WSJ.com - Rioting Across France Hits a New Peak

WSJ.com - Rioting Across France Hits a New Peak

Rioting Across FranceHits a New Peak
More Than 1,400 Vehicles Are BurnedIn 11th Night of Violence, Police Chief Says
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUPNovember 7, 2005 7:34 a.m.
PARIS – Rioting across France hit a new peak with 1,408 vehicles burned in an 11th night of rioting, France's national police chief said Monday.
The figure was a sharp increase from the night before, when 1,295 vehicles were burned, Michel Gaudin told a news conference. He said police made 395 arrests overnight Sunday to Monday, up from 345 the night before.
Later Monday, French police said a man beaten during riots has died, becoming the first fatality since the unrest started.
"We are witnessing a sort of shock wave that is spreading across the country," Mr. Gaudin said, noting that the violence appeared to be sliding away from Paris and worsening elsewhere in France.
In the rioting, youths fired birdshot at police and hurled Molotov cocktails at churches, schools and a daycare center. Ten riot police officers were injured by fine-grain birdshot in a clash with rioters late Sunday in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny, with two of them hospitalized, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. The two officers' lives were not in danger.
French President Jacques Chirac promised to arrest and punish those who "sow violence or fear."
"The law must have the last word," Mr. Chirac said Sunday after a security meeting with top ministers, making his first public address on the riots. France is determined "to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear, and they will be arrested, judged and punished," he said.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speeded-up trials for rioters and extra security during France's worst civil unrest in at least a decade.
From an outburst of anger in suburban Paris housing projects, the violence has fanned out into a nationwide show of disdain for French authority from youths, including the children of Arabs and black Africans angered by high unemployment, poor housing and discrimination. The president said France would promote "respect for all, justice and equal opportunities." But the priority for now is "restoring security and public order," he said.
Arsonists burned two schools and a bus in the central city of Saint-Etienne and its suburbs, and two people were injured in a bus attack. Churches were set ablaze in northern Lens and southern Sete, Mr. Hamon, the police spokesman, said. The extent of damage was not yet clear.
In Colombes in suburban Paris, youths pelted rocks at a bus, sending a 13-month-old child to the hospital with a head injury, Mr. Hamon said. In another Paris suburb, Saint-Maurice, a daycare center burned.
Much of the youths' anger has focused on law-and-order Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as "scum." In Strasbourg, youths stole a car and rammed it into a housing project, setting the vehicle and the building on fire.
"We'll stop when Sarkozy steps down," said the defiant 17-year-old driver, who gave his name only as Murat. Under arrest, he and several others awaited a ride to the police station as smoke poured from the windows of the housing project behind them.
Mr. Sarkozy said he planned to visit the two hospitalized police officers. It was unclear whether they were shot with hunting rifles or a less lethal weapon, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. One was wounded in the neck, the other in the legs.
The tough-talking interior minister said police must restore law and order to France, or gangs and extremists would fill the void. "We will take the time we need, but order must return," Mr. Sarkozy said.
The human toll has been modest relative to the stark scenes of vandalism being beamed around the world. No rioters or police had died in the violence as of Sunday. Rather than confronting the well-armed police, most of the rioters are dodging them, working in small bands and quickly vandalizing vehicles and public buildings. Life in central Paris went on as usual, with tourists and residents clogging the streets, parks and museums.
The unchecked violence is a blunt reminder that reaching an accommodation with its Muslim minorities is one of Europe's most pressing long-term problems, along with reviving a long-sluggish economy and dealing with an aging populace. Muslims account for an estimated 5% or more of the populations of France, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain and are heavily concentrated in big cities. In France, home to an estimated five million Muslims, the largest community in Western Europe, the rioters have been young men of Arab and African origin.
Italian opposition leader Romano Prodi warned that his country could fall prey to similar unrest in its poor areas. "Italy has the worst suburbs in Europe," he told reporters over the weekend. "Let's not think we're any different than Paris. It's only a matter of time."
This year is proving to be a watershed in the history of modern Europe's encounter with Islam. As a host of events have shown -- from the homegrown terrorists who bombed the London subways in July to the European Union's near rejection of a membership bid from Muslim Turkey and now the Paris riots -- Europe has failed to cope with the Muslims within and on its borders.
The rioting began Oct. 27 in Clichy-sous-Bois -- one of the many poor, immigrant suburbs that surround Paris -- after two teenagers of North African origin accidentally were electrocuted when they hid in a power substation after they thought they were being chased by police. The boys died. No other deaths have been reported.
The riots are turning into a leadership crisis for President Chirac. Some French observers are comparing the unrest to the student demonstrations that paralyzed France in 1968. Jean-Louis Debré, president of the French National Assembly and mayor of Evreux, Sunday called the rioting in his town "an episode of urban guerrilla warfare'' and called on the government "to make a great show of firmness'' in response.
Mr. Chirac's team has so far failed to get a grip on the mobs -- and is being accused by many of making things worse. The unrest quickly spread from Clichy-sous-Bois to other Paris suburbs after Mr. Sarkozy called the rioters "thugs" and "scum" in an appearance on television news.
Despite the harsh words he aimed at rioters, Mr. Sarkozy is one of France's few mainstream politicians who champion greater rights for immigrants. He recently stirred controversy in his own center-right ruling party by proposing to let immigrants vote in local elections. He also was one of the first French politicians to call for affirmative action to help immigrants gain a role alongside France's all-white elite.
In France, frank public discussion of the plight of minorities is made difficult by the state's republican ideology. In official French thinking, the only thing that matters is whether a resident is a French citizen or not. The French census doesn't tally people by creed or ethnic background.
In reality, minority groups suffer much greater rates of joblessness than the white majority, and France has no national political leaders of Arab or African origin. A few businesses and schools have only just begun experimenting, cautiously, with small affirmative-action programs.