PARIS RIOTS CONTINUE FOR 7TH NIGHT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 007525

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2015
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KISL FR
SUBJECT: PARIS RIOTS CONTINUE FOR 7TH NIGHT

REF: PARIS POINTS 10/31 11/2 AND 11/3 (EMBASSY PARIS
SIPRNET SITE)

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Summary: The rioting that began October 27 in
Paris' "inner city" suburbs has persisted, every night, for a
week so far. Running battles between riot police and
rampaging youth have pitted tear gas and rubber bullets
against taunts, stones, trash fires and car burnings. The
accidental electrocution of two youths, as they hid from
police in a power transformer installation, sparked the
unrest, which has now spread to nine neighborhoods in the
belt of lower-income suburbs to the North and East of Paris.
These neighborhoods are home to racially distinct -- North
and Sub-Saharan African -- immigrant communities that suffer
from chronic unemployment and rampant discrimination.
Government officials -- foremost among them Prime Minister de
Villepin and Interior Minister Sarkozy -- have depicted the
riots primarily as an issue of law and order and protection
of property. Their critics, including in the opposition
Socialist Party also for partisan purposes, see the problem
more in terms of the unrelenting discrimination suffered by
France's underclass minorities (doubly so when young and
male) and have sharply criticized the government for an
"overly forceful" response that may only exacerbate the
situation. While we believe the government will succeed
eventually in calming the situation, the riots are a clear
reminder of France's growing minority problem. End Summary.

The Accident that Set Off the Violence
--------------

2. (SBU) On the evening of October 27 -- apparently while
returning from a pick-up soccer game, and, possibly, in a
hurry to get home to break the Ramadan fast -- three
teenagers, taking flight to avoid a likely police identity
check (one may not have had his papers on him),scaled the
wall of a power transmission substation in order to hide from
police there. Two were electrocuted, while a third was
severely burned but survived. Family members of the victims
have said that the youths were being chased by police.
Government officials have insisted that police were not
pursuing the victims, suggesting instead that the boys only
believed they were being chased. (Note: Government
spokespersons have provided -- and retracted -- differing
versions of this event and other sub-plots in the burning
suburbs story. End note.) The rumor quickly spread that
police had killed the youths, sparking an initial round of
car burning and destruction in the suburb of Clichy-sur-Bois
during the evening of October 27.

Unrest Spreads
--------------

3. (SBU) Since then, sporadic, night-time clashes have
spread to nine similar neighborhoods, with police resorting
to the use of rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse
rampaging groups of youths. On October 30, a tear gas
canister landed inside a mosque in Clichy-sur-Bois, sending
an estimated 700 worshipers fleeing. Government officials
have announced that it is so far unclear who threw the
canister, and that they were investigating the incident.
Whether a rogue provocation by an individual police officer
or simply an accident, the mosque incident has highlighted
the religious difference that also sets these suburbs apart
from the rest of French society. In all, at least 315
vehicles have been set ablaze, numerous buildings damaged,
and more than 100 rioters arrested. There are press reports
of minor injuries among both rioters and security forces, but
no exact numbers have been released.

Government Response
--------------

4. (SBU) Since the riots began, the government has deployed
some 2,000 additional security forces to the affected
neighborhoods. On November 1, both PM de Villepin and
Interior Minister Sarkozy met with the parents of the two
victims. Villepin promised the bereaved parents a full
investigation into the deaths of their children. Villepin
also underlined "the need to restore calm." Sarkozy also met
that evening with other relatives of the victims. Both
Sarkozy and Villepin canceled or postponed travel plans
abroad in order to focus on the government reaction to the
riots. Villepin called a meeting of concerned cabinet
ministers (Interior, Defense, Education, Social Cohesion,
Justice, Overseas Territories, and Equal Opportunity) on
November 2 to address the situation. The same day, President
Chirac, addressing the weekly Council of Ministers, called
for calm and for an end to a "dangerous situation." Before
the National Assembly on November 2, Villepin declared that
the government was "fully mobilized" adding that, "our
immediate priority is to restore public order, and restore it
without delay."


