Word: french
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...outcome of the trial had never been in doubt. The evidence against Barbie was overwhelming. From the testimony of French Jews and Resistance fighters, Barbie's chief victims, came a portrait of a particularly brutal fanatic with a taste for sadism. In his final, calm but chilling summing up, Prosecutor Pierre Truche said, "This is not the trial of a German but of a torturer. It is of a man still loyal to his Nazi ideals...
After Verges finished his closing arguments, the court ordered that Barbie be brought in to hear the 341 charges against him. Asked if he had anything to say, Barbie, looking frail in a gray suit, light blue shirt and necktie, replied in French, "I did not carry out the arrests ((of the 44 Jewish children)). I did not have the authority to order the deportations. I fought hard against the Resistance, which I respect. That was war, and the war is over...
...when Barbie was deported to France by Bolivia, where he had fled to avoid prosecution, many believed that he would never be brought to court because he knew too much about treachery and informants within the French Resistance. Indeed, Barbie had bragged that he would reveal the extent of French collaboration with the Nazi occupiers. Many French feared the result would rip open barely healed wartime divisions among themselves. It turned out, however, that the French followed the trial with calm rather than passion. The proceedings were regarded almost as a history lesson rather than an occasion to refight painful...
Following up on Verges' theme, M'Bemba cited the 1947 murder of thousands of rebellious Africans by French settlers in Madagascar. "Can we judge Barbie after what happened then?" asked M'Bemba. "If there is a race that has been perpetually oppressed from slavery until now, it is the Negro race." When the Congolese lawyer said he had shaken Barbie's hand as a mark of respect when he met him, a murmur ran through the courtroom. M'Bemba snapped back, "I can understand your reaction. You have not lived what I have lived...
...Douglas announced combined sales of $2.9 billion. But once again the U.S. was outclassed. Western Europe's Airbus Industrie consortium brought along its new jetliner, the twin-engine A320, which has amassed orders worth as much as $14.5 billion even before getting its final certification for passenger service. A French exhibitor summed up the bottom line in Paris for an American colleague: "This was not your best year...