A hateful act

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, didn't mince words in issuing an official statement denouncing the vandalism of 148 Moslem graves in the country's largest First World War military cemetery this weekend.

Racist and sexist abuse was painted on the graves, a pig's head was left hanging from one of the headstones and there were also slogans directly insulting the country's justice minister, Rachida Dati, whose parents are from North Africa.

"This is an act of unacceptable racism and the president of the republic shares in the pain of all the Moslem community in France ," Sarkozy said in the statement.

"This hateful act is also an affront to all First World War combatants irrespective of their religion," he added, stressing that he wanted the perpetrators to be caught and punished "as they deserved it."

The desecration of the graves occurred on Saturday evening in the Moslem section of the military cemetery at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette à Albain-Saint-Nazaire near Arras in northern France. It was built in 1925 on the site of one of First World War's largest battles and contains the graves of 40,000 including 22,500 unknown soldiers.

The section with 576 Moslem tombs is situated at one end of the massive cemetery with the gravestones facing towards Mecca.

Sadly it was also the scene of a similar racist attack in April 2007, when Nazi slogans and swastikas were painted on some 50 Moslem graves. Two men were convicted and sentenced to a year in prison for that act.

Although the word "graffiti" crops up in many of the reports describing what happened at the weekend, it has proven in fact too mild a word for the hate-filled slogans discovered on Sunday morning.

There was nothing decorative or artistic in the act. It was a case of vandalism pure and simple expressed in terms of the most abusive and revolting language imaginable.

Politicians were unanimous in their condemnation and a junior defence minister, Jean-Marie Bockel, quickly made his way to the cemetery on Sunday at the request of the president, where he held a one minute's silence in the name of the government.

A police probe has been launched with about 100 officers being sent to investigate the incident.

An estimated five million Moslems live in France - or eight per cent of the population - making it the largest Moslem community in Europe.