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France to impose curfews to quell rioting
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-08 07:35
President Jacques Chirac, in private comments more conciliatory than his
warnings Sunday that rioters would be caught and punished, acknowledged in a
meeting Monday with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga that France has not
integrated immigrant youths, she said.
Chirac deplored the "ghettoization of youths of African or North African
origin" and recognized "the incapacity of French society to fully accept them,"
said Vike-Freiberga.
French police holds a shotgun shell recovered
after they were shot upon in Grigny, south of Paris on the 11th night of
violence late November 6, 2005.[Reuters] |
France "has not done everything possible for these youths, supported them so
they feel understood, heard and respected," Chirac added, noting that
unemployment runs as high as 40 percent in some suburbs, four times the national
rate, according to Vike-Freiberga.
Vandals burned more than 1,400 vehicles overnight into Monday, as well as
churches, schools and businesses, and injured 36 police officers in clashes
around the country, setting a new high for arson and violence, said France's
national police chief, Michel Gaudin. Attacks were reported in 274 towns, and
police made 395 arrests.
"This spread, with a sort of shock wave spreading across the country, shows
up in the number of towns affected," Gaudin said.
In terms of material destruction, the unrest is France's worst since World
War II — and never has rioting struck so many different French cities
simultaneously, said security expert Sebastian Roche, a director of research at
the state-funded National Center for Scientific Research.
Villepin said curfews will be imposed under a 1955 law that allows the
declaring of a state of emergency in parts or all of France. The law was passed
to curb unrest in Algeria during the war that led to its independence.
He said 1,500 reservists were being called up to reinforce the 8,000 police
and gendarmes already deployed. The Cabinet will meet Tuesday to authorize
curfews "wherever it is necessary," he said.
"The multiplying acts of destruction, the destruction of schools and sports
centers, thousands of cars set on fire, all of this is unacceptable and
inexcusable," he said. "To all in France who are watching me, who are disturbed
by this, who are shocked, who want to see a return to normalcy, a return to
security, the state's response — I say it tonight forcefully — will be firm and
just."
Villepin said "organized criminal networks" are backing the violence and
youths taking part are treating it as a "game," trying to outdo each other. He
did rule out the possibility that radical Islamists are involved, saying: "That
element must not be neglected." France's community of Muslims, at some 5
million, is western Europe's largest.
Local government officials will be able to impose curfews "if they think it
will be useful to permit a return to calm and ensure the protection of
residents. That is our No. 1 responsibility," the prime minister said.
A Socialist opposition leader, Francois Hollande, said his party would
closely watch to make sure the curfew law is applied properly.
"This law cannot be applied everywhere, and it cannot be long-lasting,"
Hollande said. He said Villepin should have put more emphasis on improving life
in tough neighborhoods and said the premier's proposals were vague.
Villepin said he wanted to speed up a $35.5 billion urban redevelopment plan,
triple the number of merit scholarships for talented students and offer jobs,
training or internships to disadvantaged young people.
"We must offer them hope and a future," he said.
But nearly 600 people were in custody Monday night, and fast-track trials
were being used to punish rioters.
France's biggest Muslim fundamentalist organization, the Union for Islamic
Organizations of France, issued a religious decree against the violence. It
prohibited all those "who seek divine grace from taking part in any action that
blindly strikes private or public property or can harm others."
The first fatality was identified as 61-year-old Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec. He
was trying to extinguish a trash can fire Friday at his housing project in the
northeastern Paris suburb of Stains when an attacker caught him by surprise and
beat him into a coma, police said.
"They have to stop this stupidity," his widow, Nicole, told Associated Press
Television News of the rioting. "It's going nowhere."
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