Taliban trophy photos shock France
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A French magazine has published photos of Taliban fighters with trophies taken from French soldiers killed last month in Afghanistan, setting off a new round of pained debate about France's presence there.
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his ministers have said again and again since 10 French soldiers were killed in an ambush on August 18 that France would not falter in its determination to fight the "medieval" and "barbaric" Taliban.
But the pledges ring hollow in the ears of many French people who are suddenly being served blanket coverage of a faraway conflict involving about 2,600 French soldiers that had previously been confined to the inside pages of newspapers.
The weekly magazine Paris Match rekindled emotions with its spread of photos of Taliban fighters displaying French army guns, uniforms, helmets, a walkie-talkie and a wristwatch they said were taken from dead soldiers during the August 18 ambush.
"It's a shock to see our children's killers parading their uniforms, their weapons," said Joel Lepahun, the father of one of the dead soldiers, on RTL radio.
Defence Minister Herve Morin suggested the magazine's reporters had done the Taliban a favour in the propaganda war.
"Should we be doing the Taliban's promotion for them?" he said during an interview on France Inter radio.
"The Taliban are waging a war of communication with this kind of operation. They have understood that public opinion is probably the Achilles' heel of the international community that is present in Afghanistan," he said.
- Reuters
