As far as I recall, DPM Wong doesn't personally ensure that the
windows in the toilet are grilled, whether passports are screened
properly, and if police in courthouse are doing their job
properly.
In the same tune, I am also very sure that Army Chief Of Staff
don't personally ensure that the solder drew the correct
ammunition, ensure live/blanks are not mixed....
<!-- S BO --> <!-- S IIMA -->
<!-- E IIMA --> <!-- S SF -->
The French army chief of staff, Gen Bruno
Cuche, has resigned two days after a soldier injured 17 people at a
military show.
Gen Cuche offered his resignation on Tuesday to President
Nicolas Sarkozy who accepted it.
The soldier used real bullets instead of blanks at the public
demonstration at a barracks in south-western France.
Four people, including a child, were seriously injured in the
incident. They are now said to be out of danger. <!-- E SF
-->
On Monday, President Sarkozy, who visited the wounded in
hospital, said he would seek explanations from the whole chain of
command over the incident.
Earlier, Defence Minister Herve Morin called for "immediate
sanctions... without waiting for the conclusions of the judicial
and military enquiries".
The incident highlighted "grave deficiencies in the use of
ammunition and in the security of public demonstrations held at
regiments' open days", the defence ministry said in a
statement.
The resignation is a measure of how seriously the French
government, and in particular President Sarkozy, is taking this
extraordinary breach of safety procedures, says a BBC correspondent
in Paris.
'Unintentional' shooting
The shooting occurred during a public demonstration of
hostage-freeing techniques at a barracks in Carcassonne, in the
Aude region.
The sergeant who fired the shots is being held in custody and is
expected to be charged on Tuesday with causing unintentional
injury.
It is now thought he had held on to some live ammunition from a
previous exercise in breach of regulations and mistakenly loaded
them into his assault rifle during the display.
Questions are also being asked about the organisation of the
event, in which an actor posing as a terrorist was positioned among
the public that meant that the soldier was firing straight into the
crowd.
For France, it is an appallingly embarrassing incident just as
the country takes over the presidency of the European Union, with
defence one of President Sarkozy's top priorities for the next few
months, our correspondent adds.
