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Violence Persists in Southern France
The violence in France's poor, suburban communities persisted in the south Sunday with attackers ramming burning cars into the sides of a retirement home and a school in one southern town. But nationwide the unrest of the past 18 nights continued to subside.National Police Chief Michel Gaudin described the declining levels of violence as a "major lull" despite scattered incidents of serious attacks, particularly in southern cities and communities. The nation's worst violence in nearly four decades has declined slowly over the last week since its ferocious climax last weekend. Residents and police said the unrest has been curbed in many areas with a combination of parental and community pressure on the youths involved in the attacks, curfews and more aggressive arrests by police. But groups of boys and young men continue to strike at symbols of the republic, including schools and police stations, as well as opportune targets ranging from cars to private businesses. Most of the violence has been concentrated in poor communities with large populations of immigrants and their French-born children. The violence, which has hit nearly every major city and town in France, has open a nationwide debate over the inequities and discrimination in French society. A poll published by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper Sunday indicated that 71 percent of those surveyed do not believe President Jacques Chirac can resolve the social problems that fueled the riots. The survey also showed that 25 percent of the respondents support the policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has capitalized on the violence to promote his National Front party's "zero immigration" platform. Some of the worst incidents of violence over the weekend occurred in southern France. In Carpentras, a town of 28,000 people in the Provence region, young men rammed burning cars into a retirement center and a school in separate attacks Saturday night. Police said no one was injured in the attacks. On Friday night, a man on a motorcycle hurled two molotov cocktails at a mosque, slightly damaging the foyer of the building. In the southeastern city of Lyon, France's third largest urban area, streaks of gasoline were discovered on the exterior of the Grand Mosque Sunday, but no fire was reported, police said. About 50 young men and boys rampaged through a main square in Lyon Saturday night, attacking street vendors' stalls, small shops and cars. Arsonists torched an electronics store Saturday night in Blangnac, a community on the outskirts of the southern city of Toulouse that has been the scene of much unrest in recent nights. In Paris, where 3,000 police were deployed around major tourist sites and government buildings after Internet and cellular telephone text message threatened violence in the central parts of the city, only one incident was reported -- a fire at a gasoline station, police said. More incidents of violence were reported in neighboring Belgium. Police arrested about 50 people Saturday night after groups of youths confronted police in downtown Brussels. Police reported 29 buses, cars and trucks burned across the country. In the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, youths set four cars on fire Saturday night, according to police. It's just the beginning. Posted by: .com 2005-11-14 |
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