"France to reconsider building third airport near military cemetery"

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

France to reconsider building third airport near military cemetery
Canada - The Toronto Star


Paris, The threat to the graves of 376 Commonwealth soldiers, including
138 Canadians who died on the Somme during the First World War may be
lifted.

The new French government said this week plans to build a third
international airport in the region could be scrapped.

Under a proposal announced last November by the previous Socialist
government, the Commonwealth cemetery at Fouquescourt in northern France
was to be moved to make way for the new airport.

Plans to remove the graves -- from land ceded by France in perpetuity --
have provoked anger in Canada, England and Australia from both
governments and the families of the soldiers. Among the Canadian dead in
Fouquescourt are James Tait of Winnipeg who won the Victoria Cross and
Bill Riches of Brantford who was profiled in The Hamilton Spectator last
Saturday

But the 3.5 billion airport seems certain to be shelved after the
transport minister, Gilles de Robien, part of the new Right-wing
government sworn in by President Chirac Tuesday, said that it needed to
be completely reconsidered.

"We need to look at the whole thing again from scratch," said M de
Robien, who -- as deputy mayor of Amiens --campaigned against the
project when it was first announced last year. "We need to look at
whether there is a real need for this third airport. And if we do, begin
a genuine process of consultation to find out where it should go."

His comments offer at least a reprieve for French, German and
Commonwealth graves from the First World War on the proposed site. Work
on the 10,000-hectare airport was due to begin in 2005, and to be
completed between 2015 and 2020.

"This is wonderful news," said Roy Hemington, spokesman for the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France. "We had no idea of this
change of heart." Hemington said 1,000 Commonwealth servicemen buried at
Bouchoir cemetery on the edge of the site might have been incorporated
into the airport's design without the need for exhumations.

Rey Pagtakhan, the Canadian Minister of Veterans Affairs, travelled to
France last month to register Canadian opposition to the removal of any
Canadian graves.

The news of an apparent change of heart was welcomed by Gord Riches of
Brantford, grandson of Bill Riches who died on the Somme in 1918. "If
they're giving it another thought, that's excellent. I hope the French
government has seen the light and is doing the right thing. I mean
France is a pretty big place, I'm sure they can find another place to
put an airport rather than over top a cemetery that's there for an
honourable purpose."


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