By Colin Randall in Paris
The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 09/11/2005)
The French government yesterday pinned its hopes of ending nearly two weeks of rioting on a range of sweeping emergency powers allowing for curfews, house arrest and police raids without warrants.
President Jacques Chirac, who has been accused of indecision and lack of leadership, invoked a 50-year-old law dating from the Algerian war of independence in his belated gamble on a tough response to the unrest.
The emergency powers authorised in a crisis session of the cabinet took effect at midnight and were available to local officials to impose on the estates of Paris and provincial towns and cities where violence has flared.
In Amiens, the first city to make use of the powers, officials announced a curfew banning unaccompanied under 16-year-olds from the streets between 10pm and 6am. Orleans and Savigny-sur-Orge followed suit.
Opponents of the government reacted angrily, claiming that the initiative sent a "message of war" to young people in poor suburbs.
Nearly 6,000 vehicles have already been burnt But ministers and public opinion had been shocked by 12 successive nights of disorder, spreading from Parisian suburbs to almost every region.
Nearly 6,000 vehicles had already been set on fire by the time Mr Chirac sat down with his cabinet.
One man has died, scores of police officers and rescue workers have been hurt and police have made more than 1,500 arrests, including children as young as 11.
Police said yesterday that 1,173 vehicles had been destroyed in overnight arson attacks. Although the total was 200 down on the worst night of rioting so far, Sunday, the reduction was hardly enough to suggest that the trouble was about to end.
Last night trouble broke out when youths threw petrol bombs at police and set cars ablaze in Toulouse.
It happened just as Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and a hated figure among many immigrant families after calling troublemakers "scum", was due to meet police in the city.
He said that the use of the emergency law reflected the government's resolve to act with firmness.
Under the emergency powers, meetings can be banned, suspects can be excluded from defined areas and house arrest warrants can be ordered against anyone considered a threat to public order.
In parliament, Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, faced both cheers and boos as he defended the package. He gave MPs details of his plans to aid poorer districts with a series of measures designed to improve employment, education and housing.
Item one: "Message of war?" Oh, yeah. This is France. I guess they should be sending a "message of capitulation." You know, show any other would-be rioters that the way you get what you want from France is to commit acts of violence. Hooray, mob rule!
Item two: The opposition is saying this? I'm not entirely sure I want Chirac voted out now. Granted, the guy is a slacker when it comes to the defense of the law and good order of his own country, but apparently he's better than the alternative.
bttt