Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 12:00 AM

Permission to reprint or copy this article or photo, other than personal use, must be obtained from The Seattle Times. Call 206-464-3113 or e-mail resale@seattletimes.com with your request.

JACQUES BRINON / AP

Charred vehicles fill a parking lot in Suresnes, west of Paris, after a wave of mass disorder swept France.

Burning cars is nothing new across France

By Elaine Ganley
The Associated Press

PARIS — The torching of thousands of cars by restive suburban youths across France in the past few weeks has drawn worldwide attention, but it's a tactic with a long tradition in this country.

Whether for revenge, crime or simply for sport, French youths have been setting cars aflame for decades.

They torched cars during France's first major bout with suburban violence in the 1980s in tough neighborhoods ringing Lyon.

Gangs over the years have stolen cars to use for other crimes, then burned them, said criminologist Alain Bauer, president of the French National Crime Commission.

And in the 1990s, youths in Strasbourg began torching cars to mark the New Year.

"It was like a fun thing to do," Bauer said. Each year, "they burned 10, 20, 50, then 100. It became a tradition. This tradition spread all over the country."

Setting cars afire has a symbolic impact, Bauer said.

"In France, a car is like a jewel," he said. "You use it not only to work but as a representation of your social status."

National police said Wednesday that almost 9,000 vehicles — cars, buses, motorcycles — had been set afire since the Oct. 27 start of the urban unrest that began in a northeast Paris suburb and spread.

But between January and the end of October, 30,000 cars had already been torched across the country, National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said in an interview published Tuesday in the daily Le Monde.

The unrest that started Oct. 27 reflects long-pent-up frustrations of despairing suburban youths — often the children of Muslim North African immigrants — who face daily discrimination in the job market and elsewhere.

One difference between the unrest in the 1980s and the more recent burnings is that rioters in Lyon positioned the cars between themselves and police to use the vehicles as weapons against security forces.

In addition to crime and sport, car torchings have a "tribal" dimension among suburban gangs.

"It's a way to show they own the neighborhood," Bauer said.

Cars are easy to set afire, and the torcher pays a minimal price — if caught at all, said Patrice Ribeiro, national secretary of the Synergie police officers union. Cars "burn well and fast," he added.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company