Apologies to those who don’t want to hear it, but the delinquent froglets are up to their tricks again:
Vandals have damaged the graves of British and Commonwealth soldiers in the latest of a spate of attacks on World War I cemeteries in northern France. Some 15 gravestones were broken in the British cemetery in Aix-Noulette, near Lens. Authorities in France said they believed the destruction was motiveless.
Just what is the sudden motivation behind all these motiveless crimes?
A police source added: "It was done by local people — in order to get there, you would need to know the area." On Thursday, six youths were arrested after 12 gravestones were damaged in the British cemetery at Le Quesnel, near Amiens, where the remains of Britons, Canadians and New Zealanders lie buried, and on Monday, gravestones of British, Canadian and New Zealand soldiers were found to have been kicked over at the St Aubert cemetery, near Cambrai. Peter Francis, spokesman for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said: "It looks like a completely mindless act of vandalism." A St Aubert police spokesman said: "We do not believe the vandals were motivated by any religious, racial or nationalistic feeling. It could have been done by a single person or a group. An investigation has been launched but we do not have any leads as yet."
| "We don't think it was a political act. We think they're just stoopid..." |
The vandals also burned the visitors book at the entrance to the cemetery. The St Aubert cemetery contains the graves of 435 Commonwealth soldiers killed in battle between 1917 and 1918. The French Minister for War Veterans, Hamlaoui Mekachera, said: "This is an inexcusable attack on the memory of British, Canadian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in France in the First World War and should rest in peace on our soil." Mr Mekachera said he hoped the police investigation "would swiftly identify the culprits, so they can answer for their acts". In April, the graves of British soldiers in the Etaples cemetery in northern France were defaced with swastikas and slogans denouncing the war in Iraq, prompting President Jacques Chirac to send a letter of apology to the UK.
Send the culprits over with the letter next time. |