Is France a war criminal?

Yesterday, I don’t remember exactly how, I found the book of Gregory Daho on “La transformation des armées” and one question emerged while seeing the cover picture: “is it legal for military personnel to hide as civilian?”. After some research, I found that no, it is not legal and the rules do not really vary from a country to another since they are international laws. Simulation of civilian status is called “perfidie” and “perfidie” is a crime of war.

Perfidie is defined in Art.37 of Protocole additionnel I of the Geneva convention, what says: “The essence of perfidy therefore consists in appealing to the good faith of an adversary and then deceiving him: in other words, it is a breach of trust. This requirement of a specific intention of deceiving the confidence of the adversary is what distinguishes perfidy from improper use, and which makes perfidy a more serious violation of international humanitarian law. Some military manuals translate this rule as follows: it is forbidden to commit an act hostile under cover of legal protection.”

It is prohibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy. Acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence, shall constitute perfidy. The following acts are examples of perfidy:

(a) the feigning of an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce or of a surrender;

(b) the feigning of an incapacitation by wounds or sickness;

(c) the feigning of civilian, non-combatant status; and

(d) the feigning of protected status by the use of signs, emblems or uniforms of the United Nations or of neutral or other States not Parties to the conflict.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=3EA868BE16BCBB86C12563CD0051DB0B

Where it becomes more perfide, is the distinction between international and non-international conflicts and in this matter, France does not recognize “war crime” in the law. Consequently, “war crimes ” are exposed to the same contingencies as “any other crimes”.

In “Justice pénale et politique internationale”, Patrick Baudoin explains that “In the current state of French law, the war crime is a crime “like any other”, its specificity is not recognized and the incriminations are said to be covered by common law.“

https://www.cairn.info/revue-confluences-mediterranee-2008-1-page-43.htm

In this circonstances, Patrick Baudoin explains:

1- The French Penal Code uses the expression “in time of war” to limit the definition of these crimes. This formulation is ambiguous because it does not give any precision on the nature of the conflict concerned. Article 212-2 does apply only to crimes committed in international armed conflict or does it also apply to non-international armed conflicts, as the Rome Statute does?

2- During this “time of war”, the French Penal Code still limits the qualification of these crimes. Only acts committed against people “who fight the ideological system in the name of which crimes against humanity are committed” are covered by article 2

3- of the Criminal Code. In doing so, this article excludes crimes committed against civilians and other persons protected by the law of armed conflict. Thus, there is no specific provision or section relating to war crimes, either in the Criminal Code or the Code of Military Justice.

https://www.cairn.info/revue-confluences-mediterranee-2008-1-page-43.htm

In other words, while France is rolling down the way to become a global economical warfare, France has developed new military tools and institutions to disguise military personnel into civilians and hide them among companies and administrations. To protect its decision to favor certain companies against the interest of its own people as seen in “Les Branquignols“, “French Secret Services” and “French Resistance“, France has eluded the system by creating a law void. If there is no war crime, there is no perjury, and without perjury, the notion of military uniforms becomes almost a joke. Of course, the consequences of an economical military warfare such murder, suicide, loss of personal property, loss of freedom, displacement, insecurity, do not exist for civilians while military personal are protected.

On the following pictures, Mr Rossignol who I describe in “French Resistance” wears a cap with several metals both on the chest and the cap. I made a research about this cap and did not find much other than red is often affiliated to the French troops in Africa while the green is for Legion. All the employees of Mr Rossignols were veterans from the French Legion. The shape of this cap is also called a “police cap” or “calot de police” in French. It refers to someone who may have participated in intelligence units. In his building, Mr Rossignol had a military truck which he said he had used to convoy gas for his trucks. Since Mr Rossignol may have been in the army, he may also have been a reservist, what means someone available for the army during his whole lifetime and this proximity between the civilian and the military would be harmless if both the civilian and the military would be separated with different roles and different entities, but the specificity of the Foccart Networks is precisely to not separate those two identities and France has reinforced this system with the structure of its administration that reinforced mixed roles.

