French govt proposes to extend state of emergency
Youths set schools ablaze and torched cars as scattered arson attacks persisted across France early today, and the government said it would propose extending the country’s state of emergency by three months.
Despite a sharp fall in unrest, the Cabinet was to propose a bill today allowing a 12-day state of emergency to be prolonged until mid-February, said government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope. The measure empowers regions to impose curfews on minors and conduct house searches.
Overnight, the number of car-torchings – a barometer of the unrest – dropped sharply, with youths setting fire to 284 vehicles, compared to 374 the previous night.
“The lull is confirmed,” national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. A week ago, 1,400 cars were incinerated in a single night.
The 18 nights of arson attacks and riots – set off by the accidental electrocution deaths of two teenagers 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 decades of simmering anger over racial discrimination, crowded housing and unemployment.
In scattered attacks overnight, vandals in the southern city of Toulouse rammed a car into a primary school before setting the building on fire.
In northern France, arsonists set fire to a sports centre in the suburb of Faches-Thumesnil and a school in the town of Halluin, the North regional government said.
A gas canister exploded inside a burning rubbish bin in the Alpine city of Grenoble, injuring two police officers, the national police said, adding that three other officers were injured elsewhere.
Since the beginning of the unrest, 2,767 people have been arrested.
Violence has decreased steadily since France declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. The measure is set to end on November 20, but government spokesman Cope said the Cabinet would adopt a bill today to prolong the state of emergency “for a period of three months, starting on November 21".
Cope said the bill, which must be approved by parliament, would leave open the possibility of ending the emergency measures before three months are up, if order is restored.
Officials already are turning their attention to helping riot-hit towns recover: European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso proposed Sunday that the European Union give €50m to France, and said it could make up to €1bn available in longer-term support for suburban jobs and social cohesion.
Later today, President Jacques Chirac was to make a televised statement about the violence – his third public comment since the unrest began, the Elysee Palace said.
Within 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 raised concerns among human rights groups, and questions among other ministers.
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he agreed that illegal immigrants could be sent home, but not foreigners with permission to live in France.
“A French person who carried out a crime or a misdemeanour in France cannot be treated in one way while a foreigner with papers in order is treated in another,” he said. “It’s not possible.”
