French schoolchildren march in anger over expulsions
Thousands of schoolchildren in Paris and other parts of France have
been demonstrating in anger over the expulsion of two foreign
teenagers.
Some demanded the sacking of Interior Minister Manuel Valls.
In one case, a Roma schoolgirl was sent to Kosovo and in the other, a
student was repatriated to Armenia.
There has been widespread indignation at the manner in which border
police picked up schoolgirl Leonarda Dibrani, whose family had lost its
bid for asylum in France after five years in the country.
Leonarda, 15, was escorted from her school bus by a teacher, in front of
other children, in the eastern region of Doubs on 9 October.
Meanwhile, it has been suggested that only the father of the Dibrani girl
is actually from Kosovo and that he lied about his family's origin in his
bid to win asylum in France.
'Arrested for theft'
Schoolchildren left class to show solidarity both with Leonarda and
Khatchik Kachatryan, a 19-year-old student in Paris who was expelled
on Saturday to Armenia.
Mr Kachatryan was arrested for shoplifting in September, at which point
police discovered he had entered France illegally, the French daily Le
Figaro reports.
Reports suggest that he was detained on his return to the former Soviet
republic for seeking to escape doing military service.
"Bring back Khatchik and Leonarda, they belong here," marching pupils
chanted on Thursday, holding up signs calling for Mr Valls to resign.
The president of France's National High School Students' Union, Ivan
Dementhon, said students were angry at the way the Dibrani family had
been treated.
"The expulsion of the young Leonarda is particularly shocking because
it was done in a school environment," he said.
"It's not tolerable that students with or without documents are expelled.
Everybody should have a right to education, and that is why all high
school students are here."
Journalists who visited the Dibrani family in Kosovo on Wednesday
found them living in a house in the northern town of Mitrovica, despite
earlier suggestions that they were homeless.
It has also emerged that the father, Resat, was investigated by French
authorities for allegedly beating his family.
Leonarda and all the other members were born in Italy, he told the
agency. "Then we came to France. We lied to the authorities when we
said we were from Kosovo."
The family has been lodged in Mitrovica with a monthly grant of 150
euros (£127; $203) from the Kosovan government, an official told
Reuters, speaking anonymously. The official added that the authorities
were unsure what to do about them because only the father was from
Kosovo.
Mr Valls insists that the deportation of Leonarda and the rest of her
family was carried out in line with established procedure.
"Any immigration policy requires respect for the law, respect for
individuals and great firmness," he said this week.
Questions
1. What do you think about this situation: do you support the
students’ demonstration or not? Why?
2. Is solidarity among students right? Why?
3. What is wrong in these two situations, according to you?
Body of Nazi Erich Priebke moved to Italian airport
The Vatican had issued an unprecedented ban on holding Priebke's
funeral in any Catholic church in Rome, but a Catholic splinter group,
the Society of St Pius X, offered to hold the ceremony.
As the coffin was taken to the Society's seminary in Albano Laziale on
Wednesday, protesters shouted "murderer" and "executioner" and
clashed with Nazi sympathisers as his coffin passed.
"We had to cancel the funeral yesterday because there was a risk that it
could have become a neo-Nazi demonstration," said Mr Pecoraro.
The coffin of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has been taken to a
military airport near Rome after a funeral was halted following angry
protests.
Italian officials said contacts had been made with Germany, amid media
reports that Priebke's body could be flown there.
Priebke died under house arrest last week. He had been jailed for life
over the killing of more than 300 civilians.
Italian media say his body could be kept at the airport for the time
SYNONYMS
being.
A funeral in Albano Laziale, south of Rome, was called off on Tuesday
amid scuffles between protesters and Nazi sympathisers.
1. Halted
Priebke's refusal to show any remorse for his wartime actions - and
2. Jailed
only recently called the Holocaust an invention - has inflamed emotions
3. Called off
over what to do with him in death.
4. Scuffles
Rome's mayor said it would be an "insult" to bury him in the Italian
5. Inflamed
capital; Argentina has rejected Priebke's own request to be buried
6. row
alongside his wife; and Hennigsdorf officials have said they "have no
interest in burying a war criminal here".
The row coincided with commemorations held for the 70th anniversary
of the roundup of Jews in the Rome ghetto and their deportation to
Auschwitz during World War II.
'Neo-Nazi risk'
Priebke died on Friday, aged 100.
He was one of the SS officers overseeing the killing of men and boys at
Rome's Ardeatine Caves in 1944, one of the worst massacres in Italy
during World War II.
In a reprisal for the killing of 33 German soldiers in Rome by resistance
fighters, 335 Italian civilians were shot dead. It is believed that Adolf
Hitler ordered 10 Italians killed for every German.
Though Priebke admitted his role in the massacre, he never expressed
any remorse and maintained he was following orders.
He was extradited in 1994 after investigative journalists from US
television network ABC News tracked him down in Argentina.
In 1998, he was sentenced to life in prison. However, he pleaded that
he was too old and sick for jail, and was soon allowed to switch to a
regime of house arrest.
a. act of
bringing people
together in one
place for a
particular
purpose
b. short violent
fights
c. small group
of people that
has separated
from a larger
one
d. stopped
e. give an
explanation or
excuse for
sthing
f. cause very
strong feelings
7.
8.
9.
10.
roundup
reprisal
pleaded
splinter
group
g.violent act
towards sbody
because of
sthing bad that
they have done
towards you
h. cancelled
i. put in prison
l. serious
disagreement
between
people/
organizations
SPIDERGRAMS
DEATH
VIOLENCE
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION
1. Who was Priebke? What did he do during World War II?
2. What happened after the end of the war?
3. Why did he come back tom Italy?
4. Was he sentenced? Did he go to prison? Why?
5. What happened on Friday? What happened to the coffin? Why?
6. What did Argentina and Germany do?
7. What about the Vatican?
8. What happened in Albano Laziale?
9. Was the funeral held?
10. How did it all end?




What do you think about this fact?
Were you shocked/ surprised/ indifferent at what happened in
Albano Laziale?
Do you agree with the demonstrators?
What do you think about people who deny the Holocaust?