Posted on 11/06/2005 5:07:47 AM PST by Dane
Thousand cars torched in latest French riots Sun Nov 6, 2005 12:17 PM GMT
By Elisabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) - Gangs of youths torched 1,300 vehicles overnight in the 10th consecutive night of violence in Paris's poor suburbs and major French towns, despite the deployment of thousands of extra police.
Cars were burnt out in the historic centre of Paris for the first time on Saturday night. In the normally quiet Normandy town of Evreux, a shopping mall, 50 vehicles, a post office and two schools went up in flames.
Authorities have so far found no way beyond appeals and more police to address a problem with complex social, economic and racial causes.
Evreux mayor Jean-Louis Debre, a confidant of President Jacques Chirac and speaker of the lower house of parliament, told France Info radio:
"To those responsible for the violence, I want to say: Be serious ... If you want to live in a fairer, more fraternal society, this is not how to go about it."
The deaths 10 days ago of two youths apparently fleeing police ignited pent up frustrations among young men, many of them Muslims of North and black African origin, at racism, unemployment, their marginal place in French society and their treatment by the police.
"Many youths have never seen their parents work and couldn't hold down a job if they got one," said Claude Chevallier, manager of a burned-out carpet depot in the rundown Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
But authorities now say the rolling nightly riots are being organised via the Internet and mobile phones, and have pointed the finger at drug traffickers and Islamist militants.
Overnight, 1,295 vehicles were torched across France, the highest total so far, police said. An extra 2,300 officers have been drafted in.
Seven police helicopters buzzed over the Paris region through the night, filming disturbances and directing mobile squads to incidents. Overnight, police made 349 arrests.
The number of incidents in the Paris region was similar to the night before, but in the provinces it was up sharply.
TARNISHED IMAGE
The violence has tarnished France's image abroad, forcing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to cancel a trip to Canada, while Russia and the United States have warned their citizens to avoid Paris's troubled suburbs.
Villepin has combined a call for an end to the riots with dialogue with community leaders, youngsters and local officials, and has promised an action plan for 750 tough neighbourhoods.
"I'll make proposals as early as this week," the weekly Journal du Dimanche quoted him as saying.
But it remained unclear what could stop the violence, though some opposition parties have suggested a symbolic measure -- the resignation of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Accused of stoking passions by calling troublemakers "scum", Sarkozy has ignored calls to quit. A survey published on Sunday indicated his public image was holding up, even if many disapproved of his strong language.
Villepin also has ambitions to be the right wing's presidential candidate in 2007 and has tried to position himself as a much more consensual figure than Sarkozy; the effect on the crisis on his ratings is still unclear.
With no end in sight to the nights of wailing sirens, acrid smoke, stone-throwing and destruction, residents from all ethnic backgrounds are tiring of the unrest.
"My kids can't sleep at night," said a mother named Samia in Aulnay-sous-Bois. "They hear explosions, they see fires and they think they're in a war. When the slightest thing happens, they get anxious and say 'Mama, what's going on?'"
I've always thought that was inevitable, that it would probably happen within the next couple of decades, but perhaps it will occur sooner than I thought...
France's historical legacy is also important. Colonial control of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, and Lebanon has marked the French psyche. France occupied Algeria for more than 130 years, withdrawing only after an eight-year war, which cost at least 300,000 Algerian and 20,000 French lives.[8] Upon Algerian independence in 1962, more than one million French residents of Algeria returned to France; many had been there for generations, and some had intermarried with the Arab and Berber population. As the various French colonies and mandates achieved independence, Parisian politicians had trouble letting go. Today, French officials act as if they never lost their empire. The Quay d'Orsay, where the Foreign Ministry is housed, for example, continues to promote the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (International Francophone Organization), of which fifteen out of forty-nine states are Muslim, as a way to bolster the community and cohesion of former French colonies. Under Chirac, French policy has gone beyond special treatment for the French-speaking Middle East, though, and embraced even the most rejectionist Arab and Islamic regimes while simultaneously working to criticize and isolate Israel, oppose the war on terrorism, and undercut the emphasis on democratization.
http://www.meforum.org/article/772
Sorry for the double post.
If I waited a bit, I might learn that it will be a triple post (I hope not!).
take care, everyone.
*yawns* (because I've been sick and am so... tired. And yet, I can't seem to bring myself from checking into FR, LOL!)
French Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Honored for fight against
Anti-Semitism: (snip)
http://www.ambafrance-us.org/news/statmnts/2003/sarkozy_antisemitism051203.asp
Paris, May 12, 2003
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Monday condemned anti-Semitism as he received an international prize from a leading Jewish organization, saying that anti-Jewish behavior deserved "zero tolerance."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517009/posts
30 POLICE INJURED.
This reminded me of that Far Side cartoon with two men in a canoe in the process of being capsized by an enormous alligator with the guy on the higher, safer end telling the one in much more imminent danger, "Quick Ernie, rub his belly!"
Honestly, I read this and only think to myself these people deserve 100% muslim takeover and life in the resulting suppressive culture.
This started as just a bunch of thugs angry at police... some opportunists have decided to make into something else.... I mean- there is no doubt that it is now a political uprising... but I odn't think the first "rioters" had any reason for anything. The press came in making excuses and reasons instead of admitting that the Muslims were acting just like the "conservatives" have described them.
It is like the whole- I murder, rape, and steel because my dad beat me and mom was hooker defense... don't you think?
One of the Roman rulers also tried to pay off his attackers but they only came back for more.
I don't no all languages either. But I stayed at the Holiday Inn Reykjavik.
But I do know art. And here is the face of one facet of it...
Got any pics of her sisters?
I could be wrong...but this (I believe) is a replay of the same battles, the same fight for the same principles. Islam has grown. But I believe this will awaken the Christendom in the French blood.
Am I too romantic regarding this matter...we are about to see. But the defenders of Christendom in France will not be Chirac or de Villepin.
"With a threat like that, I bet the violence will end soon."
Yeah, I hope they aren't being subjected to "brutal" conditions in jail...wait a minute, I sense a possible way "into" the story for the MSM!
" Don't worry, when your leaders beg for U.S. Troops to bail you out again, We'll be there."
You sure?
""To those responsible for the violence, I want to say: Be serious ... If you want to live in a fairer, more fraternal society, this is not how to go about it."
If this is France's response..."
Remind's me of van Gogh, pleading for non-violence as the Muslim slit his throat.
"The Americans better prepare their border crossings with Ontario and Quebec. "
Fat chance. We can't even close the border with Mexico.
I believe one of Sarkozy's grandparents was Jewish. One side of his family was from Hungry. They fled the Nazis to France.
Skarkozy has alway downplayed his non-French family heritage. Skarkozy has alway emphasized assimilation.
[...about tribalism...]
You have written a brilliant piece.
I'm sure what I am about to say will seem unpopular. I am merely postulating based on informed observation. No disrespect intended. Here goes.
Tribalism and loyalty to nation of birth (ancestry) IS in our neighborhoods. What do you think we were seeing in New Orleans? Unassimilated African Americans living for generations dependant on an oppressive, liberal welfare system.
Across our country, after generations, "some" still insist on being described as African Americans, not Americans. "Some" of these black Americans look nothing like the winner class of blacks maturing into the culture during the 50's and 60's. Some kind of deliberate or rebellious regression has occurred.
" De Villepin: "I'll make proposals as early as this week,"
Gotta love that "get tough" attitude."
LOL!
" Are the imam's and other "muslim leaders" calling for an end to the violence? "
The violence will end, in their view, when the police lay down their weapons.
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