Car burnings decline throughout France
PARIS—Car burnings and vandalism have declined under state-of-emergency measures enacted Wednesday and a heavy police presence. The 15th consecutive night of violence saw fewer skirmishes and fewer cars burned—463, down from 482 the previous night, police said.
"We have seen a continued drop beyond Paris, but persistence near the capital," said national police spokesman Patrick Hamon. "We cannot yet claim victory; the drop remains fragile."
President Jacques Chirac acknowledged that France must confront the social inequalities and discrimination that have fueled the violence—France's worst since the 1968 student-worker uprising.
"There is a need to respond strongly and rapidly to the undeniable problems faced by many residents of underprivileged neighborhoods around our cities," Chirac told a news conference yesterday. "Whatever our origins, we are all the children of the Republic, and we can all expect the same rights."
Finance Minister Thierry Breton said in an interview published today that the government was considering relaxing restrictions on highly regulated service industries and business start-ups to help create jobs in poor suburbs.
"We have put a lot of money into the suburbs over the past 20 years," Breton was quoted as saying by the Financial Times. "But obviously it wasn't enough. We need to work on how to create more jobs and growth in those areas."
The first night of violence, on October 27, was touched off by youths angered by the accidental deaths of two teenagers who believed they were being chased by police. The teens hid in a power substation and were electrocuted.
The unrest quickly spread from the northeastern suburban Paris town of Clichy-sous-Bois into a nationwide wave of arson and nightly clashes between rioters armed with firebombs and police retaliating with tear gas.
Fueling their rage was the high unemployment and discrimination that have frustrated France's African and Muslim communities for years.
Police, meanwhile, suspended eight officers, two of them suspected of beating a man detained during the riots. The victim had "superficial lesions" on the forehead and the right foot, the Interior Ministry said.
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