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French Police Chief: Unrest Winding Down
By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago
France's worst rioting since the 1960s seems to be nearing an end, the national police chief said Sunday as fewer cars were torched nationwide and Paris remained calm despite Internet and cell phone messages urging violence in the capital's streets.
In scattered attacks, youths rammed a burning car into a center for retirees in Provence and pelted police with stones in the historic heart of Lyon, the country's third biggest city. A firebomb was tossed at a Lyon mosque but did not explode.
The nationwide storm of arson attacks, rioting and other violence, often by young people from impoverished minorities, has lost steam since the government declared a state of emergency Wednesday.
Youths set fire to 374 parked vehicles before dawn Sunday, compared to 502 the previous night, police said. A week ago, 1,400 cars were incinerated in a single night.
If the downward trend continues, "things could return to normal very quickly," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, noting that French youths burn about 100 cars on an average Saturday night.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso proposed that the European Union give $58 million to France for helping riot-hit towns recover. He said the EU could make up to $1.2 billion available in longer-term support.
The 17 days of unrest sparked by the accidental electrocution deaths of two teens who thought police were chasing them began in Paris' poor suburbs, where many immigrants from North and West Africa live with their French-born children in high-rise housing projects.
France's worst unrest since the 1968 student-worker protests is forcing the country to confront anger that has built for decades over racial discrimination, crowded housing and unemployment. The national jobless rate is nearly 10 percent, but it is around 40 percent for youths in housing projects.
While Paris has been mostly calm since the rioting broke out Oct. 27, calls for "violent action" Saturday night in the capital were posted on Internet blogs and sent in text messages to cell phones.
Thousands of police guarded the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Elysees avenue and train stations. But only one incident was reported a fire set at a gas station, the national police chief said.
For the first time during the unrest, youths and police clashed in the heart of a major city, trading tear gas and stones at Lyon's historic Place Bellecour.
Just hours earlier, regional authorities had imposed a weekend curfew on the southeastern city and nearby towns barring youths under 18 from being outside without adult supervision late at night.
"What's the point? There's not a war here!" young people cried out to patrolling police in a troubled neighborhood in Venissieux, a suburb of Lyon.
But several mothers said the curfew made them feel more at ease.
"We always think we're going to see our car burned, or our neighbor's car burned, when we wake up in the morning," said 40-year-old Sihem, who declined to give her last name.
An overnight firebomb attack on Lyon's Grand Mosque left traces of gasoline on the wall, but the device did not explode, officials said. It was unclear whether the attack was part of a backlash related to the riots. Two firebombs were tossed into a mosque in Carpentras last week, slightly damaging the building's porch.
On Monday, the Cabinet is to propose a bill allowing an extension of the 12-day state of emergency if needed.
Also in the next few days, France is expected to start deporting foreigners implicated in the violence a plan by law-and-order Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that has caused divisions in the government.
A poll in the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche suggested Sarkozy is the politician that French people trust most to deal with the troubles. Some 53 percent said they supported him, while about 71 percent said they lacked confidence in President Jacques Chirac.
Nearly a quarter said they trusted far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Chirac's main challenger in the 2002 presidential race. Le Pen has seized on the violence to promote his National Front party's "zero immigration" platform.
More copycat attacks occurred in neighboring nations. Belgium had its worst night in a week of attacks, with 29 cars, trucks and buses torched, the government said. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, youths burned four cars, police said. Two cars were set afire in the Swiss town of Martigny.
EU offers France aid after riots
France has been offered 50m euros ($59m; £34m) by the European Union to help recover from more than two weeks of rioting in poor city suburbs.
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said up to 1bn euros could be made available eventually for job creation and to help social cohesion.
French insurers estimate that damage claims alone will reach 200m euros.
With incidents dwindling, French police chief Michel Gaudin has said "things could return to normal very quickly".
Unrest on Saturday night mainly occurred in provincial cities like Toulouse and St-Etienne.
According to the police:
* The night saw 370 cars burnt compared to 502 on Friday, and nearly 1,500 on 6 November, the worst night of the riots
* A nursery school was torched in the southern town of Carpentras and a burning car was pushed up to an old people's home, causing panic among residents
* A petrol bomb hit Lyon's grand mosque but did not cause damage.
'Jobs are key'
The French government's response to Mr Barroso's offer, made in a letter to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, was not immediately available.
RIOT TOLL SINCE 27 OCTOBER
8,400 vehicles burnt nationwide along with dozens of public buildings
Dozens injured and one death said to be connected
2,652 people arrested, 592 in custody
Insurance claims put at 200m euros
source: AFP news agency
In a radio interview, the head of the European Commission said youth employment was a key challenge.
"The best social politics is to create employment," he told Europe 1.
"When you have 60% of youths unemployed in suburbs it is a problem."
Other big European cities, he said, had similar problems and had come up with their own solutions but it was "up to governments to work out how to address their own problems".
Unrest has continued among mainly Arab and African communities on rundown housing estates for 17 nights since the accidental deaths of two teenagers on 27 October, who were reportedly trying to hide from police.
About 8,400 vehicles have been burnt nationwide along with dozens of public buildings including schools and gyms, according to a tally released by the French state news agency AFP on Sunday.
Dozens of people including residents, police and firefighters have been injured, while one firefighter received serious facial injuries from a petrol bomb and a disabled woman suffered serious burns when a bus was set alight.
The death of a 61-year-old man in a street assault has been connected by some to the riots.
Police have arrested 2,652 people, the youngest of them aged 10, and 592 were remanded in custody.
