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)
I'm starting to think this thread will continue until Thanksgiving and probably beyond that.
Religion of peace my arse BUMP!
Who asked it? Brian Kilmeade?
They sure haven't forgotten to mention it on Fox News this a.m.
I saw that as well. Brian and Tiki were trying to open eyes. Tiki even mentioned that the Muslim's want to be Muslim's in France not French. Brian said it was a cop-out to wait for programs to assimilate you instead of getting out there and becoming part of your new country.
Profiling?! How un P.C. for Europe!
Brian cracks me up. He's so NOT p.c.
The dark-haired Fox guy
That's Brian.
Ho hum....I see my pencils need sharpening and my sock drawer needs rearranging....yawn...
I think it's less a cop-out than a plan. Sounds like they're taking a page from the Palestinians' play book.
I put up these pictures because I still feel that a pictures is worth a thousand words..Islamics do make mistakes as they did when America was attacked. After two decades of weakness, Islamics did not expect the reaction to the attack that they got. Genuinely surprised by the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamics had to fall back and regroup. Now, they use our own left and the obliging media to help Islam win the war. After all, why expend money and blood on another frontal attack when American senators like Kerry, Kennedy, and Boxer will do the fighting for them? Islamics have learned how powerful the peaceniks are in America. All Islamics have to do is wait and be patient.And we had better be on alart..these monsters will not give up..as we can see death means nothing but 72 virgins..
A poster on another thread pointed out that they may not -want- to crack down since so many wealthy French have close ties to wealthy Arabs/Muslims
"What's the total car count"
CBS radio news said the number was 1200. Lying and worthless media.
But he looked very spiffy this morning in his three piece suit :) I can't wait to see what Tiki wears next week.
Well it's not like there isn't a history of muslims in the SS.
Who's tiki? There was a black newsguy on this AM. Is that tiki?
This is a concerted effort, not a spontaneous uprising.
It is part of the global jihad.
It is happening in France because of French failure to serve the jihad in defeating the Americans in Iraq. Iraq is now seen by the jihad as a lost cause, and this is an attempt to change the subject. There are no suicide bombings or murder of innocents because the uprising is symbolic and not strategic. It is simply an attempt to rally the now quieted Arab street, and an attempt at face-saving.
Point made, it will slowly dissolve.
Iraq until now has been the central front in the war for the Islamists, there is no way the French would be attacked if the jihad still had a chance in Iraq. France is thus deemed no longer necessary. Expendable ally. Unlike the US, France has shown that they are not willing to shed blood to defend themselves, they are thus deemed a soft target, as the US was prior to displaying supreme resolve in Iraq.
That's why this is happening in France, and why it is happening now.
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