Riots in Paris Neighborhood/Sarkozy Crack down

[Moses]

Neighbours urge calm after riots in Paris suburb
Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:13 PM BST


By Laure Bretton

PARIS (Reuters) - Several hundred people marched silently through a Paris suburb on Saturday to pay their respects to two teenagers whose deaths sparked two nights of rioting.

The two boys were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they ran away from police investigating a break-in, officials said.

Following their deaths, hundreds of youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in the Clichy-Sous-Bois suburb.

Firefighters went into action around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb where many of the 28,000 residents are African immigrants, police and fire officers said.

After the violence, several hundred took part in a silent march to honour the two dead teenagers, some wearing T-shirts reading "Dead for nothing".

"Thanks to you, France will now respect us more than this morning, before this silent march," said Claude Dilain, mayor of Clichy-Sous-Bois, a neighbourhood of high-rise public housing projects.

"We are showing our real face, that of united citizens, whatever our origin or religion or faith," he said at the march, where the victims' families appealed for calm among local young people.

During Friday night, unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.

"It's not normal that these two should die like that," one teenage boy wearing a hooded sweatshirt told French television, referring to the two dead boys, which media identified as 15-year-old Banou and 17-year-old Ziad.

LOBBING STONES

Television pictures showed youths lobbing stones at police while cars burnt on the streets of the suburb. Officers in riot gear chased some youths down an alleyway.

Around 19 people were detained and 15 police officers and one journalist injured, police said. They were unable to give figures for the number of protesters hurt.

An officer from the police trade union Action Police CFTC said the army should be brought in to support the police.

"There's a civil war under way in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris from Action Police CFTC, said. "My colleagues are not equipped or trained for street fighting."

However, Joaquin Masanet from the UNSA-Police union, which represents the majority of riot police, did not agree.

"We're not at war," he said. "The police are capable of restoring order if we are given the equipment and the manpower."

Prosecutor Francois Molins said the three boys had fled from police at the scene of a break-in.

"They started to run because the other youths were running. The three adolescents in question were not in trouble with police. They were not delinquents. They thought they were being chased but that was not the case," he said.

On Thursday night, youths set cars and garbage cans ablaze and attacked shops and a fire station.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose law and order policies have been criticised by human rights groups, launched a new drive against crime this month, ordering specially trained police to tackle 25 tough neighbourhoods in cities across France.

Sarkozy, who has ambitions to run for president in 2007, made his name by cutting headline crime figures during his first stint as interior minister from 2002 to 2004.

(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich)

[Moses]

Youths clash again with police in Paris suburb
Sun Oct 30, 2005 8:49 PM GMT


By Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS (Reuters) - French police have taken 22 youths into custody for questioning after three nights of riots in a northeastern suburb of Paris, officials said on Sunday.

Overnight, groups of young people threw bottles, rocks and set fire to more than a dozen cars. Nobody was hurt but nine people were detained by police. Thirteen youths were taken into custody on Friday night, police and local officials said.

The violence began three days ago among residents of Clichy-sous-Bois, which has a large immigrant population, over the deaths of two teenagers believed to be of African origin who were electrocuted while fleeing police.

"There were some cars ablaze and some arrests, but nothing like what we saw in the two previous nights," a police spokesman said, noting the rioting did not last as long.

On Friday night, youths set garbage bins and cars ablaze and fired a shot at police in the suburb, many of whose 28,000 residents are African immigrants. Sixteen people were slightly injured in Friday's violence.

Hundreds of residents marched silently through the suburb on Saturday to appeal for calm and pay their respects to the two dead teenagers, identified in media reports as 15-year-old Banou and 17-year-old Ziad.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said the two boys were killed and a third was injured at an electricity substation as they fled police investigating the scene of a nearby break-in.

The three youths were "no delinquents", he said on Saturday, adding: "They thought they were being chased although that was not the case."

Judicial and internal police authorities have opened investigations into the events.

"DORMANT VOLCANO"

Police sources said the situation seemed to have calmed down in Clichy-sous-Bois, a neighbourhood of high-rise public housing projects, but they urged caution.

"It is like a dormant volcano. It could erupt again any time, but in general these kinds of riots don't last longer than 48 hours," said a police source who had been at the scene during the riots on Thursday night.

Many northeastern suburbs, where immigrants and families from poor backgrounds live in Soviet-style housing estates, have become notorious for youth violence.

In June, an 11-year old boy was killed by a stray bullet in the northern area of La Courneuve. The eastern suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine made headlines in 2002 when a 17-year old girl was set alight by an 18-year-old boy whose friends stood nearby.

The latest riots occurred days after Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy launched an offensive against crime this month, ordering specially trained police to tackle 25 tough neighbourhoods in cities across France.

"There are some gangs and traffickers who are living off the underground economy, off drug traffic, who think that these neighbourhoods are outside the authorities' reach," Sarkozy told TF1 television on Sunday.

"There is no reason why compatriots living in these neighbourhoods, the poorest ones, don't have a right to safety, too," he said, vowing to visit a sensitive neighbourhood each week and to publish monthly figures on urban violence.

The minister, who has stated his ambition to run for president in 2007, will meet the victims' families on Monday.

The tough-talking Sarkozy, whose law and order policies have been criticised by human rights groups, made his name by cutting headline crime figures during his first stint as interior minister from 2002 to 2004.