REUTERS: LILLE, France (Reuters) - Vandals desecrated 148 graves in the Muslim section of a military cemetery in northern France, hanging a pig's head on one of the headstones, police said on Sunday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the attack "a hateful act" and around 100 police were sent to the Notre-Dame de Lorette cemetery near Arras to hunt for clues.
State prosecutor Jean-Pierre Valensi said the vandals struck overnight, daubing insults on the graves.
"They directly referred to Islam and there were also insults directed at the justice minister," Valensi said, referring to Rachida Dati, whose parents came from North Africa.
The desecration came almost exactly a year after youths daubed Nazi inscriptions and swastikas on Muslim tombs in the same cemetery in Ablain Saint-Nazaire.
France's political class united in denouncing the vandalism. Muslim Graves Desecrated in World War I Cemetery >>> | April 6, 2008
LE MONDE:
Nouvelle profanation de tombes musulmanes au cimetière militaire Notre-Dame de Lorette
WELTONLINE:
Gräber muslimischer Soldaten gesschändet: Auf einem Friedhof in Nordfrankreich sollen gefallene Soldaten in Ehre ruhen. Doch fast 150 Grabstätten muslimischer Soldaten wurden jetzt geschändet. Sogar einen Schweinekopf hängten die Täter an eines der Gräber. Der Hass richtete sich auch gegen ein Mitglied des Kabinetts [Rachida Dati].
Mark Alexander
