France: Racism and fascism (5)
01 January 1991
France: Racism and fascism
artdoc November=1995
Three more deaths
Black youth killed in Marseilles by National Front
Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old French national of Comoros Island
origin, has been shot dead by three National Front supporters
putting up posters in Marseilles in support of jean Marie Le
Pen's presidential bid. Ibrahim Ali was shot in the back while
running away from the NF, two of whom fired guns. Lawyers for
the murdered youth's family are to press for NF leaders to be
tried for complicity in Ibrahim Ali's killing.
Le Pen's response
Le Pen and two of his senior lieutenants, Bruno Megret and Bruno
Gollnisch, have publicly argued that the shooting was in self-
defence, although they have denied that NF election flyposter
teams are under instructions to carry guns. Bruno Megret added
that if the two men had not been armed "death would have been in
the ranks of the National Front". Le Pen, who expelled the men
from the party for violating its code of carrying guns, concluded
that "the men were victims of the atmosphere which reigns in the
suburbs, which generates fear, anxiety and, occasionally, acts
of self defence. If its name is associated with violence, it is
more the violence perpetrated against the National Front than
that of the Front itself."
Le Pen went on to blame government policy for racial tension
in Marseilles, because 10,000 Comoros islanders had been allowed
to settle among an already large Muslim community. Interior
minister Charles Pasqua followed Le Pen in linking the murder of
the black youth to the need to expel at least 3 million
immigrants and strengthen the police presence in poor urban
areas.
Anti-racist response
Fifteen thousand protesters, including the Socialist party
leader, Henri Emmanuelli, marched in Marseilles to protest
Ibrahim Ali's murder. SOS Racisme, MR-AP and the Comorian
Federation have asked the minister of justice to institute
proceedings which could lead to the prosecution of the FN. RPR
politician Pierre Lellouche, an aide to Jacques Chirac, has asked
minister Mehaignerie to consider bringing a charge of incitement
to hatred and racism against Le Pen. Furthermore, calls have
been made by the Comorian community and anti-racist groups in
Marseilles to stop the FN getting access to the media, deploring
"the importance the media gives to leaders of the FN whose racist
ideology was evidenced in the terrible crime". When Le Pen made
his first presidential television appearance, the regular
presenter of the programme, Anne Sinclair, refused to interview
him and a replacement had to be brought in (Guardian 23, 28.2.95,
Independent 28.2.95, International Herald Tribune 1. 3.95, Jewish
Chronicle 3.3.95, L'Humanite 2.3.95).
Moroccan man shot dead in Loire
A 46-year-old Moroccan man, Mohammed Azza, was shot in the head
as he stood outside the mosque of Saint-Etienne, Loire, by a 55-
year-old drunken man. "I wanted to make them run to scare them,"
the killer declared to the police (Liberation, Le Monde 28.2.95).
Man drowned after being pursued by store detectives
Questions have been raised as to how Boualem Flici, 32, came to
drown on 20 February in the river Seine where he allegedly threw
himself to avoid store detectives pursuing him after he carried
out a theft at a supermarket in Montesson. An autopsy verdict
of death by drowning has been given, but there are questions as
to whether such a verdict is safe given the damage caused to
Flici's body by the water, which would have made it difficult to
ascertain whether there was evidence of blows to the body.
Angry youths demonstrated in front of the Montesson
supermarket, comparing Flici's death to that of Djemel Chettouh,
shot last February outside another shop by security guards
(Figaro 6.3.95).
Racist killers stand trial
The trial of seven people who killed a Malian man by throwing him
into the Saint-Martin canal has st