INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014 French court upholds the controversial burqa ban Woman convicted of wearing full-face veil in public VERSAILLES: A French court yesterday convict- impinges on religious freedom and unfairly tar- The European Court of Human Rights is ed a young woman for wearing a full-face Islamic get Muslims, had asked for an emergency ruling expected to rule later this year in a case brought veil in public and threw out her bid to have the on the constitutionality of the ban before sen- by a French Muslim who argues that the burqa country’s controversial burqa ban declared tencing. But that request was rejected on the ban violates her rights to freedom of religion, unconstitutional. Cassandra Belin, 20, was also grounds that the Constitutional Council had pre- freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, convicted for insulting and threatening three viously upheld the 2011 law. Belin’s lawyer, and breaches a prohibition against discrimina- police officers at the time of her arrest, which Philippe Bataille, said he would consider an tion. France argues that the ban is necessary for sparked two days of rioting in the town of appeal and pledged to continue to fight to have security reasons and to uphold the country’s sec- Trappes, near Paris, in July, 2013. She was given a the ban overturned. “I’m not throwing in the tow- ular traditions. But critics say if security is a con- one-month suspended prison sentence for the el,” he said. Thibault de Montbrial, the lawyer for sideration, then motorcycle helmets should also clash with the police and a 150-euro ($200) fine the three police officers, welcomed the court’s be outlawed. In theory the ban covers all face for wearing the veil. ruling. “We cannot tolerate exceptions to the law coverings, but in practice the only arrests have BAMAKO: Deputy general of the Serval operation Vincent Guionie (left) speaks with Her lawyers, who argued that the burqa ban of the land,” he said. been of women wearing Muslim veils. — AFP an unidentified officer at the Damien Boiteux camp, the French army headquarters in Bamako. — AFP After Mali’s action, France Gunmen kill 3 in remains Africa’s gendarme north Nigeria DAKAR: A year after dispatching warplanes favor of backing United Nations and African mosque attack and troops to repel an Islamist incursion in Union peacekeeping operations when crises Mali, France is fighting in another of its for- arose. In 2003 and 2008, France led KANO: Gunmen opened fire on wor- mer colonies, demonstrating it is destined European Union operations respectively to shippers at a mosque near northern to play reluctant “gendarme” in Africa, say combat rebels in north-eastern Democratic Nigeria’s main city of Kano, killing three analysts. With the Mali intervention deemed Republic of Congo and to secure the Central of them and wounding 12 as they a success by the international community, African and Chadian borders with Sudan’s prayed, witnesses and police said yes- France is withdrawing most of its soldiers Darfur region. terday. Islamist insurgent group Boko but has launched another operation in the France went into Ivory Coast in 2011 to Haram is active in Kano, Nigeria’s sec- Central African Republic (CAR) to stop esca- help fighters loyal to election winner ond biggest city and relic of a medieval lating inter-communal religious conflict. Alassane Ouattara arrest defeated former Islamic empire that thrived for cen- France’s Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le president Laurent Gbagbo and in the same turies on trade routes crossing the Drian has welcomed the achievements of year led an intervention in Libya to support Sahara to the Mediterranean coast. The Operation Serval, launched on January 11, rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi. Current militants see anyone who does not fol- 2013 to drive militants linked to Al-Qaeda President Francois Hollande underlined the low their austere brand of Islam as out of Timbuktu and Mali’s other northern new approach in a speech to Senegal’s par- apostates and have assassinated cities. The country has been “liberated” and liament in October 2012, vowing that the Muslim clerics who oppose them. They ARIZONA: Photo shows a US Air force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter conducting a rescue operation often target the security forces or the mission’s success was “universally recog- days of francafrique were over. The broad during Exercise Angel Thunder, near the town of Bisbee in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. Four people are Christians, but they have attacked nized in the international arena”, he said on approval both in Africa and in the West for believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash in eastern England on Tuesday January 7, 2013, mosques in the