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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (258700)	11/7/2005 8:09:12 AM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572549

I'd say 3500 cars burned and escalating tactics from the rioters with no response from the French is pretty serious. What are you and Chirac expecting? The problem to go away or someone else to fix it for you?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (258700)	11/7/2005 11:57:19 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572549

These riots grow more dangerous with each passing day. Why does Chirac not call out the military and ask for Sarkozy's resignation asap? Chirac needs to throw the crowd a bone while showing a firm hand. If Chirac doesn't move quickly, this could spread from France to Belgium, Germany and the UK very easily. ************************************************************ Violence exposes France's weaknesses** By John Simpson BBC World Affairs Editor The violence in France has been brewing for some time Last spring, over dinner in Paris, a close friend of mine who runs one of the biggest opera houses outside the French capital told me: "I've got this persistent feeling that 1968 is just about to happen all over again." He had no idea that the violence would erupt in the dreary, featureless suburbs. He thought it was because the French political system had run out of ideas and credibility, and he knew the French. These moments of weakness are the times when trouble always seems to break out. Moment of weakness? If President Jacques Chirac and the centre-right government which supports him had been in full control of France's political life, it is hard to think these long days and nights of continuous rioting would have taken place. The feelings of resentment and simmering anger in the suburbs would have been just as strong, but the crowds would mostly have held back. Chirac must control the rioters or his image will be fatally damaged Years of reporting on riots and revolutions have shown me that crowds display a mysterious collective sense which somehow overrides the perceptions and fears of the individuals who make up the mass. And crowds have a remarkable feeling for the weakness of government. There is of course a huge well of fury and resentment among the children of North African and African immigrants in the suburbs of French cities. The suburbs have been woefully ignored for 30 years. Violence there is regular and unexceptionable. Even on a normal weekend, between 20 and 30 vehicles are regularly attacked and burned by rioters. Power decline This time the riots are joined up, pre-planned, co-ordinated. At some level of consciousness, the demonstrators know that the governmental system they are facing is deeply, perhaps incurably, sclerotic. Mr Chirac, standing back until his ministers showed their inability to agree a clear line on the rioting, seems not to have the answers when he speaks now. His presidency is overshadowed by an inescapable sense of past corruption and weakness, and he has governed France at a time when its economy and its position in the world have both declined sharply and markedly. Violence in the poor suburbs is a frequent occurrence No matter that events have thoroughly borne out his criticisms of the US and British invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Muslim teenagers who briefly applauded him then have long since forgotten all that - though of course if he had supported President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair then, he would be in even greater trouble now. In 1968, too, President Charles de Gaulle and his ministers spoke sternly of the need for order to be restored immediately, and yet they did nothing. If the riot police could have restored order they would have done so, but they were overstretched and outwitted, and their only response was more of the kind of violence which made the crowds even more ferocious in their turn. Anti-French tone I remember the 1968 riots very well. But of course the differences between then and now were as great as the similarities. For a start, the riots of 2005 are still all about the bitter and genuine grievances of the Muslim and African communities, ignored and demeaned and kept in poverty by a system which cares very little about them. Sarkosy is appealing to right-wing resentment Only if a much wider swathe of French society gets involved on their side will the situation become truly pre-revolutionary, in the way that the crowds of 1968 were. And since the riots have taken on a fiercely anti-French tone, and the violence and destruction have sickened so many people in the suburbs themselves, that seems unlikely at present. France, though, tends to move forward in fits and starts, rather than organically, and these fits and starts are often associated with violence. Spirit of revolution Thanks to the Revolution, violence even has a kind of virtue which it simply does not possess in a country like Britain. When government becomes incapable of change, the crowds in the streets have to do the changing for themselves. There is a great deal that has to be changed. I have seen many times for myself how the CRS, the deeply aggressive and ferocious force of riot police, have attacked Muslims and Africans in the streets in times of trouble. The police have failed to bring the rioters under control Last April, Amnesty International singled out the violence and racism of the French police towards the non-white people of the suburbs for particular criticism. Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister, now seems to be playing politics with the situation by appealing to the most basic and resentful attitudes of conservative France. Much of the violence on the streets of France's cities is mindless; some of it is malign. But simply stamping it down will not work - and anyway the CRS and the civil police have tried that, and their toughness has only made things worse. France is going to have to change towards its unwilling, often unwelcome young second-generation population, and accommodate them better. It is not enough to demand that these people drop their sense of themselves and fit in with the way France has traditionally ordered its affairs. But most of all there has to be change in attitudes at the top. And if Mr Chirac cannot do it, he will be fatally damaged as president. Do you agree with John Simpson's view of the violence in France? How should the authorities tackle it? What are the major challenges in store for French society? Send us your views on the form below. news.bbc.co.uk

