Youths riot in Paris suburb
- From: "LoonBat Zoot" <loonbat.zoot@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 15:07:46 -0500
"PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a Paris suburb on Saturday in a second night
of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers were electrocuted while fleeing police.
The teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station
as they ran away from police investigating a break-in, media reported.
Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000
residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said.
Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.
"It's not normal that these two die like that," one teenage boy wearing a hooded sweatshirt told French television, referring to the
two dead boys, which media identified as 15-year-old Banou and 17-year-old Ziad.
Television pictures showed youths lobbing stones at police officers while cars burnt on the streets of the suburb. Police in riot
gear chased some youths down an alleyway.
Around 19 people were detained and 15 police officers and one journalist injured, police said. They were unable to give figures for
the number of protesters hurt.
An officer from police trade union Action Police CFTC called for help from the army to support police officers.
"There's a civil war under way in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris from Action Police CFTC, said. "My colleagues
neither have the equipment nor the practical nor theoretical training for street fighting."
However, Joaquin Masanet from the UNSA-Police union, which represents the majority of riot police, did not agree.
"We're not at war," he said. "The police are capable of restoring order if we are given the material and human means."
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday the youths who fled the scene of the suspected break-in and climbed into an
electricity sub station were not being pursued by police when they were electrocuted.
It was unclear whether the three youths at the electricity sub station were suspected of taking part in the break-in or where just
nearby when it happened.
PURSUIT
On Thursday night, youths set cars and garbage cans ablaze and attacked shops and a fire station. Officials said 23 vehicles,
including some post office delivery trucks, were set ablaze and destroyed in the protests.
Several hundred people took part in a silent march to honour the two dead teenagers in Clichy-Sous-Bois on Saturday.
"Thanks to you, France will now respect us more than this morning, before this silent march," said Claude Dilain, mayor of
Clichy-Sous-Bois, a suburb of high-rise social housing.
"We are showing our real face, that of united citizens, whatever our origin or religion or faith. Together, we have showed our pain
and even anger, in calm, dignity and respect."
Sarkozy, whose law and order policies have been criticised by human rights groups, launched a new offensive against crime this
month, ordering specially trained police to tackle 25 tough neighbourhoods in cities across France.
Sarkozy, who has clearly stated his ambition to run for president in 2007, said police mobile units would patrol districts instead
of having police waiting around in coaches while trouble erupted elsewhere.
The tough talking Sarkozy made his name by cutting headline crime figures during his first stint as interior minister from 2002 to
2004."
http://www.ezilon.com/information/article_13063.shtml
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