What happened on March 25 in Sainte-Soline, so that two demonstrators are still in a coma almost two weeks later? Since the repression of this prohibited demonstration, the maintenance of order in France is more than ever criticized, and several versions clash on the unfolding of the facts, and in particular on the late arrival of help. After the Samu recordings unveiled by The world and a first survey of ReleaseFrance 2 unveiled exclusive images on Thursday evening in Further investigationthat a video analysis of the World completes. Between outdated command and non-regulatory shots, 20 minutes takes stock for you.
The France 2 teams, the only accredited ones, followed Colonel of the Gendarmerie Vey, who was leading the response of the gendarmes to the unauthorized demonstration. At the start of the report, the colonel briefs his men on the importance of separating “the wheat from the chaff”, in other words the “ultra” demonstrators melted into the procession, before being “in our usual response when they come attack us”. It also emphasizes the “graduation of the use of force”. “What is outlawed will never be done under my orders,” he told the France 2 journalist. The demonstration has not yet started.
A “family” procession sprayed with tear gas
About a kilometer from the basin, around which the gendarmes are deployed, the procession splits into three groups. A simple question of itinerary, defends Basile Dutertre, spokesperson for the “Earth Uprisings”, with a central pink procession which “will make less road in a family atmosphere”, carrying a “big wooden duck”, note the gendarmes. An atmosphere identified by Colonel Vey, who is rather worried about the blue procession. Protective glasses, gas masks, the head of this procession is, according to him, composed of “ultras”, which is supported by a banner “black ecological blocks”.
He then deployed the PM2I, a platoon of 20 quads, which was the very first intervention to meet this column. A few minutes later, Colonel Vey wants to send a second platoon, the Mike squadron. But this one stops before the blue procession, to face the pink procession. A misunderstanding ? “Tell them right away that they’re not shooting at pink,” Colonel Vey told a policeman. He doesn’t have time to finish his sentence, the tear gas is already flowing. “And damn they shoot, but are they dumb or what? Annoyed, the colonel no longer knows where to stand. In the fog of tear gas, the three processions will eventually remerge in front of the line of gendarmes.
Two rooms, two atmospheres on pomegranates
According to the story of France 2, around thirty “ultras” demonstrators then detach themselves to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at a gendarmerie truck. The waiting driver got out when the fire started. “In terms of gradation of force, we are at the highest: the use of weapons,” says Colonel Vey. Reinforcements arrive, with two tanks equipped with grenade launcher turrets. The results of the day will be around 5,000 grenades, all types combined, or around one per protester according to figures from the gendarmerie. The atmosphere is joking among the police. “Where is the grenade manager?” asks, hilarious, a gendarme, launcher in hand. “We will do the accounts tonight,” says another.
On the ground, LDH observers identify the remains of de-encirclement and GM2L grenades, “both explosive and tear gas”. Two ammunition classified A2 of the material of war. Another type of grenade is clearly visible in chilling video footage shot by Brut journalist Camille Courcy. As she films herself, we see a demonstrator a few meters from her being hit in the head by an entire MP7 grenade and then collapsing. This type of grenade is propelled, and must be fired in a bell about 200 meters from the target, to explode in the air and release small puffs of smoke.
Decryption of non-regulatory shots
But in the analysis of World, which compares the image shot by Camille Courcy and the drone images, the grenade hit this unidentified demonstrator at an angle of 8°, against a planned shot at 45°, when he was at a distance between 50 and 130 meters from the line of the gendarmes. A non-regulatory shot therefore, as are the LBD shots from a quad, filmed elsewhere. Is it Mickaël, whose aunt claims that it was friends who took him to the hospital with a fractured skull, the emergency services not having intervened? Impossible to say.
The case of Serge Duteuil-Graziani, who is still in a coma, seems similar. Spotted by The world on several cameras, the activist stands out in a compact group by his white helmet and mask. The newspaper immediately brushes aside any hypothesis that he was hit by projectiles from other demonstrators. Above all, when it collapses, two tear gas canisters explode on the ground. If the bell-shaped trajectory of the first, a GM2L grenade, is clearly visible, journalists are more interested in the second, which comes from the area where the projectile lands which makes the militant’s helmet fly. A demonstrator then returns a puck of tear gas, which seems to indicate that it is a grenade of the same type.
However, the projectile which struck Serge emerged from behind a tree, passed over a cloud of tear gas at eye level and hit him at an angle well below 45°. Behind this tree, a grenade launcher truck and overhanging gendarmes are visible in other videos. Serge Duteuil-Graziani will be evacuated around 4 p.m., more than 2 hours after being hit, when Colonel Vey congratulates his troops, the gendarmerie claiming “victory”.