France imposes curfews on riot-hit cities to end unrest
Foreign Desk Report

PARIS—President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France’s worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence. Police, meanwhile, said overnight unrest Monday-Tuesday, was still widespread and destructive but not as violent as previous nights.
“The intensity of this violence is on the way down,” National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, citing fewer attacks on public buildings and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared with nearly 300 the night before. The state-of-emergency decree — invoked under a 50-year-old law — allows curfews where needed and will become effective at midnight Tuesday, with an initial 12-day limit. Police who have been massively reinforced as the violence has fanned out from its initial flash point in Paris’ northeastern suburbs were expected to enforce the curfews. The army has not been called in.
The mayhem sweeping the neglected and impoverished neighborhoods with large African and Arab communities is forcing France to confront anger building for decades among residents who complain of discrimination and unemployment. Although many of the French-born children of Arab and black African immigrants are Muslim, police say the violence is not being driven by Islamic groups. Nationwide, vandals burned 1,173 cars overnight, compared with 1,408 vehicles Sunday-Monday, police said. A total of 330 people were arrested, down from 395 the night before.
Local officials “will be able to impose curfews on the areas where this decision applies,” Chirac said at a Cabinet meeting. “It is necessary to accelerate the return to calm”. The recourse to a 1955 state-of-emergency law that dates back to France’s war in Algeria was a measure both of the gravity of mayhem that has spread to hundreds of French towns and cities and of the determination of Chirac’s sorely tested government to quash it.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said curfew violators could be sentenced to up to two months imprisonment, adding that restoring order “will take time”. “We are facing determined individuals, structured gangs,” Villepin told parliament on Tuesday. He vowed that France will “guarantee public order to all of our citizens”.
Under the emergency decree, local government officials will be able to put people under house arrest and demand that weapons be handed over. Public spaces where gangs gather can be closed. Disobedience could lead to up to two months in prison, Villepin said. The violence erupted Oct. 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb angry over the accidental deaths of two teenagers, of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent, who were electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation. It has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths.
Villepin also reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs, acknowledging that racial discrimination there is as a “daily and repeated” fact of life. He said job seekers with foreign-sounding names are sometimes not given equal consideration as those with French names, adding that fighting such prejudice “must become a priority”. The violence claimed its first victim Monday, with the death of a 61-year-old man beaten into a coma last week. Foreign governments have warned tourists to be careful in France. Apparent copycat attacks have spread to Belgium and Germany, where cars were burned. France is using fast-track trials to punish rioters, worrying some human rights campaigners.