French cops claimed to hold secret, illegal gypsy database

The French national police force – la Gendarmerie – yesterday stood accused of operating a secret and illegal database of Roma and other travelling minorities.

The existence of this database was reported in great detail in yesterday's Le Monde. It came to light by chance, when a 48-page powerpoint presentation, prepared by a Commandant in the Central Bureau for prevention of Traveller Crime (OCLDI), and presented to a meeting of Transport Businesses in November 2004, turned up on the internet.

If confirmed, this database represents the logical conclusion to an ever-more-intrusive surveillance of travellers and ethnic minorities by the police – and is likely to prove doubly embarrassing to French President Nikolas Sarkozy. Firstly, because the very first article of the French Constitution asserts that the Republic "guarantees the equality before the law of all citizens, irrespective of racial origin or religion". Secondly, because M. Sarkozy was the focus for serious international criticism this summer when he stepped up the deportations of Roma from France to their native Romania and Bulgaria. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding compared France's actions to...