Chirac vows action against rioters

GRIGNY, France – Over 30 police were hurt and more than 800 vehicles burned overnight across France as unrest spread and intensified in the 11th night of violence in poor suburbs that President Jacques Chirac has vowed to defeat.

The most shocking incident came in Grigny, south of Paris, where youths lured police onto a housing estate grounds and then attacked them with pellet guns. A police spokesman said about 10 were injured, two seriously with pellets in the neck and legs.The police union Action Police CFTC urged the government on Monday to clamp a curfew on the riot-hit areas and call in the army to help control the irate youths, many French-born citizens of Arab and African origin complaining of racial discrimination.”Nothing seems to be able to stop the civil war that spreads a bit more every day across the whole country,” it said in a statement.”The events we’re living through now are without precedent since the end of the Second World War.”Reacting to official suggestions that Islamist militants might be stoking some of the protests, one of France’s largest Muslim organisations issued a fatwa against the unrest.The violence came shortly after Chirac broke a long silence with his first public comments since the unrest began on Oct.27.”The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear,” he said after a domestic security council met to respond to the violence in which thousands of cars have gone up in flames so far.An Interior Ministry statement said 839 vehicles were torched overnight.Also, 34 police were injured in clashes and 186 rioters were detained.”They really shot at officers,” said one officer after about 200 youths attacked his colleagues in Grigny.”This is real, serious violence.It’s not like the previous nights.I am very concerned because this is mounting.”Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose tough line has been widely criticised but was apparently endorsed by Chirac’s call for order to be restored before any measures can be taken, visited the two injured policemen in hospital.Further violence was reported in other cities, including Nantes, Rennes, Strasbourg, Lens and Toulouse.Youths seized a bus in Saint-Etienne in central France, ordering passengers off and torching the vehicle.The driver and one passenger were hurt.In the eastern city of Strasbourg, rioters lobbed Molotov cocktails into a primary school.In Toulouse in the south-east, a blazing car was pushed into a metro entrance.At Lens in the north, a firebomb was thrown at a church.In nearby Lille, about 50 cars were torched and a Belgian television reporter was beaten up as he filmed.The rioting began with the accidental electrocution of two youths fleeing police in Clichy-sous-Bois outside Paris.Chirac’s government has come under increased pressure to halt the riots, sparked by frustration among ethnic minorities over racism, unemployment and harsh treatment by police.Many feel trapped in the drab suburbs built in the 1960s and 1970s to house waves of immigrant workers.Their French-born children and grandchildren are now out on the streets demanding the equality France promised but mostly failed to deliver.Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was due to announce measures for France’s poor suburbs, where many immigrants from Africa live in bleak social housing projects.”We cannot accept any ‘no-go’ areas,” Villepin said after meeting Chirac on Sunday, adding the government would step up security where necessary.Some 2,300 extra officers have already been drafted in to quell riots that have spread from Paris’s suburbs to other towns, unnerving France’s European neighbours.- Nampa-ReutersA police spokesman said about 10 were injured, two seriously with pellets in the neck and legs.The police union Action Police CFTC urged the government on Monday to clamp a curfew on the riot-hit areas and call in the army to help control the irate youths, many French-born citizens of Arab and African origin complaining of racial discrimination.”Nothing seems to be able to stop the civil war that spreads a bit more every day across the whole country,” it said in a statement.”The events we’re living through now are without precedent since the end of the Second World War.”Reacting to official suggestions that Islamist militants might be stoking some of the protests, one of France’s largest Muslim organisations issued a fatwa against the unrest.The violence came shortly after Chirac broke a long silence with his first public comments since the unrest began on Oct.27.”The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear,” he said after a domestic security council met to respond to the violence in which thousands of cars have gone up in flames so far.An Interior Ministry statement said 839 vehicles were torched overnight.Also, 34 police were injured in clashes and 186 rioters were detained.”They really shot at officers,” said one officer after about 200 youths attacked his colleagues in Grigny.”This is real, serious violence.It’s not like the previous nights.I am very concerned because this is mounting.”Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose tough line has been widely criticised but was apparently endorsed by Chirac’s call for order to be restored before any measures can be taken, visited the two injured policemen in hospital.Further violence was reported in other cities, including Nantes, Rennes, Strasbourg, Lens and Toulouse.Youths seized a bus in Saint-Etienne in central France, ordering passengers off and torching the vehicle.The driver and one passenger were hurt.In the eastern city of Strasbourg, rioters lobbed Molotov cocktails into a primary school.In Toulouse in the south-east, a blazing car was pushed into a metro entrance.At Lens in the north, a firebomb was thrown at a church.In nearby Lille, about 50 cars were torched and a Belgian television reporter was beaten up as he filmed.The rioting began with the accidental electrocution of two youths fleeing police in Clichy-sous-Bois outside Paris.Chirac’s government has come under increased pressure to halt the riots, sparked by frustration among ethnic minorities over racism, unemployment and harsh treatment by police.Many feel trapped in the drab suburbs built in the 1960s and 1970s to house waves of immigrant workers.Their French-born children and grandchildren are now out on the streets demanding the equality France promised but mostly failed to deliver.Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was due to announce measures for France’s poor suburbs, where many immigrants from Africa live in bleak social housing projects.”We cannot accept any ‘no-go’ areas,” Villepin said after meeting Chirac on Sunday, adding the government would step up security where necessary.Some 2,300 extra officers have already been drafted in to quell riots that have spread from Paris’s suburbs to other towns, unnerving France’s European neighbours.- Nampa-Reuters