Opération Harpie

Operation 'Harpie' was a French interdepartmental operation carried out in Guyana in February 2008. It was conducted jointly by the gendarmerie forces and the armed forces in Guyana to fight against illegal gold panning in Guyana. Nearly a thousand soldiers participate in this mission.

It followed operation Anaconda.

Objectives
Ordered by Nicolas Sarkozy, then President of the French Republic, it aimed to paralyze the sites of clandestine gold theft throughout the territory of the department Guyana. The objective was to reduce the profitability of the gold production to bring them, in the long term, to the cessation of their activity.

Most of Harpie's efforts focus on the destruction of sites and means of production. This objective is ensured by joint patrols, led mainly by the National Gendarmerie and the Armed Forces in Guyana (FAG) but also by agents of the National Forestry Office, the Amazonian Park of Guyana, the customs and the border police, supported by aerial reconnaissance.

The patrols were responsible for seizing or neutralizing the most expensive tools such as crushers. Similarly, the mercury, which is essential for gold panning activity, was also a target of patrols.

However, there is a rapid adaptation of  garimpeiros  who settle in smaller yards that are better hidden by the canopy. Similarly, neutralized crushers in the forest are often repaired or recycled within a few days, which leads to their evacuation by helicopter as soon as possible.

Garimpeiros logistic networks are the other target of Harpie operations. It is not a question of directly targeting the gold mining activity, but those supplying it with materials and food.

With the establishment of permanent river dams, the supply routes have been moved to the forest, causing an increase in delays, prices and a decrease in the quantities transported. If the dismantled networks are often replaced, the new ones struggle to find their previous customers and to restore a distribution as effective as before.

Forces operate from camps around river dams to locate crossing points and then seize the goods. The destruction of these resources directly affect the activity of the garimpeiros and the profits earned since there is less food and tools that reach the building sites, which ultimately causes the increase in the operating costs of the building sites, sometimes up to 'asphyxiated activity.

However, the results should be largely moderate with the obvious increase in illegal gold mining activities in 2010

French forces engaged
Three hundred and fifty soldiers of the Armed Forces in Guyana and up to two hundred gendarmes are permanently deployed on the river networks to try to neutralize the logistical flows of gold miners and in the forest to dismantle the gold mining sites illegal.

Among the elements committed are the Customs, the Central Directorate of Border Police (DCPAF), the  Gendarmerie ( with local units including the GIGN antenna and displaced units: Gendarmerie mobile squadrons,  intervention platoons of the Republican Guard (France) [Republican Guard), the  Army   REI,   RIMa and many infantry and engineer units on short missions), helicopters and  planes of the  Air Force, the  Parquet, as well as agents of the National Forestry Office.

The aerial device was composed of a Puma helicopter, an  helicopter Fennec and a  EC-145 helicopter of the gendarmerie. It enabled the establishment of soldiers in the immediate vicinity of the operating site The health support was provided by two teams from the army health service (SSA).

The Navy can intervene at the mouths of rivers and share its expertise on certain operations.

In 2010, close to {{unit | 600} operations}} resulted in the arrest of in an irregular situation.

Human toll for the French forces
On July 8, 2010, Julien Giffard, a class soldier of the Infantry Regiment, disappears into the [[Tampok] River] after a stowaway hit a military canoe. His body is found lifeless four days later. His death is the first of Operation Harpie "Operation Harpie, death of the  class Julien Giffard », on the site  defense.gouv.fr  .

On June 27, 2012, two soldiers, Warrant Officer Stéphane Moralia,, and Master Corporal Sébastien Pissot, , of the  Naval Infantry Regiment of Cayenne are killed and four gendarmes from the Intervention platoon group (GPI) of the gendarmerie in Guyana are wounded, two seriously, in an ambush during a joint operation between the army and gendarmerie in the Dorlin area, about  south-west of Cayenne and the east of Maripasoula -operation-of-struggle-against-gold-panning-illegal "Guyana: two soldiers killed in an operation against miners", on the site  defense.gouv.fr . . Master Corporal Pissot was killed while he was rescuing the first wounded -orpailleurs-actualise_a668.html Jean-Dominique Merchet, "Guyana: two French soldiers killed in an ambush of gold washers", on the site "Secret Defense." . Nearly 120 French gendarmes including 22 members of the GIGN (as well as units of FAG on the spot were mobilized during the operation  Alatale Nui   Képi blanc,, November 2012  to participate in an unprecedented hunt in the heart of the jungle in pursuit of the aggressors. On July 27th, three suspects are arrested by the police -27-07-2012-1490296_23.php "Guyana: three suspects arrested for the murder of French soldiers",   lepoint.fr , 28 July 2012. .

Honor and thanks
As of March 1, 2008, the Military Territorial Protection Medal has the Harpie staple and is awarded to soldiers who have completed 30 days of continuous or intermittent presence on Operation HARPIE.

External link

 * Ministry of Defense, "Fight against Gold panning in Guyana", on the site  dailymotion.com .