French interior minister vows tough action over riots

By Matthew Bigg

PARIS (Reuters) - France's interior minister pressed home his pledge of tough action including the expulsion of immigrants involved in 17 consecutive nights of unrest by youths protesting harsh police treatment and lack of opportunities.

Youths burned 130 vehicles and set fire to a nursery school on Saturday evening and police fired tear gas to disperse those who attacked cars and stalls in France's second city Lyon earlier in the day in the first violence to hit a city centre.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech to policemen at the police station in Paris' eighth district after touring the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris November 12, 2005. (REUTERS/Franck Prevel)

But the intensity of the violence by disaffected French citizens of Arab and African origin as well as white youths has dropped from its peak last Sunday since emergency measures including curfews came in on Wednesday.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy restated a pledge of further action at a meeting of police in central Paris on Saturday night.

"If you want to live in France with a residency permit you have to abide by the laws ... Immigration laws allow expulsions. I am the interior minister and I will apply the law," he said.

Police and witnesses said central Paris remained calm as thousands of police deployed and authorities enforced a ban on gatherings that could provoke trouble during the Armistice holiday weekend marking the end of World War One.

"All those who wish to commit acts of violence will be brought to justice," Sarkozy said.

He has been criticised by the rioters and by politicians for his tough language and he was heckled when he inspected security forces on Saturday evening on Paris' elegant Champs Elysees avenue, seen as a possible flashpoint.

But in a poll published in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, 53 percent of those surveyed said they were confident Sarkozy could resolve the problems in impoverished suburbs.

RIVALRY

The worst unrest to hit France in 40 years has given a new twist to rivalries in the run-up to presidential elections in 2007, in which Sarkozy is seen as one of several possible candidates along with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Some 52 percent of the 953 people voted yes for Villepin when asked to say whether each of a list of prominent politicians could solve problems in the suburbs.

President Jacques Chirac, accused of keeping too low a profile during the crisis, polled 29 percent while the leader of the opposition Socialist party Francois Hollande who is another possible candidate for the presidency polled 31.

The number of cars burned by midnight on Saturday was less than at the same time the previous night, police said.

In the town of Carpentras, where the nursery school was burned, a burning car was pushed up to an old people's home doing little damage but causing panic among residents, police said.

The previous night two fire bombs were thrown at a mosque in the southern town, sparking condemnation from the president, prime minister and religious groups.

Elsewhere, a member of the riot police force was injured after being hit by a metal ball thrown from an apartment block in a suburb outside Paris, police said.

The violence has sparked a debate, not just on how to restore order but also on social problems in poor suburbs and the integration of immigrants.

Many of those involved say they have been frozen out of the benefits offered by French society and discriminated against because of their racial origin or because they live in grim suburbs outside big towns and cities.

"We must make France a country of diversity and one in which different people are accepted," Azouz Begag, minister delegate for parity and professional equality, told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

News Poll

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs

Latest from StarProperty