johalputt: Angelique Chrisafis

Frank Lecerf finally came to a stop in a ditch in Belgium when his Renault Laguna ran out of petrol after 200km trip

When Frank Lecerf drove off to do his weekly supermarket shop in northern France, he was not expecting to embark on a high-speed car chase that would force him over the Belgian border and on to the national news bulletins.

Lecerf has filed a legal complaint after his Renault Laguna, which is adapted for disabled drivers, jammed at 200km/h (125mph) and the brakes failed, forcing him to continue careering along a vast stretch of French motorway and into Belgium. Police gave chase until he ran out of petrol and crashed into a ditch.

The 36-year-old was on a dual carriageway on his way to a hypermarket when the car's speed dial first jammed at 100km/h (60mph). Each time he tried to brake, the car accelerated, eventually reaching 200km/h (125mph) and sticking there. While uncontrollably speeding through the fast lane as other cars swerved out of his way, he managed to call emergency services. They immediately dispatched a platoon of police cars. Realising Lecerf had no choice but to keep racing along until his petrol ran out, they escorted him at high speed across almost 200km of French motorway, past Calais, Dunkirk and over the Belgian border.

Puzzled motorists gave way as the high-speed convoy approached. Three toll stations were warned ahead to raise their barriers as Lecerf ploughed through. After around an hour at high speed, his petrol tank spluttered empty and he managed to swerve into a ditch in Alveringem in Belgium, around 200km from his home in Pont-de-Metz, near the northern French city of Amiens.

"My life flashed before me," he told Le Courrier Picard. "I just wanted it to stop."

He was unhurt but suffered two epileptic seizures.

A Renault technician had been on the phone with police throughout the chase but couldn't come up with a solution. Lecerf said it wasn't the first time his speed dial had jammed but that Renault had looked at the car and assured him it was fine.

His lawyer said he would file a legal complaint over "endangerment of a person's life".

Renault told France 2 TV it would await the results of an investigation.

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Angelique Chrisafis

via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/french-driver-200kmh-car-chase

05:05

French could reduce troop numbers and start handing over duties to an African force 'in a few weeks', says minister

France may begin a gradual withdrawal of its troops from Mali as early as the next few weeks, handing over responsibility for security in the country to a still-developing African force.

The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said a "progressive move from a French military presence to an African military presence" could happen "relatively quickly" and "in a few weeks" France could begin reducing its troop numbers.

Le Drian told Europe 1 radio that the 4,000 French troops in Mali – the same number as France had at the height of its 11-year military presence in Afghanistan – was the "maximum" and would not be increased.

Forces from France and Chad have reportedly secured the key city of Kidal in northern Mali. French aircraft and troops have continued to target suspected hideouts of Islamist fighters in the sparsely populated Saharan desert. There are fears that the extremists who have fled Mali's cities during the three-week French-led operation could try to stage attacks from remote bases.

Le Drian said there had been "clashes" on Tuesday in the area around Gao. "When our forces, backed by Mali forces, began to patrol and conduct missions around the towns we had taken, troops found residual jihadist groups who fought," he said.

He added that since the start of the French intervention on 11 January there had been "significant losses" among Islamist groups and "a real war". Earlier this week Le Drian said "several hundred" Islamists had been killed.

The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told the Metro newspaper: "I think that starting in March, if everything goes as planned, the number of our troops should diminish."

He stressed that terrorist threats remained and that the fight was not yet over, but that ultimately Africans and Malians themselves needed to take responsibility for the region's security.

France launched the Mali operation last month to drive back al-Qaida-linked extremists who had seized the north of the country, imposing harsh rule on local populations, and had started pushing toward Mali's capital. France's government said it feared the region could become a haven for international terrorists.

A UN diplomat said on Tuesday the French were talking about another month or so of active engagement in Mali, with one aim being the interruption of supplies to the extremists.

The UN security council is likely to wait until the end of February, when the military action had ended, to adopt a new resolution authorising a UN peacekeeping force for Mali, the diplomat said. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the Mali conflict.

As French troops focus farther north, they are moving out of cities they seized earlier in the operation. They are already expected to start handing control of Timbuktu to African forces this week.

Some 3,800 forces from other African states are in Mali backing up the Malian army, the official said. But it is far from clear that African forces are ready to take full responsibility against the Islamic extremists, who may strike at cities from their desert hideouts.

The spokesman for the Malian military in Timbuktu, Captain Samba Coulibaly, said there was no reason for the population to fear the withdrawal of French troops.

"With the size of the force we have here right now, we can maintain security in the town of Timbuktu," he said. "The departure of the French soldiers does not scare us, especially since their air force will still be present both in Timbuktu and Sevare. They control this entire zone and can intervene within a matter of minutes in order to carry out air strikes as needed," he said.

