Posted on 11/03/2005 6:45:00 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
LE BLANC MESNIL, France (AP) - An uneasy calm fell over Paris's riot-hit suburbs early Friday after a week of unrest by gangs of youths shooting at police and firefighters, setting fires and attacking symbols of the French state.
Riot police were out in force with some 1,300 deployed across the low-income region of Seine-Saint-Denis northeast of the capital after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised to restore order. Villepin postponed a visit to Canada this week to deal with the crisis..
Flames towered over a burning warehouse set afire in Le Blanc Mesnil late Thursday. Youths fired buckshot at riot police vehicles in Neuilly-sur-Marne, farther east and a group of 30 to 40 harassed police near a synagogue in Stains where a city bus was torched and a school classroom partially burned, said the top official of Seine-Saint-Denis, Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet.
LCI television reported 50 vehicles burned by early Friday - compared with some 300 the night before.
The sporadic incidents were a scaled-back version of the ferocious rioting that erupted eight days ago in Clichy-sous-Bois and spread across the troubled region of housing projects marked by soaring unemployment, delinquency and a sense of despair.
The unrest took a dangerous turn the day before with rioters shooting at police or firefighters in three towns, ignoring an appeal for calm by President Jacques Chirac.
Facing mounting pressure and criticism, Villepin said restoring order was his "absolute priority."
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois, men filled the Bilal mosque for night prayer Thursday but streets were subdued and shops shut early.
"Look around you. How do you think we can celebrate?" said Abdallah Hammo as he closed the tea house where he works.
From an outburst of anger over the accidental deaths of two teenagers, the rioting has grown into a broader challenge against the French state. The violence has laid bare discontent simmering in suburbs where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, discrimination, crime and poor education and housing.
France's Muslim population, an estimated five million, is Western Europe's largest. But rather than being embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children often complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs.
Despite the release Thursday of a preliminary investigation that appeared to exonerate police of any direct role in the teenagers' deaths, fear of unrest remained high.
The teenagers - Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17 - were killed Oct. 27 while hiding from police in a power substation. Youths in their neighbourhood suspect police chased them to their deaths.
But the report, released by the Interior Ministry, said while police went to Clichy-sous-Bois to investigate a suspected intrusion on a building site, they did not chase the teenagers who were killed. A third teenager who was seriously injured told investigators they were aware of the dangers when they hid in the fenced-off substation, the report said.
It did not specifically address why the teens decided to run when police came to the neighbourhood. But it said Benna was known to police for having committed robbery with violence and that Traore was among those who trespassed on the building site.
Asked why the youths ran when police said they were not being chased, Benna's father said: "This is what they say. We want the truth to come out."
Amor Benna and the other teenagers' families filed a legal complaint to try and determine whether "a mistake was made by security forces. We want to know the circumstances that led to his death."
The suit was filed for "failure to assist a person in danger," a crime in France, said the families' lawyer, Jean-Pierre Mignard. It does not accuse specific individuals. The lawyer said the injured teen, Muttin Altun, 17, remained in hospital.
Official assurances police were not directly responsible for the deaths failed to stem unrest Wednesday night and early Thursday with incidents reported in at least 20 Paris-region towns. Government offices, a police station, a primary school and a college, a Clichy-sous-Bois fire station and a train station were among the buildings targeted.
Patrice Ribeiro, national secretary of the Synergie police officers union, said he suspected rioters aimed to turn their neighbourhoods into no-go zones for the French state so underground economies of drug-trafficking and racketeering can thrive.
Criminal gangs want "to stop police, all state representatives from coming and then, when calm returns, business goes well," he said.
Speaking at the Senate, the prime minister promised: "I will not accept organized gangs making the law in some neighbourhoods. I will not accept having crime networks and drug-trafficking profiting from disorder."
Four shots were fired at riot police and firefighters, without causing injuries, said Cordet, the Seine-Saint-Denis prefect. Nine people were injured in other unrest, officials said.
