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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 5 January 2023
France’s African ex-soldiers win last battle - over pensions

By JOHN LEICESTER mer soldiers who collect a
Associated Press 950-euro monthly payment
PARIS (AP) — Some of the (US$1,000), the govern-
last survivors in France from ment’s Solidarity Ministry
a colonial-era infantry told The AP.
corps that recruited tens They’ll no longer have to
of thousands of African spend six months of the year
soldiers to fight in French in France to be eligible and
wars around the world will will continue receiving their
be able to live out their fi- pension payments even if
nal days with family mem- they move away perma-
bers back in Africa after a nently, the ministry said.
French government U-turn The decision, applying a
on their pension rights. “principal of tolerance” for
The decision to make the veterans, will be formal-
claiming their pensions ized in a government letter
easier follows a years-long to be published in coming
campaign on behalf of the days, the ministry said.
“tirailleurs Sénégalais,” who “After long years of fight-
were recruited to fight from ing, we have finally won,”
Senegal and other former A French officer speaks to a Senegalese French Colonial soldier who has joined the Allies in North Seck tweeted. “The former
French colonies in sub-Sa- Africa under Gen. Henri Giraub on Dec. 28, 1942. tirailleurs are going to be
haran Africa. Associated Press able to see out their lives in
It also coincides with the France. stances in France, away Vietnam and Algeria, she their countries of origin.”
cinema release in France That rule separated ageing from their families.” said. In Senegal, the head of the
of a movie highlighting the former combatants from In all, 37 of the former tirail- “They are gradually disap- National Office for Veter-
sacrifices made by African their families in Africa and leurs most of them recruit- pearing, because of their ans and Victims of War said
soldiers on bloody French some died alone, away ed to fight from Senegal, great age,” she said in the the decision was overdue.
battlefields in World War I. from loved ones, says Aïs- as well as Mali, Mauritania AP interview. “For a long time veterans
“Tirailleurs” features actor sata Seck, who campaigns and Guinea are known to Many tens of thousands of have asked to return with
Omar Sy, a star of the “Ju- for them. Her grandfather live in France, says Seck. African recruits served in their pensions but were
rassic World” franchise. was also a “tirailleur.” The youngest of them is tirailleur regiments, in co- not successful. This deci-
To be eligible for their “It was extremely painful aged 90, and a dozen lonial wars, in both World sion will relieve them. These
French pensions, veterans for the families and for us,” live in separate rooms in a Wars, and in France’s Viet- veterans live alone in their
from the infantry corps Seck said in a telephone home in the Paris suburb of nam and Algeria wars be- homes, they are not ac-
founded in 1857 and dis- interview Wednesday with Bondy, where Seck serves fore being disbanded in companied, they live in ex-
banded a century later The Associated Press. “They as an elected official. They the early 1960s. tremely difficult conditions,”
had to spend at least six live for the most part in ex- served as tirailleurs during The pension decision con- said the official, Capt. Ngor
months of the year living in tremely different circum- wars for independence in cerns only 22 of the for- Sarr. q

Christian graves desecrated in historic Jerusalem cemetery

By ISABEL DEBRE breaking into the cem- otry,” it said, urging authori-
Associated Press etery, knocking over stone ties to redouble efforts to
JERUSALEM (AP) — More crosses and smashing and find the perpetrators.
than 30 graves at a historic stomping on tombstones, The Protestant Cemetery
Christian cemetery in Jeru- leaving a trail of debris and on the venerated Mount
salem were found toppled broken headstones. Zion just outside Jerusa-
and vandalized, the dio- Among the destroyed lem’s Old City walls was es-
cese said Wednesday, jolt- tombs was one contain- tablished in 1848 and was
ing the Christian minority in ing a 19th century bust of part of territory that Israel
the contested city. Samuel Gobat, the second seized in the 1967 Mideast
Israel’s Foreign Ministry Protestant Bishop in Jerusa- war. The cemetery houses
called the attack an “im- lem who died in 1879, the the graves of dozens of
moral act” and “an af- Episcopal diocese said. The Palestinian police officers
front to religion.” Jerusa- graves of three Palestinian killed during the First and
lem’s Anglican Archbishop police officers who died Second World Wars as well
Hosam Naoum called it a Hosam Naoum, a Palestinian Anglican bishop, pauses where during in the British man- as Christian leaders who
“clear hate crime.” The Brit- vandals desecrated more than 30 graves at a historic Protestant date years were also van- died in the 19th and 20th
ish consulate said it was just Cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Wednesday, dalized. The diocese cau- centuries. Jewish extrem-
the latest in a string of as- Jan. 4, 2023. Associated Press tioned that the desecration ists have defaced church
saults on the Christian com- of the cemetery should be property on Mount Zion in
munity in the holy city of with the site of the Last cadeslong Israeli-Palestin- seen as an ominous warn- the past years. Jews con-
Jerusalem. Supper that Jesus shared ian conflict. Widely shared ing about “hatred against sider Mount Zion the tradi-
Police officers were sent to with his disciples the night security camera footage Christians.” tional burial place of the
the Protestant Cemetery before his crucifixion, is also on Sunday showed two “Many stone crosses were biblical King David and
on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion sacred to Jews and Muslims young men both wearing the targets of the vandals, some ultra-Orthodox and
to investigate the profana- and has been at the cen- a Jewish skullcap and tzitz- clearly indicating that nationalist activists have
tion. Mount Zion, associ- ter of competing religious it, the knotted ritual fringes these criminal acts were opposed Christian prayer

ated in Christian tradition claims throughout the de- worn by observant Jews motivated by religious big- rights at the site.q