Amid Tight Security, World Leaders Gather For Unity March In Paris

In a most historic gathering, hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets of Paris Sunday to join top French officials and world leaders for a rally and march under extraordinary security in a government-sponsored show of unity and defiance after a series of terrorist attacks.

The somber march began shortly after 3 p.m., with a vanguard of dark-coated leaders marching arm-in-arm down the broad Boulevard Voltaire. Familes of the victims walked grim-faced, some wearing Charlie Hebdo headbands to commemorate the journalists murdered last Wednesday.

   The French government mobilized hundreds of military forces, police and antiterrorism squads to provide security at the rally. 

In the area around the Place de la République, where the march was starting, snipers could be seen on rooftops, and security officers were seen checking sewers for explosives. The police swarmed the area, and several subway stops and streets were blocked off.

Officials said that public transport in Paris would be free all day to encourage participation in the march.

   At the Place de la République, demonstrators waved French flags and several climbed the imposing Statue of the Republic, a symbol of the French Revolution, and wielded an inflated pencil, symbolizing solidarity with the fallen cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, the weekly magazine that was attacked last week.

   People displayed flags from across Europe and many held signs saying, “I am Charlie.” Others held up caricatures from the magazine.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared on Saturday that France was at “war” with radical Islam after harrowing attacks that claimed the lives of 17 victims. 

   Three gunmen who said they were acting on behalf of Al Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups were killed by the police on Friday in two separate raids. One gunman had taken hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Paris, and the two others had holed themselves up in a print shop in Dammartin-en-Goële, northeast of the French capital.

   “Indignation. Resistance. Solidarity. I am Charlie” read an invitation to the event that was circulating on social media. The organizers said the rally was to show support for freedom of the press and freedom of speech, and to reinforce the message that France and the  French would not be cowed by terrorists.

   Officials from across Europe and elsewhere, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister, David Cameron of Britain and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, were in Paris to attend the rally.

   In a rare display of unity, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also participated.

   Security officials in France and across Europe remained on high alert for copycat attacks, even as a French prosecutor said that five people detained in the wake of the terrorist attacks had been released.

Early on Sunday, a German newspaper that had reprinted cartoons from the French weekly Charlie Hebdo lampooning the Prophet Muhammad was the target of an apparent arson attack, the newspaper reported on its website. It said there were no injuries.

   The daily, the Hamburger Morgenpost, had published three cartoons that had been previously published by Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were attacked Wednesday in Paris. “This much freedom must be possible!” the headline read.

   The Associated Press(AP) citing police sources, said that the police in Germany had detained two men in connection with the Hamburger Morgenpost attack.

Several other national and local German newspapers published the cartoons and were placed under police protection, the news agency reported.

Yesterday’s morning,  the French Interior Ministry held what it described as a security summit meeting, bringing together top intelligence and law enforcement officials from across Europe and North America to discuss ways to combat and contain terrorism. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was among those who attended .

   After the meeting, Bernard Cazeneuve, the French Interior minister, said that the current European legislation aimed at fighting terrorism “wasn’t enough,” and called for a better European system for tracking potential jihadists and terrorists.

   He also said the European ministers had agreed on a need for better cooperation with internet companies to monitor, detect and remove any “illicit” material that could encourage terrorism.

Holder announced that the White House would convene an international forum on February 18 to discuss new means of countering terrorism. The White House, in a statement, said the meeting would address domestic and international measures “to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the U.S and abroad to commit acts of violence.”

  The challenges raised by the attacks — including the threats of foreign fighters and the challenges of violent extremism — figured prominently at the meeting. On Saturday, French cabinet ministers held an emergency meeting in Paris to discuss measures to prevent other attacks.

The mass rally has created a major security headache for the French authorities, two days after security forces killed Amedy Coulibaly, a heavily armed gunman who is suspected of shooting and killing four hostages at a kosher supermarket near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris, and two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, who are suspected of killing 12 people on Wednesday at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

   On Sunday, counterterrorist officials in France said they were continuing to investigate links between Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers, the source of their funding and weapons, and whether the suspects were part of a dormant sleeper cell that had been activated.

Source: The Guardian