THE SQUATTERS OF THE PARC MONCEAU

Facing the housing crisis, students and young professionals identify and requisition buildings in Paris beautiful neighborhoods.

It is a luxurious squat for young people who are broke, but don't look like ordinary illegal occupants. Most are students and have small jobs. On Rio-de-Janeiro square, in the very select eighth arrondissement of Paris, they are thirty to occupy in a "bourgeois" way five floors Haussmann buildings. Nothing to do with an alternative place. The outbreak of real estate over the action of the "Jeudi Noir" groupe originated the "Parc Monceau squatters." In ten years, the number of evictions for unpaid rent was multiplied by 2.5.

Y's Tokyo

A day with with Yohji Yamamoto in Tokyo

CUBA in suspense.

For almost 50 years the Republic of Cuba was led by Fidel Castro, starting when he took position as the head of the revolutionary army on January 1, 1959. The “Lider Maximo” passed the power on to his brother Raul CASTRO last February.

Life here is worth nothing. More than ten years after the peace agreement which put an end to the longest (36 years) and most bloody civil war in Central America, the violence has not abated in Guatemala, remaining the major preoccupation of the population. Guatemala has not finished counting its dead.

They are doctors, entrepreneurs, lawyers... Like Michelle Obama, the wife of the Democratic candidate, they are black, live in Chicago and make a dazzling career. An upward mobility which they want to be a model for their community.

Slavery in France was abolished in 1848. Yet it has not disappeared. 334 cases of slavery were reported in 2007 by the CCEM (Commitee Against Modern Slavery).Poverty,discrimination and social exclusion feed all forms of modern slavery. The most frequent form concerns domestic slavery.

Two groups have recently become very visible in the US due to the presidential campaign, the American blacks and the Muslims.
With Barack Hussein Obama possibly becoming America’s next president, some light is being shed at what it means today to be black and/or Muslim in the US. But the whole story away from the stereotypes and clichés is rarely revealed. Muslim Americans are among the most well integrated and affluent of immigrant groups in the US, but ironically also one of the most feared.

For many Americans, the introduction to Islam came on a bright September morning in 2001.  The effect on America's more than seven million Muslims was immediate and lasting.  Suspicion of people of Muslim origin has subsequently grown in much of the Western world with little distinction being made between extremist Islamic fundamentalists on the one hand and incredibly diverse Muslim communities on the other. The military debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ferocity of armed resistance and suicide attacks against U.S. troops and their allies furthermore fueled American fears that Islam is a threat to the West.

When American Muslims became objects of fear and their relative invisibility disappeared, many who had never defined themselves as Muslims had no choice but to see themselves as one. Thus for American Muslims a lasting conflict arose between their religious believes and their loyalties to a country that had become home.

Even though cultural stereotypes about Muslims are increasingly finding their way onto Hollywood’s cinema screens, the realities of being a follower of Islam in America, since  the War on Terror, are rarely discussed. Whether they are Yemeni, Iraqi, Palestinian, North-African, Pakistani or Indonesian, whether they live in big cities or small towns in the United States they are all part of the same story: that of the Muslim-American.

The Joda region is at the heart of the exploitation of iron in Orissa, India. It contains the largest iron ore deposits in Asia. Several large mining companies want a piece of the action. In this region, daily life is a hell on earth.

After 30 years of civil war, Angola is a ruined country.Landmines litter the countryside,47% of the population is aged 14 or under and women outnumber male survivors of the war by 10 to 1. But since 2007,Angola has edged out Saudi Arabia as the leading provider of crude oil to China while 70 % of its population lives below the poverty line.
 

 Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. established in 1783. Dickinson was founded by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and named in honor of a signer of the Constitution, John Dickinson.

A report on Baghdads’ coed University of Engineering.Despite the inter communal violence which is tearing Irak apart,Baghdad University has remained a place of peace and freedom where  young men and women of all religions can meet without being subjected to the pressure of radical militias.

The Baghdadis exhausted by five years of war want to live. Ending the civil war and militia. While the fights ravage Sadr City, 15 kilometers away, residents of the capital are having small pleasures. The Baghdadis have tea again on Café terraces, and the wedding ceremonies are back in Babylone Hotel. All these little things were inconceivable only a few months ago.