Since the passed 10 or 15 years, we see the government using terrorist attacks to recruit reservists and build a network of civilians who are engaged with military contracts:

Unity is strength. In the aftermath of the Nice attack, the Head of State François Hollande called on “the operational reserve” to strengthen the surveillance action of the territory. The Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve followed suit by inviting “all French patriots who wish” to join the operational reserve of the police and the national gendarmerie.

https://start.lesechos.fr/travailler-mieux/metiers-reconversion/8-questions-pour-comprendre-ce-que-font-les-reservistes-1178763

In some cases such the terrorist attack of November 13th, 2015, this network of informants has put 24 ecologists under house arrest until the end of COP21 on climate change events. While the government expands its network of civilians, the law to define their status becomes thinner. Still, two articles make clear the objectives of the government.

Article L4221-1 of Code de la défense

The engagement contract to serve in the operational reserve is taken out for a period of one to five years, renewable with a view to:

1 ° To receive training or undergo training;

2 ° To provide temporary reinforcement to the armed forces and attached formations, in particular for the protection of the national territory and within the framework of operations carried out outside the national territory;

3 ° To provide defense education;

4 ° To participate in civil-military actions, intended to facilitate the interaction of operational forces with their civilian environment;

5 ° To serve with a company under the conditions provided for in Articles L. 4221-7 to L. 4221-9;

6 ° To contribute to the actions of the health reserve defined in I of Article L. 3132-1 of the Public Health Code under the conditions provided for in III of this article.

The contract may also include a reactivity clause allowing the competent authority to call on reservists under the conditions provided for in the third paragraph of article L. 4221-4 or in 3 ° of article L. 4221. -4-1.

This clause is subject to the employer’s agreement.

These missions can be carried out outside the national territory.

The volunteer may, as part of his commitment to serve in the operational reserve, be admitted to serve, by order of the Minister of Defense or by order of the Minister of the Interior for reservists of the national gendarmerie, in the interest of defense and national security, for a limited period, with a State administration, a public administrative establishment, a public scientific, cultural and professional establishment or an international organization.

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/id/LEGISCTA000006166987/

In other words, reservists on this article L4221-1 alinéa n°5 may be required to work with private companies, they can be reactivated any time according to a close that is subject to the “employer’s agreement”, and reservists may be involved in civil-military actions. On Articles L. 4221-7 to L. 4221-9

Article L4221-7

Volunteers can serve, as part of a commitment to serve in the operational reserve, in the interest of defense, with a company that participates in the support of the armed forces and attached formations or accompanies export operations under the defense field. These volunteers are subject to the exercise of hierarchical power.

Article L4221-8
For the application of Article L. 4221-7, an agreement is concluded between the State and the company concerned. It determines in particular:

1 ° The conditions for recruiting and exercising the functions of reservists in accordance with this book;

2 ° The conditions for exercising the technical supervision of the company over reservists;

3 ° The modalities according to which the balance paid to reservists is reimbursed to the Ministry of Defense and, for reservists of the national gendarmerie, to the Ministry of the Interior.

Article L4221-9
The agreement may provide for longer periods of activity than those provided for in article L. 4221-6. The stipulations of the agreement may not prevent the application of Title III of this book.

In other words, reservists are employed full time by companies who partner with the Ministry of Defense (military) or the Ministry of the Interior (police) and they can be activated any time as a military cells to work disguised as civilians.

My question then is this: is the French law in breach with international humanitarian laws?

There are 54,374 reservists in France, including 28,000 in the army and 25,000 in the gendarmerie, according to a recent Senate report. […] There are three types of operational reservists: the gendarmerie reserve, the military reserve, and the civilian police reserve. In times of crisis, the latter “are called in to reinforce the armed forces, in particular for the protection of France and in the context of operations carried out abroad”, indicates the government website. […]

To become an operational reservist, you must be French, girl or boy, and be at least 17 years old (30 years maximum to be a reservist in the gendarmerie and 35 years at most in the military reserve). The national police take in volunteers aged 18 to 65. Other required conditions: to have taken part in the defense preparation days (JAPD) or in the citizenship defense day for young people, and not to have a criminal record. Former soldiers are automatically integrated into the reserve at the end of their activity for a period of 5 years. These personnel are more commonly referred to as “the available”.

https://start.lesechos.fr/travailler-mieux/metiers-reconversion/8-questions-pour-comprendre-ce-que-font-les-reservistes-1178763

The military reserve is made up of citizens called reservists, trained as soldiers to reinforce the armed forces active on the national territory or in foreign operations; they are part-time soldiers. It can be in peacetime or as a back-up in a conflict or crisis situation. Reservists have military status as soon as they serve under their contract of service. Reservists maintain their military training and knowledge throughout the year during reserve periods.

