Riot gunmen will be brought to justice, says Sarkozy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted today that rioters who opened fire on police would be brought to justice and called the violence that has raged for three nights in a Paris suburb unacceptable.
“So that things are very clear: What has happened is absolutely unacceptable,” Mr Sarkozy said after meeting a wounded police captain in hospital in Eaubonne, north of Paris.
It was the first time Mr Sarkozy, who had just returned from China, had entered the fray of the renewed tensions in France’s suburbs since the rioting broke out Sunday night.
The violence drew comparisons with riots which raged through suburbs nationwide in 2005, and shows that that anger still smoulders in poor housing projects where many Arabs, blacks and other minorities live largely isolated from the rest of society. The renewed outburst was shaping up to be a stern test for the president.
“We will find the shooters,” he said, and they will “be brought to account before justice”.
He described the incident which sparked the violence – the death of two teenagers on a motorcycle in an accident with a police car in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday – as “distressing”. But he added: “Shooting at police has no link to this incident.”
Today, Mr Sarkozy was due to meet the families of the two youths, and the mayor of Villiers-le-Bel, before having a security meeting with his top ministers.
While cars were set ablaze for a third night yesterday, officials said the violence was less intense than the two previous nights.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the overall situation was “calm”. But, she said on Europe-1 radio, an increased police presence would remain “as long as necessary”.
She said 39 people were arrested in the Paris region last night.
Bands of young people set more cars on fire yesterday in and around Villiers-le-Bel. In the southern city of Toulouse, 20 cars were set ablaze, and fires at two libraries were quickly brought under control, police said.
The previous night, 82 officers were injured, 10 of them by buckshot and pellets, the police force said. The use of firearms – rare in 2005 – added a dangerous dimension.
There have long been tensions between France’s largely white police force and ethnic minorities trapped in poor neighbourhoods. Despite decades of problems and heavy state investments to improve housing and create jobs, the depressed estates which ring Paris are a world apart from the tourist attractions of the French capital. Police speak of no-go zones where they and firefighters fear to patrol.
The violence two years ago also started in the suburbs of northern Paris, when two teenagers were electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police.
