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The 2005 Civil Unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots and violent clashes, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings by Gangs of youths at night. Events spread to deprived housing projects (the Cités HLM ) in various parts of France. The violence predominantly involved second-generation immigrant youths from underpriviledged neighborhoods and led to strong debates about integration and discrimination in France. TIMELINE See Also: Timeline of the 2005 French civil unrest The riots began on Thursday 27 October 2005 , triggered by the deaths of two teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois , a poor Commune in an eastern Banlieue (suburb) of Paris. Initially confined to the Paris area, the unrest subsequently spread to other areas of the Île-de-France Région , and spread through the outskirts of France's urban areas, also affecting some rural areas. After 3 November it spread to other cities in France, affecting all 15 of the large ''aires Urbaines'' in the country. Thousands of vehicles were burned, and at least one person was killed by the rioters. Close to 2900 rioters were arrested. On 8 November , President Jacques Chirac declared a State Of Emergency effective at Midnight . Despite the new regulations, riots continued, though on a reduced scale, the following two nights, and again worsened the third night. On 9 November and the morning of 10 November a school was burned in Belfort , and there was violence in Toulouse , Lille , Strasbourg , Marseille , and Lyon {Link without Title} . On , violence, arson, and attacks on police worsened on the 11th and morning of the 12th, and there were further attacks on power stations, causing a blackout in the northern part of Amiens {Link without Title} . Rioting took place in the city center of Lyon on Saturday, 12 November , as young people attacked cars and threw rocks at riot police who responded with tear gas. Also that night, a nursery school was torched in the southern town of Carpentras {Link without Title} . On the night of the 14th and the morning of the 15th, 215 vehicles were burned across France and 71 people were arrested Thirteen vehicles were torched in central Paris, compared to only one the night before. In the suburbs of Paris, firebombs were thrown at the treasury in Bobigny and at an electrical transformer in Clichy-sous-Bois , the neighborhood where the disturbances started. A daycare centre in Cambrai and a tourist agency in Fontenay-sous-Bois were also attacked. Eighteen buses were damaged by arson at a depot in Saint-Etienne . The mosque in Saint-Chamond was hit by three firebombs, which did little damage [http://fr.news.yahoo.com/15112005/5/violences-urbaines-plus-de-200-vehicules-incendies-dans-la-nuit.html . Only 163 vehicles went up in flames on the 20th night of unrest, 15 November to 16 , leading the French government to claim that the country was returning to an "almost normal situation". During the night's events, a Roman Catholic church was burned and a vehicle was rammed into an unoccupied police station in Romans-sur-Isère . In other incidents, a police officer was injured while making an arrest after youths threw bottles of acid at the town hall in Pont-l'Évêque , and a junior high school in Grenoble was set on fire. Fifty arrests were carried out across the country [http://permanent.nouvelobs.com/societe/20051116.FAP6521.html?0833 . On on the island of Guadeloupe , a French territory in the Caribbean . Police returned fire. A wine festival in Grenoble , ''Le Beaujolais nouveau'', ended in rioting on the night of 18 November , with a crowd throwing rocks and bottles at riot police. Tear gas was deployed by officers. Sixteen youths and 17 police officers were injured. Though those events might have been easily linked with the riots in Paris suburbs, it appears they differ completely in nature and might just well be considered as predictable "wine festival" casualties, caused by misunderstanding and alcohol. {Link without Title} On '', a judge union, declared to '' Le Monde '' that "with such a decision, it can be feared that the state of emergency will be declared each Christmas". THE EVENT THAT TRIGGERED THE RIOTS ]] On Thursday 27 October 2005 , a group of ten high school teenagers were playing Football in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois . The teenagers allegedly ran and hid when Police officers arrived to conduct ID checks. Three of the teenagers, thinking they were being chased by the police, climbed a wall to hide in a power substation [http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com/2005/11/state-violence-in-clichy-sous-bois.html . "Bouna Traore, a 15-year-old of by a Transformer in the Electric Substation . Muhttin Altun, 17 (whose parents, Haseyin and Aïcha, are Turkish Kurds ) was injured and hospitalized. A friend of the three stated that Clichy-sous-Bois "has three principal communities, the Arabs, the Turks and the Blacks. The three victims represented each one a community". [http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3226,36-707269@51-704172,0.html Citing two police investigations, '' 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois when police were called to a construction site there to investigate a possible break-in. Six youths were detained by 17:50. During questioning at the police station in Livry-Gargan at 18:12, blackouts occurred at the station and in nearby areas. These were caused, police say, by the fatal electrocution of the two boys and the injury to the third. {Link without Title} "According to statements by Mr. Altun, who remains hospitalized with injuries, a group of ten or so friends had been playing football on a nearby field and were returning home when they saw the police patrol. They all fled in different directions to avoid the lengthy questioning that youths in the housing projects say they often face from the police. They say they are required to present identity papers and can