Posted on 11/08/2005 3:10:54 AM PST by Dane
French youths riot again Tue Nov 8, 2005 10:16 AM GMT
Villepin announces curfews French officials, community leaders
By Tom Heneghan
PARIS (Reuters) - Youths rioted across France overnight, torching more than 1,000 vehicles, despite government plans to impose curfews to quell almost two weeks of unrest.
The protests, blamed on racism and unemployment, receded in the Paris region after shots were fired at police the previous night but continued unabated in other parts of France in the early hours of Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.
Other countries watched nervously and some issued travel warnings. Five cars were torched overnight in Brussels, in addition to five set ablaze on Sunday, in what officials say might have been copycat attacks.
The renewed violence followed a warning by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that he would take a firm line against lawbreakers, including reinforcements for police and curfews, not seen in France since the Algerian war of 1954-1962.
Villepin's cabinet met on Tuesday and approved the steps.
"Wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew," Villepin said, referring to the senior officials responsible for security in departments around the country.
A town east of Paris imposed its own curfew on minors on Monday evening and another to the west of the capital organised citizens' patrols to help the police.
Villepin said 1,500 police and gendarmes would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit by unrest. He also promised to accelerate urban renewal programmes and outlined other plans to help young people in poor suburbs.
MIXED REACTION TO VILLEPIN PLANS
Mayors of riot-hit towns welcomed the tougher line, but some asked what another measure announced by Villepin -- extended powers for them -- would actually mean in practice.
"Every time they announce more powers for mayors, they cut the funds," complained Jean-Christophe Lagarde, mayor of the northeastern Paris suburb of Drancy.
Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist deputy from the northeastern Paris suburbs, said that invoking a curfew law passed during the Algerian war was "not the best reference" for fighting unrest among youths mostly of North African Arab and African origin.
The left-wing daily Liberation recalled in an editorial that Jacques Chirac was elected president in 1995 after pledging to repair France's "social fracture".
"Chirac's reign is a tragic farce," it wrote.
The opposition Socialists said Villepin had not done enough to give hope to those people in areas hit by the unrest, which has involved poor whites as well as French-born citizens of Arab or African origin complaining of racism and unemployment.
"Beyond the necessary calls for order, what was missing in the prime minister's address was a social dimension, a message and precise commitments towards the people of these areas in difficulty," the Socialist Party said in a statement.
ANOTHER NIGHT OF VIOLENCE
France's conservative government has struggled to formulate a response that could halt the unrest, blamed by many youths on frustration over unemployment, harsh treatment by police and racism.
The violence has prompted warnings that the unrest could damage investment and tourism in France.
The Interior Ministry said 1,173 vehicles had been torched during the night, compared to 1,408 the previous night.
At least four police were hurt, compared with 36 on Sunday night. Some 330 rioters were detained.
In Toulouse, youths set fire to a bus and 21 cars, police said. At least two cars were set ablaze near Lille and two more in Strasbourg, Reuters reporters said.
Police said 14 cars were set alight in the Yvelines district west of Paris and 17 in Seine-Saint-Denis north of the capital, home to many Arab and African immigrants where the unrest began.
Officials in neighbouring Belgium played down the extent of the violence there, although there were also minor incidents of arson in Sint Niklaas in the north and Liege in the east.
"There were no riots. These were all very isolated incidents. Whoever set fire to the cars must have been influenced by the footage of what is going on in France," Brussels fire department spokesman Francis Boileau said.
(Additional reporting by Eric Faye in Paris)
The Turkish prime minister must be wetting his pantss There goes Turky's chance for getting into the EU.
"Maybe a travel warning to Philadelphia would be in order?"
Except in Philly your life is not in danger taking the shuttle bus or train from the airport to downtown. If I had children studying in Paris they would be on the next plane home.
The rioters are shouting "Allah Akbar!" But of course, the muzzie enabling media refuse to report it. The liberals sympathize with the islam death cult.
Not sure about your theory, but I'm positive you're using a giant font to make it look like you have something important to say.
I hear that burning Frenchmen smell like victory... to Islamo-nazi's.
Are you kidding, it would give Hillary an orgasm to be president, to declare nationwide martial law, and be able thereafter to rule by decree.
She would have no trepidation whatsoever about imposing the most draconian heavy-handed solution to any problem. She would love it!
Ought to be interesting.
IOW, increase the welfare payments. If there were jobs, they wouldn't be working anyway.
FNC now has the header up: "MUSLIM RIOTS"
I wonder how long it will be before someone calls them racist.
Awesome. I was at the polls at 6:00 a.m. and there was already a line. Thanks for that encouraging update.
French Youths Say They're Marginalized
Nov 07 3:01 PM US/Eastern
By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press Writer
LE BLANC MESNIL, France
Theirs is a drab life of days spent smoking hashish, hanging out on street corners. They fidget and talk big. The only things they have in abundance are time and rancor. Ask what their dreams are, the response is blank stares.
Shouting over each other to be heard, the young toughs vented about their lives in Paris' suburban housing projects and the rioting setting them ablaze.
"We hate the police," cried one teenager. "It's the start of war," yelled another. "Put this in your notebook ... ," said a third, rattling off a string of obscenities about France's tough-talking interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.
All French-born children of Arab and black African immigrants, this group of a dozen or so teens at Les Tilleuls housing project north of Paris complained of being marginalized by French society.
Years ago, France welcomed their parents as labor, often to do menial jobs most French did not want, they noted. And now, there are no jobs _ or no one willing to give them one, they said.
"This isn't good for anything," says Farid, 20, angrily shaking his French identity card. He and the others refused to give their surnames, saying they fear repercussions from police or in the community.
None of the youths said they have participated in arson attacks, but their sympathies are clearly with the rioters who have shaken France to its core in the nights of mayhem that spread across the country from tough Paris projects like Les Tilleuls.
"The 'elders' of the projects have tried to calm us down, but we don't care," said 20-year-old Karim, gesticulating wildly with his arms and then concentrating on rolling a joint.
He said the rioting has unified various housing projects that previously fought among themselves. The target of their rage is Sarkozy, who angered many in the suburbs by calling neighborhood toughs "scum."
"Before it was a gang warfare between different projects. Sarkozy's given us a common target _ the government," said Karim.
"If they fire Sarkozy, we'll head straight to the police station and pop champagne with them," said Bidou, 22, his baseball cap cocked to the side.
Before the riots, police rarely came by, and generally patrolled in cars with windows rolled up, the youths said. They have nicknames _ like "Lucky Luke" and "Cortex" _ for some officers they know.
They complained that police manhandle them during identity card checks, even claiming that some officers plant hashish on them as a pretext for arrests, and that they regularly fire off rubber pellets during sweeps.
"You wear these clothes, with this color skin and you're automatically a target for police," said Ahmed, 18, pointing to his mates in Izod polo shirts, Nike sneakers and San Antonio Spurs T-shirts.
I was just watching an interview on Fox with a reporter from Newsweek in France and it is eerie how the reporter danced all around the issue of "muslim" involvement in the riots. A pattern of denial is emerging. This all fits with what we hear from our own administration...that Islam has a heart of "benevolence and love" (eh, Condi?)
Brussels fire department spokesman Francis Boileau has a cousin in the United States.
His name is Officer Barbrady. He works as Chief of Police in South Park, Colorado.
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