5. (SBU) The Government's reaction to the events is
consistent with the increasingly hard line it has begun to
take in recent months. Since first becoming Interior
Minister in 2002, Sarkozy has built a formidable reputation
as a "man of action" committed to cracking down on crime. By
coincidence, speaking in a difficult neighborhood on October
25, two days before the riots began, Sarkozy announced a new
policy to combat violence in the suburbs, proclaiming that he
would "clear away" the "scum." In all fairness to Sarkozy,
however, it is also worth point out that, while tough on
crime, he has also advocated a form of affirmative action
("positive discrimination") to promote the integration of
disadvantaged minorities, state funding for Islam in France,
and an extension of limited voting rights to legal immigrants
who lack French nationality.

Government Under Fire
--------------

6. (C) Since the riots began, Sarkozy's critics and
political opponents have criticized his tactics and words,
arguing they have only helped fuel the violence. But there
has also been a good deal of political posturing, aimed at
weakening the center-right's leading candidate in advance of
the 2007 presidential elections. Socialist former Prime
Minister (and 2007 presidential hopeful) Laurent Fabius
claimed that Sarkozy has "created a terrible environment" for
fighting crime in the Paris suburbs, and that Sarkozy needs
to focus more on crime prevention and less on crime fighting.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, another center-left presidential
hopeful, echoed Fabius' sentiments and added, "Sarkozyism is
not working."

In-fighting Within the Governing Party
--------------

7. (C) Sniping has also occurred within the government as
part of the Sarkozy-Villepin duel over control of the
center-right. Minister of Equal Opportunity (and Villepin
ally) Azouz Begag sharply criticized Sarkozy's "warlike
semantics." Chirac's statement to the cabinet that "the law
must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and
respect," was widely seen as a swipe at Sarkozy. For his
part, Villepin has been heavily criticized for his "deafening
silence" during the first five days of rioting. Criticism
has also been leveled at both Sarkozy and Villepin for
"empty" posturing -- presenting themselves and their actions
as on-top-of-the-problem and effective -- in order to burnish
their image as presidential candidates.

While Others Seek Underlying Causes
--------------

8. (SBU) Beyond partisan politics, however, others are
beginning to look past the nightly violence to identify the
serious social problem underpinning the rioting: the failure
of France to integrate adequately its immigrant population,
which faces unemployment well above France's 10 percent
average. Since the late 1950s, immigrant workers arriving
from North and Sub-Saharan Africa have been pushed into the
bleak, densely packed suburbs that ring France's major
cities, where they are subjected to job and housing
discrimination as well as racial profiling by authorities.
French ideals dictate that immigrants leave their cultural
and ethnic identities at the border in order to assimilate;
yet despite the pledge of "equality," the arrivals and their
French-born children are regarded and treated as less than
French by their compatriots. A common refrain, born out by
independent research, is that a non-French sounding name on a
job or housing application is enough to doom the applicant's
prospects regardless of qualifications. As subsequent
generations have determined that the promise of a better
future for which their parents came to France is increasingly
unattainable, they have become increasingly less willing to
integrate. It is a vicious cycle. According to French
sociologist Manuel Boucher, "French society is in a bad
state... increasingly unequal, increasingly segregated, and
increasingly divided along ethnic and racial lines."
Describing the situation, one leader of a local Muslim
Cultural Association said, "It's unemployment, it's pressure
) it just exploded."

Comment
--------------

9. (C) The rioting is both a clear and present law and order
problem and a symptom of deeper societal divisions.
Currently, the riots are confined to small, prowling packs of
young men in certain neighborhoods under cover of night.
They do not appear likely to continue to grow significantly,
and the government -- if it avoids exacerbating the situation
-- should be successful in restoring order. It is important
to note that up until now, the riots have been driven by
socio-economic frustration, and the religious link has been
very minimal. However, November 3 marks start of Eid al
Fitr, and it is unclear if this might have an impact on the
rioting. Additional incidents could also aggravate the
situation, and the chance exists, however slight, that the
frustration and disenchantment of a broader spectrum of
suburban residents could find some political manifestation --
such as a "general strike" in suburban neighborhoods.


10. (C) At this point, it is not clear what lessons the
government will draw from the events. As noted above,
Sarkozy has made some limited attempts to deal with the
situation by mixing his law-and-order message with a call for
affirmative action, proposals to provide funding for Islam in
France, and voting rights for non-citizens. Given the
polemics from the opposition Socialist Party and within his
own party in the run-up to the 2007 Presidential elections,
however, it seems more likely that the GOF will continue to
try merely to manage the problem for the time being rather
than come up with any long-term solutions.
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
Stapleton