Sarkozy vows to bring rioters to justice

Sarkozy vows to bring rioters to justice

By Nicola Clark and Katrin Bennhold

Published: November 28, 2007
 
PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday to bring those who shot at police officers to justice as a wave of rioting by angry youths in the suburbs north of Paris showed signs of ebbing.

"What has happened is absolutely unacceptable," Sarkozy said after he was whisked to a bedside meeting with a wounded police captain upon his return from a three-day state visit to China. Firing weapons at the police, he said, "has a name: attempted murder."

"We will put in the necessary resources to find those responsible," Sarkozy said. "It is not something that we can tolerate, regardless of the drama of the deaths of these two youths on a motorcycle."

The violence has evoked strong memories of a three-week spasm of rage that erupted in the suburbs of several major French cities in 2005 and has been seen as proof of a smoldering anger that still persists among the poor, largely Arab and black neighborhoods that ring the country’s more affluent urban centers.

The current wave of violence was sparked Sunday night after two boys, aged 15 and 16, were killed in a traffic accident with police in the rough Parisian suburb of Villiers-le-Bel. As in 2005, gangs of young men and teenagers have taken to lobbing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the police, setting alight cars and government buildings, including a library and a preschool.

But what distinguishes the current situation from those two years ago has been the frequent use of hunting rifles by rioters - a factor that has transformed the violence into something akin to "urban guerilla warfare" according to at least one police union official.

Around 80 officers were injured on Monday night, 10 of them by buckshot and pellets, according to the police.

Sarkozy met Wednesday morning with the families of the two youths as well with the mayor of Villiers-le-Bel before heading for an emergency meeting to discussion the situation with his prime minister, François Fillon, interior minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, justice minister Rachida Dati and Fadela Amara, a junior minister who Sarkozy has charged with drafting a revitalization plan for the suburbs.

While tensions remained high, the authorities said Wednesday that the situation did appear to have eased somewhat from the previous two days.

"The situation is under control," Denis Joubert, director of public safety for the region surrounding Villiers-le-Bel told The Associated Press.

Nonetheless, Alliot-Marie told the radio station Europe1 that a heavy police presence would be maintained in Villiers-le-Bel "for as long as necessary" to stop the violence and that "delinquants" could expect "no tolerance" from the authorities.

About 1,000 officers patrolled the streets of Villiers-le-Bel on Tuesday night. Alliot-Marie said 39 people were arrested in the Paris region, though she did not provide comparison figures for the two previous nights.

While the situation may have calmed near Paris , there were reports Tuesday night that a riot had erupted in the southern French city of Toulouse . The police there said vandals had set fire to about 20 cars in a working-class area of town and attempted to burn down a library.

Police officers said the presence of guns meant that they would have to increase their vigilance for as long at the current stand-off continues.

"We have crossed a red line," said Joachim Masanet, secretary general of the police wing of the UNSA trade union. "When these kids aim their guns at police officers, they want to kill them. They are no longer afraid to shoot a policeman."

In Villiers-le-Bel on Tuesday night, clusters of young men stood by the charred timbers of the town’s police station, laughing and surveying the damage.

Cem, 18, of Turkish origin, declined to give his name because he feared police reprisals. But he and his friend Karim, of Algerian descent, said they both had participated in rioting over the past two days.

"That’s just the beginning," Cem said. "This is a war. There is no mercy. We want two cops dead."

Karim added: "The police brought this on themselves. They will regret it."

The biggest risk, the police say, is that the violence will spread. In 2005, unrest cascaded through more than 300 towns, leaving 10,000 cars burned and 4,700 people arrested.

For Sarkozy and his government, winning the hearts and minds of France ’s disaffected youth is shaping up to be a monumental task.

Naim Masoud, 39, a teaching assistant in Villiers-le-Bel, said that, in her school, even 8-year-old children talked about racism and discrimination by the police.

It will take a lot more than riot police to cure this neighborhood," she said. "These children feel like foreigners. It is inexcusable what they are doing, but the seeds are deep."

Some of the fiercest clashes Monday took place near a bakery where one of the dead, a 16-year-old known only as Larami because his identity has not been made public, was an apprentice.

Habib Friaa, the owner of the bakery, said Larami had been highly regarded. He was stunned, he added, to learn Monday about his death.

Nicola Clark reported from Paris and Katrin Bennhold reported from Villiers-le-Bel , France

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/28/europe/france-sub.php