NOV 6: If a trip to Europe is on the cards, pass up
France. The United States has issued a warning to Americans
traveling in France to avoid areas in and around Paris where
violence erupted in the poor suburbs for the tenth
consecutive night as gangs of angry youth torched cars and
buildings despite a heavy police presence. The US embassy
message also urged travelers to be vigilant for riots in
other areas such as Dijon, Marseilles and Normandy.
Approximately 1,295 vehicles have been burnt and 312 people
arrested since the rioting began in the suburbs of Paris ten
days ago. Rioting spread to neighboring cities like
Strasbourg, Nice, Toulouse and Nantes on Saturday night and
made its way into central Paris early Sunday morning, where
28 vehicles were torched. Two schools were set ablaze and
scores of cars set on fire on Saturday evening. The French
Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, is of the opinion that
gangs responsible for the violence have become increasingly
organized.
The chaos was triggered when Traore Bouna, 15, and Zyed
Benna, 17, of Mauritanian and Tunisian origin, were electrocuted in a gruesome accident in Clichy-sous-Bois — one of many poor communities heavily
populated by immigrants; the fatal accident occurred after
they reportedly scaled a wall of an electrical relay station
and fell against a transformer. A third teenager was
hospitalized with severe burns. They apparently
thought they were being chased. Local residents claim the
teenagers were fleeing police officers who were
investigating a robbery in the area at the time.
France, with some 5 million Muslims, has the largest Islamic
population in Western Europe.
The urban unrest began when a group of angry youths attacked
emergency medical technicians responding to the scene of the
electrocutions, lionizing the dead teenagers as martyrs to
police heavy-handedness, to racial discrimination and to
decades of official neglect of the country's underclass of
African and Arab immigrants. What followed was a week of
rioting across twenty towns, leaving a trail of tear-gas
grenades, hundreds of burnt cars and charred buildings.
"This is dreadful, unfortunate. Who did this? Against who,"
rued a 43-year-old hospital worker in Suresnes, when looking
at the hulk of her burned-out car.
Pattern of violence alters from revolt against police to
targeted attacks
Despite calls for calm by President Jacques Chirac, and a
genial meeting between Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
and the parents of the teenagers, the rioting continues.
However, the pattern of violence appears to have altered
from crowds revolting against the police to targeted arson
attacks. A 56-year-old disabled bus passenger was badly
injured when rioters poured petrol on the vehicle and set it
alight … A French television crew was forced to abandon
their car, which was then set ablaze, reports AFP …
Warehouses, shopping centers, a gymnasium and even schools
were torched in blind fury. "I'm not able to sleep at night
because you never know when a fire might break out," said a
36-year-old Kurdish immigrant from northern Iraq, who lives
near a carpet warehouse, which was set ablaze by rioters. "I
have three children and I live in a five-story building. If
a fire hit, what would I do?"
Rioting indicative of social and political problems
In retrospect, the rioting in Clichy-sous-Bois is indicative
of the social and political problems faced by France's
Muslim community, and has highlighted the government’s
failure to integrate its millions of immigrants — who have
been flocking here since the 1950s — into mainstream
society. Public housing developments have seethed with
resentment for years, mostly among men of African or Arab
descent. Even though their children and grandchildren are
French citizens, many families remain mired in communities
that are fertile breeding grounds of violence; unemployment
(one-quarter of the wage earners in each household have no
job) often leads to criminal activity. "As a black and a
foreigner, you don't have many choices," said a high school
student from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who knows
several rioters.
The fiery images recalled earlier tragedies that roiled the
immigrant communities, particularly the fires in dilapidated
apartment buildings in Paris in August and September, which
killed 24 immigrants crammed into illegal housing. "People
are joining together to say we've had enough," a 22-year-old
told Associated Press in Clichy-sous-Bois. "Everyone lives
in fear," he added.
Minister of Social Cohesion Jean-Louis Borloo said that
France must recognize its failure to have dealt with anger
simmering in poor suburbs for decades. “We cannot hide the
truth: that for 30 years we have not done enough,” he told
France-2 television. Opposition groups accused the
government of letting the situation spiral out of control,
either by failing to act quickly or letting in too many
immigrants over the years. Right-wing French MP Philippe de
Villiers, who has said he wants to “stop the Islamisation of
France,” told RTL radio that the problem stemmed from the
“failure of a policy of massive and uncontrolled
immigration”.
Public officials are alternating between political heckling
and renewed promises to improve living conditions for the
immigrants. While state agencies have left it to the police
to restore order with counter-violence, independent Muslim
leaders from local mosques are sending out mediators into
tense neighborhoods to calm the youth. “The situation in
certain neighborhoods is not getting better at all, but
degenerating,” Socialist Party President Jean-Marc Ayrault
told LCI television.
The blame game
Some people blame Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy who
pledges "zero tolerance" for offenders. Just a week before
the riots triggered off, he promised a “war without mercy”
on violence in the suburbs. Sarkozy has been blamed of
fanning tensions with his tough talk — including calling
troublemakers "scum." "Sarkozy's language has added oil to
the fire. He should really weigh his words," said Kaci,
whose daughter lost her gym. "I'm proud to live in France,
but this France disappoints me," she added. Arab-descent
French immigrant, Mouloud, 70, said he was deeply shocked by
the Interior Minister’s comments last month, when he
promised to “clean up” the “rabble” in the suburbs, using a
water-cannon.
On Saturday, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met
with ministers and community leaders. After meeting with
Villepin, Dalil Boubakeur, the head of a Paris mosque, urged
a change in tone from the government. "What I want from the
authorities, from Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, the prime minister
and senior officials are words of peace," he said.
As things stand, internal arguments within the government on
how to tackle the discord have been papered over, with
Villepin and his political rival Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy, joining forces to stress the need to balance
firmness and fairness. Villepin met a dozen-odd young people
from riot-hit Paris suburbs late on Friday to discuss
possible ways to restore calm.
Meanwhile on Saturday, hundreds of people joined rallies in
Paris suburbs to protest against the continuing violence.
In Aulnay-sous-Bois, a rundown suburb northeast of Paris,
more than 1,000 people filed past torched vehicles to demand
calm, with banners reading "No to violence" and "Yes to
dialogue."
(DesPardes.com Staff Writer)
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