Parisian Intifada

Radio Nederland

Paris: the ticking time bomb goes off
by Frank Renout in Paris, 4 November 2005

In Aulnay-sous-Bois, north-east of Paris, a fire engine hurtles through the evening streets. After a tour around the long, high blocks of flats, the vehicle stops in front of a school building.

Flames are leaping from the window frames. “The glass has been smashed in,” says resident André Sirguey, angrily. “They’ve set it on fire. Again!”

It is nine o’clock, and a new evening full of violence and arson has begun. Every evening since Thursday, 27 October, the suburbs of Paris have been struck by serious riots. Youths take to the streets, light fires and engage in battles with the police.

Raising hell

Mr Sirguey’s neighbour comes to watch what is going on this evening. “The school?” he yells, while clouds of black smoke hang around the apartment complexes. “Have those jerks really set it on fire? My daughter goes there!” He begins to gesticulate wildly. “If you really think it’s necessary to raise hell, then set fire to the town hall, or a government building, but not a school!”

Suddenly, there’s the sound of shouting from the end of the street. André Sirguey and his neighbour walk over, and see a line of about 30 police officers, helmets on, shields in hand. They’ve sealed off the street. Opposite them: the banlieu youths; immigrant boys with their hoods pulled over their heads, who stand defiantly in the middle of the street, yelling “come on then! Come on if you dare!” at the riot squad facing them.

Battlefield

Scarcely two minutes later, and the street has been transformed into a battlefield. The youths hurl petrol-bombs, bottles and rubbish at the police. A shrubbery is set on fire and a skip is pushed into the middle of the street. It is also set alight.

The officers stay in their places, deflecting bottles with their shields. When the young men come too close with their petrol bombs, rubber bullets are fired. Tear gas is kept near to hand, but it isn’t used. Again, this evening, Aulnay-sous-Bois is the stage for what some people say is urban guerilla warfare and what the extreme right calls ethnic civil war.

The riots began in the north-east of Paris, but, in a couple of days spread to suburbs around the whole of the French capital. Within a week, more than 140 rioters had been arrested.

People getting angry

In the mosque at Clichy-sous-Bois, a couple of kilometers south of Aulnay, its chairman Abderrahmane Bouhout wants to give his analysis of the situation. The visitors to the mosque, however, are getting angry. Why talk to the press? They only paint a negative picture of Muslims here, they snarl at him.

Later on, outside the mosque, Mr Bouhout tells his side of the story. “People in this area don’t have any work, the young people don’t have anything to do,” he says, as the mosque fills up with men for evening prayer. It only needed something to spark it off.” A youth-worker, who has also come to pray, adds his opinion. “It’s a timebomb here! They’ve created ghettos, shoving all the immigrants together and then just letting things run their course over the years. Now the bomb has exploded.”

In Aulnay-sous-Bois, the police and fire services withdraw at around 11 o’clock at night: they’re needed elsewhere. On the other side of the city, a police station and a garage have been set on fire. The burning skip stays on the street.

Comments

[Ilana Rosen]

France's situation gives us a salutory lesson, which is not hard to understand - if immigrants are to be given a home, then they have to abide by the laws of the country who gives them a home. Certain immigrants have shown (and not just in France) that Western laws mean nothing, and the softly softly approach of Western countries are at best disrespected and at worst despised. Wake up and smell the coffee, Europe!