France passes state of emergency extension Paris - The French parliament has given final approval to extending a state of emergency, even as France was returning to an "almost normal situation" after three weeks of rioting and unrest. Despite the decline in violence, France's upper house of parliament on Wednesday signed off on the government's request for a three-month extension of a state of emergency first declared November 9. The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 202-125, which allows it to take effect at midnight on Monday. The extension had already passed in the lower house a day earlier. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the Senate that tensions in troubled neighbourhoods justified continued state-of-emergency powers. The number of towns still affected by unrest dropped to 79 overnight, down from 102 the previous night and more than 300 at the peak of the unrest, he said.
'The future cannot be built on violence'
"Seventy nine is naturally too many," Sarkozy added. "The future cannot be built on violence." The state of emergency, first put in place for a 12-day period, gives regional authorities extra powers the government says are still needed to end the country's worst civil unrest in four decades. But the leftist opposition says emergency powers are no longer needed. Socialist senators planned to vote against the extension, as their National Assembly colleagues did on Tuesday. Criticism has also mounted among others concerned that France is compromising its values and risked further enflaming passions. Dozens of associations that fear the measures treat residents of poor suburbs like "internal enemies" protested on Wednesday in the Latin Quarter. At a rally that drew several hundred people, protesters demanded what they called a "social state of emergency" that gives a voice to immigrants and their French offspring who often live in suburban housing projects. A scathing commentary on Wednesday in the left-leaning daily Liberation said the state of emergency was no remedy for the social injustices, unemployment and discrimination making suburban youths angry. "Its extension is useless and could prove dangerous ...," the paper editorialised. "The gravest threat is that of the subtle erosion of the fundamental principles of the Republic." Sarkozy, as he did a day earlier in the National Assembly, said the emergency powers would be used responsibly and only where needed. They allow for curfews, day and night house searches and other police actions. Other tough measures taken by the government include plans to deport foreigners implicated in the unrest. Rioters have also been given speedy trials. Sarkozy told the Senate that 75-80 percent of the nearly 3 000 people arrested were already known to police. National police said vandals set fire to 163 vehicles overnight, down from 215 the previous night - a continuing drop that indicated an "almost normal situation everywhere" in France. Most violence was in the provinces, with only 27 vehicles torched in the Paris region, compared with 60 a night earlier. A total of 8 973 vehicles have been set afire since the violence began October 27. At the height of unrest, youths burned 1 408 vehicles across France in one night, on November 6, and shots were fired at police. About 10 600 police remain deployed to counter the violence, which included an arson attack early on Wednesday on the Saint-Jean-d'Ars Roman Catholic church in Romans-sur-Isere, south-east France. Several mosques have also been hit by vandals since the unrest took root. 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. 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. - Sapa-AP Published on the Web by IOL on 2005-11-16 23:53:11 © Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.