A White House spokesman announced, Thursday, in response to a question about criticism of the French police for dealing violently with the demonstrations, that the US administration “supports the right to demonstrate peacefully in the European country as elsewhere.”
When asked about the criticism leveled by some organizations and bodies, such as the Council of Europe, about the violent treatment of some demonstrators, he said, “All of this is beginning to be known only now.”
The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, recently stated that “the sporadic violent acts of some demonstrators or other reprehensible acts committed by others during a demonstration do not justify the excessive use of force by state agents. Nor are these acts sufficient to deprive peaceful demonstrators of their freedom.” the gathering”.
Violent confrontations took place between activists and security forces at the end of last week during a demonstration against the irrigation water basins project in western France.
And President Emmanuel Macron considered, Thursday, that “thousands of people simply came to fight battles. This is unacceptable,” considering that “a form of habituation to violence appears on some and this must be firmly combated.”
The League for Human Rights denounced what it considered a “disproportionate and dangerous use of force” at a time when the organizers of the demonstration in western France announced that 200 people had been injured, including one who lost an eye and two in a coma.