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)
Yes, we should take note of that also..The media is not reporting the facts at all..This is Muslims doing this but how many media types have said as much..Also I turned the tv on a few minutes ago and what I saw was a car chase in Calif..Like there is nothing out there but no news..We need to do to all the media what we did to France and that is to boycott not listen until we get real news..
Well, they're not youths, and they're not French - other than that, pretty accurate headline.
Look for Chirac to offer everything south of Vichy as a zone of 'self-determination'.
I was at my little polling place at about 9:30 and was #68......very good sign. Of course, most of us are republicans here in this county. Glad people are out there voting.
Burned a synagogue too, but that's irrelevant to the media.
How long before the French start to critisize the US for not getting involved sooner in this crisis.
"It was like pulling teeth. I think reporters there are under a lot of pressure to bury the Muslim angle." - SauronOfMordor
A good friend of mine that's from Morocco and spent quite a few years in France thinks al Qaeda is funding and masterminding the whole thing. As there is very little employment, thus very little money, for the Muslim youth in France, all that al Qaeda would need to do is show up with wads of cash and tell the youth to have fun, raise hell and get some money in their pockets.
5......4.......3......2.......Is that CAIR calling?
Usually not. Check your policy - most have exclusions for war, civil unrest, riots, and Acts Of God.
Universal fully-automatic rifle ownership pretty much renders pistols irrelevant...
A man after my own heart. Just the thought of flamethrowers gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. ;)
Many of us saw this mess coming (in France, and probably elsewhere in "old" Europe), but figured there were still a few years left before the merde hit the fan. I hate it when I guess wrong.
16,000 is the toal number of murder in 2004 for the whole country. I sincerely doubt that they were all committed by Illegals. A fair, and more than fair share, yes, but not even close to all!
Zounds! And to think that Jacque and Dom were just sure that a curfew would do the trick.
What next? A strongly-worded letter to their parents?
No, you mean MUSLIM YOOTS!
Somebody clue me in - is this tonight? Tuesday Night? If so, why do the curfews start at midnight? What time to the riots start each night?
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