- Title: FRANCE: MORE AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS GO ON HUNGER STRIKE IN CATHOLIC CHURCH
- Date: 12th August 1996
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 12, 1996)(RTV ACCESS ALL) 1. LV EXT SAINT-BERNARD CHURCH WITH PROTEST BANNERS AND FLAGS OUTSIDE 0.07 2. GV/LV WOMEN AND CHILDREN WHO HAVE TAKEN REFUGE IN CHURCH (6 SHOTS) 0.53 3. SV HUNGER STRIKER LYING IN SLEEPING BAG IN THE CHURCH 1.04 4. SLV BED IN CHURCH 1.08 5. SV HUNGER STRIKER IN SLEEPING BAG 1.11 6. SV PIARRA BINTOUFATOUMADA (HOLDING BABY) SAYING THE POLICE ARRIVED WITHOUT WARNING AND VERY BRUSQUELY, SAYING THEY CARRIED SYRINGES TO QUIETEN THE HUNGER STRIKERS AND SHE IS PREPARED NOW TO CONTINUE HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL THEIR CASES ARE RESOLVED (FRENCH) 1.38 7. SLV/SV NEW HUNGER STRIKERS LYING IN BLUE SLEEPING BAGS (2 SHOTS) 1.50 8. SCU HUNGER STRIKER MAMADOU DJEMBARG SAYING THEY ARE READY TO CARRY ON TILL THE END AND SAYING THEY AE NOT CLANDESTINE IMMIGRANTS THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING IN FRANCE FOR YEARS (FRENCH) 2.20 9. LV HUNGERS STRIKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES IN THE CHURCH 2.28 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 27th August 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City:
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA597ZHVTFKPZ63ZE2JA7BRFLUI
- Story Text: INTRO: Police launched a dawn raid at a Roman Catholic church in Paris on Monday (August 12) and ejected 10 Africans who were on the 39th day of hunger strike.
Eyewitnesses said helmeted police moved in to Saint-Bernard church at around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) and evacuated the hunger strikers in ambulances.
The hunger strikers had been demanding the right to stay in France, church and human rights groups said. The groups condemned the police action.
Eyewitnesses said the anti-riot police escorted by fire brigade officials and medical staff ran into the darkened church in the heavily immigrant Goutte d'Or district.
The police blocked off members of the families of the hunger strikers and ordered protesters supporting the strikers to stand in line while they carried out the operation.
Relatives of the hunger strikers said the raid had been "very brusque and brutal".
Ten Africans have now taken the places left by the hunger strikers and say they will start a new hunger strike.
"We are ready to carry on till the end," vowed Mamdou Djembarg.
The fast was the latest in a series of protests by some 300 Africans without documents, including women and children, who face expulsion under 1993 laws pushed through by hardline former interior minister Charles Pasqua.
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