It is 2:20 p.m. on March 15, 2012. Three soldiers from the 17th RGP in Montauban are shot by a man on a scooter. This is the second attack committed by Mohammed Merah. 10 years later, Christian Venard, former chaplain of the regiment, confides. Tell the horror.
March 15, 2012. That day, Christian Venard, then chaplain in the 17th RGP of Montauban planned to have coffee with two young widows of the regiment. And as the weather was extremely beautiful, “big sun and blue sky storm“, he settles down on the terrace at the beginning of the afternoon. And then, “we heard gunshots. Gunshots in a regiment, it’s not that extraordinary, except that at this place, it was still a little surprising.”
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Christian Venard does not know it yet, but three soldiers have just come under fire from Mohammed Merah. Four days earlier, Imad Ibn Ziaten, also a soldier, was killed in Toulouse. The army, target of a terrorist attack in the Tarn-et-Garonne… Incomprehensible at the time. And ten years later, the stories are still chilling.
A few minutes after hearing the shots, the chaplain saw a paratrooper pass who said to him on the fly: “Father, there’s been an accident. We have guys from home on the ground. Where ? In the street.“Christian Venard immediately starts running towards the place indicated. Gets out of the regiment, turns right to arrive at this crossroads”become too famous“, where Mohammed Merah has just killed two soldiers and very seriously injured the third. The regiment is located right next to the Montauban hospital, so the alert has already been given.”When I arrived on the spot, there were already intervention teams from the hospital who were there, as well as a certain number of soldiers passing through.“
One element that really struck me when I arrived was walking on the casings. I felt like I was in a movie.
Christian Venard
Former chaplain of the 17th RGP of Montauban
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The chaplain rushes to the nearest victim. “It turns out that it was Abel Chennouf. And there, there was an emergency doctor who, seeing my uniform and my cross on my chest, looked at me and said: unfortunately I don’t think I can do anything more for him.“
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Ten years later, sobs rise in the voice of Christian Venard. But he resumes his story, says that he took the place of the emergency doctor, placed himself at Abel’s head level, and took his hand. “And I held Abel’s hand as long as I felt he was alive. At a certain moment, which can hardly be told, I felt that he was no longer there. And so I said the prayers for the dead.“
Christian Venard gets up and walks towards a second soldier. Loic L.”When I arrived, the team taking care of him said: we lost him.“Moments later. A member of the healthcare team exclaims, “he’s coming back, he’s coming back“. The chaplain finds himself holding on.”medical equipment that was connected to Loïc“, until he left by ambulance.”Then I went to Mohamed who was still on the ground“.
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Christian Venard interrupts his story. Breath. Breathe before resuming the course of these painful memories.
There was this nurse from the regiment who herself was coming back from an operation, and she was absolutely trying… she wanted to save Mohamed. We almost had to force her out because there was nothing we could do for him. So I did exactly as for Abel, I got down on the ground, I took his hand and I said the prayer for the dead. I didn’t know at that time that Mohamed was a Muslim.
Christian Venard
Former chaplain of the 17th RGP of Montauban
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At the time, Christian Venard was convinced that this attack was linked to Afghanistan. After the assassination of Imad Ibn Ziaten four days earlier in Toulouse, vigilance instructions were given in all the regiments. “We knew that our country, France was very regularly threatened by various terrorist forces, in particular because of its involvement in Afghanistan. At the moment, I think that’s it“, says the former chaplain.
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Christian Venard specifies that the soldiers are trained, prepared and accustomed to risk. “I was projected more than 16 times during my career as a military chaplain on all kinds of theater of operations, having sometimes experienced quite extreme situations.“But this March 15, 2012, this attack, Christian Venard admits today, it was something else entirely.
Living this scene in Afghanistan, in Ivory Coast or in Mali, that we are preparing for it and we know that we can live it. (…) What was beyond what I could imagine was that it could happen in that place.
Christian Venard
Former chaplain of the 17th RGP of Montauban
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The military chaplain admits having developed a post-traumatic syndrome. To the point of no longer supporting to go through the crossroads where Mohammed Merah committed his attack. “We no longer wake up the same way, we no longer think the same way. There are things that we no longer support.“
I realized in the months, in the years that followed, that there was something broken inside of me. An inner weariness was emerging. It had marked me very deeply, and petrified me in certain aspects of my life.
Christian Venard
Former chaplain of the 17th RGP of Montauban
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He ended up leaving the Montauban regiment to serve in the gendarmerie in Bordeaux.
In this month of March 2012, the presidential election campaign is launched. Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, Emmanuel Valls will rush to the scene of the attacks in Toulouse and Montauban. Investigators will soon make the link between this attack and the one committed four days earlier in Toulouse. But at that moment, the awareness is not there.
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President, ministers, presidential candidates move. But for Christian Venard and “many of my classmates“, the feeling that persists ten years later is that politicians, in general, “initially wanted to really put the dust under the rug. And it was not until the terrible events of 2015 that, all of a sudden, we made a connection. That all of a sudden tongues are untied. And that even in the French population, that there is an awareness“.
The 17th RGP of Montauban is shaken. “there is then dejection, a certain incomprehension“, considers the military chaplain. But also a feeling of anger and revolt. Four years later, the family of one of the soldiers also took legal action in order to have part of the responsibility for the State.
I’m going to say it, it’s going to sound horrible, but it’s a bit like it’s normal after all for Jews to lose their lives because they’re Jews. Or that soldiers lose their lives, because they are soldiers. And that is something…. This is unacceptable.
Christian Venard
Former chaplain of the 17th RGP of Montauban
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The Army, targeted in its own quarters in Montauban by Mohammed Merah. Undeniably, the regiment will find itself shaken. “While all have paid with their lives for their country’s commitment against terrorism. And that has a name: an anonymous hero“, makes a point of specifying Christian Venard, in tribute to the seven victims killed in Toulouse and Montauban in March 2012. Without forgetting Loïc, the third soldier targeted that day within the regiment, since quadriplegic.
On the evening of March 15, 2012, for the judicial and police authorities, the hunt for Merah will not take long to take shape. But the assailant planned a new attack: that of the Jewish school, Ozar-Hatorah, in Toulouse. March 19, 2012.
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