Posted on 11/03/2005 6:45:00 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
LE BLANC MESNIL, France (AP) - An uneasy calm fell over Paris's riot-hit suburbs early Friday after a week of unrest by gangs of youths shooting at police and firefighters, setting fires and attacking symbols of the French state.
Riot police were out in force with some 1,300 deployed across the low-income region of Seine-Saint-Denis northeast of the capital after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised to restore order. Villepin postponed a visit to Canada this week to deal with the crisis..
Flames towered over a burning warehouse set afire in Le Blanc Mesnil late Thursday. Youths fired buckshot at riot police vehicles in Neuilly-sur-Marne, farther east and a group of 30 to 40 harassed police near a synagogue in Stains where a city bus was torched and a school classroom partially burned, said the top official of Seine-Saint-Denis, Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet.
LCI television reported 50 vehicles burned by early Friday - compared with some 300 the night before.
The sporadic incidents were a scaled-back version of the ferocious rioting that erupted eight days ago in Clichy-sous-Bois and spread across the troubled region of housing projects marked by soaring unemployment, delinquency and a sense of despair.
The unrest took a dangerous turn the day before with rioters shooting at police or firefighters in three towns, ignoring an appeal for calm by President Jacques Chirac.
Facing mounting pressure and criticism, Villepin said restoring order was his "absolute priority."
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois, men filled the Bilal mosque for night prayer Thursday but streets were subdued and shops shut early.
"Look around you. How do you think we can celebrate?" said Abdallah Hammo as he closed the tea house where he works.
From an outburst of anger over the accidental deaths of two teenagers, the rioting has grown into a broader challenge against the French state. The violence has laid bare discontent simmering in suburbs where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, discrimination, crime and poor education and housing.
France's Muslim population, an estimated five million, is Western Europe's largest. But rather than being embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children often complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs.
Despite the release Thursday of a preliminary investigation that appeared to exonerate police of any direct role in the teenagers' deaths, fear of unrest remained high.
The teenagers - Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17 - were killed Oct. 27 while hiding from police in a power substation. Youths in their neighbourhood suspect police chased them to their deaths.
But the report, released by the Interior Ministry, said while police went to Clichy-sous-Bois to investigate a suspected intrusion on a building site, they did not chase the teenagers who were killed. A third teenager who was seriously injured told investigators they were aware of the dangers when they hid in the fenced-off substation, the report said.
It did not specifically address why the teens decided to run when police came to the neighbourhood. But it said Benna was known to police for having committed robbery with violence and that Traore was among those who trespassed on the building site.
Asked why the youths ran when police said they were not being chased, Benna's father said: "This is what they say. We want the truth to come out."
Amor Benna and the other teenagers' families filed a legal complaint to try and determine whether "a mistake was made by security forces. We want to know the circumstances that led to his death."
The suit was filed for "failure to assist a person in danger," a crime in France, said the families' lawyer, Jean-Pierre Mignard. It does not accuse specific individuals. The lawyer said the injured teen, Muttin Altun, 17, remained in hospital.
Official assurances police were not directly responsible for the deaths failed to stem unrest Wednesday night and early Thursday with incidents reported in at least 20 Paris-region towns. Government offices, a police station, a primary school and a college, a Clichy-sous-Bois fire station and a train station were among the buildings targeted.
Patrice Ribeiro, national secretary of the Synergie police officers union, said he suspected rioters aimed to turn their neighbourhoods into no-go zones for the French state so underground economies of drug-trafficking and racketeering can thrive.
Criminal gangs want "to stop police, all state representatives from coming and then, when calm returns, business goes well," he said.
Speaking at the Senate, the prime minister promised: "I will not accept organized gangs making the law in some neighbourhoods. I will not accept having crime networks and drug-trafficking profiting from disorder."
Four shots were fired at riot police and firefighters, without causing injuries, said Cordet, the Seine-Saint-Denis prefect. Nine people were injured in other unrest, officials said.
Traffic was halted Thursday morning on a suburban commuter line linking Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after stone-throwing rioters attacked two trains. A female passenger was slightly injured by broken glass.
Police have arrested at least 143 people, said Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy. Suburban residents and opposition politicians have accused him of fanning tension with tough police tactics and talk - including calling troublemakers "scum."
"Sarkozy's language has added oil to the fire. He should really weigh his words," said Mohammed Fawzi Kaci, an Algerian immigrant who saw his daughter's gym goes up in flames.
"I'm proud to live in France but this France disappoints me."
I know it wasn't nice. But, these Canadians really, ugh, I just can't stand them.
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