St. Cloud Times Paris shootings spark reaction even in remote villages BERNIE BOLAND, Special to the Times 11:22 a.m. CST January 12, 2015 Editors note: Bernie Boland is a retired Stearns County District Court judge temporarily living in France. Along with his wife, daughter and teen-aged granddaughter, he witnessed Sundays reactions to the Charlie Hebdo shootings in the small French towns of Mortain and St. Hilaire du Harcouët in Normandy. MORTAIN, France – Even in the smallest villages, public gatherings throughout France on Sunday honored slain journalists, police officers and hostages cut down by terrorist bullets in Paris last week. The public tributes were described by French media as the most historic assemblies since the 1944 liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation. Paris est ajourdhui la capital du monde. (Paris is today the capital of the world) read the subscript on French television screens Sunday. Four million people marched to pay tribute to the 17 Parisians, including 10 journalists and two police officers, who were killed last Wednesday. Islamic extremists offended by the magazines satirical editorial cartoons are thought to be responsible. A third officer was killed on Thursday in what police believe may have been a related incident. An estimated 2 million Parisians were joined by 44 heads of state from throughout the world. Throughout France, city officials assisted by law enforcement held near-spontaneous or hastily organized observances to express their opposition to intimidation by Islamist terrorists of their right to free political speech. Thousands marched with placards containing the message: Je suis Charlie, or Nous somme tous Charlie (I am Charlie, or We are all Charlie.) Demonstrations were staged in even the smallest French communities and remote villages, as well as in the ethnic and religious melting pots of French metropolitan areas and in other European cities. Crowds turned out in Berlin, Brussels, Vienna and Stockholm, displaying placards proclaiming, I am Charlie. In North America some 25,000 people turned out in Montreal, Canada. Mortain, France, a small town in the heart of Normandy, population 1,600, renewed its dedication to the fundamental liberty recaptured as a result of the Allied invasion of Normandy, when approximately 200 people marched from its city hall to the top of the 1,000-foot hill overlooking the town. The hilltop is the site of a memorial to the battle that liberated the town from Nazi Occupation 70 years ago. Mortain still displays framed American newspaper clippings chronicling the Normandy Invasion in its public buildings, shops and restaurants, and it has a street named The 30th Division American, in honor of the U.S infantry division that stood in the way of a massive German counterattack centered at Mortain following the D-Day landings. The hill overlooking the town was occupied by a battalion of the 30th Division, which held out against the German attack for six days. Sundays marchers gathered on the towns main street at the foot of the hill and marched to its summit where, in front of a centuries- old chapel and a nearby monument to the American troops responsible for the citys liberation, they held a short ceremony to honor those who died in Paris as casualties of the right to freedom of expression. In the town of St. Hilaire du Harcouët, about 12 kilometers east of Mortain, more than 500 of its population of 4,600 residents gathered at the esplanade facing city hall to join in hymns accompanied by amplified guitars. Many in the crowd displayed placards proclaiming solidarity with Charlie Hebdo — Je suis Charlie — and the right of free expression. The outpouring in support for free speech and the condemnation of radical jihadists by the French and the European publics followed the conclusion of a nationwide manhunt by an estimated 90,000 French police officers in a massive search for the two primary gunmen, who they tracked to a small village northeast of Paris where they were holding a hostage in a local factory. At the same time as Paris police closed in on the two brothers Friday, police in Paris surrounded a self-proclaimed jihadist accomplice who was holding hostages in a grocery store in a Jewish neighborhood of Paris. Police simultaneously assaulted both sanctuaries, killing all three gunmen. Four hostages were killed in the storming of the Paris market. The hostage held in the factory was found unharmed after police shot dead the two brothers.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 09:05:02 +0000