Roma Revolt After Police Killing in France

10 April 1997

Between 250 and 300 French Roma rioted in March 1997 in the western French city of Nantes after two Romani men, José Ménager (30) and Manolito Meuche (20) were shot dead by the gendarmerie, an armed law enforcement body under the competence of the Ministry of Defence.

The incident began when gendarmes arrived during a robbery of tools by eight Roma from a warehouse outside of Nantes in the night between March 12 and 13. The gendarmerie claims that the Roma opened fire on them first, wounding one gendarme in the leg. The gendarmerie then opened fire, killing two men, aged 20 and 30. Four Roma were arrested and two escaped. Spokesmen for the Roma community claim none of the eight had any firearms.

Already on March 13, a group of 150-200 Roma began to protest in front of the morgue where the bodies of the two men had been brought in Nantes. Riots and violent protests did not break out, however, until March 15, the day of the funerals. A group of between 250 and 300 Roma then barricaded a bridge, burnt tyres and disrupted traffic along the main ring-road around Nantes. Despite a police action which reopened the blockaded bridge, protests continued until March 18.

The group agreed to disperse when a complaint had been officially filed concerning the use of force by the gendarmerie. Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the robbery and the other into the police action, although the French daily Presse Océan reported on March 19 that the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie had „affirmed on March 18 that the gendarmerie who had opened fire... had acted in legitimate self-defence."

Roma National Congress in Hamburg, Germany described the affair as one of the first public displays by Roma of resistance to police abuse in Europe, and added that French police are notorious for their repeated ill-treatment of Roma.

(ERRC, RNC)