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FRANCE: Prime Minister calls for "total, global and ruthless" war on terror

22 January 2016

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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that the war on terrorism must be "total, global and ruthless," and that the French state of emergency should last "as long as the threat is there".

"When asked how long he envisaged the state of emergency remaining, Mr Valls said: "The time necessary.

"As long as the threat is there, we must use all the means," he said, adding that it should stay in place "until we can get rid of Daesh", using an acronym for the IS group.

"In Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia we must eradicate, eliminate Daesh," he said. "It is a total and global war that we are facing with terrorism," he added. "The war we are conducting must also be total, global and ruthless." (Migrant crisis: EU at grave risk, warns France PM Valls, BBC News, link)

Valls made similar comments at a speech in Paris recently: French PM: Terror attacks in France, Israel show we are ‘in world war’ (Times of Israel, link)

See also: French government set to extend state of emergency (France 24, link):

"The state of emergency is due to expire on February 26. It has been criticised by United Nations rights experts for imposing "excessive and disproportionate" restrictions on key rights."

The state of emergency has come in for more criticism recently. On 19 January a group of UN human rights experts:

"stressed the lack of clarity and precision of several provisions of the state of emergency and surveillance laws, related to the nature and scope of restrictions to the legitimate exercise of right to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the right to privacy."

See: UN rights experts urge France to protect fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (UN Human Rights, link) and La LDH demande au Conseil d’Etat de suspendre tout ou partie de l’état d’urgence (Ligue des droits de l'Homme, link)

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