Agca fired at Pope John Paul as he waved to crowds in Rome
PARIS -- As a 24-year-old intern in a Paris office of Adecco, one of the world's largest hiring agencies for temporaries, Gerald Roffat interviewed dozens of job applicants in 2000. He rated them according to skills -- PR1 for the best candidates -- and by skin color. PR4 was primarily for black job seekers.
When Roffat questioned this system of segregating applicants, he recalled in an interview, a colleague told him: "It's better to respect the choices of the client. If they don't want a black guy, you have to send what the client wants. It's business." The clients that refused to accept black employees for their most visible service jobs included some of the city's best-known hotels, restaurants and department stores, as well as local government agencies and the Foreign Ministry, according to Roffat, whose parents immigrated to France from the West Indies. Other clients, among them the Disneyland Resort Paris theme park, imposed limits on the number of black workers they accepted, he said.
Adecco, which is based in Zurich, with 1,100 offices in France and more than 5,000 in the United States and other countries, is now the target of a French discrimination complaint alleging that it violated the rights of at least 1,500 applicants by denying them jobs based on the color of their skin. Tristan d'Avezac, a spokesman for Adecco, declined to comment on specifics of the complaint, citing a continuing investigation. But he said that in 2000 the company imposed a policy aimed at ending racial discrimination in its operations. "Discrimination is a reality in the labor market in France," d'Avezac said. "It is clearly the reason why we have this action plan."
The French republic was founded on the ideal of equality of all citizens. But the allegations against Adecco suggest that discrimination is embedded and tolerated at the highest levels of business and government here. "The official position of France is that we're all equal," said Jean-Pierre Dubois, president of the French Human Rights League. "The problem is that it's not true. French businesses and the French people are not yet used to diversity."
Human rights organizations allege that some laws -- intended to be so racially blind that private companies are prohibited from collecting statistics on numbers of minority employees -- are used routinely to conceal poor hiring records and protect companies that discriminate.
French leaders' refusal to acknowledge the extent of these practices in government, society and business contributed to the rage that exploded in 300 cities across France in October and November, many people here believe. Youths in poor immigrant communities set fire to more than 10,000 cars and scores of government buildings and private businesses in the country's worst civil unrest in nearly four decades. France's leadership has since begun to publicly address issues of discrimination. But so far, minority populations have seen little sign of political will to address the situation long-term.
"What made me sick was the people at Adecco didn't think they were discriminating," said Roffat, who quit his job in December 2000 and wrote to SOS Racism, one of France's leading anti-discrimination organizations, describing the company's classification system. That two-page letter became the catalyst for the complaint against Adecco. Christophe Makela, 44, a Congolese who was given temporary work through Adecco and has joined the lawsuit, said he was once assigned as a dishwasher by the company even though he had training as a cook. "They said I wasn't a strong enough candidate to be a cook," Makela said. "Now I realize it was a pretext."
In the lawsuit, Roffat and other former employees at the company's Montparnasse office have testified that in 2000 they were using race-based classification systems for applicants. After candidates completed applications, the forms were marked with the notation "BBR" or "NBBR," according to Roffat, SOS Racism, documents and witnesses interviewed by police and labor investigators during the five-year probe.
BBR, shorthand for " bleu , blanc , rou ge ," or "blue, white, red" -- the colors of the French flag -- identified white candidates, said Samuel Thomas, vice president of SOS Racism. NBBR meant "no blue, white, red," and denoted black and other nonwhite candidates, Thomas said. When the candidates' names were entered into computer databases, the BBR and NBBR were replaced with the categories PR1 for the best candidates (most candidates in this category were white), PR2 for average applicants or PR4, primarily for black candidates, though a few union activists and other people deemed potentially undesirable were included, according to documents and witnesses. Thomas said about 95 percent of those assigned to the PR4 category were black. No PR3 category existed.
"We identified 50 big companies that gave orders to discriminate," Thomas said. "Sometimes we had clients with restaurants who asked for waiters -- only white, no blacks," said Roffat. "Cafeterias in schools or workplaces didn't want blacks as well. It was very frustrating. Most of our applicants were people of color, and we had to refuse them. We couldn't place them." Thomas said that in 2000 as many as 70 percent of all job candidates in the Montparnasse office were black. Adecco spokesman d'Avezac said he could not provide figures on the racial composition of the workforce: "No one is allowed to have any statistics, based on the fact that everybody is equal." D'Avezac said Adecco launched its anti-discrimination program after an internal investigation discovered that "we were having problems in the context of questions with clients." D'Avezac said some clients used coded phrases to describe the kinds of temporary hires they desired. "A client doesn't say, 'I don't want blacks,' " d'Avezac said. "He says, 'I want people who are not from the suburbs. You know what I mean?' " Most of Paris's subsidized housing, where many low-income immigrants and their French-born children reside, is located in suburbs surrounding the city. According to d'Avezac, the company's current policy requires Adecco employees to avoid complicity or compliance with such discriminatory demands. He said they are now trained to respond, "No, I don't know what you mean."