Copsa Mica is one of the most polluted city in Europe. Until 1993, two factories were responsible for the pollution. Today the only one left is Sometra which produces by chemical or electrolytic process, colored metals from different ores. The Sometra factory rejects sulfur dioxide and other heavy metals (cadmium and lead) in the atmosphere.

"The populations of the Central African Republic are attacked from all sides. They have been subjected to assaults from bandits, their own army and now the Chadian army". Human Rights Watch.

Since 2006,and for the first time,a descendant of the native population is in charge of Bolivia.A choice which has stirred the pride of Andean peasants who have been oppressed for decades,yet has revealed the split between the races which divides the country.

Under UN protection since June 1999, the Albanians of Kosovo declared their independance on February 17,2008. Since 1999 more than 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo and 22,000 more have abandoned their apartements or houses to find refuge in nearby village enclaves. And while albanian villages are draped in flags and banners, resembling the aftermath of a national holiday, the serbian ghettos yield to misery and desperation.

While downtown Liverpool is changing drastically to become the capital of European culture Toxteh district seems to be fossilized, abandoned. 

Caritas has been in Aceh and Nias island since 2004, working on a group of humanitarian projects. It also works for the rehabilitation of former rebels of the GAM in the civil society.

In 2014,visitors from around the world will come to Sotchi,in the Caucasus,for the XXI Olympic Winter Games.A pharaonic project.A biathalon and cross- country skiing complex,bobsled runs,roads,metro lines;all to be built.

Between January and October 2007, there had been 546 racist attacks in Russia provoking the death of 56 persons. 150 « extremist » groups are in action in Russia. Reportage in the Slave Union organization, supporter of a Russian national socialism.

Beatings, confiscation of land, administrative pressure, corruption, fabricated reports by experts... Xiditou's militia guarantees that families remain silent.

With an unemployment rate of more than 50%, Kosovo is undermined by corruption.
Under United Nation’s authority, for eight years, the population grows poorer. 
In Mitrovica, city, symbol of the division between the two communities, the situation has not evolved that much since the end of the war. Many displaced Serb, Albanian and Rrom families still live in slums, and don’t believe in promises from their politics nor from the international community.

Since the 2003 beginning of the conflict in Iraq, the neighboring country of Syria has received about one million five hundred refugees. 
The majority of Iraqi refugees are living in Damascus and its surrounding suburbs. Saida Zaynab, on the outskirts of Damascus, is known as “Iraq Street”, as more than 350,000 Iraqis have moved into the area over the past few years. Most of them are living off of their savings. They come from all confessions - Shias, Sunnis and Christians – and from all social origins. They fled from the chaos and daily violence, torture and kidnappings they were suffering in their homeland. As they found shelter and security in Syria, they were also met with a certain precariousness and the wrench of uprooting.

The Securitate was the secret Romanian police under the communist era. One of its main goal was to eradicate the dissidence in Romania. Created in 1948, with the help of the KGB, it consolidated a regime based on terror: deportation, murders, tortures of dissidents. Classified for a long time, the archives of the Securitate are now available for consultation by the Romanian citizens.

Since the 1962 coup, the militaries hold all the country’s wealth, confiscating the lands and the goods or using hard labor. The junta in power since 1989 maintains the population in a state of continuous oppression.

Those who sleep at night, no need to go there. In Dakar, night has a meaning. Jazz clubs, nightclubs, each place has its own time. Night in Dakar has a good future. After the glory of the Senghor years, the world festival of negro arts and clubs with mythical names (the Fouquet’s, the Keur Samba…), after the recession of the 70’s, the drought, the end of the international aids, after the boom of the 80’s, Dakar found the rage and sense of party again.

It is said that the Amazons were tribes of women warriors in the East of Ukraine, in the Donesk area. They are back nowadays in the Carpathian mountains.

One week in a French supermarket.

For the French ELLE magazine.

The streets of Guatemala City, Guatemala’s ultra-violent capital, now rank among the most dangerous worldwide. In addition to the ruthless war waged between armed gangs (“Maras”), narcotrafficking and near-cultural violence (weapons are sold openly) cause an average of 20 deaths per day in the Guatemalan capital.

China is exploiting the Mekong with eight dam projects.
However for tens of millions of residents downstream, China's efforts to manage the Mekong also threaten their way of life.
In China two dams are completed, keeping the water in China, depriving Thailand, Lao and Cambodia of their silt, their fishes and their rice...