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (258700)	11/7/2005 3:14:06 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572549

Riots Spread Into Rebellion Julio Godoy PARIS, Nov 6 (IPS) - Rioting by immigrant youth around Paris has begun to take the shape of a nationwide rebellion against racial and social segregation, and repressive police action. Over the weekend gangs comprising youth mostly from the Maghreb countries and sub- Saharan Africa set fire to more than a thousand vehicles, several supermarkets, and public buildings including schools and sport facilities. Vehicles were burnt in the centre of Paris for the first time since the beginning of the unrest 11 days ago. Similar violence broke out in other cities including Marseille, Rennes, Nantes and Lille. The police have been unable to re-establish order despite strong action. Hit-and-run youth gangs coordinating action over mobile phones have been too quick for them. It now seems less and less likely that police action alone can restore calm. The unrest began Oct. 27 after two immigrant children died accidentally in a high-voltage electricity facility in Clichy-sous-Bois, a poor district some 30km north-east of Paris. In the face of rumours that they were being chased by the police, which the police deny, angry youths went on the rampage. The police reacted with force, in one instance hurling tear-gas grenades into a mosque. Most residents of the Parisian outskirts where the unrest began are Muslims. Such action was seen by many residents as provocative. Minister for the interior Nicholas Sarkozy's remarks calling violent youth 'scum' also provoked further violence, several experts say. "Sarkozy's choice of words makes me think of the rhetoric used by military police in racial dictatorships, and of regimes practising ethnic cleansing," Hugues Lagrange, social researcher at the independent Paris Observatory of Social Change told IPS. Lagrange said conditions of extreme poverty, high unemployment and the racial segregation that hinders immigrant access to jobs lay at the heart of the rebellion. Instead of dealing with these issues, Sarkozy is stirring up unrest "to establish tighter electoral links with a populist right-wing extremist population." Lagrange said one of Sarkozy's first measures as minister of the interior was to disband a special police unit created by the former Socialist government in 1997 to maintain close contact with youth organisations to prevent any outbreak of violence. "The duty of police officers is to chase criminals, not to play football with them," Sarkozy said at the time. Deep political divisions have emerged over the violence. Neo-fascist leader Jacques Bompard and the right-wing nationalist Philippe de Villiers have urged the government to call in the army to suppress the rebellion. De Villiers said the rebellion is proof that the French model of integration "has clearly failed." On the other hand, local Muslim leaders say Sarkozy must be sacked. They said in a statement that after the attack on the mosque and Sarkozy's abuse of youth, they "do not consider Sarkozy an appropriate negotiation partner." President Jacques Chirac indirectly condemned Sarkozy's response. "The law shall be firmly applied, but in a spirit of respect and dialogue," Chirac had said last Wednesday. But opposition leaders and several commentators are urging Chirac to throw Sarkozy out of government. "Sarkozy is an arsonist pretending to be a fireman" ran the title of an editorial comment in the leftist newspaper L'Humanité. Noel Mamère, leader of the Green Party, called Sarkozy "a danger for French democracy, a danger destroying rapidly the year-long integration efforts carried out by social workers and organisations in the field." He said if Sarkozy does not resign, "the government must kick him out." Christian Pfeiffer, a German criminologist who has been researching youth unrest in Europe, said "Sarkozy's behaviour is absolutely unacceptable." Sarkozy has refused to apologise. "I cannot understand why people make such a fuss about words, but ignore the reality of riots and crimes," he said. He said the riots had been "carefully organised...by criminal mafias and by religious extremists." City mayors and social workers all over France are calling for a major plan to develop low- income districts to avoid future explosions of violence. Jean-Marie Bockel, mayor of Mullhouse in the north-east, has called for "a Marshall plan for our districts." (END/2005) ipsnews.net