Reserve Militaire on Wikipedia

On the ICRC website, Practice Relating to Rule 65. Perfidy, Section I. Simulation of civilian status, III. Military Manuals:

According to the US Field Manual (1976), the use of civilian clothing by troops to conceal their military character during battle is an act for which a combatant would lose his right to be treated as a prisoner of war.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_us_rule65_sectioni

And indeed, the rules of war offer a lot of protection to combattants on both belligerent sides but when it comes to reservists employed by companies who are in contract with the Minister of Defense or the Minister of the Interior, what is the status of “the field”, “combattants” or even the “battle”? As we have seen, some of those companies are even owned by the French State who then disposes of an army of military personnel disguised as civilians. Some of those companies have foreign states’ shareholders which have a proportional power on the same resources. As shown on the graphic below, China has taken control of strategic sectors in France, what also includes its personnel.

The rules of war clearly limit the scope by which a belligerent can seize the life or the properties of someone, civilian or military, but for the rules of war to apply on a “battle field”, there must be a “battle field” and this is the most difficult part of the demonstration when private companies and reservists are involved especially in a context after the cold war that completely ignored the rights of civilians. How to demonstrate that a conflict has appeared in a context of “warfare” and how to designate the “battle field”. From there, how to restore property rights in the aftermath and especially when the warfare is asymmetric with large monopolies in one side and small business owners on the other side.

In August 2005, the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights approved a new set of Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (the Pinheiro Principles). The aim of the principles is to provide international standards governing one of the most basic entitlements for the survivors of a humanitarian disaster: the restitution of property.

https://odihpn.org/magazine/land-housing-and-property-restitution-after-conflict-principles-and-practice/

The notion of property restitution is all the more important since politicians, despite the obvious bankruptcy of their policy, continue to want to close small businesses to favor a failing industrial sector. There is a state of economic warfare between the “elite” and the people for which the people are entitled to demand the restitution of their property and among the people, are small business owners, small home owners, small farmers, small artisans, people who have lost their economical tools, their lands, their homes to benefit a défaillant industry mainly managed by mobsters. And a whole category of mobsters have taken control of collective thinking with instruments of influence such Xerfi:

An economist renowned for his sectorial analyzes, Alexandre Mirlicourtois, of the Xerfi group, even spoke in one of his articles of a “Berezina”! Our food industry needs to be restructured, this expert tells us, because it is made up of far too many small businesses.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/economie/la-france-doit-declencher-un-etat-d-urgence-economique-20200513

They talk of an industry as if it was a company, and when you put this phrase in the hands of politicians, it is transformed in military orders to infiltrate and kill small companies, disrupt their business, restructure France as their restructure companies, furlough, fire, eject, displace, ruin, haunt, put in arrest, kill. Maybe suicide.

The economical sectors have been taken over by companies such Xerfi, owned by Laurent Faibis who developed his own competitive analysis methods and created his own sector analysis method. He found a niche with his “methods” and everybody follows him, everybody who has power and wants even more power despite collateral victims. Laurent Faibis collaborated for several years at the Nouvel Économiste, owned by Henri J. Nijdam who just by himself and his mode of thinking, his mode of influence, presides as Chairman of the Capital Média press group (L’Éperon, La Revue du vin de France, Le Nouvel Économiste, Your beauty, Coiffure de Paris, Weddings, Capital Finance, Le Trombinoscope, Pubblicita Italia, Media Italia), and co-operator of Portuguese press group Media Capital (O’Independente, Diario Economico, Valor, Expansao, Briefing, etc.)). Xerfi was created in 1993, when the French Secret Services were polarized by the very few companies which were involved in the after war of Iraq, banks, oil companies, construction companies such Bouygues, Total, BNP Paribas, companies of Mr Rossignol’s era. The ideologies that emerged from this era were neither independent, neither legal and neither wise, but they have become an economical French model.

And the French model is to blame others, particularly Americans. Americans are responsible for the loss of colonies in Africa. Americans are responsible for being the biggest army in the world, of course, without seeing Russia, China or the Eastern block. America is responsible for governing the world and that is true, the Middle East would not be the same without America. America is responsible for the war in Iraq and the penalties against French companies. France constantly names an enemy that it calls a friend, and of course it is a friend that stays silent, that do not even mention that the PIB of France, without Africa, wouldn’t make France the 5th power in the world. When you compare France with Germany, Italy, United-Kingdom, you see a country that did not win the battle of its independence and its sustainability. France is not sustainable. France is fragile and dependent of external powers which are bellicose, bringing France at the brink of constant implosion.

