France came under increasing pressure to stop its mass expulsions of Gypsies when a UN human rights panel added its voice to the chorus of condemnation against the nation that considers itself the cradle of human rights.
France has stepped up its long-standing policy of rounding up Eastern European Gypsies, or Roma, and sending them home, sparking the ire of opposition lawmakers and EU officials. Officials have dismantled more than 100 illegal camps and sent hundreds of Roma back to their homes in Eastern Europe in recent weeks.
In the latest round of criticism, a report released on Friday by a UN anti-racism panel urged France to avoid its “collective repatriation(s)” and expressed concern that members of the minority weren’t receiving full voting, education and housing rights in France.
PHOTO: AFP
In its report, the UN panel, known by the acronym CERD, said it was “worried about the rise in violence of a racist nature against Roma” in France. It recommended the country “avoid collective repatriations in particular and work toward lasting solutions to challenges with the Roma based on the complete respect of their human rights.”
Francois Zimeray, France’s ambassador for human rights, lashed out at the findings, saying “it’s very easy to give lessons.”
“France doesn’t pretend to give lessons to the world, even if we’re often seen as the country of human rights ... We also don’t pretend to listen to lessons from countries that don’t make a tenth of the efforts that we’ve accomplished,” Zimeray said, in an apparent reference to the members of the UN panel, which is made up of independent experts from countries such as Russia, China, Algeria, Pakistan and Romania.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, in an address to France’s ambassadors on Friday, said about the report: “Yes, we accept the criticism. No, we don’t accept caricature, we don’t accept lumping issues together.”
Kouchner, a longtime human rights advocate who co-founded Doctors Without Borders, also rushed to the defense of President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying the French leader “never stigmatized a minority based on its origins.”
Zimeray pointed to the French policy of giving those Roma who agree to leave 300 euros (US$380) per adult and 100 euros per child to help them resettle as proof of France’s good faith. Critics have lambasted the measure as ridiculous, as nothing keeps those expelled from using the money to immediately return to France.
“Our goal is not to add more drama to the already existing drama, more suffering to the already existing suffering, but to put an end to a situation that’s no longer tolerable,” Zimeray said at a news conference. “None of these expulsion are done without judges’ knowledge, none is done outside French and European law.”
Still, despite the French assurances, the EU’s head office said on Friday it would make its own decision on the legality of the expulsions.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and French Premier Francois Fillon discussed the issue in a phone call on Thursday, and this week French officials will go over the matter with several EU commissioners, EU spokesman Olivier Bailly said.
Both France and Romania are EU member states, and under the rules governing the 27-member block, governments are legally permitted to send citizens of other EU countries home if they can’t find work or support themselves.
France’s stance has prompted the EU justice commissioner to complain that “some of the rhetoric that has been used ... has been openly discriminatory and partly inflammatory.”
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS