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An army chief said two of the three soldiers have been “immediately confined.”
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PARIS (EJP)---The French army opened an investigation after the weekly satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné published Wednesday a photo showing three paratroopers from Montauban in southern France doing a Nazi salute in front of a Nazi flag with a swastika.
According to the paper, the army’s leadership ignored the soldier's neo-Nazi tendencies and even silenced a former captain in the uniy who had reported the events to his superiors several times since 2006.
The photo has been circulating in the unit for a long time.
Jamel Benserhir, the officer in question, said he felt discriminated by the extreme-rightists.
But while the three soldiers faced no consequences, his contract was not extended due to "emotional instability," the weekly said.
Benserhir then decided to write directly to Defence Minister Hervé Morin and report about the facts.
An army chief said two of the soldiers accused by Benserhir have been "immediately confined." The third is no more a member of the unit.
The National Bureau of Vigilance Against anti-Semitism (BNVCA), which monitors anti-Semitic incidents in France, called for stiff sanctions against the three soldiers and asked for the investigation to make clear why the facts were hidden by the army’s hierarchy.
In a statement, the bureau’s head, Sammy Ghozlan, declared: “We consider that official France is not anti-Semitic but the last cases involving civil servants and policemen call us to be vigilant.”
He mentioned the recent firing by the Interior Minister of a deputy prefect who published an anti-Israeli pamphlet on internet and the suspension of policemen after an anti-Semitic outburst,
Ghozlan referred to the recent report by a governmental human rights commission on racism and anti-Semitism which noted a drop of the number of anti-Semitic acts in France.
He added: "While the number of anti-Semitic incidents is slightly decreasing, it remains too important and confirms that anti-Semitic speech has been totally freed, including through internet, and that it has reached and penetrate the institutions."