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Username: Serenasailor
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - 05:00 pm: | 
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Unrest reaches French capital
Riots, arson take new turn, spreads across country
Saturday, November 5, 2005; Posted: 11:39 p.m. EST (04:39 GMT)
A car set fire Saturday night is extinguished northwest of Paris.
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? PARIS, France (CNN) -- Protesters in France expanded their arson rampage into the capital city of Paris and along Mediterranean resort communities as the nation's Interior Ministry predicted the violence would grow by daybreak Sunday.
Police helicopters flew over Paris and other locations in an effort to identify and stop the vandals, French radio said.
The latest violence, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in suburban Paris, spread west to the Normandy region and south to the Mediterranean. In the resort cities of Cannes and Nice, where arson was reported.
By early Sunday, more than 900 cars had been burned, 193 people detained and several police officers and firefighters injured after a 10th night of rioting across France, according to national police spokesman Patrick Hamon.
Thirteen cars were torched in Paris, including several in the Place de la Republique in the central city.
In the Normandy city of Evreux, five police officers and three firefighters were injured when two schools, a post office, a shopping center and 50 cars were burned, Hamon said. A child care center was burned in Lille in northern France.
Two schools in Grigny, south of Paris, were set ablaze and firefighters responded to 30 reports of arson in Toulouse, in southern France, the Interior Ministry said. Several cars were on fire and several trash cans were burning outside public buildings.
A cultural center in the central city of Nantes was destroyed by fire, and a youth hostel burned in Paris, the ministry said. (Watch French teens explain why they're angry -- 2:08)
The spreading violence has shocked national leaders and community residents into action as the French prime minister held special meetings Saturday and concerned citizens participated in a demonstration march.
For 10 days police, government and community leaders have been struggling to restore order, and debating how to quell the unrest that began October 27 in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.
Locals blamed police for the electrocution deaths of two teenagers -- both of African descent -- who climbed a fence surrounding a power station while apparently running from police.
Poverty, unemployment, discrimination
The vandalism has spread to around 20 communities with large immigrant and Muslim populations who've been plagued by poverty, unemployment and alleged discrimination. In some areas, unemployment is 25 percent.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met with community leaders and members of his Cabinet Saturday to address the situation.
Mediators and religious leaders are talking to the youths in an effort to stop the violence. More than 2,000 vehicles have been torched in the violence, and hundreds or people arrested. Some police officers, paramedics and journalists have been injured.
The rioting prompted warnings from the U.S. and British governments for visitors to be aware of the situation and avoid the affected areas.
As many as 3,000 people took part in a silent march Saturday morning, speaking out against the rioting and its root causes, state radio reported.
'Quite hard to combat'
Hamon told The Associated Press that arsonists were moving beyond their heavily policed neighborhoods to less protected areas.
"They are very mobile, in cars or scooters. ... It is quite hard to combat," Hamon told AP. "Most are young, very young, we have even seen young minors."
There appeared to be no coordination between separate groups in different areas, Hamon told AP. But within gangs, youths are communicating by cell phones or e-mails. "They organize themselves, arrange meetings, some prepare the Molotov cocktails."
In quiet Acheres, west of Paris, arsonists burned a nursery school, where part of the roof caved in, and about a dozen cars in four attacks that the mayor said seemed "perfectly organized," AP reported.
Children's photos clung to the blackened walls, and melted plastic toys littered the floor, AP reported. Mayor Alain Outreman tried to cool tempers and rejected demands that militias be formed or that the army be deployed. "We are not going to start militias," he said. "You would have to be everywhere."
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the government is unanimous in its determination to end the violence and address the problems.
"Once this crisis is overcome and calm is restored, each must also understand that there's also a certain feeling of injustice in some neighborhoods," Sarkozy said Saturday, according to a translation from Reuters News Agency. "I have thought this for a long time, and said it as well."
There have been calls by the Green Party and the Communist Party for Sarkozy to resign, after he called the rioters "scum" earlier in the week -- language that served only to inflame the vandalism.
Warning for tourists
The U.S. Embassy in Paris has issued a public announcement warning American travelers about the rioting.
"Although the riots have occurred in areas not normally frequented by U.S. tourists, travelers should be aware that train travel from the Charles de Gaulle Airport to the city center may be disrupted at times, as it passes near the affected area," according to the announcement, dated Friday.
"Travelers could rely instead on airport buses or taxis to downtown Paris. Americans should avoid the affected areas."
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