Traffic was halted Thursday morning on a suburban commuter line linking Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after stone-throwing rioters attacked two trains. A female passenger was slightly injured by broken glass.
Police have arrested at least 143 people, said Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy. Suburban residents and opposition politicians have accused him of fanning tension with tough police tactics and talk - including calling troublemakers "scum."
"Sarkozy's language has added oil to the fire. He should really weigh his words," said Mohammed Fawzi Kaci, an Algerian immigrant who saw his daughter's gym goes up in flames.
"I'm proud to live in France but this France disappoints me."
hahah they are reloading...
Umm, how about this: They got the story wrong.
"Anybody want to speculate why the Canadian Press is using a "calm" headline when all the other stories make it sound like it's getting worse?
"
Maybe they are afraid the ragheads there will get a "good idea"!
Maybe the media in Canada is trying to avoid encouraging Mulsim in Canada to do the same? That, or to avoid giving Quebec any ideas...
The welfare checks must come around the third or fourth of the month, I guess.
Here's hoping the postman delivers it to their work boots, where it will never be found.
Must be due to calls to prayer and a Class V upload at the local mosques.
Maybe now they will print "DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE" signs in Arabic.
"Youths."
Nice euphemism for vicious thugs (who happen to be Muslims in this instance).
How bout Roudy Lads?
Headlines coming soon:
"De Villepin Asks for Global Peacekeepers Now"
"Chirac Remains on Vacation"
"France Seeks World Help"
"Governor of France Catherine la Blanc Remains in Seclusion"
"Paris Mayor Raymonde Naginne Screams Git Us Outta Here Now, You &^&*%&!"
"Americans Stingy With Aid to Paris"
"President Bush Slow with Military Aid to Paris"
End of Ramadan. They can eat sweets now. Maybe it was just withdrawal symptoms after a month without sugar.
Welcome to FReeRepublic.
Great name.
Oh, and the BBC has this... though it's in regards to Thursday night...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4405620.stm
The thing is... they haven't been rioting during the DAY... which is why I suspect this Canadian article is going for that angle... just wait till night time...
Looks like the French chickens have come home to roost~!
Cos its Canada and they don't want to upset their multicultural applecart. Canada doesn't have the problems (yet) Europe does, and the U.S. if it doesn't curtail its illegal immigration. Denmark and Sweden are having similar problems, but no one in Canada wants to talk about that, can't offend anyone. So far I've only seen it on the BBC world news and on line.
Over 10% of France is muslim and not integrated into society. They come from opressive and poor regimes, but hey, its all our fault cos we are racist, doncha know. Excellent article here written in 2003:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/082803M.html
As nearly every Western country absorbs a fast growing Muslim minority, every Westerner should look closely at France. A French failure to integrate Muslims could lead to a general European and Western failure. Those who don't believe in the clash of civilizations might at least see a clash between traditional Islamic values and Western republican values. This raises the question of the compatibility of Islam with secular democracy (separation of church and state) and human rights (especially the rights of women and of non-Muslims).
snip
Economics plays a major role in the "Muslim problem". The overwhelming poverty in Middle Eastern and North African countries, ruled for centuries by Islam, drives their populations to desperation. The Islamists, nostalgic for the glorious past of the Caliphates, place the blame for these conditions mainly on Westerners, rejecting the fact that the problem has its roots in the failure of their own societies. With one of the highest unemployment levels for youth among OECD countries, France is in a bad position to provide a model of integration.
"The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month."
- Isn't it ironic that the religion of peace often chooses its own holy month to instigate violence?
Christmas is coming, I better get ready to riot and pillage. </sarc>
How many riots start at the end of a big holiday meal even when the weather is good? Ever heard of the big Thanksgiving riots?
Don't worry: the weekend is coming up.
They simply chose to file their report in the early dawn hours after another night of chaos. Every morning during this spree has been calm. The headline falls under the MSM "fake but accurate" exception to common sense.
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