Loathing, anger fuelled French riots
Chaos eases, but youth warns one mistake and ‘ it will be war’
AULNAY SOUS- BOIS, FRANCE—
At the Rose of the Winds housing estate, the trashing and burning of the community police post still makes for lively conversation.
“ People were so happy to get inside and destroy everything because normally when they’re in there they’ve got handcuffs on,” said Saeed, 26, admitting he was one of the thrilled participants. The young residents of this impoverished, ethnic minority ghetto outside Paris describe the gutting of the police post Friday as a cathartic outburst against a dead-end existence that often leads to petty crime.
“ Things are calming down, but everyone is just waiting. If the police make one mistake, it will be war in all the suburbs,” said Karin, 22, who like Saeed would not give his last name. A government-imposed state of emergency, which took effect at midnight after nearly two weeks of violence, has eased unrest in the charred suburbs of Paris. But youths continued to throw Molotov cocktails at police and set cars ablaze in other French cities during violent protests against racism and unem-
ployment. “The Republic faces a moment of truth,” French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told the national assembly yesterday.
“ France is wounded,” he added. “ It cannot recognize itself in its streets and devastated areas, in these outbursts of hatred and violence which destroy and kill.” He made clear that France had failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals and expressed doubts about its assimilation model of integration.
President Jacques Chirac resorted to a 1955 law that dates back to the Algerian war to decree the state of emergency, which paves the way for curfews to be imposed in areas where local authorities deem it necessary to curb rioting. Those who violate the curfew face up to two months in jail and a $ 4,400 ( U. S.) fine. Minors face one month in jail. Under the decree, officials can put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles and close public spaces where gangs gather, Villepin said. But he cautioned that restoring order “ will take time.” The northern city of Amiens was the first to announce a curfew, saying unaccompanied youths would not be allowed to walk the streets of the city from midnight until 6 a. m. More than 5,000 cars were torched and one man was beaten to death during 12 days of unrest. Some 1,500 people were detained, most of them French youths of African or Arab background. Fast- track trials to punish rioters have some human rights advocates concerned.
“ The intensity of this violence is on the way down,” said National Police Chief Michel Gaudin, adding that rioting was reported in 226 towns across France overnight Monday compared with nearly 300 the night before. The violence exploded Oct. 27 after two teenagers were accidentally killed while hiding from police in a power station in a northeastern suburb of Paris.
At Aulnay sous- Bois, also in Paris’s northeastern outskirts, two days of rioting in the poetically named Rose of the Winds estate, where high-rise apartments sprawl for several blocks, ended on the weekend.
At the shopping centre at the entrance to the complex, men of Turkish and North African origin play cards in a crowded coffee shop and adolescents race up and down the shopping corridors with bicycles. They’re eager to talk about life in the ghetto, but leery of being fully identified. Mohammad, 56, described immigrating from Algeria 35 years ago to work on a car assembly line until an injury forced him to stop working in 1993. “Racism explains all the problems here,” said Mohammad, whose five children, aged 5 to 22, were all born in France. “ Everywhere the children go, they are made to feel that they are not really French.”
In some ethnic minority neighbourhoods, unemployment is as high as 40 per cent — four times the national average.
“ Young people are fed up with unemployment. They’re on the street with nothing to do,” Mohammad said.
Paris, although a short train ride away, may as well be another world.
“ Paris is the city for the rich. Us, they put us here, like animals in a pen,” Mohammad said.
Reda, who is 23 and unemployed, pulled out his French identity card: “ Look, I’m a French citizen but my name is Arab, and that makes all the difference.”
“ The reality is that the French are racists. They just don’t admit it,” said Reda, whose parents immigrated from Morocco. A serious problem on the estate is children as young as 14 who have either dropped out of school or been thrown out. “ They’re not in school and they don’t have jobs,” said Saeed, who lives on welfare. “ So they hang around, start smoking dope and drinking alcohol, and then they need money. Then they do what it takes to get it.”
Villepin announced reforms that would open apprenticeship programs to youths as young as 14. He also vowed to reduce unemployment and increase educational opportunities for residents of impoverished suburbs. Racism and unemployment only got worse after the Sept. 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the U. S., when all Muslims became suspect in French eyes, the youths said.
After the attacks, Rose of the Winds residents with even the smallest criminal record lost jobs as baggage handlers or cleaners at the nearby Charles de Gaulle airport, they added. The youths describe being “provoked” by police officers who repeatedly ask them to show their identity cards. They applaud the torching of the police post, but lament the fact the local sports centre suffered the same fate. And they blame Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy for fuelling the riots.
“ Every time Sarkozy talks about the suburbs, he talks about how they’re full of scum that has to be cleaned out. He never talks about the good people in the suburbs, the people who succeed, who become artists or open businesses,” Saeed said.