French troops massacre Ivorian women and children

So, after about 8 hours I finally got that stupid movie to download. I watched it and you know what... I never once saw a soldier fire a shot. All I saw was blur and heard gunfire. Yes, people got shot. But guess what stock, your video doesn't show for shit who actually did the firing. The ONLY time I saw French soldiers was when they were driving away. Not firing I might add.

You'll have to do better than this to make me believe that the army shot into a crowd of innocent people.

Yep. You just see soldiers with guns, then civilians wounded by gunfire.

I guess it's asking too much of your reasoning capacity to reach the conclusion that it was the guys with the guns that shot the people in the crowd.

In order to do that we would have to assume they were the only people with guns. There is no evidence for that assumption.

Did you see anyone in the crowd with firearms? I didn't

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There simply isn't enough evidence from those tapes to conclude that the French troops were the only ones with guns.

well put plonk

And the fact that the country is in a Civil War doesn't figure into you reasoning anywhere I see.

Here's a tip, Stock, the video focuses on the people being shot. There is no footage those who shot them because they're very far away. There were at least two armed factions there, if not three. Do you think maybe, just maybe, a regime thats willing flood its streets with convicted felons for the express purpose of bolstering the ranks of the rioters, rapists and looters, might, just might shoot a couple of its citizens to turn public opinion against a foe they cant defeat?

Lets wigh this shall we?

The French:
International peacekeepers.

The Ivorien government:
Despotic, totalitarian one party junta.
Broke the cease fire and fired on peacekeepers.
Advocated attacking western civilians on state television.
Opened their prisons to create chaos.
Use rape as a tool of war.
Sent the mob that the French "shot"

Who is more likely to be lying?

Ok people. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to post the proof as we see it. I have converted both clips to jpg files. Every frame is intact. The larger file consists of 4,326 frames and the other smaller file is 867 frames. Each frame is a jpg. Everyone knows how to host and post jpgs here. If not go look at the FAQ.

I am providng these in low resolution. It is not so low you cannot make out details so don't worry. I just don't want to kill my server's bandwidth. If there is a particular photo you would like to see at the higher resolution just post here and I will host and post it. The file format and numbers will be the same except where you see Lo the other will say Hi. Personally I can't tell the difference but I just wanted to make the option available.

Large file - 35 megs

Small file - 6 megs

Here is what the two resolutions look like.

Lo Res


Hi Res



Now isn't this easier than going, "Ummmm...did you see that puffy blue cloud of smoke at 15.2 seconds and then again at 18.7?"


**format edit

[Edited on Nov 21, 2004 by BatAttaK]

Those vidoes deffinately speak for themselves. They are quite sickening. Im speechless.

some background

there's also a thread on metafilter

more info can't hurt.

What he said.

In case you forgot... it's a war going on. Normally that means more than one side with guns. Just because your tape only happens to show one set of soldiers doesn't mean there weren't other people firing. Besides, if someone was taping this whole thing and wanted people to see that the French were firing into the crowd... where are the soldier shooting people? I didn't see any.

are you kidding ????

during months and months, we have articles, reports, cineasts, journalists who said "FRance was wrong not support USA for Irak war". Of course I think it is fine we need thei speech freedom.
W do have a commitee in France composed with lots of famous persons who support USA in Iraq. We often see them on TV ; they aren't censured.

in french but
http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=255271
this article explains why we made a war in Ivory Coast for economic interests.

another one explains Chirac was wrong because he doesn't have equal relations with Ivory Coast but post-colonial relations.

Well, you have a fascist government doing all it can to try to make the French peacekeeping force look like an invasion, so they'd play this up for all they can. And add in the American "FRENCH PEOPLE ARE TEH S UCK" crowd, and you have a tragic situation turned into yet another sick political ploy.