“To consider that the gendarmes are going to oppose relief, but it is even more than indecent”, denounced Christian Rodriguez, on franceinfo, this Thursday.
An expected speech. After the clashes in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres, on March 25, the families of two men in a coma after the prohibited anti-“mega-basins” demonstration, filed a complaint, in particular for “attempted murder”, while that the authorities defend the action of the forces of order.
>> Demonstration against the “mega-basin” of Sainte-Soline: four questions that arise around the intervention of relief
The League of Human Rights, accuses the police of having hindered the intervention of relief, Saturday, in Sainte-Soline during a demonstration prohibited against the water reservoirs. In a recording that franceinfo has obtained, we hear a telephone exchange between a doctor, an LDH lawyer and an Samu operator. “We will not send a helicopter or SMUR means on the spot because we have orders not to send any by the police“, assures the latter.
“I find it mind-boggling“to say that the gendarmerie has forbidden the emergency services to intervene in Sainte-Soline to help the wounded, denounced the director general of the national gendarmerie, Christian Rodriguez on franceinfo Thursday, March 30. “To consider that the gendarmes will oppose relief, but it is even more than indecent“, he adds.
The families of the two injured in a coma have filed a complaint for attempted murder. An investigation was entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie (IGGN). First of all, do you know under what conditions they were injured?
That’s the whole point of the survey. That’s why the investigation was called. There have been complaints and the investigation will allow us to find out what really happened. A lot of things are being said and I am also eager to find out concretely what happened. These two people who were present at the demonstration I cannot tell you at this stage whether they were demonstrators or thugs. We had a lot of trouble getting the identities in reality. So it is also the whole meaning of the investigation that will take place which will make it possible to determine under what conditions this happened and if they were demonstrators or if they were there to be violent.
The League for Human Rights released the recording of a telephone conversation between a doctor trying to coordinate relief from a distance and a member of the Samu. Recording which suggests that the emergency services did not have the right to go and treat one of the men who is now in a coma. Did you stop the emergency services from coming?
I find that mind-boggling. I find it bewildering because at first, when there is a demonstration, there are organizers and the organizers organize and in particular the way in which the emergency services intervene. It was not the case. And although the demonstration was banned, the prefect called the organizers and asked them to try to see how we could best organize things. To consider that the gendarmes will oppose relief, but it is even more than indecent.
Could there have been an order from the gendarmerie not to intervene so that the rescue services were not threatened?
It’s even the controversy that I don’t really understand. And there too, it was said, it was written. When there is a complicated situation, we avoid putting the emergency services in difficulty. But that, the investigation will determine. We are still in a world where firefighters ask us to be present when they intervene in certain situations because they are going to put out the fires, they are stoned. Concretely, the emergency services must be protected.
It is claimed that the gendarmes prevented them from gaining access. Me, I don’t have that feedback. There is an investigation which will make it possible to see more clearly.
Christian Rodriguez, Director General of the National Gendarmerieat franceinfo
We can have at a given moment a situation which is so complicated – it was the case in Sainte-Soline – that we must prevent the help from going there.
In the recording, the Samu coordinator affirms that the military doctors present on the spot are not intended to treat civilians, that they are only there to help the police. What do you answer?
It is totally false. Doctors are there to treat and to intervene. And they did it and they did it under the jets, under the stones of the Black Blocs who were present and who didn’t want these gendarmerie doctors to intervene.
Last weekend in Deux-Sèvres there were 3,200 men, nine helicopters, 25,000 tear gas canisters used. Did all this have to be done to defend “a hole”, as the associations present say?
That’s a good question actually. Concretely, it’s not just a hole. There is a rule of law which provides that one does not have the right to attack something that belongs to someone else. It’s kind of up to us to enforce the law. It’s not even a demonstration, it’s a crowd.
The real question is why do we have people coming with axes, with Molotov cocktails, with a blowtorch?
Christian Rodriguezat franceinfo
We still have people trying to cut us off from the gendarmerie vehicles that were stationed there.
There is also a question about the use of quads by the gendarmerie. The Minister of the Interior admitted that there had been LBD shots from the quads when it is prohibited. How do you explain what happened?
We also have an on-site investigation. I expect the answers tomorrow. Was it self-defense? If there were faults which were made, they will be sanctioned. I also saw images of two gendarmes on a quad, chased by people with axes in their hands. I hardly dare to imagine what would have happened if the gendarmes had fallen into the middle of this crowd who came with means that are more dangerous than those at our disposal.