Word: tunisia
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...casualties (79 dead, 130 wounded) inflicted by the French air force were women and children. Blandly ignoring these facts, Gaillard insisted that "the majority of the victims were soldiers of the Algerian F.L.N." and that, in.any case, responsibility for the attack must be laid at the door of Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba for allowing Algerian rebel forces to use Sakiet as a base of operations. "It is evident," ended Gaillard coolly, "that the French government does not recognize culpability in this affair...
...Give us arms! Give us arms!" L'Action, official organ of Bourguiba's Neo-Destour Party, editorialized: "To be respected in 1958 one can no longer be a friend of the West. The day that Bourguiba decides to follow the path set by Nehru, Tito and Nasser, Tunisia will no longer be lied about and attacked. She will be wooed." Cooed Beirut's El Massa: "Turn to Cairo, 0 Habib. Turn to the Arab Republic, to the camp of neutralism and to dignity and sovereignty...
...that his only hope of heading off a national swing to neutralism lay in putting himself at the head of the anti-French parade. Bourguiba ordered 400 French civilians out of the Tunisian-Algerian border area "for security reasons," demanded that France close five of her ten consulates in Tunisia, directed his U.N. delegation to request an immediate Security Council debate on the Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef bombing. In his most drastic move he also demanded immediate withdrawal of the 22,000 troops that France has been permitted to leave in Tunisia even after the establishment of full Tunisian independence...
...canal at the entrance to the great naval base of Bizerte to bar the entrance of further French vessels. At other bases, food supplies were shut off. When a French diplomat formally requested permission to revictual the garrison, Vice Premier Bahi Ladgham told him coldly: "Leave Tunisia and you can find all the food you need." Should the French try to force their way in or out of the bases, warned Bourguiba, "it will mean war." Breathing defiance, he took to the radio to proclaim: "Today I am the President of the Republic, but I will be the first...
...French press all but forgot the bombing in their outrage at Bourguiba's move. Foreign Minister Christian Pineau announced that France had offered to negotiate withdrawal of her forces from Tunisia, but only if Bourguiba ceased his "pressure and provocation." Declared Pineau grandiloquently: "France intends to defend her interests, and the Tunisian government must understand their sacred character." To offset Bourguiba's U.N. appeal, Pineau lodged a countercomplaint with the Security Council, charging, accurately enough, that Tunisia had permitted Algerian rebels to operate from Tunisian soil. Said Pineau: "We are the accusers...