French launch amb war truck attack
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• France's farms minister Louis Mermaz has promised British meat hauliers full police protection from French farmers protesting about lamb imports.
This week agriculture minister John Gummer told the French government to take tougher action to protect British meat and livestock hauliers from attacks by French farmers.
Last weekend three truck drivers, one British and two Irish, were confronted 20Icm from Cherbourg by a gang of 12 farmers protesting about cheap meat imports.
They forced the driver from Cardiff-based Gullivers Transport Services to stop by laying nails and spikes on the road. Police arrived, and after talking to the farmers told all three drivers they would escort them to safety.
But 20km down the road the trucks were attacked by the farmers again. GTS had almost half its load of 700 lamb carcasses set alight, causing t11,000 of damage.
One Irish driver's entire consignment of lamb was destroyed but the other Irish truck, with beef aboard, was allowed to go.
Paul Marsh, operations manager of 26-truck GTS, says the French police did not take enough care to make sure the drivers would not be attacked again. "They led them to a small road in the wilds of nowhere with the farmers on tow, and then drove away leaving them alone with the farmers," he says. Marsh is determined to go on using Cherbourg 12 times a week, although he fears that if the trouble gets as bad as it did last summer someone will be killed. His driver, Ray White, says he was told by the farmers: "This time your load; next time your life."
White went on to deliver the undamaged lamb to Vitre and two of the company's other drivers passed through Cherbourg on Saturday without incident. Until now GTS has had no trouble in France.
Junior agriculture minister David Curry told European Community farm ministers on Monday night that member states had to make sure that hauliers were protected in order to preserve free trade.
In a Radio 4 interview on Tuesday Gummer said: "Law and order must be seen to be done" by the French authorities. He said that police must give adequate protection to drivers and if attacks took place those responsible would have to be brought to justice. He welcomed the first prosecutions of fanners for attacking trucks, which took place recently.
Last year several attacks took place on UK operators. French farmers threatened to block the motorways to Paris and held demonstrations at French ports, and British drivers leaving Calais were pelted with bricks.
At least one French driver was attacked in the UK in retali ation He stopped to help a car load of people he thought were in difficulty on the M2 in Kent but was beaten up and left with a fractured skull.
Marsh says his drivers are worried by the attack. 'But they realise they have a job to do, and they will do it so long as they do not have to put themselves at risk," he says. His company is now preparing a report for the French police and will press for compensation.
The National Farmers Union has condemned the attacks by the French farmers, but it accepts that it is hard for the French police to find the offenders: "It's wildcat, unofficial action," says Martin Haworth, NFU head of international affairs. "But luckily it seems to be sporadic with no systematic campaign."