French rioters will face curfews

JACQUES Chirac declared a state of emergency yesterday to try to halt the riots that have raged across the country for 12 consecutive nights. The move allows local authorities to impose curfews and gives police powers to raid homes without warrants.

Within hours of the declaration, the northern town of Amiens announced it would ban unaccompanied under-16s from the streets from dawn to dusk.

Police – massively reinforced after the violence fanned out from its initial flash point in the north- eastern suburbs of Paris – will enforce the curfews.

Violators could face up to two months imprisonment. Local government officials will also be able to put people under house arrest as well as close public spaces where gangs gather, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told parliament.

But he also reached out to the i m m i g r a n t p o p u l a t i o n s , acknowledging that they face daily racial discrimination. Combating it ‘ must become a priority,’ he added. He admitted that job- seekers with foreign- sounding names are sometimes not given equal consideration as those with French- sounding names when they present their CVs.

‘The Republic faces a moment of truth . . . France is wounded. It cannot recognise itself in its streets and devastated areas, in these outbursts of hatred and violence which destroy and kill,’ he said.

‘ A return to order is the absolute priority. The government has shown this. It will take all the steps necessary to ensure the protection of our citizens and to restore calm. We see these events as a warning and as an appeal.’

Police reported that the unrest into the early hours of Tuesday had lessened slightly. But vandals still set 1,173 cars on fire and 330 people were arrested.

‘The intensity of this violence is on the way down,’ National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, adding that there were fewer attacks on public buildings and direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France compared to nearly 300 the night before. Mr Villepin said 1,500 police would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit hardest by the unrest.

He also promised to accelerate urban renewal programmes and vowed to help young people in poor suburbs by reducing unemployment and improving their education opportunities. Mr Chirac said the measures were needed to restore order but pressure is mounting on him over France’s worst unrest in decades. He has said little in public about the violence, in which one man has been killed.

The resort to curfews drew immediate criticism from the president’s political opponents.

Former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said the emergency measures must be ‘controlled very, very closely’.

And Communist Party leader Marie- George Buffet said the decree could enflame rioters.

‘ It could be taken anew as a sort of challenge to carry out more violence,’ she said.

Police have made 1,500 arrests since the riots began and 52 adults and 23 youths have already been sentenced to prison or detention centres.

The violence started in Paris after two teenagers, of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent, were accidentally electrocuted while hiding from police in a power station.

Foreign governments have warned tourists to be careful when they visit France. Three cars were set on fire in the German city of Chemnitz yesterday in what appeared to be a copycat attack and French troublemakers were reported to have distributed leaflets in Brussels calling on youths to riot.