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Renouncing Appeasement
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10352 |
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Section : |
Current Issues
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1986 |
1,490 Words |
| Author
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Bernard Mitjavile
Bernard Mitjavile is a Paris-based correspondent for the New
York City Tribune. |
To many Parisians the fateful weeks of September which took so many lives and limbs were reminiscent of another time--World War II. The wave of bombings from September 3 to September 17 was not the first series of terrorist attacks on France, but with 10 people killed, hundreds wounded, and several hundred more bomb threats, people began to take terrorism more seriously than at any time during the past 20 years.
Polls showed that a large majority of people (over 60 percent) favored the re-establishment of the death penalty--in particular for terrorists. In letters to the leading conservative daily Le Figaro, some readers called for jailed terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah to be tortured until he gives the names of the members of his group; some even suggested that he have a finger cut off after each bombing.
Because the communiqués claiming responsibility for the bombing were issued by Lebanon-based groups, many among the 50,000 Lebanese refugees in France reported having to put up with offensive remarks, even from friends, as if suddenly they had all become potential terrorists. In bars and cafes people were saying, "The bastards should all have their heads cut off by the guillotine," according to some accounts.
Politicians who almost unanimously abolished the death sentence in 1981 during the previous socialist government of Francois Mitterrand responded cautiously to this public mood. Several said that if personally they were in favor of the death penalty, the time had not come for such a debate in the parliament.
"If the bombings continue, then I think the government should yield to public pressure and vote a law allowing to sentence to death terrorists," Minister of Justice Albin Chalendon said.
Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said he was opposed to the re-establishment of the death penalty but this was "the personal view of his conscience" and he respected the views of others.
Only Jean Marie Le Pen, the leader of the strongly conservative National Front, called for the immediate re-establishment of the death penalty, especially for convicted terrorists, as insurance against blackmail from fellow terrorists trying to release them.
Le Pen also called for an immediate severing of diplomatic and economic relations with Iran, Syria, and
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