More than a hundred people had met Sunday afternoon at the Bois de Villeron, near Roissy-en-France, northeast of Paris.
MO12345LEMONDE WITH AFP
An investigation was opened after the destruction of a Roma camp in Villeron, Val-d’Oise, by residents helped by the municipality, the prosecution and the gendarmerie said on Tuesday, February 7. More than a hundred people had met Sunday afternoon at the Bois de Villeron, near Roissy-en-France, northeast of Paris. They demonstrated against the installation since October of a dozen Roma families, according to the gendarmerie of Val-d’Oise.
“People were vindictive with regard to the Roma who had to leave in front of the invective of the crowd,” said the commander of the gendarmerie group of Val-d’Oise Quentin Petit, adding that the mayor of Villeron Dominique Kudla (SE) was present at the declared demonstration. After the departure of the sixty Roma, “a certain number of individuals proceeded to the destruction of the huts built in an illegal manner,” said Colonel Petit. Finally, the mayor of Villeron brought in a shoveller to destroy the camp.
An investigation, entrusted to the Isle-Adam research brigade, was opened by the Val-d’Oise gendarmerie group, under the direction of the Pontoise prosecution. It “aims to specify the progress of the facts”, determine “the role of the different people” and “whether or not there has been violence to people as well as degradations of goods”, said the prosecution.
“Anti-Tzigan slogans”
These are “no desirable practices in the department,” reacted the prefect of Val-d’Oise Philippe Court on Monday on Monday on a press point. “The expelled families were shocked and upset by what happened,” said Anthony Ikni, general delegate of the Romerope collective, denouncing “anti-Tzigan slogans”.
Long before the demonstration, residents “began to harass the inhabitants of the slum. Some said that if they did not leave, they were going to burn everything,” said Ikni who accuses of “complicity” the municipality of Villeron and “passivity” on the part of the police, which “witnessed the illegal expulsion without reacting”.
“This is an unacceptable attack, the inhabitants do not have to do justice themselves”, denounces the Romeurope collective which brings together 48 associations and collective defending the rights of people living in squat, slum or on the street, roms or designated as such. An expulsion procedure was in progress before the Pontoise administrative court, said the Roissy Pays de France agglomeration community, owner of the land, while specifying “not to endorse” violence.