RIGHTS-FRANCE: Anti-GM Farmer Becomes a Hero

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jun 23 2003 (IPS) - The arrest of farmer José Bové in a little town in southern France is beginning to do more damage to the government than to him.

Shortly after 6am Sunday, a police force moved up to his house in Larzac, about 700 kilometres south of France. The policemen, accompanied by guard dogs and moving under helicopter cover, smashed through a glass door and arrested Bové.

Bové had been sentenced to ten months imprisonment for destroying a genetically modified test plantation back in 1997. The police moved in to enforce the court order.

The raid provoked a wave of protests all over France. In nearby Montpellier where Bové was taken to prison, farmers and union members took over the local police headquarters. Protests were held in Paris and elsewhere.

"Chirac to Prison, Bové to Freedom" read a banner a group of protesters carried in Paris. The banner was a reference to accusations of corruption against President Jacques Chirac, against which he has immunity as long as he remains head of state.

Opposition leaders and human rights groups called the police operation against Bové evidence of the growing authoritarianism of the government. The daily Liberation called it "a new government punch against the unions in France."

Jean-Michel Thenard, leading political commentator with Liberation said Bové’s opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was central to French policy on GM crops.

"If France today opposes GMOs, both in Europe and before the World Trade Organisation (WTO), it is mainly because Bové made people aware of the dangers," Thenard wrote Monday.

The European Union suspended import of GMOs in 1999 following demands from farmers and consumers associations. This provoked a trade confrontation at the WTO (World Trade organisation) with the United States, the main producer of GM crops. The EU is now considering an end to the embargo.

Bové is leader of the Confederation Paysanne, a left-wing union of small farmers supporting organic agriculture. He has since the mid 1990s become an icon of opposition to market-driven globalisation. He has been participating in major international meetings against market globalisation such as the World Social Forum in the Brazilian city Porto Alegre, and in Seattle, Genoa, Doha, and elsewhere.

Bové, whose slogan is "The world is not a merchandise" described his destruction of the GMO test plantations as an act to protect consumers and the environment.

Bové was offered a reduced sentence, but he insisted on nothing less than a presidential pardon. "Either they send the police to take me to prison, or they send a letter announcing that there is no reason to send me to jail," Bové said before his arrest. Bové’s demand for presidential amnesty was backed by some 600,000 letters from union members and small farmers.

Few were expecting him to be arrested like this. "The police force was completely out of proportion against a farmer leader known for his non- violence," said Bové’s lawyer Francois Roux. "José is not a dangerous gangster."

The powerful General Worker’s Confederation (CGT, after its French name), called Bové’s arrest a "disquieting symbol of France’s political life now.." It said in a statement that "prison is not a place for a union leader."

French judicial workers called the police operation against Bové excessive and politically motivated. "The government is expressly aiming its repressive apparatus against the popular movement," Evelyne Sire-Martin, leader of the magistrates union told IPS. "The government is repressing a popular movement."

Maurice Tubiana, president of the French League of Human Rights called the police operation against Bové "a further step in the government’s authoritarian radicalisation against a popular movement."

Jean-Claude Amara, spokesperson of the rights group Droits Devant! (Rights first!), said that the French government had exhumed a law from the 1940s to pursue activists. "This law is directly inspired by the neo-fascist French government that collaborated with the Nazis," Amara told IPS. "Our present government has copied complete paragraphs from the laws of the 1940s."

Now, he said, the new enemies are union leaders, human rights activists and immigrants.

Minister for Justice Dominique Perben defended the police operation against Bové as a preventive measure. "Bové had showed that he would not cooperate with the police, and we tried to avoid violence," Perben said at a press conference Sunday afternoon.

Perben said Chirac will soon consider whether Bové deserves presidential pardon. The announcement that Chirac is considering amnesty for Bové shows the difficulties the government faces in dealing with the farmer leader.

"For Chirac, Bové’s case is a real headache," Thenard commented. "The police operation against Bové was not only ridiculous, it was also dangerous for the government and for French justice."

Scores of farmers have now announced they are accomplices in Bové’s destruction of the GMO test plantations. The pressure is on Chirac.