Starting November 5 , 2005 , the French Urban Riots began to spread to its neighboring country Belgium. Even though they are most likely isolated copycat events, this may indicate that the same tensions that caused the unrest in France do exist to some extent in Belgian cities. As in France, the situation began to normalize from November 18 on. The last confirmed incident was reported on December 8 , making the extent of the riots the following:
At first sight, this seems negligible compared to the French situation, and the Belgian violence had been treated as such in most national and international media. However, when the difference in population is brought into account, the Belgian and French statistics relate as follows:
- Sunday, . There was no police intervention, no arrests and no comments by the government "in order not to give publicity to the events". {Link without Title}
- Monday, and Dilbeek one car was destroyed by fire. Especially the latter is remarkable, as Dilbeek is a more rural, green community well outside Brussels, inhabited by mostly richer people. Furthermore, in Liège there were some limited street riots, with bus stops and windows being shattered, stones thrown at buses and Molotov cocktails at the police. No arrests were made in any of these locations. [http://www.hln.be/hln/cch/det/art_138361.html
- Friday, . In Brussels , one of the cars that was set on fire contained a gas canister. Fortunately, the fire department was able to extinguish the flames before it exploded. Various sources still agree that Belgian Muslim extrmists are planning to start a riot Saturday at 20h near the Place de Brouckère in Brussels . {Link without Title}
- Tuesday, metro, an elderly man was physically attacked by a group of youths for no reason.
- Wednesday, , three people were arrested. Meanwhile, various sources indicate that since the beginning of November, vandalism rates have gone up in the Brussels metro and the metropolitan area, including Vilvoorde .
- Saturday, , four youths between 15 and 17 years old were arrested for the arson that destroyed a school bus last week. {Link without Title}
- Sunday, , a day passed without any incidents being reported by the media. It is unknown if the day was really arson free.
- Thursday, and a building was damaged in the process. {Link without Title} The police identified the culprit, but he was not even momentarily arrested. This was the last incident thus far brought into connection with the French riots.
Notes:
- All arrests above are administrative. Most of them have been released within hours, due to the slack Belgian justice system, especially for minors. For example, of the sixty people arrested in Brussels in the evening of November 12 , only three were still in custody the next morning. As of December 2005, nobody has been prosecuted.
- The numbers are given for the actual date on which they occurred, so events of one night can be split up. As most incidents in Belgium occurred in the evening, events of which the exact time is not known are supposed to have taken place before 24h.
Per region/province:
- , Brussels , Etterbeek , Forest , Ixelles , Jette , Molenbeek-Saint-Jean , Saint-Josse-ten-Noode , Saint-Gilles , Schaerbeek , Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
- On November 30 , the French right wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen visited Ghent . He was to deliver a speech at the UGent , but the university declined to provide a meeting location, as did the local government. Near the eventual speech setting, some thirty left wing anarchists attacked the audience and had to be dispersed by the police. {Link without Title}
- On December 1 , the right wing student movement NSV organized a march in Leuven . During a left wing contra manifestation, windows were smashed and cars vandalized and burnt. Four police officers were wounded, one of them seriously, and some ten people were arreseted. In a car belonging to one of the left wing protesters, a number of Molotov cocktails were found. {Link without Title}
- On . On New Year's Eve, there were various other incidents, but it is not clear whether they had anything to do with the earlier situation.
- In the early hours of January 7 , there were severe riots in the centre of Diest . After a fight between some 100 immigrant and Belgian youths escalated, the police was called to the scene and this made the situation even worse. It took a SWAT unit to regain control of the situation in some pubs. As usual, nobody was arrested. {Link without Title}
- On January 21 , a black teenager was stabbed to death in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (Brussels) by a group of five Muslim youths. The event was followed by a confrontation between dozens of black and North-African youths. {Link without Title}
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