You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Africa Horn
Anti-French riot erupts in Chad
2007-11-14
Right on cue, and and absolutely spontaneous, of course.
Several thousand students have held violent anti-French protests in Chad. Police dispersed demonstrators with tear gas in the capital, N'Djamena, after cars belonging to white foreigners and diplomats were attacked.

The protesters are demanding that six French aid workers charged with child kidnapping be tried in Chad. If found guilty, the charity workers face several years with hard labour in a Chadian prison.
Not an unreasonable demand.
They said they believed they were rescuing Darfur war orphans, but parents of many of the 103 children almost flown to France told the BBC they were promised they would be educated locally, and never gave permission for them to leave the country.

Crowds of students began gathering in the centre of N'Djamena shortly after 0730 hours local time. Most of the demonstrators were high school students, wearing their school uniforms and chanting anti-French slogans.

Before long, what was designed to be a peaceful protest, got out of hand, the BBC's Stephanie Hancock in the capital says. The demonstrators began attacking white foreigners in their cars, hurling stones and shouting, "Whites - child kidnappers".
Yet an another african countries join the trend.
Except in this case an argument can be made that they're right.
For several hours the young demonstrators took over the capital, running riot along N'Djamena's main streets and eventually converging at the French embassy. The police used tear gas to disperse the protestors who were intent on finding French citizens to attack.

The students, who were holding banners saying "Sarkozy, out of Chad" eventually returned to the city's main square in front of the presidential palace where several thousand of them converged for a mass protest. Riot police and soldiers are still trying to calm the situation down, although the protestors are finally beginning to wrap up their demonstration.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy had said he wanted to go to Chad to bring the aid workers from Zoe's Ark back to France angering many Chadians.
I'm with the Chadians on this one. The crime (and it was a crime, specifically, kidnapping) was committed in Chad and should be adjudicated there.
Posted by:anonymous5089

#1  From protecting the murderers of Rwanda, to destabilizing the Ivory Coast, to stealing the children of Chad, the French are really getting a reputation for evil, leavened with incompetence. Why, they're almost Belgian.
Posted by: Eric Jablow   2007-11-14 21:41  

00:00