“
Amazing
” and “
more than indecent
”.
It is in these terms that General Christian Rodriguez, Director General of the National Gendarmerie described the controversy that struck the police after the demonstration in Sainte-Soline on Saturday March 25, at the microphone of Franceinfo.
The Human Rights League accuses the police and gendarmes present on the spot of having ordered the SAMU not to intervene.
Two demonstrators are still in a coma.
"Without response from the organizers, a device was installed"
In a demonstration, "
the organizers organize in particular the way in which the relief will intervene
", he recalled, but it was not a question of a "
demonstration, but of an illegal assembly
".
Nevertheless, according to the head of the gendarmerie, "
the prefect called the organizers to organize things as well as possible, but for lack of response, a device was put in place
".
Read alsoViolence in Sainte-Soline: could the chaos have been avoided?
Did the security forces obstruct the rescue?
“
I don't have that feedback, replies the general, there is an investigation which will allow us to see more clearly
”.
Christian Rodriguez however underlined that there is sometimes "
a situation which is so complicated that it is necessary to avoid that the helpers go there
" and that "
often, the helpers tell themselves
" that they will not go not because they are "not
completely safe
".
LBD shots from quads
It is for this reason, according to Christian Rodriguez, that “
medical gendarmerie teams
” were present on site.
To the question of whether these teams were not prohibited from intervening for the benefit of the demonstrators, but were there only for the police, as affirmed by the SAMU coordinator, the director general of the Gendarmerie national replied that "
it is totally false, the doctors are there to treat
".
They intervened "
on one of the two victims
", he says, and "
were stoned
".
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“
An investigation
” is open to shed light on the gendarmes filmed shooting with LBDs from quads, affirms Christian Rodriguez, “
if there were faults which were committed, they will be sanctioned
”.
Regarding the investigation opened by the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) into the two men in a coma, the Director General of the National Gendarmerie recalls that the investigation was placed not under the authority of other gendarmes, but “
under the authority of a public prosecutor
”.