be held as long as four hours at the police station, and sometimes their parents must come before the police will release them." {Link without Title} There is controversy over whether the teens were actually chased. The local prosecutor, François Molins, has said that although they believed so, the police were actually after other suspects attempting to avoid an identity check Molins and Interior Minister reports "Despite denials by police officials and Sarkozy and de Villepin, friends of the boys said they were being pursued by police after a false accusation of burglary and that they 'feared interrogation'" [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17112484%255E2703,00.html . There were initial police accusations that the boys were thieves and well known by the police, accusations immediately echoed by Dominique de Villepin on national television, which turned out to be false and were later withdrawn. Such inconsistent statements by police and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy have fueled public mistrust of the authorities since the riots began. This event ignited pre-existing tensions. Protesters told , immigrant population, allegedly adding religious tensions which some right-wing commentators believed contribute further to such frustrations. However, according to Pascal Mailhos , head of the '' Renseignements Généraux '' (French intelligence agency) the influence of radical islamism in the 2005 civil unrest in France was nil. {Link without Title} CONTEXT See Also: Social situation in the French suburbs Commenting other demonstrations in Paris a few months later, BBC summarized reasons behind the events to be found in youth unemployment and lack of opportunities in France poorest communities {Link without Title} . But during the riots, many focused on other social issues and particularly on immigrant immigration and racial discrimination as rioters involved widely second-generation immigrant youths. The head of the French Intelligence Agency (''Renseignements généraux'' - RG) denied any Islamic factor in the riots, while the ''New York Times'' reported on November 5, 2005 that "while a majority of the youths committing the acts are Muslim (which isn't true), and of African or North African origin" local residents say that "second-generation Portuguese immigrants and even some children of native French have taken part." {Link without Title} The and that "the suburbs are full of people desperate to integrate into the wider society." {Link without Title} The inhabitants of the French Suburbs (''banlieue'') suffer from unemployment at a much higher level than that of the rest of France. Unemployment of people of foreign origin is 1.5 times higher than that of people of French origin, after adjusting for educational qualifications, according to the BBC. An unemployment rate of 5% for French university graduates can be compared to the unemployment rate of 26.5% for university graduates of North African origin (BBC). Racial and social discrimination against persons with dark skin or Arabic and/or African-sounding names has been cited as a major cause of unhappiness in the areas affected. According to the BBC, "Those who live there say that when they go for a job, as soon as they give their name as "Mamadou" and say they live in Clichy-sous-Bois, they are immediately told that the vacancy has been taken." The nonprofit organization '' SOS Racisme '', associated with the French Socialist Party (PS), said that after they sent identical curriculum vitaes (CVs) to French companies with European- and African or Muslim-sounding names attached, they found CVs with African or Muslim sounding names attached were systematically discarded. In addition, they have claimed widespread use of markings indicating ethnic appurtenance in employers' databases and that discrimination is more widespread for those with college degrees than for those without. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} ASSESSMENT OF RIOTING Assessments of the extent of violence and damage that occurred during the riots are under way. Figures may be incomplete or inaccurate. Some French media sources, including , 2005 as being up to €200 million for property and casualty losses, inclusive of €20 million for torched cars. Prime minister Dominique De Villepin , in an interview to the US TV channel CNN , said: I am not sure you can call them riots. It's very different from The Situation You Have Known In 1992 In L.A. for example. You had at that time 54 people that died, and you had 2,000 people wounded. In France during the 2 weeks period of unrest, nobody died in France. So, I think you can't compare this social unrest with any kind of riots. However, this claim was only partially correct, in the measure that the original spark which lighted the riots were precisely the death of two youths pursued by the police. Summary statistics
the rioters were so unruly and so violent that the bricks in the streets of Paris needed to be removed because they were constantly pulled out of the streets by the rioters and used as weapons Source: French Interior Ministry , BBC News unless stated Figures and tables Note: In the table and charts, events reported as occurring during a night and the following morning are listed as occurring on the day of the morning. The timeline article does the opposite. of france]] List of areas affected affected by 2005 civil unrest in France, as of 11 November 2005, are shown in red.]] Île-de-France
Other French areas affected
:On November 16 police and firemen in the Caribbean overseas département (département d'outre-mer or DOM) of Guadeloupe came under gunfire after hooded youths burned two cars and erected street barriers in the town of Pointe-a-Pitre, police said Wednesday. No one was injured as firemen fled the scene once the shooting broke out Tuesday night, when police returned fire against what they characterized as a trap set by snipers. Police believe the attack is linked to rioting in metropolitan France {Link without Title} .
