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| World Updates November 12, 2005 France moves to prevent unrest in Paris By Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - France enforced a ban on gatherings that could cause trouble in Paris on Saturday and thousands of police patrolled the capital after a 16th night of urban unrest across the country. Police said they took the precautions because of Internet and SMS text messages calling for violence in the capital, which has largely escaped the violence by youths in poor suburbs angered by unemployment, racism and a lack of opportunities.
A poster that reads "Stop to violence" is displayed on the Monument for the Peace in central Paris during a demonstration November 11, 2005. Police banned any gathering that might provoke disorder in Paris this weekend, saying they had been warned violence was planned for Saturday after two weeks of rioting across France. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)
The unrest has fallen in intensity since President Jacques Chirac's government announced emergency measures on Tuesday including curfews, but rose again slightly overnight. Some 502 vehicles were set ablaze across France, compared to 463 the previous night, although there were fewer incidents of violence in the Paris suburbs, police said. Youngsters attacked a primary school during the night in Savigny-Le-Temple southeast of Paris and destroyed its creche. About 30 people attacked a power transformer in Amiens, plunging the north of the town into darkness, police said. Two shops in Rambouillet, a town southwest of Paris, were destroyed and police detained 206 people. In the town of Carpentras in the south of France a person on a scooter threw two fire bombs at a mosque before fleeing, police said. People inside the mosque witnessed the attack, though there was little damage and no one was hurt. Chirac and his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, condemned the attack. CHIRAC, GOVERNMENT UNDER PRESSURE The Paris ban went into force at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) and was due to run until 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday. Three thousand extra police were deployed across the capital on Friday, the Armistice Holiday marking the end of World War One. "This is not about preventing people from walking around Paris ... or visiting the city ... It is to allow ordinary people to go about their business that police need the power to arrest troublemakers," Paris police chief Pierre Mutz said. The unrest was triggered by the accidental deaths of two youths who were electrocuted as they hid in a power substation while apparently fleeing police just north of Paris. Chirac and the government have been heavily criticised over their handling of the rioting, involving white youths as well as French citizens of Arab and African origin. The violence has shocked French people and Chirac has told the government to address the problems in the impoverished suburbs quickly, acknowledging mistakes have been made. An opinion poll by the BVA research group on Nov. 4-5 showed 56 percent of French people approved of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's tough actions, and another poll showed French people widely back the government's emergency measures. But the left-leaning newspaper Liberations questioned on Saturday whether the Paris ban was justified. It asked: "Is the threat to Paris a pure fantasy or not? Is the decision ... simply the application of the principle of precaution or a useless and nasty dramatisation?" Copyright © 2005 Reuters
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