2005 French riots

The 2005 Paris suburb riots have continued for the sixth consecutive night, after beginning on Thursday, October 27 2005 [1], with violent clashes occurring between hundreds of youths and the French Police. The riots, triggered by the deaths of two North African Muslim teenagers, occurred in Clichy-sous-Bois, a poor commune in the banlieue of Paris, and then spread to other parts of Seine-Saint-Denis. The riots have been described by an official of one of the police unions as a "civil war". However, an official of one of the other police unions has denied that this is the case.

Cause of riots

The two teenagers living in Clichy-sous-Bois, Ziad Benna, 17, and Bouna Traoré, 15, were electrocuted when they accidently touched a transformer in an electrical relay substation which they (and a 21 year old male who survived) climbed into while allegedly fleeing police officers. [2]. The local prosecutor, Francois Molins, said that though the two teenagers believed they were being chased, the police were actually chasing other suspects after a reported break-in in the area. [3] [4] The local prosecutor and the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy maintain that the dead teenagers had not been "physically pursued" by the police. Official investigation of the deaths is in progress. [5] [6]

"Despite denials by police officials and Mr Sarkozy and Mr de Villepin, friends of the boys said they were being pursued by police after a false accusation of burglary and that they 'feared interrogation.'" [7]

Timeline

• Thursday October 27 - rioting first began in the evening, after the deaths of Ziad Benna and Bouna Traoré, whose deaths were witnessed by at least one friend. Gangs, mostly consisting of hundreds of youths, clashed with police, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police forces and firefighters, setting cars on fire, and vandalizing buildings. A shot was reportedly fired at police. [8] Police responded by firing tear gas at the rioters. About 27 people were detained. 23 police officers and 1 journalist were wounded. The number of rioters injured is not known. [9]

• Saturday, October 29 - about 500 people took part in a silent march through Clichy-sous-Bois, in memory of the teenagers. [10] Representatives of the Muslim community appealed for calm and dignity, at the procession. Marchers wore t-shirts printed with the message mort pour rien "dead for nothing". [11]

• Sunday, October 30 - a tear gas grenade was launched into a mosque. Police denied responsibility, but acknowledged that it was the same type used by French riot police. Speaking to 170 police officers at Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture in Bobigny (the local authority overseeing Clichy-sous-Bois), Nicolas Sarkozy said, "I am, of course, available to the Imam of the Clichy mosque to let him have all the details in order to understand how and why a tear gas bomb was sent into this mosque".

• Monday, October 31 - it was reported that the rioting had spread to Seine-Saint-Denis. In nearby Montfermeil, the municipal police garage was set on fire. Michel Thooris, an official of police trade union Action Police CFTC, described the unrest as a "civil war" and called on the French Army to intervene. [12]

• Tuesday, November 1 - it was reported that rioting had spread to nine other suburbs, across which 69 vehicles were torched. A total 150 arson attacks on garbage cans, vehicles and buildings were reported. The unrest was particularly intense in Sevran, Aulnay-sous-bois and Bondy, all in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, which is considered to be a "sensitive area of immigration and modest incomes." In Sevran, youths set fire to two rooms of a primary school, along with several cars. Three officers were slightly injured. [13] In Aulnay-sous-Bois, rioters threw Molotov cocktails at the town hall and rocks at the firehouse; police fired rubber bullets at advancing rioters. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met with the families of Ziad Benna, Bouna Traoré, and the third male who was also hiding in the electrical substation. The Prime Minister expressed the "need to restore calm." [14]

Criminal proceedings

• Friday, October 28 - Two 25 year-olds and one 27 year-old male were sentenced to 8 months in prison, with 2 months' firm imprisonment for throwing projectiles at police officers.
• Monday, October 31 - Three men were sentenced to prison.
• 5 adults to appear in a court north of Paris, 3 teenagers to appear at a minors' court. [15]

Political and police response

In response to the Paris riots, French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, stated that police officers should be armed with non-lethal weapons to combat urban violence. [16] After the fourth consecutive night of riots, Sarkozy declared a zero-tolerance policy towards urban violence and announced that 17 companies of riot police (C.R.S.) and 7 mobile police brigades (escadrons de gendarmerie) would be stationed in contentious Paris neighborhoods. Undercover police officers were sent to identify "gang leaders, drug traffickers and big shots." Sarkozy's approach was criticized by left-wing politicians who called for greater public funding for housing, education, and job creation, and refraining from "dangerous demagoguery". [17] Sarkozy was further criticized after he referred to the rioters as "scum" [18] and "riff-raff". [19]

During his visit to Clichy-sous-Bois, the Interior Minister was to meet with the families of the youths, but when the tear gas grenade was sent into the Clichy mosque, the families pulled out of the meeting. Bouna Traoré's brother Siyakah said, "There is no way we’re going to see Sarkozy, who is incompetent. What happened in the mosque is really disrespectful". [20]

The BBC wrote that the riots illustrate that Muslims in the ghettos of Paris feel alienated due to French society's traditional values of assimilation, secularism, and due to French fears of "the worldwide rise of Islamic militancy," reporting that "the assertiveness of French Islam is seen as a threat not just to the values of the republic, but to its very security." [21]

Background

Immigration of Arabs from North Africa has noticeably changed the Demographics of France since the 1960s, especially in Marseilles and Paris, with an estimated 1 million immigrating in the 1960s following the French rule in Algeria, and by 1994 about 5 million people of Muslim extraction were estimated to live in France (French law prohibits the collection of religion-related demographic data in census; according to two 2001 studies, there were an estimated 4.1 million people of "Muslim extraction" in France, including 1.5 to 2 million religious "observant" Muslims). The Seine-Saint-Denise département has the largest Arab concentration in France (around 30%), with high unemployment rates (30% in La Courneuve), and is one of the départements with the highest incidence of violent crime. The Clichy-sous-Bois synagogue had been attacked in October 2001, and again in August 2002 [22]. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in a recent interview with Le Monde said that, all over France, so far in 2005, 9000 police cars have been stoned, and each night, 20 to 40 cars are torched [23].

External links

• Youths Riot for a Second Night in Paris (ABC News)
• 28 photos [24]