The frustration associated with the lack of return on investment is the lesson from which a group of officers, pioneers of the civil-military project, will position themselves within the COS. The “action” part of special forces activities is often known in a fantasy way: elite soldiers over-trained, over-equipped and thrown in small numbers behind enemy lines and often in the absence of UN mandates. We are interested here in the part “market prospecting” largely unknown and carried out by reservists.

Daho, Grégory. La transformation des armées (French Edition) (pp. 56-57). Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme. Kindle Edition.

To solve its lack of vision, its lack of social project, its lack of love toward a people, its lack of sustainability, the army, but not the real army as a corp, only few officers, who coordinate directly with the ministers, have deployed a second army of reservists and this army is outlaws. The only thing they don’t lack is a strategy and just watching the Ecole de Guerre Economique (the school of economical warfare), the strategy is named behind its directors, a monarchist and a communist, General Jean Pichot-Duclos and Christian Harbulot. Mr Harbulot was a militant in “La Cause du Peuple” and the picture says it all.

This is France today with an outlaw army of 54,374 reservists who did not stop the war to 1945. They went farther with the idea of a dominant class and a proletariat. No middle class, no bourgeois, except the communist elite. This dichotomy reflects the dichotomy of France and Africa, one brings the legitimacy over the ownership of the land and the other to operate it. This is the model of ERAMET as seen in “Les Branquignols“. Then, it is the French army who talks of sovereignty isn’t it, when French strategic sectors are bought by China.

In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product […] Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites of that society. […] The ruling class controls the primary sector of the economy by way of the exploitation of labor. […] A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, whereby the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the ruling class. Such exploitation is enabled by collusion between the state and favored economic monopolies, in which the profit, derived from the private exploitation of public lands, is private property, while the debts incurred thereby are the financial responsibility of the public treasury.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic

In banana republics, high government officials (who are sometimes lieutenant colonels) pressure other officials to carry out vendettas against political enemies and to defend their friends against harsh treatment by judicial institutions.

What Is A Banana Republic? by John Torpe on Forbes

On the notion of state capitalism, Wikipedia to describe:

State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital accumulation, centralized management and wage labor). The definition can also include the state dominance of corporatized government agencies (agencies organized along business-management practices) or of public companies such as publicly listed corporations in which the state has controlling shares. […]

Marxist literature defines state capitalism as a social system combining capitalism with ownership or control by a state. By this definition, a state capitalist country is one where the government controls the economy and essentially acts like a single huge corporation, extracting surplus value from the workforce in order to invest it in further production. This designation applies regardless of the political aims of the state, even if the state is nominally socialist. Many scholars agree that the economy of the Soviet Union and of the Eastern Bloc countries modeled after it, including Maoist China, were state capitalist systems, and some western commentators believe that the current economies of China and Singapore also constitutes a form of state capitalism.

State capitalism is used by various authors in reference to a private capitalist economy controlled by a state, i.e. a private economy that is subject to economic planning and interventionism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism

Economic planning in a stable an democratic country sounds foremost insignificant, but when put in a context where monopolies compete with smaller companies, we have seen that the army of reservists can turn a country into a battlefield and interventionism is the mean to describe the warfare, by outlaw interventions and attacks, sometimes lethal.

In 1995, the very first time when I have received threats in a café next to the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, the group of people were not brown, they had white skins. One of the girls which I remember was blond and she was the one who looked at me in the eyes saying that everything had to stop. “We are going to kill you” they said and they sure made my life a hell, privation of freedom, juridical harassment, impossibility to write and to work. They pirated my work, they killed my teacher, they killed some friends and they killed my father. My mother now is isolated in France with her wounds and an empty grave next to my father. They sabotaged my work, they constantly harassed me with threats and chaos. So as you may see, my cartoons are a little bit long to come but I had to write in which context I am going to continue my artwork with all the thoughts and the difficulties to laugh at the different characters I create. And in facts, they are not funny. They are really not funny people. They are not even beautiful despite their luxury unboxing, their branded satchels, their intoxicating perfumes and their rugs. Watch the bananas.