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Civil Rights Group Calls for Dissolution of Racist Organizations

August 22, 1986
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One of France’s most important organizations promoting racial harmony Wednesday called for the dissolution of “SOS France,” the extreme rightwing group implicated in the explosion in the Mediterranean port of Toulon that killed four people Monday.

The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP) said the explosion was “an opportunity to strike a giant blow against terrorists who use the most extreme violence in promoting the racism which has been whipped up in France over the past few years.”

The explosion early Monday killed four members of “SOS France” who were apparently about to plant a bomb at unused offices of another anti-racism group when the device went off prematurely. Extreme rightwing tracts were found at the scene of the blast.

Interior Minister Charles Pasqua has pledged that all terrorists “whoever they may be” will be hunted down by police. He said that police in southern France had been given instructions to launch an inquiry into a number of racist attacks in Toulon and other towns in the region in June.

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