For TIME Magazine.

In the midst of repeated violence between Israelis and Palestinians, local Mediterranean beaches abound with nearby residents in search of relaxation and fun. At odds in daily life, they find similar pleasures along the same coast, bathing in the same sea. When crossing the Erez checkpoint marking the entrance into the Palestinian Territories, one faces a violent contrast.

Today, Chechnya is rebuilding under Kadirov’s iron hand. In less than a year, Grozny, the martyr city has totally changed and looks like a new city.

In may 2007, Palestinian refugees try to escape from the fights opposing the Lebanese army to the militias of the group Fatah Al-Islam entrenched in Nahr Al-Bared's Palestinian refugee camp which population is estimated up to 40 000 persons.

Sparkling skirts, thundering soundtrack and sexy sway of the hips...The majorettes are definitely back and make their eternal baton spin around all France.
Reportage in the country of queens of rythm and villages.

For ELLE France.

Since 1993, close to 400 women were murdered in monstrous conditions in Ciudad Juarez. 10 years after the first victim’s murder, discovered in the desert between the United States and Mexico, the authorities still cannot set out those responsible for the massacre, or give a convincing explanation for the tragedy.

Ambitious, gigantic and under international scrutiny, India has a plan: to become an economic giant among nations. After centuries of submission under the British Empire and fifty years of sluggish independance,the asian elephant has awakened. Today the economic reforms begun in 1991 are clearly visible.

For the French daily newspaper ''Le Monde'', Michael Zumstein follows the French electoral campaign.

For the French daily newspaper ''Le Monde'', Michael Zumstein follows the French electoral campaign.

On July 12, 2006, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah Shiite militia, Israel has launched during 34 days, an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon. An Israeli land offensive that started on August 9, had met a strong resistance of the Shiite militiamen. The toughest fights happened in the village of Bent Jbeil, at the border. Return in Southern Lebanon seven months after.

Since April 3rd, when pro Western President Viktor Yushchenko decided the Parliament dissolution, pro Russian supporters of Prime minister Viktor Yanukovych demonstrate in the center of Kiev.

A rally to commemorate the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Beirut. February 14, 2007.

Forgotten of the economic growth, three fourth of the Chinese farmers live under the poverty line.
They have to migrate inside their own country, becoming mingongs, migrant workers without working license.
Exploited, displaced, without any social protection, without any education, this low cost workforce, at the mercy of the corrupted powers start again everyday, at the risk of their life, the ''Chinese economical miracle.''

Commissioned by the French Ministry for Culture & Communication (National Center for Visual Arts).

Unfairly accused of inoculate Libyan children with the virus of AIDS in a hospital in the Nort East of the country, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor stagnate in Kaddafi's jails.

Night wanderings in the cities, villages and countryside of India. Capture an essence of India, the one of its "streets." Indian street show is generous. One work, drink, washes...one makes many other things outside.

In Paris close Northern suburb, facing Saint Denis’ Stade de France (the stadium) is located the Fratellini circus academy, the most recent circus academy in Europe.

In a report published on September 14, 2007, Human Rights Watch denounces the crimes and serious blows to the human rights comitted by the Central African leadership as well as the passivity of the French army. More than 260 000 Central Africans had been internally displaced.

The war in Iraq has driven nearly 4 millions people from their homes.
As many as 2 millions have fled the country, seeking safety abroad-and robbing the nation of its best and brightest, in what Refugees International calls the fastest-growing crisis in the world. As detailed in the stories that follow, the burden of coping with this exodus has fallen most heavily on Iraq's neighbors, such as Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, who have absorbed the vast majority of exiles. An inside look at those Iraqis in their new life, away from their land and too often, in total resignation.

In Russia, more and more people join « youth organizations », with friendly slogans and huge fairs. But under the so called spontaneity, everything seems to bear the mark of the Kremlin master.

How to seduce a rich man? In Russia, the coach has a simple answer:
No speaking, bringing out the body and nailing the fish.
In Moscow and in the most big Russian cities, this kind of business is increasing.
Welcome to Vladimir Raovski's seduction school.

A digital essay.

Summer 2006. One farmer commits suicide every eight hours in the Vidarbha, region in eastern Maharashtra, the cotton belt of India. This tragic situation went from 122 suicides in 2002, 622 in 2004, to more than 1300 in 2006… leaving behind it entire families in a profound despair and hundred of villages very worried. A crisis with pure political origins, and an outward sign of a deep agrarian crisis unequalled since the Green Revolution of the 70s.

