According to Jean-Yves Le Drian and Florence Parly, the soldiers of Operation Sentinel will not maintain law and order and will not be in contact with yellow vests protesters on 23rd March
The soldiers of Operation Sentinel will not do policing on Saturday 23rd March and will not in any case be in contact with yellow vests protesters, said the ministers of Armies Florence Parly and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, this Friday.
8H35 : Jean-Yves Le Drian https://t.co/ZrWQh4Tl6E
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Asked about RMC-BFMTV , the head of French diplomacy, defence minister at the time of the institution of the Sentinel antiterrorist operation in 2015, said:
“It has never been said that Sentinel’s forces intervene in the maintenance of order. It’s not their role to get in touch with the protesters”
He recalled that “this is not the first time” that the military come in support of the police. “At the time of the Euro 2016 football, when the police forces were in high demand, it was Sentinel soldiers who replaced the police forces in the security of a number of buildings, embassies, places of worship” , he said.
“Alleviate the police and the gendarmes”
In an interview published Friday by Le Parisien , the Minister of Armies Florence Parly for its part assured that it “is not in the idea of anyone to put the military in front of the demonstrators.”
The participation of the Sentinel soldiers simply allows “to lighten the police and gendarmes of a number of tasks that they commonly perform in the fight against terrorism,” she added.
“It’s about allowing them to do what they are the only ones who can do: the maintenance of public order,” said the minister.
“The idea is to replace punctual police and gendarmes on tasks that the Sentinel operation can accomplish.”
“We will ensure that Sentinel can further relieve the police,” said Parly, while ensuring that “the division of tasks is very clear between military and police” and that it is “out of the question” That soldiers be placed in front of protesters of the yellow vests.
