E
Call to
review plight of “Action Directe”
prisoners
In January AI called on the French Government to
take urgent steps to resolve the situation of members
of the former armed group Action directe. AI stated
that there was “evidence that the treatment of the
Action directe prisoners has fallen short of
international standards that seek to minimise the
detrimental effects of imprisonment”.
Joëlle Aubron, Nathalie Ménigon, Jean-Marc
Rouillan and Georges Cipriani were arrested in
February 1987 and sentenced in 1994 to multiple
terms of life imprisonment for acts of violence,
including murder. For most of the 14 years they have
spent in prison they have been held under varying
degrees of solitary confinement and isolation. The
reported breakdown in the physical and mental health
of at least two of the prisoners has been widely
attributed to the years of isolation to which they have
been subjected. Joëlle Aubron and Nathalie Ménigon
were originally held under a specially restrictive high
security category, but were transferred in 1999 to a
prison where conditions were expected to be
normalised. However, their means of social
communication, correspondence and visits reportedly
remained subject to special restrictions and they were
not able to visit the common areas of the prison.
Nathalie Ménigon married Jean-Marc Rouillan in
1999 but was reportedly unable to see him. She was
suffering from serious cardio-vascular problems and
depression, and was reported to have recently had two
heart attacks and to be partially paralysed on her left
side, but to have been refused a comprehensive
medical examination. Georges Cipriani, held at
Ensisheim (Haut-Rhin) and for a time at a psychiatric
hospital, was reported to have gradually lost his sanity
and to no longer be aware that he was being held in
prison. Prison guards have expressed concern about
his condition.
Jean-Marc Rouillan and Joëlle Aubron went on
hunger strike in December and January to draw
attention, among other things, to the plight of Georges
Cipriani and Nathalie Ménigon. The hunger strike was
broken off after a number of assurances were given,
including appropriate health care for Nathalie
Ménigon and Georges Cipriani.
France/Algeria: Call to bring torturers to justice
On 3 May a book was published by General Paul
Aussaresses, who, as a high-ranking French military
officer during the Algerian war of independence,
admitted that he personally took part in torture and
summary executions and has since justified them. In
“Services spéciaux: Algérie 1955-1957", the general
claimed that the then French government was
regularly informed about, and tolerated, the use of
torture, summary executions and forced displacement
of populations. In November 2000 AI had called on
the government to bring to justice those responsible
for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the
war (AI Index: EUR 01/001/2001). In a new press
statement, issued on 3 May, AI reiterated its demand
and called for a full and prompt investigation into the
general’s claims. AI noted that, despite the fact that
the government had welcomed the arrest of General
Pinochet in Britain, the French authorities had, since
that time, refused to contemplate the opening of legal
proceedings against French torturers and war
criminals of the Algerian war. AI stated: “Given these
new and serious claims and revelations by General
Aussaresses, there can be no possible justification for
the authorities to fail to seek a judicial resolution”.
13
Zone d’attente des personnes en instance
14
“J’ai remarqué immédiatement la présence sur ses
jambes de multiples plaies sanguinolentes manifestment
In May and June a number of legal proceedings
against Paul Aussaresses and others were initiated. In
May complaints for “apology for war crimes” and
“crimes against humanity” were filed with the Paris
prosecutor by the Fédération internationale des droits
de l’homme (FIDH). On 17 May the prosecutor
ordered a preliminary inquiry into the first of these
complaints and General Aussaresses was summoned
to appear before a judge in July. On 22 June Louisette
Ighilahriz, whose recently published testimony
sparked the current debate in France on torture in the
Algerian war (see AI Index: EUR 01/001/2001) filed
a complaint for “crimes against humanity” with an
investigating magistrate attached to a Paris court. On
27 June the family of Larbi Ben M’hidi, who was
killed by General Aussaresses in 1957 - according to
the general’s own admission - also filed a complaint
for “crimes against humanity” with a Paris court.
Other complaints were also being filed.
New reports of ill-treatment at
Roissy-Charles de Gaulle
In March a preliminary judicial inquiry was opened
into alleged police ill-treatment of asylum-seekers at a
new holding area at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.
The inquiry opened after a report was sent to the
prosecutor of Bobigny by a Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MAE) official, stationed at the holding area,
Zapi 3.
13
The official claimed that, while on duty
there, he saw a woman from Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC), called Blandine Tundidi Maloza,
lying on the waiting room floor. Her legs were covered
with “wounds tinged with blood that were clearly
recent”.
14
She told him that she had arrived at Roissy
récentes”.[Quote from the report sent to
the Bobigny prosecutor,
extracts of which were published in the French newspaper Libération
of 28 March 2001]