Mexico: A world without men

"So far from God, too close to the US." By this fatalistic expression, Mexicans summarize their living conditions. Numerous Mexican villages are populated almost exclusively by women, children and the elderly, as men immigrate to the United States for work.

In a report published on September 14, 2007, Human Rights Watch denounces the crimes and serious blows to the human rights comitted by the Central African leadership as well as the passivity of the French army. More than 260 000 Central Africans had been internally displaced.

Shanxi province is responsible for one third of the coal production countrywide. From North to South, all the way from Datong to Linfen, all cities and surrounding countryside are devoted to coalminig industry. The greed for energy consumes its servants ruthlessly, even though they once were heroes of Maoism: only for last November, over 200 coalminers died in Shanxi province. They are usually ‘Mingongs’, illegal migrant workers. They have run away from their countryside home towards the coalmine Eldorado where they risk their life to provide an income to their family.

Commissioned by the French Ministry for Culture & Communication (National Center for Visual Arts).

Somaliland is an unrecognized de facto state located in northwest Somalia in the Horn of Africa. On May 18th, 1991, Somaliland people declared an independent Republic of Somaliland that now includes five of the eighteen administrative regions of Somalia, roughly the region between Ethiopia, Djibouti , Gulf of Aden and the former Italian Somaliland, an area of about 137,600 square kilometres. The capital of Somaliland is Hargeisa. Although not recognized by any government, this entity has maintained a stable existence, due in part to the dominance of a ruling clan.

They are raised by their grandmother or their older sister. Their parents have left for Italy to get their family out of poverty. So the children grow up looking for landmarks in these Romanian villages emptied from their young adults.

Portraits of Natives in the traditional outfit during a traditional ceremony in Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada. April 2006.

Evo Morales Bolivia

Since 1990, young women disapear along Highway 16, a road crossing British Columbia. It has been 15 years that the investigation doesn't go anywhere.Some women are found dead on the side of the road, some are still missing. The road of tears has become a symbol for the British Columbia natives.
Disgust by the public power's indifference, they want justice to get interested in this gruesome mystery.

Fifteen years have past between the fall of Berlin’s wall until european Union’s enlargement to the East. On May 1st, 2004, three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), five Central Europe countries (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia) and two Mediterranean (Cyprus and Malta) have joined the Union.

« We the Cossacks exist since the beginning of times, we are a free people and we have always been fighting for our freedom against the Ottoman Empire, against the Polish, then against the Russians. The communist regime used to oppress us, but since 1991, we get out of the shadow. »

While in the train, you can come across off-duty but armed military, on-duty military extorting passengers, women giving birth, pastors preaching, and illegal voyagers dangerously installed on train car roofs. The tracks aren’t cared for, and the train often derails. The train keeps on chugging in spite of it all. To sum it up, the “Kambelembele” is a metaphor for the Democratic Republic of Congo itself.

Ten days with a police squad in Paris XII...

For Libération - June 2006.

Video

At Huoshanzi School - Guizhou province - China.

Video

At Huoshanzi school - Guizhou province.

From '' They just turned 80 ''
by Samuel Bollendorff.
Video 16/9. 52 mns. Mk tv Production.

The movie relates a year in the life of the Geriatrics department of the Houdan hospital.

Disney, Hasbro, Mattel… Mickey, Spiderman, Barbie… They produce most of them.
They are called mingongs, « farmer-workers ». They come massively from the rural regions to work in the factories of the coastal regions of China. There are about 200 millions of them.
This unexpensive labour force, without social security, without access to health care or education right for their children, produces, 12 hours a day and seven days a week, 75 percent of the toys sold worldwide.
They earn 30 Euros a month.

Commissioned by the French Ministry for Culture & Communication (National Center for Visual Arts).

The food situation, particularly among pastoralists in drought-affected areas of Kenya, continues to deteriorate. Pre-famine conditions were already evident in the northeastern region. Should the 2006 long-rains season be similarly unfavorable, there could be a serious humanitarian and livelihood catastrophe.

This street with a rich past stigmatizes today the xenophobic behavior and the resentments of an exasperated population.
A strong feeling of surrender emanates from its inhabitants.