Documents and testimony collected by government investigators and SOS Racism, and testimony from Roffat and other former employees, show that in 2000 some Adecco employees initiated offers to segregate applicants for clients. Roffat said he once overheard an Adecco officer speaking on the telephone with a new client. "I heard him say, 'Okay, you want people to work in the restaurant?' " Roffat recalled. " 'Would it bother you if it was a person of color? I'm asking you this because I know some clients don't want them.' " At this point, it's not the client saying don't send people of color, said Roffat, but "the people who worked in this company asking the client to make the distinction." Case records show that Adecco employees have said they were told by Disney employees that minority referrals to Disney could not exceed about 20 percent. "We can't accept that mentality," SOS Racism's Thomas said. "You should never choose anyone because of color." Pieter Boterman, a spokesman for Disneyland Resort Paris, declined to comment, citing the continuing investigation. He added, "Racism is absolutely not tolerated at Disney Resort Paris, as well as any other form of discrimination."
Roffat said the Foreign Ministry was one of the government agencies that refused to accept black workers at some of its diplomatic events. Roffat said an Adecco colleague told him that ministry officials didn't want to offend visiting African diplomats by having black Africans serving as waiters.
"I don't know why they're making these allegations," said a ministry spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, following ministry policy. He said the people hired as temporary workers for diplomatic functions "are diverse -- they're from Tunisia, Asia, Africa." Makela, the former temporary worker now involved in the lawsuit, is a soft-spoken man with ebony skin. He said he knew nothing about the systemic discrimination while he was being assigned jobs through Adecco. He realized, however, that he was given many jobs beneath his training. Like other temporary workers at Adecco, Makela said he learned about the labeling system when he was approached by SOS Racism after his name turned up on the list of at least 1,500 workers categorized as PR4. He broke off with Adecco and applied to a competing employment agency. "The first job I had I saw the difference," Makela said. "Instead of police station cafeterias, I was sent to hotels and good restaurants."
Nearly five years have passed since SOS Racism filed its complaint against Adecco and authorities seized company records and computer data. Thomas said the case's slow crawl through the French judicial system is symptomatic of the government's failure to confront one of the country's worst social problems. Thomas had his first meeting with a judge on Sept. 12. The judge will determine whether SOS Racism and police and labor investigators have assembled enough evidence to take the case to court.
Judge Jean-Louis Peries, who is now responsible for the case, said in an interview that he was not allowed to discuss details of an ongoing case. Peries, who said he currently oversees at least 60 different cases, ranging from street crimes to war crimes, sat behind a desk stacked with files in Paris's ornate Palais de Justice. Asked to rank the importance of discrimination cases on his large docket, Peries said, "Every case is important for a victim. But I think murder may be more important. There's more urgency in a murder, so this kind of case comes after." Xavier Espinasse, chief of the Paris police unit responsible for investigating crimes of repression, echoed many of the judge's concerns. The unit's 60 investigators and officers are responsible for 140 categories of offenses including health hazards, art forgeries, hate crimes and racial, sexual, age and ethnic discrimination. "Racial discrimination is very difficult to prove," Espinasse said. "They always find an excuse: 'It's not my fault, it's the boss, I was following orders -- like war crimes.' "
Foreign ministers from the UK, France and Germany have said the time has come for Iran's nuclear issue to be dealt with by the UN Security Council.
They called for an emergency session of the UN's nuclear watchdog, which can refer Iran to the council and lead to possible sanctions.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed the move, saying Iran had crossed an "important threshold".
Iran, which resumed nuclear research this week, said it was not worried.
And UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the BBC Iranian officials had told him they remained "interested in serious and constructive negotiations".
The US and members of the EU have accused Iran of covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.
Confidence 'tested'
In a joint press conference with his UK and French counterparts after emergency talks in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said two-and-half years of negotiations between Germany, France, the UK - the so-called EU three - and Iran could go no further.
He said the EU's confidence had been "repeatedly tested" by Iran, adding that Iran's resumption of work at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility on Tuesday constituted a "unilateral rejection" of the talks process.
"We believe the time has now come for the Security Council to become involved to reinforce the authority of IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] resolutions," Mr Steinmeier said.
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said extensive proposals had been made to Iran, including the prospect of World Trade Organization membership.
The US secretary of state meanwhile gave the EU three Washington's firm backing.
Speaking to reporters, Condoleezza Rice said Iran was "in dangerous defiance of the entire international community".
A Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Vladimir Ivanov, told the BBC that his country also did not exclude the possibility of referring Iran to the Security Council.
Russia has previously defended Iran's right to nuclear technology.
Iran 'unperturbed'
Iran meanwhile dismissed the threat of Security Council action.
"We should not be worried," said Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, deputy to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.
Following the European ministers' meeting, the UN chief called Mr Larijani and urged him to "avoid any escalation, to exercise restraint, go back to give the negotiations a chance".
Mr Larijani told him Iran remained "interested in serious and constructive negotiations, but within a time-frame".
The crisis over Iran's nuclear programme intensified this week after Iran removed seals at three nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, following a two-year freeze.
Since last August, Iran has resumed all nuclear activity apart from enrichment, which can produce fuel for power stations or, under certain conditions, for bombs.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
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Agca fired at Pope John Paul as he waved to crowds in Rome
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Mehmet Ali Agca has been imprisoned in the Turkish city of Istanbul, for other offences, since being extradited in 2000 after 19 years in Italian jails.
The 48-year-old wants to work for democracy upon his release, his lawyer told the Associated Press.
Agca shot the pope in St Peter's Square in 1981.The pontiff later visited him in jail and publicly forgave him.
The gunman was pardoned by the Italian authorities in 2000 and extradited to Turkey, where he was jailed for crimes unconnected to the papal shooting.
Last week, a Turkish court approved a prison document saying Agca has completed his term for those offences.
Agca's lawyer, Mustafa Demirbag, said his client was relishing the prospect of freedom after some 25 years in prison and wanted to put the assassination attempt behind him.
"He says: 'I want to extend the hand of peace and friendship to everyone. I want to engage a struggle for democracy and culture'," Mr Demirbag told AP.
Soviet 'involvement'
Agca was a 23-year-old known criminal with links to Turkish far-right paramilitaries at the time of the attack in Rome.
The motive for the attack remains a mystery, but there were claims that the Soviet KGB, the secret service of the former East Germany, the Stasi, and its Bulgarian counterpart were involved.
One of Italy's most respected magistrates in the 1980s, who probed the attack at the time, warned on Wednesday that Agca's life was at risk because of the many secrets he knows.
Ferdinando Imposimato is convinced of Soviet bloc involvement. The Pope at the time was preaching a message that challenged Soviet Communism's collectivist ideology.
"I think the Turkish government should guarantee Agca's security because he knows so many secrets and he may be killed," he said in an interview with Reuters Television.
"The best thing would be to keep him in jail," he said.
Agca fired several times at the late Pope John Paul II as he waved to crowds from an open car.
The critically wounded pontiff underwent emergency surgery for serious wounds to the abdomen and hand. According to his own account, he only just survived.
He met his attacker two years later in an Italian prison, when he publicly forgave him.
Agca was jailed in Turkey in 2000 for the 1979 murder of a left-wing Turkish journalist and two bank robberies.
Spanish Defence Minister Jose Bono has said comments by a general suggesting military intervention in Catalonia are not supported by the armed forces.
Lieutenant-General Jose Mena Aguado was put under house arrest after saying the army could be deployed if autonomy plans violated the constitution.
Mr Bono is also expected to recommend the general's dismissal as head of the army's ground forces.
A statute on more autonomy for Catalonia is being debated by MPs.
A first reading of the plan, which included giving the affluent region rights to control taxation and change laws passed by parliament, was approved by 197 votes to 146 by the Spanish parliament in November.
But it still has to be amended to comply with Spain's constitution. The issue has divided the ruling Socialist Party and infuriated conservatives, who say it will cause Spain to break up.
Lt Gen Mena told an audience of military officers on Friday that the army would have a constitutional right to intervene if Catalonia received too much self-government.
His comments triggered a swift response from the government - it placed him under an eight-day house arrest - and may have reminded Spaniards of their troubled past.
The Civil War was followed by four decades of military rule under General Francisco Franco, until his death in 1975.
The fledgling democracy that followed was threatened by a coup attempt led by Colonel Antonio Tejero on 23 February 1981 - resolved only by the intervention of King Juan Carlos.
Limitations
On Monday, Mr Bono appeared on Spanish radio and television reassuring people that Lt Gen Mena's comments were down to a "one-off piece of indiscipline".
He told radio Cadena Ser that democracy had to emanate "from the ballot box and not the barracks".
The general's comments breached the political neutrality required of all members of the military, he told Canal 24 Horas television.
"The military, like lawyers, priests and building workers, have political views," he said. "But there are limitations that they accepted when they swore their oath and accepted membership of the military."
Mr Bono added that the general had told him categorically that he had written the speech on his own and "that nobody had induced him to say what he said".
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