France condemned the behavior of one of its own military officers on Thursday, after a video appeared online showing him threatening a Togolese press photographer in Lome.
The officer, a serving French colonel employed by the French foreign ministry as an advisor to the Togolese military, is seen ordering the journalist to erase pictures from his camera and ordering Togolese police to arrest him.
“Do you want someone to strike your camera, or what?” he demands, using the patronizing tu form of address. “I don’t give a damn if you’re press, erase the photo please, otherwise I’ll take the camera myself.”
“Do you know who I am? I’m an adviser to the chief of staff of land forces,” he declares, threatening to summon the Togolese president’s commando guard force “to bloody well restore some order round here.”
When the journalist protests he was just doing his job, the French officer turns to one of a number of uniformed Togolese riot police at the scene and, still using the insulting tu form, barks: “You, put him in jail.”
The footage was uploaded on Tuesday to the video-sharing Web site YouTube and within two days had been seen by 140,000 users, many of whom posted comments denouncing France’s neo-colonial attitude to its former African colonies.
A spokesman for the French defense ministry, Laurent Teisseire, said it had contacted the French foreign ministry to ask for an investigation that could lead to “possible punishments” against the officer.
“This vocabulary and attitude is not compatible with what we expect from our personnel,” Teisseire said.
“This does not correspond in any way with our values, nor our idea of media relations and press freedom,” Teisseire added.
The French foreign ministry issued its own condemnation and named the officer.
“The foreign ministry firmly condemns the utterances made by Lieutenant Colonel Romuald Letondot,” said spokeswoman Christine Fages, adding that the colonel had apologized to the Togolese journalist at the French embassy.
France’s West African colonies were granted independence 50 years ago, but Paris has maintained close diplomatic, military and commercial ties with many of them and is often accused of adopting a high-handed attitude toward them.
The incident erupted after the French officer’s vehicle was held up during an opposition protest in the streets of Lome and a local photojournalist covering the event, Didier Ledoux, took his picture.
Letondot told the state-run France 2 television network he got out of his official car to show a Togolese policeman that it had been damaged by a stone-throwing protester and was surprised to be photographed.
“The photo could have been misinterpreted,” he said.
“I became annoyed, the idea was to prevent a stolen picture. I have apologized to Didier Ledoux. It’s a shame that my time in Togo has to finish like this,” Letondot added.
The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it often had to condemn such an attitude “based on a lack of respect and understanding of the work of the press.”
“The journalist was doing his job by covering a public event. Those in charge of this French officer must punish this mistake,” it said in a statement.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese