International organizations have sharply criticized the actions of French forces against demonstrators protesting in the streets, and organized demonstrations as part of France’s two-month-long continuous mobilization of protest against pension reform have been marred by riots that have been accompanied by violent police action in recent days, according to reports. several human rights organizations. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović made the same accusation: “Sporadic acts of violence by some demonstrators or other reprehensible acts committed by others during a demonstration do not justify the excessive use of force by these acts are also not enough to deprive peaceful demonstrators of their freedom.” .
On the other hand, non-government organizations took a harsher tone: “The authoritarian bias of the French state, violence in relations by the police, acts of violence of all kinds and impunity – all this is a high-profile scandal.” Patrick Baudouin, President of the Human Rights League.
The association accused the authorities of violating “citizens’ right to protest through disproportionate and dangerous use of force,” while Human Rights Watch criticized “arbitrary crowd control and riot control tactics.”
French interior minister Gérald Darmanan said police were content with actions to counter the “extremist turn” taken by “far-left vandals” who infiltrate demonstrators to provoke riots.
Agence France-Presse correspondents saw many masked youths setting fire to dumpsters, smashing shop windows and throwing stones or fireworks at the security forces.
About 1,500 “saboteurs,” members of the so-called “black bloc,” who are extremist sabotage groups, infiltrated a protest march in Paris on Thursday, and 441 police officers and gendarmes were injured during Thursday’s demonstrations across France, authorities said.
The minister indicated that 11 investigations had been launched against police officers and explained: “They could be police or gendarmerie officers who often feel exhausted and commit actions on an individual level that may be contrary to what they have. learned,” while emphasizing the “excellent” work of the security forces so that there were no casualties.
And they stopped more than 450 people during the day of the most violent demonstrations since the beginning of the protest movement against the reform of the pension system, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
As the bill was passed in Parliament last week without a vote, videos of French police pushing or beating demonstrators have circulated on social media.
Benedict Jeanro, director of Human Rights Watch in France, said: “It appears that the French authorities have not learned from and reconsidered their crowd control policies and practices” after the “yellow vest” demonstrations in 2018 and 2019, to which he compares the current movement.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened at least three investigations into suspected abuse by an official in recent times, according to a source familiar with the case. One of these investigations was launched on March 14 after the mother of a 15-year-old high school student named Fanny filed a complaint that she had been hit in the forehead by shrapnel, which was likely caused by police officers throwing a grenade to drive by car. The complaint, seen by Agence France-Presse, said she was beaten with a baton by two police officers while she was on the ground, and another complaint was that a police officer punched a demonstrator in the face on a Monday evening in Paris and was filmed which is widely distributed on the Internet.
According to reports from human rights groups, police may have injured a man by forcing doctors to amputate one of his testicles. Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said this week: Security forces intervene only when groups form “with the intent to commit acts of violence.”