Related events in other countries See Also: 2005 Belgian urban violence :On Sunday, , there have been some thirty more incidents. {Link without Title} However, media coverage in Belgium is subsiding. :A number of arsons occurred in Viby near to restore order after store-smashing and attempted torchings recurred. [http://ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=319945 [http://ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=318907] : A number of arson attacks and other acts of vandalism, possibly inspired by the riots in France, have been committed in Germany . Six cars were set ablaze in Bremen and Berlin on the night between 6 November and 7 November . In the Moabit neighborhood of Berlin, five cars were set on fire. In Bremen, a caravan (camper) burned. Also in Cologne four cars have been torched. Police have not ruled out the possibility that these were copycat attacks related to those in France. [http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/berlin/498596.html : On 11 November , a group of around seventy youths attacked the French Institute building in Athens . {Link without Title} : About fifty anarchists firebombed two car dealerships in central Athens early Sunday, 13 November , destroying more than thirty automobiles. The Citroen and Mercedes showrooms were severely damaged. {Link without Title} : Two French businesses were attacked by some unidentified arsonists on Monday night, 14 November in Thessaloniki, northern Greece. A Renault car dealership was firebombed, destroying eight cars. A Carrefour supermarket was similarly attacked, suffering serious damage. {Link without Title} : During a 17 November demonstration in Patras commemorating the 1973 Greek student uprising, anarchists chanted about the unrest in France and tossed paint-bombs at a French institute. Chants included, "In Greece, France, Algeria, the enemy is in the banks and the ministries." In Athens, eggs and paint were thrown at the French embassy, as demonstrators voiced their support for the rioters in France. [http://news.ert.gr/en/newsDetails.asp?id=12830 : On the night of 18 November gas bottles were exploded at an Chevrolet auto dealership, in Peristeri, a suburb of Athens, destroying two cars. {Link without Title} : Police made two arrests Sunday morning, 13 November , in Waalwijk in the southern province of North Brabant, after four cars were burned during Saturday night disturbances. : More than a dozen cars were firebombed and several others damaged in incidents in the Dutch port of Rotterdam on the night of Saturday, 12 November . {Link without Title} . : On , a car, two motorbikes and thirteen trashcans were burned in Seville. Six people were arrested. {Link without Title} . : On the night of Sunday, 13 November , two cars were burned in the Swiss town of Martigny . {Link without Title} . RESPONSE See Also: Response to the 2005 civil unrest in France Political ]] Allegations of an organized plot & Nicolas Sarkozy's controversial comments Right wing Interior Minister told on November 3 to Europe 1 radio that "This is done in a way that gives every appearance of being coordinated." French national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon , was quoted in the '' Wall Street Journal '' as saying that there appeared to be no coordination among gangs in different areas. But he said youths in individual neighborhoods were communicating by cellphone text messages, online Blogs , and/or email — arranging meetings and alerting one another other about possible police operations. This Conspiracy Theory was afterward denied by the head of the '' Renseignements Généraux '' (RG) itself, the French intelligence agency, on November 23 . Sarkozy reiterated his previous qualifications of housing projects youth as "rabble", which, with his pre-riots call for the suburbs to be "Karcherised" - a reference to a common brand of high-pressure industrial cleaner - were said by rioters to be one of the main reason of the civil unrest. {Link without Title} The controversial Union Of Islamic Organisations Of France (UOIF) issued a Fatwa against the riots, without much result. Dalil Boubakeur , '' Mufti '' of Paris' Great Mosque and leader of the French Council Of Musulman Faith (CFCM), as well as Marseilles 's mufti, criticized the UOIF for this irrelevant fatwa and opposed Nicolas Sarkozy 's controversial use of Islamic organizations, declaring that their role was not to intercede for the youth. Henceforth, the leading authorities of French Islamic organizations