FRANCE: AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS ON 40TH DAY OF HUNGER STRIKE AND SAY POLICE RAID WILL NOT DETER THEM FROM SEEKING RIGHT TO STAY IN FRANCE

Record ID: 342170

  • Title: FRANCE: AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS ON 40TH DAY OF HUNGER STRIKE AND SAY POLICE RAID WILL NOT DETER THEM FROM SEEKING RIGHT TO STAY IN FRANCE
  • Date: 13th August 1996
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 13, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV LAS EXTERIOR OF SAINT-BERNARD CHURCH 0.16 2. SCU SIGN DETAILING THE HUNGER STRIKE 0.20 3. SMV HUNGER STRIKERS LYING IN SLEEPING BAGS IN THE CHURCH (2 SHOTS) 0.32 4. CU PHOTOGRAPH OF HUNGER STRIKER 0.37 5. SCU HUNGER STRIKER DRINKING 0.42 6. SCU HUNGER STRIKER MAKAN DIABATE SAYING IT IS THE FORTIETH DAY (HE HAS BEEN ON HUNGER STRIKE) AND HE IS TIRED, VERY TIRED BUT THAT THEY WILL ONLY EAT IF THE GOVERNMENT GIVES THEM (RESIDENCY) PAPERS (FRENCH) 1.09 7. LV PAN STAINED GLASS WINDOW IN CHURCH, HUNGER STRIKERS LYING ON FLOOR IN SLEEPING BAGS 1.24 8. SMV SUPPORTER GIVING HUNGER STRIKER FLOWERS 1.29 9. SCU SUPPORTERS' SPOKESMAN JEAN PIERRE ALOUX SAYING THE HUNGER STRIKERS HAD NO CHOICE (FRENCH) 1.45 10. SCU CAMERAMAN 1.48 11. SCU FRENCH LEFT WING INTELLECTUAL DOCTOR LEON SCHWARTZENBERG SAYING THE FRENCH PUBLIC WERE AMAZED BY THE GOVERNMENT'S INHUMANITY (FRENCH) 1.58 12. LV EXTERIOR OF CHURCH, HUNGER STRIKERS' FAMILIES WASHING CLOTHES IN CHURCH GROUNDS (2 SHOTS) 2.09 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 28th August 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA4LJAAGIMZ0SF2RW1A9JELIHDJ
  • Story Text: - INTRO: African immigrants, staging a hunger strike in a Paris church, have been fasting for 40 days now. They have said a police raid on the church will not deter them from seeking their right to stay in France and the cause has now been taken up by human rights activists who are also fasting in a show of solidarity.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------- The French police force took the 10 African hunger strikers to hospital around Paris on Monday (August 12) after a raid on the Saint-Bernard church, where they were sheltering.

    The government, anxious not to lose more voters to the far-right anti-immigrant National Front, stood its ground on Tuesday and pledged no concessions would be made to the mostly Malian protesters seeking residence in France.

    The hunger strikers, most of them between the ages of 20 and 30, said they refused to take food offered to them by the hospital and that they would not give up the fight for French residency papers.

    "We are tired, very tired," said hunger striker Makan Diabate, "we will start eating when the government gives us our papers." Some 50 volunteers from human rights associations were fasting on Tuesday in solidarity with the Africans.

    A spokesman for the fasting asylum seekers' support group, Jean Pierre Aloux, said the government had left the hunger strikers with very little choice.

    Human rights groups and the opposition Socialist party condemned the police action which one anti-government paper described as a "martial display".

    Left-wing intellectual Dr Leon Schwarzenberg said the French public was appalled by the government's inhumane behaviour and that it was up to the state to resolve the crisis.

    Police said the raid was ordered on health grounds. More importantly, however, the French government does not want to yield to the protesters' demands because it believes it will encourage other immigrants seeking residency at a time of near-record unemployment.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register