ABSTRACT
A collection of statements and documents on our methods of pacification – Des Rappelés témoignent (Mobilized Reservists Bear Witness)2
– has just been published. Have you read it? These mobilized reservists are Christians, chaplains, priests. With regard to the overall policy, it seems likely that their opinions differ, so they do not say a word about it. But they have in common a will to reveal the gangrene – still a long way from affecting the entire Army, but which can no longer quite be prevented from spreading – of the cynical and systematic use of absolute violence. They hide nothing, and denounce all the war crimes committed before their eyes: pillaging, rape, reprisals against the civilian population, summary executions, use of torture to extract confessions or information. These measured, intelligent accounts, anxious to be fair to everyone, even the most guilty, constitute the most damning evidence. Reading them is absolutely unbearable; you have to force yourself to go from one line to the next.