refused any political deviation of Islam, which was to be maintained in the Private sphere as a personal matter. The families of the two youths killed, after refusing to meet with Sarkozy, met with Prime Minister , secretary of the French Communist Party , criticized an "unacceptable Strategy Of Tension " and the not less unexcusable definition of French youth as "scum" (''racaille'') by the Minister of Interior, Sarkozy; she also called for the creation of a Parliamentary commission to investigate the circumstances of the death of the two young people which lighted the riots . Declaration of a state of emergency on November 8 and governmental measures concerning immigration policy President and Unemployment was the root of the evil. On 9 November 2005 , Nicolas Sarkozy issued an order to deport foreigners convicted of involvement, provoking concerns from the left-wing, including, for example, SOS Racisme . He told parliament that 120 foreigners ; "not all of whom are here illegally" — had been called in by police, accused of taking part in the nightly attacks. "I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa," he said. The far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen agreed, stating that naturalized French rioters should have their Citizenship Revoked . The '' Syndicat De La Magistrature '', a magistrate trade-union, criticized Sarkozy's attempts to make believe that most rioters were foreigners, whereas the huge majority of them were French citizens . A demonstration against the expulsion of all foreign rioters and demanding the end of the state of emergency, was called for on November 15 in Paris by left-wing and human rights organizations. On the 20 November 2005, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced tightened controls on immigration: Authorities will increase enforcement of requirements that immigrants seeking 10-year residency permits or French citizenship master the French language and integrate into society. Chirac's government also plans to crack down on fraudulent marriages that a minority of immigrants use to acquire residency rights and launch a stricter screening process for foreign students. Anti-racism groups widely opposed the measures, saying that greater government scrutiny of immigrants could stir up racism and racist acts and that energy and money was best deployed for others uses than chasing an ultra-minority of frauders. {Link without Title} Police gun at youths; prior to or on 13 November .]] Interior minister Sarkozy stated that police officers should be armed with and Taser s, a measure criticized by Amnesty International , concerned by risks of abuse and possible lethal damage. An extra 2,600 police were drafted on 6 November . On 7 November , French premier Dominique de Villepin announced on the TF1 television channel the deployment of 18,000 policemen, supported by a 1,500 strong reserve. Sarkozy also suspended eight police officers for beating up someone they had arrested after TV displayed the images of this act of Police Brutality . {Link without Title} . Media Coverage Jean-Claude Dassier, News director general at the private channel TF1 and one of France's leading TV news executives, admitted to self censoring the coverage of the riots in the country for fear of encouraging support for far-right politicians; while public television station France 3 stopped reporting the numbers of torched cars, apparently in order not to encourage "record making" between delinquent groups. [http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2005/11/french_media_do.html Foreign news coverage was criticized by president said in an interview to CNN that the events should not be called ''riots'' as the situation was not violent to the extent of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots , no death casualties being reported during the unrest itself – although it had begun after the deaths of two youth pursued by the police. {Link without Title} . 2006 youth employment law The " First Employment Contract " voted by parliament in 2006 is an attempt by the French government to deal with youth unemployment but is fiercely rejected by part of the population. President Chirac was forced to give up this law. Lower house has agreed on a compromise youth job plan [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060412/ap_on_re_eu/france_jobs;_ylt=AtAmg7yMQte_kgUZNWz7nVVw24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA-- . NOTES |
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