8 November 2005
FRANCE IN FLAMES
4,700 cars torched, 177 police injured, one man dead, 300 cities on fire, 1,200 rioters held... I've never seen such hate filled violence
From Peter Stephens, former Mirror Man in Paris

I HAVE lived and worked in Paris for 60 years and witnessed many violent but largely local riots.

But I have never seen anything like the current violent, hate-filled upheaval.

The 1968 student uprising in Paris looked at one point as though it might spiral out of control, but it fizzled out.

The current riots, triggered by the deaths of two black teenagers in a Paris sub-station as they hid thinking police were chasing them, have spread nationwide.

And 300 cities and towns had been hit. Schools, factories, police stations, shopping centres, gyms and garages have all gone up in flames. Some 4,700 cars have been torched, 177 policemen injured - two shot.

Jean Jacques Le Chenadec, 61, beaten trying to put out a fire in a bin in Stains, Paris, became the first to die yesterday.

And 1,200 have been arrested after 11 nights of rioting. Copycat attacks saw cars set alight outside a train station in Brussels and five vehicles torched in Berlin.

The Opposition has slated the government's response as too little and too late. Many say immigrants, mostly from former French colonies in North Africa who are at the heart of the uprising, have no hope.

France has five million Muslims - western Europe's largest Islamic population.

Unemployment is 40 per cent in their suburbs - compared to 10 per cent on average. They say they can't get work because of racial discrimination. They live off benefits, drug peddling or petty crime.

President Jacques Chirac has admitted privately that France has failed to integrate them. Deputy Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is intent on using force to smash the riots. But describing rioters as "scum" and "riff raff" has inflamed the situation.

Some blame the government's weakness on the bitter rivalry between Sarkozy and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin who will battle it out to be president in 2007.

It seemed clear back in the summer that there would be trouble. There were numerous strikes, nearly all organised by the communist CGT union. The unions fear privatisation and strike at any hint of it.

Marseille was brought to a standstill over plans to party privatise the Corsican Ferry Company. Gendarmes swooped on one of their ships after the crew mutinied and took it out to sea. The four alleged ringleaders were arrested but released. The government was accused of not being tough enough.

I thought the unions would call a general strike and bring the country to a standstill.

The "ghettos" beat them to it. What used to be an occasional flare-up has become a national emergency. People are not sure that the government can control the situation and are worried about the outcome.

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