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The case of the French cement giant Lafarge and its alleged connection with the Islamic State of Syria (ISIS) has sparked ongoing debate in France over the conspiracy of multinational companies to fund armed groups.
It also raised questions about the responsibilities of the French government and the actions taken by Paris when it learned about the operations of cement manufacturers in ISIL-occupied Syria.
On Tuesday, the French Supreme Court Overthrown The lower court decided to dismiss the accusation that Lafarge was involved in crimes against humanity in the Syrian civil war.
The Supreme Court’s ruling marked a major setback for Lafarge, who was accused of paying nearly 13 million euros ($15.3 million) to armed groups including ISIL to maintain its cement plant in northern Syria Operation in the early stages of the country. war.
Rafah merged with the Swiss company Holcim in 2015 to become the world’s largest cement manufacturer. The company has been under formal investigation in France because of its efforts to keep its factories in Syria running after the conflict broke out in 2011.
French “accomplice”
According to documents published by the French daily liberation And Turkish Anadolu Agency In the past few weeks, French intelligence officials learned that Lafarge and ISIL reached an agreement in 2014.
The Liberation report shows that the document issued by the Directorate-General of External Security (DGSE) on August 26, 2014 and marked as “secret defense” shows that the French government “knows very well about the conditions under which Lafarge maintains its activities in Syria, and is partly controlled by the Islamic State. Occupied territories”.
“This is an indisputable document,” the French newspaper said. “An agreement was reached between the cement manufacturer and IS to continue commercial activities,” it added.
According to the Anadolu Agency’s report, Lafarge’s relationship with the French intelligence agency began on January 22, 2014, when the company’s security chief Jean-Claude Veillard (Jean-Claude Veillard) reported to the internal affairs The Ministry of Intelligence sent an email.
Veillard stated in his email that the company needs to maintain relationships with “local participants” in order to continue to do business in Syria.
Looking back at the company’s negative news, he asked whether executives and the company’s headquarters were threatened.
According to documents disclosed by the Anadolu agency, between 2013 and 2014 alone, there were more than 30 meetings between Lafarge and France’s domestic, foreign, and military intelligence agencies.
Tallha Abdulrazaq, a scholar who specializes in counter-terrorism and security at the Institute of Strategy and Security at the University of Exeter, said: “Lafarge seems to have been aware of and complicit in the French government, out of spy And the purpose of intelligence collection has always been openly present in Syria.”
“For this, it needs to pay ISIS to obtain the right to continue production, pay tolls to ensure free passage, and it even seems to have purchased the raw materials needed for cement production from ISIS,” Abdulrazaq said.
French “hypocrisy”
According to Abdulrazaq, France’s actions around the cement giant show that the country’s attitude toward the Muslim community is hypocritical, with more than 5 million people, it is the largest Muslim community in Europe.
The decision in the Lafarge case is An unprecedented trial The November 2015 attack in Paris, which killed approximately 130 people and injured hundreds, began this week in France.
The incident involved gunmen wearing suicide vests attacking six bars and restaurants, Batakland Concert Hall and a stadium, leaving deep scars on the soul of the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron has recently been criticized for his efforts to regulate Islam in the country, with some observers claiming that a small number of people have been collectively punished for the actions of fringe groups that carried out attacks.
Macron stated on October 2 last year that Islam is a religion “in crisis” worldwide, and he outlined a new legal plan aimed at addressing what he called “Islamic separatism.”
On October 16, the 47-year-old teacher Samuel Patty was beheaded in a middle class in the suburbs of Paris. He showed his students a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of speech.
On October 29, three people were stabbed to death in a church in the southern city of Nice. Macron referred to both attacks as “Islamic terrorism.”
Abdulazak said: “France mainly adopts Islamophobic legislation to target Muslims in a two-faced approach in the country. These legislations are designed to restrict their freedom and keep them at the grassroots level by separating them from French society. Silence, all of this is in the name of fighting terrorism.”
“At the same time, the French are actively involved in approving a multinational company to conduct business worth tens of millions of dollars with one of the most violent and notorious extremist jihadist organizations in the world,” he added. “The hypocrisy is jaw-dropping.”
Collusion
Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary paid armed groups through an intermediary, and the company was accused in 2018 of endangering the lives of former employees of the Jalabiya cement plant in northern Syria.
According to Anadolu News Agency, on November 18, 2018, an intelligence officer codenamed AM 02 appeared in court and admitted that Lafarge was his source of information in Syria.
Intelligence officials told the judge how the French agents used the Lafarge factory.
“We are purely opportunistic, using Lafarge’s continuous work to deal with this situation,” the intelligence official said in the court.
In the records, intelligence officials did not rule out Da’esh (ISIL), stating that Lafarge shipped cement to all armed groups in Syria (including the Victory Front) between 2012 and 2014.
According to reports, ISIL used the cement provided to build a network of refuges and tunnels for fortifications to counter the coalition forces headed by the United States.
According to Abdulrazaq, “ISIL was trying to establish a quasi-state at the time, so the importance of cement as a civil and military building material is self-evident.”
According to French media reports, the company also provided materials and fuel to armed groups to enable them to continue their activities in the Jarabia area.
In November 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed the charges of crimes against humanity after determining that four human rights organizations could not be the plaintiffs in this case.
Lafarge later admitted that its Syrian subsidiary paid intermediary fees to negotiate with armed groups to allow staff and goods to move within the war zone.
But it denies any responsibility for the funds in the hands of these organizations and has been working hard to get the case to be dropped.
It was ordered to provide 35 million U.S. dollars as a security deposit to the French authorities before the trial.
French policy
France entered the pre-election season this month.
It will elect the final presidential candidate before voting in April, because opinion polls show that the presidential runoff will make the centrist Macron face the far-right Marine Le Pen and repeat the last election.
Although Macron’s approval rating for dealing with the coronavirus crisis has risen in recent months, the revelation from the Lafarge case may adversely affect his popularity.
“The French government knows and participates in financing ISIS’s terrorist operations, which will not satisfy French voters. After all, the Islamic State is responsible for some of the most serious terrorist attacks on French soil,” Abdulazak said.
In addition, the latest findings may give the Syrian government powers, and the Syrian government’s Russian-backed army was accused in Amnesty International in 2020 report The act constituted a “war crime”.
Abdulazak said: “The narrative will be very clear-the West is plotting to release terrorists on Syrian territory.” “The French government provides further reasons for the Syrian regime to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
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