Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando

The Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando was a branch of French militant group Action Directe that assassinated French Army General René Audran, on 25 January 1985. He was the Director of International Affairs (DAI) at the General Delegation for Armament (DGA). The team was named to commemorate Red Army Faction member Elisabeth Van Dyck.

History

The Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando was originally named after a second-generation RAF (Red Army Faction) member, Elisabeth von Dyck. This commando was created as a combined extension of both the Action Directe (AD) and the Red Army Faction (RAF). The AD appeared to take care of the organizational side of this commando, and so naming it after a memorialized member of the RAF makes sense if they were seeking to at least publicly have a unified front. Both the RAF and the AD were actively pursuing their shared goal of political autonomy within their home countries, respectively with the RAF being based in Germany and the AD being based in France.[1] These groups' goal of political autonomy did not stop with their own countries however, and they often fought against their own countries' governments in the pursuit of political autonomy, or political freedom, for the world's working class.[2]

Claimed attacks

This commando had only one claimed attack, the assassination of French Army General René Audran on January 25, 1985.[3] At the time of his death, Audran was a senior-level official in the French Ministry of Defense--specifically the Corps of Armament. The Elisabeth van Dyck Commando took credit for the assassination via letter.[2] In the letter the members explained that they had killed Audran because he was the head of French's foreign arms sales and they believed that his "military and economic function is at the heart of the strategic imperialist project".[2] The "project" being referred to is what the AD and RAF believed to be NATO and its supporting European countries' goal of homogenizing the world into a capitalist culture, and that as they progressed along this goal it would widen the gap in power and money between the upper class and working class.[2]

References
  1. "Direct Action | French extremist group". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
  2. "Kommando Elisabeth van Dyck" (PDF). Social History Portal. Feb 1985. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  3. Terrorist Group Profiles. DIANE Publishing. 1990. p. 44. ISBN 9781568068640.

Terrorist incidents attributed to the [Elisabeth von Dyck Commando] in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD):

  • "Action Directe" July 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2019. (The commando's one attack is listed under Action Directe in GTD.)
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