|
Restive France declares state of emergency
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-09 07:53
In the first reports of violence Tuesday night, a clash broke out between
youths who threw gasoline bombs and police who retaliated with tear gas, LCI
television said.
The 50-year-old state-of-emergency law that President Jacques Chirac invoked
was originally drawn up to quell unrest in Algeria during its war of
independence from France and was last used in December 1984 by the Socialist
government of President Francois Mitterrand against rioting in the French
Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia.
That Chirac took such steps was a measure both of the gravity of the crisis
and of his sorely tested government's determination to restore control.
"France is wounded. It does not recognize itself in these devastated streets
and neighborhoods, in this outburst of hatred and of violence that vandalizes
and kills," Villepin said. "The return to order is the absolute priority."
Under the emergency laws, police — with 8,000 officers deployed and 1,500
reservists called up as reinforcements — could be empowered in areas where
curfews are imposed to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the
movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces
where gangs gather, Villepin said.
The Interior Ministry said local officials were deciding whether curfew
measures were needed in their areas. The Justice Ministry said curfew violators
could face up to two months imprisonment and a $4,400 fine. Minors face one
month imprisonment.
The northern French city of Amiens and the central city of Orleans said they
planned curfews for minors under age 16, who must be accompanied by adults at
night. Amiens also planned to forbid the sale of gasoline in cans to minors.
The widespread violence has already led France to begin fast-track trials,
with 106 adults and 33 minors so far sentenced to prison or detention centers.
The violence started Oct. 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb
angry over the accidental electrocutions of two teenagers, of Mauritanian and
Tunisian descent, while hiding from police in a power substation.
It has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths,
many of them French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories
like Algeria. France's suburbs have long been neglected and their youth complain
of a lack of jobs and widespread discrimination.
In his speech to parliament, Villepin said jobseekers with foreign-sounding
names do not get equal consideration as those with traditional French-sounding
names when presenting resumes.
The French system, said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a lawmaker from
Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of northeast Paris where the unrest started, is
"running out of steam."
The main opposition Socialists, through their parliamentary leader Jean-Marc
Ayrault, said they did not oppose the use of curfews but also warned that they
should not be used to hide suburban "misery" or become "a new mark of
segregation."
Communist Party leader Marie-George Buffet warned that the decree could
enflame rioters. "It could be taken anew as a sort of challenge to carry out
more violence," she said.
French historians say the rioting is more widespread and destructive in
material terms than the May riots of 1968, when university students erected
barricades in Paris' Latin Quarter and across France, throwing paving stones at
police. That unrest, a turning point in modern France, led to a general strike
by 10 million workers and forced President Gen. Charles De Gaulle to dissolve
parliament and fire Premier Georges Pompidou.
|
