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Viewing cable 04PARIS6076, FRENCH CEMETERY DESECRATIONS AND LINK TO EXTREME

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
04PARIS6076 2004-08-17 08:46 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Paris
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

170846Z Aug 04

ACTION EUR-00   

INFO  LOG-00   AID-00   AMAD-00  CIAE-00  INL-00   DODE-00  EB-00    
      UTED-00  H-00     TEDE-00  INR-00   IO-00    L-00     NSAE-00  
      NSCE-00  OIC-00   PA-00    GIWI-00  PRS-00   P-00     SCT-00   
      SP-00    SS-00    STR-00   TEST-00  TRSE-00  FMP-00   R-00     
      PRM-00   DRL-00   G-00     NFAT-00  SAS-00     /000W
                  ------------------50F4CB  170858Z /38    
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5401
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS  PARIS 006076 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF PHUM FR KISL
SUBJECT: FRENCH CEMETERY DESECRATIONS AND LINK TO EXTREME 
RIGHT 
 
REF: PARIS 5906 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: France has seen a rash of hate crimes 
resulting in the desecration of nearly 400 Jewish and Muslim 
tombs since the beginning of the year.  Most recently, 56 
Jewish graves were painted with neo-Nazi symbols and 
xenophobic slogans in Lyon on August 8, although recent 
developments in this case raised questions about the motives 
behind an apparently obvious anti-Semitic hate crime.  The 
previous week, 15 Muslim tombs in Strasbourg were vandalized 
with neo-Nazi graffiti.  The GOF immediately and forcefully 
denounced both desecrations at the highest levels; however, 
those affected seem dissatisfied with mere condemnations in 
light of continued incidents.  These latest acts further 
validate what the Minister of Interior in May called "a 
resurgence -- notably among some youths -- of neo-Nazi 
ideology fed by hatred and ignorance."  End summary. 
 
2.  (U) On the night of August 5, in a military cemetery in 
Strasbourg, the graves of 15 Muslim soldiers killed in the 
liberation of eastern France were defiled.  The tombs were 
painted with swastikas, SS signs, and the acronym "HVE 
junior," making reference to the neo-Nazi organization known 
as the Alsatian Patriotic Association ("Heimattreue 
Vereinigung Elsass," in German) which was banned in 1993 for 
anti-Semitic crimes.  (Note: Five other headstones -- four 
Muslim and one Jewish -- were previously desecrated in the 
same cemetery in April.  End note.)  French and foreign media 
have begun to highlight the rise of xenophobia and 
neo-Nazism, particularly in Alsace, an area that includes 
Strasbourg and has historically been passed back and forth 
between France and Germany. 
 
3.  (U) Also on August 5, an individual identifying himself 
as "Phineas" claimed responsibility for an attack in the town 
of Villeurbanne, near Lyon, on a person of North African 
origin that left the victim hospitalized.  During the night 
of August 8, three days after the attack in Villeurbanne, 56 
graves in a Jewish cemetery in Lyon were scrawled with 
swastikas, Celtic crosses, and slogans glorifying Hitler and, 
incongruously, proclaiming "resistance to the Islamic 
invasion."  In addition, the name "Phineas" was painted in 
several places and a hatchet found at the cemetery was linked 
through DNA analysis to the Villeurbanne attack, leading 
police to suspect the two attacks were related. 
 
4.  (U) On August 15, a 25 year-old recently unemployed 
Frenchman turned himself in to a police commissariat in 
Paris, alleging to be the "Phineas" responsible for both 
incidents.  Claiming that he had been "persecuted," the 
suspect indicated that he decided to "react against the 
Islamic invasion."  The man in custody, recently identified 
as Michael Tronchon, stated that after the attack in 
Villeurbanne, he desecrated the Jewish graves in Lyon, 
including painting the phrase "resistance to the Islamic 
invasion," in order to obtain a greater "audience." 
According to media accounts, "Phineas" considered the French 
extreme right too weak and reportedly decided to act out on 
his own, inspired by a documentary on U.S. neo-Nazi groups. 
(Note: The name "Phineas," has been associated with 
right-wing anti-Semitic and racist violence in the U.S., 
including the deaths of 11 people involved in biracial 
relationships between 1970 and 1980 and the 1999 attack on a 
Los Angeles Jewish community center. End note.) 
 
5.  (U) The GOF reacted quickly to the Lyon and Strasbourg 
desecrations.  Justice Minister Dominique Perben visited the 
Lyon site while President Chirac condemned the "vile 
profanation" and Prime Minister Raffarin called the attack 
odious.  Similarly, Interior Minister de Villepin "condemned 
with the greatest resolution" the Strasbourg attack and 
Chirac, in an open letter to the head of the Muslim council 
in Strasbourg, proclaimed his "absolute determination to 
fight this plague."  However, this did not appear to appease 
leaders of both the Muslim and Jewish communities.  According 
to the Chief Rabbi of Lyon, Richard Wertschlag, "a crackdown 
is needed to make these people realize the consequence of 
their acts."  Similarly, the rector of the Strasbourg mosque, 
Abdellah Boussouf, stated emphatically, "I can no longer be 
content now with the condemnations and solidarity pledges of 
political rulers.  I want results.  France's Muslims as a 
whole have the feeling they are considered second-class 
citizens." 
 
6.  (SBU) Comment: The fact that many of the recent cemetery 
desecrations have involved the tombs of soldiers or monuments 
in honor of those who died in World War II have led some in 
the media to speculate that the attacks may be related to the 
60th anniversary of the battles that liberated France from 
Nazi occupation.  However, the early reports concerning the 
suspected perpetrator of the Lyon desecration seems to 
indicate that he used the attack on the Jewish cemetery to 
gain further attention for his own anti-Islamic agenda. 
Before the arrest of "Phineas," Israeli Embassy contacts had 
 
 
attributed the cemetery desecrations to a rising neo-Nazi 
extremist minority, which has added to a general unease in 
France's Jewish community (see reftel).  Even if it turns out 
that the motive in Lyon was actually anti-Islamic, Jewish 
anxiety is still justified in light of numerous other 
cemetery attacks and, most recently, the August 14 discovery 
of graffiti declaring "Death to Jews" on a part of the Notre 
Dame Cathedral in Paris.  Whether these recent attacks are 
part of a larger resurgence in the extreme right -- including 
both traditional neo-Nazis and other anti-Semitic, 
anti-Islamic, racist, and xenophobic elements -- remains to 
be seen.  For its part, the GOF has attempted in recent 
months to combat racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia in a 
number of ways, including establishing new educational 
curriculum aimed at combating bigotry in school-aged 
children, hosting an OSCE conference on the connection 
between such crimes and the Internet in June, and announcing 
in July the formation of a special Ministry of Interior 
project to combat cyberterror.  However, it is evident that, 
while the GOF is both public and vociferous in its 
condemnations of such acts, those who are victims want to see 
more in the way of results.  End comment. 
Wolff 
 
 
NNNN