PARIS, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS: Some 800 vehicles around France were torched overnight and four policemen were injured despite the government’s threat of a curfew, AP reported. The nightly protests dropped markedly in the greater Paris region, where violence had escalated to the point of shooting at police, but continued unabated in other parts of France, a French interior ministry statement said.
The renewed violence followed a warning by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that he would take a firm line against lawbreakers, including reinforcements for police and curfews not seen here since the Algerian war of 1954-1962. Villepin’s cabinet was due to meet on Tuesday to approve the new measures. A town east of Paris imposed its own curfew on minors on Monday evening and another to the west of the capital organized citizen patrols to help the police.
The prime minister urged citizens to pitch in to fight the violence, which began after the accidental electrocution of two youths fleeing the police near Paris and spiraled into nightly hit-and-run attacks on cars, buses, shops and schools. Villepin said 1,500 police and gendarmes would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit by unrest. He also promised to accelerate urban renewal programs. But he dismissed growing calls for army intervention, saying: “We have not reached that point.” The U.S. embassy in Paris issued a new warning on Monday to Americans traveling in France to be careful after Sunday night’s violence in which three schools and two churches were attacked.
RFE/RL reported that the wave of protest did not cause damages to Armenian community in France. It said no riots were reported in Alforville, Isle Mulinaux and Clamar suburbs of Paris with strong Armenian population.
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