One thousand eight hundred Chadian troops are holding the northern city of Kidal, the French military official said on Tuesday.

The French last week began a campaign of air strikes on Islamic rebel outposts around Kidal and Tessalit. French Mirage and Rafale fighter jets have flown 135 sorties since Thursday and targeted 25 sites, primarily fuel and logistics depots, the French defence ministry said.

While their forces took control of Kidal's airport some time ago, it is not clear why they did not take Kidal city with the same swiftness as they took Gao and Timbuktu.

There was speculation the pace of the French advance was being constrained by the fact that the retreating rebels are holding western hostages, including eight French citizens. Fears have grown about their safety as French forces moved closer to where several of them are thought to be held.

In a sign of normalcy, the mayor's office of Timbuktu will open for the first time in 10 months on Wednesday, the city's mayor, Ousmane Halle said.

"The city is now secure. There are ongoing patrols by French and Malian soldiers, and we no longer have any reason to fear an attack by the Islamists," he said.

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Angelique Chrisafis

via The Guardian World News http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/rss/~3/_I1PCdTaxT8/france-mali-withdrawal

Angelique Chrisafis johalputt The Guardian World News

04:25

With the key phase of France's campaign over, it is unclear whether lasting peace or a simmering guerrilla war will follow

François Hollande has arrived in Timbuktu to meet local elders days after French forces liberated the Saharan town from fundamentalist Muslim rebels.

The French president, accompanied by his ministers for defence and foreign affairs, landed in Sevare in central Mali before travelling north.

Until just over a week ago, fighters from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb controlled Timbuktu, torching its showpiece library of ancient manuscripts in a vengeful departing act. They retreated from the town without firing a shot.

Malians have overwhelmingly welcomed France's military operation, which has involved 3,700 ground troops. Their own unelected leaders failed to stop a rebel advance last year, which meant the towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal fell under Islamist rule. French, Malian and other African forces have retaken all three.

But with the major phase of the French campaign over, there is uncertainty about what comes next: a lasting peace or, as seems more probable, a simmering guerrilla war. There are also questions about the human rights record of Mali's army. In separate reports, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch accused the military on Friday of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Hollande's visit comes after the UN's adviser on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, warned of the increasing risk of reprisal attacks against ethnic Tuareg and Arab civilian populations in the Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao regions.

"While the liberation of towns once under the control of the rebel and extremist groups has brought hope to the populations of northern Mali, I am deeply concerned at the risk of reprisal attacks against ethnic Tuareg and Arab civilians," he said.

"There have been serious allegations of human rights violations committed by the Malian army, including summary executions and disappearances, in Sevare, Mopti, Niono and other towns close to the areas where fighting has

occurred. There have also been reports of incidents of mob lynching and looting of properties belonging to Arab and Tuareg communities. These communities are reportedly being accused of supporting armed groups, based simply on their ethnic affiliation."

Some Malians, meanwhile, are unhappy about negotiations in Kidal between French forces and the MNLA, a secular Tuareg nationalist militia that has been fighting in the south for decades. The MNLA wants an independent republic – something Dioncounda Traoré, Mali's interim president, has categorically ruled out.

France's defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has declared the intervention a success, while recognising that Mali's situation is not secure. He also said Malians should now establish a reconciliation process, but this call has left some unhappy. "I welcome the French, but I'm extremely angry they are talking to the MNLA," Ibrahim al-Senussi, a corporal in Mali's army, said. "The MNLA are liars and traitors."

The fate of several French hostages held by Islamist groups is likely to feature in any private dialogue between Paris and northern Malian leaders. Some 11 westerners are being held by jihadist forces, it is believed, including three tourists who were kidnapped from their Timbuktu hotel in 2011. A German who resisted was shot dead.

There has been no information on the hostages, but the remote mountains north of Kidal have previously been a haven for radical Islamist guerrillas. French fighter jets bombed the area on Thursday.

Most of the French public back the intervention in Mali, even if it is not their top concern. A poll this week suggested Hollande's swift decision to deploy troops had boosted his presidential stature and approval ratings slightly. But pollsters said despite a small bounce in his ratings, Hollande's status remained "fragile". The president is unpopular because of high unemployment and the economic crisis.

This week he said French and African forces in Mali were "winning the battle", but the joint African force taking over must continue the pursuit of Islamists in the north. France is due to gradually hand over to a UN-backed African force of some 8,000 soldiers. Its job will be to secure northern towns and pursue militants into their mountain redoubts near Algeria's border, but timings remain unclear.