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French lower house OKs extending measures
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-16 09:45
France's lower house of parliament voted Tuesday to extend a state of
emergency for three months, after the government said the extra powers are still
needed to end the country's worst civil unrest in four decades.
The government also moved to deport 10 foreigners convicted during the 19
days of violence in troubled poor neighborhoods.
The National Assembly voted 346-148 for the extension, which would keep the
measure in place through mid-February. The measure goes next to the Senate,
where it is expected to be approved Wednesday and go into effect at midnight
Monday.
The opposition Socialist Party argued against an extension, saying emergency
measures were no longer needed because violence is abating. But the extension
passed with support from President Jacques Chirac's governing conservatives
backed by centrist lawmakers.
The 12-day state of emergency was declared Nov. 9.
National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said vandals torched 215 vehicles
overnight, continuing a steady decline that showed France was "getting back to
normal" after nights of arson attacks, clashes with police and other unrest.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing for the extension, said that
because of the unrest, France faces one of its "sharpest and most complex urban
crises."
Sarkozy, who many immigrants say has fanned the violence with combative talk,
told the National Assembly that many people live with "fear in the belly"
because of crime in tough areas.
"The state of emergency has been, is and will be applied with discretion,"
Sarkozy said. "The stakes are considerable. If republican order does not rule in
these neighborhoods, gangs and extremists will."
The crisis has led to collective soul-searching about France's failure to
integrate its African and Muslim minorities. Anger about high unemployment and
discrimination has fanned frustration among the French-born children of
immigrants.
While violence has eased, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told
parliament that "the situation remains difficult in a great number of
neighborhoods. We cannot accept that more than 200 cars burn each night."
He said the emergency measures could be lifted before three months if "peace
is restored in a lasting manner."
The emergency powers allow regional officials to impose curfews and permit
police searches without a warrant and other measures to stop unrest. About 40
towns, including France's third-largest city, Lyon, have imposed curfews on
minors.
Aside from adopting security measures, the government also is taking
longer-term steps to reduce unemployment, discrimination and suburban decay —
all factors behind the violence.
In a televised address Monday, his first since the violence erupted Oct. 27,
Chirac announced creation of national volunteer corps to provide job training
for 50,000 youths by 2007. He said he would meet business and labor leaders to
discuss work force diversity and more jobs for youths from tough neighborhoods.
"We can build nothing lasting if we allow racism, intolerance and abuse,"
Chirac said. "We can build nothing lasting unless we fight this poison for
society that is discrimination."
Villepin carried Chirac's message to youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris on
Tuesday, saying the government would be firm with vandals but was determined to
better integrate youths from minority backgrounds into French society.
"We must be mobilized against the feeling of injustice, against
discrimination," Villepin said, calling the task a "daily job" that the
government was committed to seeing through.
The latest violence included an attack targeting Muslims. Vandals threw three
firebombs at a mosque in Saint-Chamond in the Loire region, causing minor
damage, national police said. It was the third attack of its kind on a mosque
since Friday.
However, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday that no major clashes between
youths and police and no injuries were reported overnight. Youths set fire to
215 vehicles compared with 284 the previous night, it said. In Paris, 13
vehicles were torched.
The numbers have fallen steadily since vandals burned 1,408 vehicles across
France in one night on Nov. 6. In all, 8,500 vehicles have been torched, 100
public buildings and 100 companies destroyed or damaged, 125 police officers
injured, 2,800 people arrested, and 600 jailed, Villepin told parliament.
On Tuesday night, a suspected arson fire caused serious damage to a church in
the southeastern town of Romans. Officials said it wasn't immediately clear if
the fire was linked to the unrests.
The unrest was set off by the accidental electrocution of two teenagers as
they hid from police in a power substation in the northeast Paris suburb of
Clichy-sous-Bois.
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