past. a New Year’s Eve visit to Mali. But he struck a France’s intervention in Mali has created a police said, with a local US Air Force base confirming they were ‘working on an incident’. — AFP Police spokesman Musa Majiya more solemn tone two days later in Bangui, climate which makes its operation in the declined to speculate on who was where the principal task was to boost the CAR more palatable to its former colonies. behind Tuesday night’s attack in morale of troops bogged down in the quag- Kwankwaso village, about 30 km from US military copter mire of the CAR crisis. About 7,000 French ‘BARBARIAN FORCES’ Kano and home of Kano state governor soldiers have been deployed in UN-backed A year after Operation Serval was Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso. Criminal military and humanitarian missions in Mali launched, the government in Bamako has gangs also operate in the area. “We and the CAR. reasserted itself through nationwide polls crashes in Britain were inside the mosque praying when which saw former premier Ibrahim we heard gunshots just as we were ‘GENDARME OF AFRICA’ Boubacar Keita elected president and parlia- almost finishing the prayer,” witness Four killed; munitions across the site “Broadly, you’d say-and this has been the ment reopened. “At the institutional level, all Adamu Inuwa said, speaking by tele- case for quite some time-that France finds is well... On the security front, things are phone from a hospital bed where he itself obliged to intervene and is, despite more mixed,” Bamako-based political analyst CLEY NEXT THE SEA: British police said yesterday mission is “to conduct day or night operations into was nursing a gunshot wound. they would be working with the US Air Force and hostile environments to recover downed aircrew or itself, the gendarme of Africa,” said Bruno Souleymane Drabo said. “Overall security is “It was terrible. They were shouting Tertrais of the Paris-based Foundation for largely restored in the regions of Timbuktu others to find out why a US military helicopter other isolated personnel during war”. RAF ‘Allah akbar’ (God is Greatest) and crashed on the coast of eastern England, killing all Lakenheath is home to Europe’s only F-15 fighter Strategic Research. With nearly 6,000 men and Gao but there are still sporadic terrorist shooting sporadically everywhere. I permanently stationed across the continent, activities taking place there,” he added. four crew on board. Wreckage included munitions wing. escaped through the fence.” Boko was spread over a wide area of the crash site in dif- France is uniquely placed to act quickly The challenge for Mali now is to seek a Haram has fought for the past four when law and order breaks down and peaceful settlement with its Tuareg sepa- ficult terrain. The helicopter, a Pave Hawk assigned SCATTERED DEBRIS years to carve a breakaway Islamist to the 48th Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath Scully told reporters at Cley next the Sea that regimes collapse. Its deployment is organ- ratist movement, restore its authority in the state out of majority Muslim northern air base, was performing a low-level training mis- debris was scattered across an area about the size ized around two main poles, Libreville in the rebel bastion of Kidal and wipe out the Nigeria, and is now the gravest security sion along the Norfolk coast when it went down in of a football field. Most of the debris was in marsh- west (940 troops), and Djibouti in the east Islamist insurgency. The economy is also an threat to Africa’s top energy producer. marshland on Tuesday evening. The cause of the land although some of it was vulnerable to high (2,000) and it also has troops in Chad (950), urgent issue in a country ravaged by conflict They have killed thousands since crash, which occurred in a nature reserve near the tides and was being removed swiftly. Scully said a Senegal (350) and Ivory Coast (450), as well and ranked 182nd of 187 nations in the launching an uprising in 2009 - the vast village of Cley next the Sea, was not known. The coroner, who under English law will be responsible as special forces stationed notably in Niger. 2012 Human Development Index. In his majority Muslims - and an offensive area is about 130 miles northeast of London. for the investigation into the four deaths, was car- With the gradual return to stability in New Year address, however, Keita put Mali’s President Goodluck Jonathan ordered “We will be working with our partners at the rying a daylight assessment and once he had given Mali, the emergence of the CAR crisis and ongoing woes in perspective, recalling that in May last year has so far failed to Ministry of Defense, Air Accident Investigation his consent, authorities would arrange for the the more general threat of Islamist terrorism before France’s intervention “three-quarters quell them.