French Deny Beheadings
November 23, 2004
5:19 am
The French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie yesterday rejected charges by the Ivory’s Coast’s president and a Roman Catholic Cardinal that French troops had beheaded young protesters outside of the Hotel Ivoire in the nation’s capitol.
“The racist and xenophobe statements made about us by Ivory Coast leaders are intolerable,” she said.
French troops had done a remarkable job in Ivory Coast, she said, to keep a ceasefire between the two rival sides in the fighting that has torn apart the world’s largest cocoa producing country.
A video of the event, during which it appears that French soldiers open fire on a crowd of non-violent protesters, has surfaced on the internet. Please note: the video is horrifically gruesome as it contains depictions of slain men women and children, along with some incidental nudity as others try to access bullet wounds to stop the bleeding.
Towards the end, the camera shows a young girl who got a bullet to the head… took her head right off. Bits of skull and brain lay in a mushy pile next to her lifeless body.
Likely the French are making the point that no one had their head intentionally lopped off… like with a sword. Apparently it doesn’t count as a beheading if it is a bullet that releives you of it.
Some expressed doubts about the authenticity of the video, though. (Not a flame, just to complete your info)