“The Tears of the Legion: Former Disciplinaries Speak Out on Hellish Experience in French Foreign Legion’s Corte Camp”

Nearly 50 years later, 3 former legionnaires passed through the disciplinary camp of the Section d’Epreuve de la Légion Etrangère (SELE) in Corte recount the hell they experienced: abuse, humiliation, torture, rape… Luc Rosier, Daniel Potier and Michel Trouvain confided in Guy Beauché. The director of the film “Tears of the Legion”, reopens the file with this shocking documentary to see this Wednesday, May 24 at 8:45 p.m. on ViaStella

The former Saint-Jean de Corte camp is now a peaceful place. But between 1969 and 1976, nearly 400 legionnaires lived through hell there. It is on this site that the Section d’Epreuve of the Foreign Legion was installed, a disciplinary camp where the deserters and the strong heads of the legion were punished. Officially, they had to “carry out military and public works”.

“We weren’t allowed water during the day, so I got on all fours and drank from a hole like a dog, it made them laugh!”

Daniel Pottier, sent to Corte at the opening of the discipline camp in 1969.

But according to several testimonies, as soon as they arrived at the Section d’Epreuve they were humiliated, tortured and raped by the camp officials. These men were serving sentences of 3 months, but some remained there for almost a year. The Stations of the Cross (walk 1km while crawling on stony ground), the Fridge (sleep on frozen ground), the Hill of Lost Men (move a hill 6 meters high using a bucket and a teaspoon), beatings, vacuuming (cleaning the floor by crawling and picking up animal excrement with the mouth), rapes… The abuse imagined by the camp officials seems limitless.

Nearly 50 years later, Daniel Pottier, Luc Rosier and Michel Trouvain, 3 of these former disciplinary recount what they experienced in the documentary “The tears of the legion”. Two of them returned to the site. They relive their ordeal.
▶ Extract: Michel, Luc and Daniel tell of the hell they went through during their stay at the Proof Section of the Foreign Legion in Corte.

On October 5, 1976, the Section d’Epreuve was definitively dissolved. The decision comes a few weeks after the double homicide of two shepherds in Bustanico (September 24, 1976) committed by a deserting legionnaire. The population demands the departure of the legion. Eyes then turn to the Section d’Epreuve, the murderer had not yet stayed there. During a search of the camp, the gendarmes would have discovered “a dozen whitewashed skeletons”. An internal trial would have taken place but no trace to date. No one knows what sanctions were handed down. The former disciplinary would finally like to be officially recognized what they have experienced. The army never admitted that violence and torture would have been committed at the Section d’Epreuve.

“A doc opened”, a light on the documentary “The tears of the legion”

The story told by the survivors of the Section d’Epreuve is overwhelming and raises many questions. How could we keep silent about such atrocities? Can there be a trial after so many years? What are the stakes of such a documentary? To shed light on “The tears of the legion”, Stéphane Usciati receives director Guy Beauché. He tells why and how he decided to deal with this subject. He will be accompanied by Noël Kruslin, deputy editor-in-chief at Corse Matin, specialist in the dossier. He has been looking for many years for clues to denounce what, for him, is the greatest slippage that the legion has known. Finally, Maître Elodie Maumont, a lawyer specializing in military law, explains to us what these witnesses can hope for, half a century after the events.
▶ Interview: 3 questions to Guy Beauché, director of the documentary “The tears of the legion”

📺📱💻 Special evening “The tears of the legion”, Wednesday May 24 on ViaStella, the documentary at 8:45 p.m., followed by “A doc open” at 9:45 p.m. Available in replay on France.tv
“The tears of the legion”, an unpublished 52-minute documentary written and directed by Guy Beauché, a France 3 Corse ViaStella / Bonne Pioche Television / Storia Productions co-production.