Posted on 11/02/2005 5:31:01 PM PST by blam
Six nights of riots in Paris ghetto split Chirac cabinet
By Henry Samuel in Clichy-sous-Bois
(Filed: 03/11/2005)
The French government was reeling yesterday after six nights of rioting which have exposed a split in the cabinet over how to deal with poverty and immigration in the dilapidated Paris suburbs.
As authorities cleaned up the debris of another bout of violence, including the wrecks of 250 cars burned out on Tuesday night, both the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, and the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, put off foreign trips to deal with the rioting.
Youths on the Paris estates have promised ‘40 nights of violence’
"We sure showed it to them last night," said one youth in Clichy-sous-Bois, a grim suburb of high-rises some 15 miles outside Paris.
The worsening crisis jolted President Jacques Chirac out of a six-day silence into calling for calm and a firm hand in dealing with a "dangerous situation".
"The law must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and respect," the president said at a cabinet meeting.
Using words which could be seen as critical of the tough policing tactics promoted by Mr Sarkozy: "The absence of dialogue and an escalation of a lack of respect will lead to a dangerous situation."
The riots first broke out on the Chêne-Pointu council estate. Last Thursday, two adolescents from the estate died when they scaled the 8ft wall of an electricity substation to dodge police and were electrocuted.
A third escaped with severe burns. The two dead youths, Ziad and Banou, have become symbols of the social problems that ring the capital.
"They were good kids coming back from a football game. Their criminal record was almost completely clean," said Kolan, a black 22-year-old who was part of a foursome, all of North African origin, scuffing their feet in the estate entrance.
The police say they were not chasing the youths who died, but another nearby group.
"We have witnesses who saw them being chased by two policemen. They had done nothing, but if the police chase you around here, you run, guilty or not, because you can be sure they won't be kind with you," said Kolan.
Chêne-Pointu typifies the problems of many of the urban ghettoes that surround Paris and other large French cities: a high immigrant population, soaring unemployment and drug dealing.
Many of the youths blame Mr Sarkozy for the continued violence, with what they consider to be highly provocative language. He has pledged to "industrially clean" council estates and to rid them of "scum".
On Sunday night, he promised "zero tolerance" of suburban crime. Two rioters have already received three-month jail sentences and a dozen more face charges.
"We're not dumb. Sarkozy has declared war on suburban youth," said Karim, 23. "Unless he apologises for the way he has treated us, then he can expect 40 nights of violence," he said.
But others around the estate back Mr Sarkozy. "What he says may be crude, but he's right. Drug runners and petty criminals have had it good too long around here.
"There's only so much social prevention you can do, then you have to repress," said Marie-Jeanne Sacré, a social worker.
In the neighbouring Bosquet estate, Traore Gounedi, a 27-year-old worker in a local social centre, is incensed. "Ten years ago, Clichy was a real no-go area. But in recent years we had built up sports clubs and other associations and it had become calm.
"The way Sarkozy has dealt with this, using riot police and terms the National Front would be proud of, has put the clock back 10 years. Once Ramadan ends on Friday, things will get worse."
As night fell at Chêne-Pointu, sirens heralded the approach of two fire engines that positioned themselves in front of the estate awaiting the flames.
Google Nicholas Sarkozy, Interior Minister...he's the one kicking some butt. But he's from Hungarian/Greek/Jewish lineage...not French.
Let's hope the French overreact.
I'd love to see them do to Mecca what they did to the Rainbow Warrior:-)
Agreed. The French should start planning long-term resolutions now and start the exodus of these parasites from their country.
Surround the area with military, seal it, and shut off the utilities to the estates. Annnounce that women and small children are to move out immediately from the buildings first. Send them to humanitarian camps for processing to return them to their countries of origin. Men are next required to exit the buildings. If they don't leave, you go in and start the maelstrom in a confined area (theirs). Whatever's left alive, process and return to the merde hole they came from.
The French haven't had gonads since the first world war; something has gone terribly wrong for them and the rest of Europe. It is tragic.
Ah the French. Just surrender, we will understand.
Perhaps the French should pursue a "two-state policy." They could live side by side in peace and harmony by just giving up a little territory and never have to surrender to anyone. /sarcasm
Thanks...now I've gotta clean the soda off my keyboard and monitor.
Is that like being "almost completely" a virgin?
Chirac is not France. Like all countries, France needs a just cause and good leadership.
I vote for Sarkozy (that is, if I had a vote).
The same thing is happening in places here more slowly.
Do you think Americans will expel Muslims on principle?
How do you apply the law 'firmly' while doing so in 'a spirit of dialogue and respect'? The French truly are a bunch of weenies. Also, I didn't see the word "muslim" anywhere in this article, even though it's a muslim community perpetrating all the violence.
I didn't know France could still produce men like him. Good for him.
They will be dealt with, count on it. Say what you want about the French, but do not repeat DO NOT f--- with their police! Fair warning...
OH, I am going to be laughing for days remembering that comment!
Half the Cabinet wants to negotiate and the other half wants to surrender immediately.
Do we really have a choice? If we want to maintain Western civilization, based on Judeo-Christian principles, comprised of a democratic system and capitalism based economy, all of which is everything they refute, well....I for one will fight, at a minimum for my children's and future grandchildren's livelihood...I can't understand why anyone wouldn't. Their whole outlook and systems remind me of a totalitarianism nightmare, not unlike Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany. They are the enemy of freedom; political, economic, religious, etc. In the end, nothing they stand for could possibly be of interest to the West that we don't already have and which they want to take away. Wake up, America.
He may be French but his lineage is Hungarian/Greek/Jewish. I wish there was some Romanian blood in there.
"They can get tough. Just ask Algeria."
I disagree. The French would not even fight for Paris (ask Marshal Petain)and they were pushed out of Algeria. Chirac and De Villepin will try to save face and turn on Sarkozy any day now. Naturally, the Socialists hate themselves too much to fight for their country.
See #10 above. There is one tough guy in the cabinet.
If that's where Vlad the Impaler was from, I agree.
That's my take on it too.
Sarkozy will be taken down and France will continue it's slow collapse.
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