Purity Balls are an initiative of the Clearinghouse Abstinence Organisation in South Dakota, and represent one of the concrete examples of sexual abstinence among American youth. The balls are exclusively reserved for young girls escorted by their fathers.
The promotion of sexual abstinence before marriage is one of the many wars waged by the ultraconservative religious right.

A Silver Ring Thing evening in Charleston, West Virginia, march 2006. The Silver Ring Thing is a teen abstinence program.

Albany, January 2006.
Return to Shkodra. The city hasn’t changed: beaten-up roads, the electricity cut off several times a day. It’s cold.

Lukashenko, the authoritative president of Byelorussia, has decided to impose local beauties in advertising and fashion shows. Using the pretext of protecting the models and putting an end to the traffic of women, agencies are harassed and foreign brands are obligated to photograph Byelorussian beauties for their billboards.

About the ''SISTERS IN LAW'' Documentary. A film by Florence Ayisi and Kim Longinotto.

Ready-to-Wear. paris - Winter 2006.
Backstage by Samuel Bollendorff...

 for LE MONDE

Official visit to Xinjiang.

As Tibet province, Chinese have occupied Xinjiang for fifty years.
In expectation of the 2008 Olympic Games,
Chinese authorities organize official photography campaigns.

Following the November 2005 riots in the French suburbs, freelance writer Gert Van Langendonck and photographer Karim Ben Khelifa decided to rent a flat for two months in one of France's most notorious projects, 'Les Minguettes' in Lyons, in order to get a sense of what led to the outbreak of violence.

A groupe of teenagers of the evangelical church called God's Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, gets together to read and study the Bible. The organization is typical for an evangelical assembly : pyramidal structure, grouping by affinities and interests out of the Sunday cult. This is how the permanent contact with the biblical principles on everyone's lives is maintained and fed.

Founded by the Nigerian pastor Sunday Adelaja 12 years ago in Kiev, the Embassy of God has become the biggest evangelical mega-church in Europe, with almost 25,000 members in Kiev alone. Present in 32 countries, with 425 churches, the goal of the church-goers here is to attain a thousand churches in 2007.

For the 4 to 5 millions muslims in France, where Islam became the second largest religion, the country has 1600 registered mosques. They are the proof of the immigrant history. Thrity years ago, they were build near immigrants working and living pplaces, largely in suburbs of the largest cities like Marseille and Paris. Slowly until now, Islam in France can be find everywhere. Larger mosques have been build and muslim communities can be find everywhere.

Forbidden zone. New Orleans. September 2005. 160 000 houses will need to be pulled down.

One month after the passing of Katrina, debris and abandoned cars haunt the streets of New Orleans. Its inhabitants had fled the city. On september 24, some weeks after Katrina, Rita arrived off the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico. In a few hours, she had an-nihilated a region situated farther west, between Texas and Louisiana.

Rootless and restive, young Muslims in Europe are increasingly turning to religious extremism. An inside look at the threat from homegrown militants.

Pastor Ted's New Life Church of Colorado Springs is one of the most important evangelical congregations of the city ( a mega church of approximatly 11.000 members ). A congregation becoming very influential in the USA because of its modern ways, adapted to nowadays religious needs and behaviours. New Life Church is turned towards young people – the essential leaven of changeover ( all evangelical congregations own their “Youth Ministry” ) - aware of the importance of preparing future generations on a biblical basis.

Kenyan town faces loss of livelihood after Sudan peace deal: Lokichokio has thrived on business generated by humanitarian aid organisations but soon they may move out.

Magarpatta Cybercity, a mirage in India's landscape, 200 km far from Bombay by the brand new three express road highway. The new Indian middle classes fight over this little piece of paradise representing Western happiness long caressed by their parents and which satisfies their thirst of comfort.  

To escape from poverty, thousands of latinos ends up in Tapachula, border city in Chiapas, south Mexico. It is the first step of a long trip towards USA, where dreams and destiny are broken.
For many illegals latino, the american dream became a nightmare in Mexico.

Located on the borders of the Appalachians Mountains, land of coal and hunting games, Mullens is a small town settled between a railroad and a river. 1800 souls, seven churches, no one outside.

The week when Pope John Paul II died. From april the 2nd, announcement of his death, to april 2005 the 8th, day of the funeral.

In Rome and its suburbs during the mad week of John Paul II's death - The logistics

Beijing - Shanghai - Chinese miracle.

few days with the Chinese nouveaux riches.

Hiroshima, 60 years later.

In Nagasaki, the US Bomber’s mission was to destroy the port and industrial sites where Mitsubishi warships were being built. But the pilot mistaked the ordonnance and dropped the A-bomb 3 kilometers before, on Urakami.

New town of Marne la Vallée - An Urbanistic Project in the east suburb of Paris.

An assignment from the City Planning of Marne La Vallée, near Paris. Febuary 2005.

Afghanistan is the worlds largest supplier of heroin:75% of worldwide consumption.Above and beyond the international repercussions, it is at the local level where the drug does the most damage.The number of addicts rises in tandem with increases in production,a hitherto unheard of problem in Afghanistan.

Eastern Ukraine. December 2004.

Over the months, the rebel city of Falluja was dreaded by the American troops in Iraq. The city, located 50 km west of Baghdad in the Sunni triangle, is the symbol of the Iraqi resistance but also of the most radical form of Islam which calls for the death of infidels.....

The days of the elections with the democrat students from Dickinson college. Carlisle, USA.

On 12/11/2004, tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered inside the Muqataa, Arafat's destroyed office compound to welcome  the coffin of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestine - Ramallah, Muqata'a. 2004 November 12th

They were housewives or students, mothers or shopkeepers, who decided to join the ranks of the "Forces Nouvelles" (rebel forces).  For two years now they have added a kalashnikov to their female outfit.

Nadjaf besieged during the summer 2004.

The Orange Revolution. Ukraine. November / december 2004.

Between 1940 and 1945, the Nazis occupied the polish town of Oswiecim, etablishing the concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz where more 900 000 people were extermined. Before the war 12 000 people lived in the town, 7 000 of whom were jews, 60% of the total population.

The silence of AIDS in Russia, in Africa, in Malawi and Uganda and in Brazil.

The migrant Roma population is hard to quantify. They are maybe a few thousands in the country. A great majority of them live in shameful and deplorable hygiene in shantytowns in the middle of our cities.

In October 2003, the intensity and pace of insurgent attacks began to increase. Finally, at the end of October, a series of four simultaneous suicide car bomb attacks on the Iraqi police and the International Red Cross, quickly followed by a sharp surge in guerilla attacks, ushered in an insurgent effort that was termed the “Ramadan Offensive,” as it coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Attacks that were increased to nearly 50 a day, along with a series of helicopter downings, resulted in a U.S. death toll of 82 for the month of November with 337 wounded in action.

Gumball 3000's sixth edition brought it some 5000km over six days, on an itinerary encompassing Paris Marrackech and Cannes.
Gumball 3000 : an illegal rally for the rich people.

High-class clubbing among the happy few in Paris, into very selective private parties.

West Bank, Gaza strip, 2004.

SILENCE HOSPITAL
6 years in the day-to-day routine of some of France's hospitals.
Maternity, Psychiatric, Geriatric and Emergencies...

10 000 people are affected by vendettas in the North of Albania, living shut away for fear of reprisals from the opposing family. 1000 children do not leave home and no longer attend school. 2000 women have lost their husbands in settling of scores.

Villages of India are taking action faced with the growing threat that weighs upon earth’s most precious resource, water.

In October 2003, the intensity and pace of insurgent attacks began to increase. Finally, at the end of October, a series of four simultaneous suicide car bomb attacks on the Iraqi police and the International Red Cross, quickly followed by a sharp surge in guerilla attacks, ushered in an insurgent effort that was termed the “Ramadan Offensive,” as it coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Attacks that were increased to nearly 50 a day, along with a series of helicopter downings, resulted in a U.S. death toll of 82 for the month of November with 337 wounded in action.

Along with 50 or so other members of ETA, Maïté Aguerre's son has been held in Fleury Mérogis prison for more than four years.  As far as Fléury Mérogis may be from the Basque country, every Friday, this retired schoolteacher travkes more than 2000 kilometres for visits that last no more than an hour.

In October 2003, the intensity and pace of insurgent attacks began to increase. Finally, at the end of October, a series of four simultaneous suicide car bomb attacks on the Iraqi police and the International Red Cross, quickly followed by a sharp surge in guerilla attacks, ushered in an insurgent effort that was termed the “Ramadan Offensive,” as