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Sarkozy pays homage to soldiers
20/08/2008 17:46 - (SA)
Camp Warehouse - After viewing the bodies of 10 French soldiers killed in a Taliban ambush, an emotional President Nicolas Sarkozy told their colleagues that he shared their pain.
"I saw 10 coffins. On each one of them, a photograph of your comrades. Then the ages: 20, 21, 22," Sarkozy told about 300 French soldiers on a hot and dusty parade ground at this vast military camp in Afghanistan.
"I have seen among you some people crying. I understand," he says. "I have told you that I share your pain and these are not just words, otherwise I would not be here."
After flying in to Kabul on Wednesday, Sarkozy and his ministers of defence, Herve Morin, and foreign affairs, Bernard Kouchner, first visited a mortuary where coffins of the slain soldiers lay - without the media trailing behind.
Protected by a screen of plainclothes but heavily armed men, Sarkozy also visited the camp hospital where some of the 21 wounded are recovering and spoke with them.
But he later addressed their grieving comrades and told them that their contribution to world security was essential and that their country was behind them.
"All of France is overwhelmed by such a heavy toll," he said. "The order which you were given, it is to me to take them on ... when something happens, I feel responsibility."
Sarkozy has drawn fire at home from left-wing opponents after he announced France would send reinforcements to Afghanistan at a Nato summit in April - which his critics saw a sign of French alignment with US policy.
But he defended the decision.
"I tell you in good conscience that if I had to do it again, I would," he says.
After a minute of silence, Sarkozy takes leave of his troops to meet with President Hamid Karzai, and the soldiers disperse.
"It is important that the president of the republic came," says Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Louisfert, a spokesman for General Michel Stollsteiner, the commander of Nato forces around Kabul.
"That shows the solidarity of the nation. I believe the soldiers felt that."
- AFP
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