PARIS,
November 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – France has
ordered the expulsion of foreigners convicted in the two-week riots
that plunged the European country, the measure that mainly directed to
Arab and African-origin immigrants.
"I
have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory
without delay, including those who have a residency visa," French
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday, November 9, in
statements carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Sarkozy
told parliament that "120 foreigners, not all of whom are here
illegally, have been convicted" of taking part in the nightly
rampages that have occurred since October 27.
According
to official figures, a total of 1,800 people have been arrested since
the beginning of the unrest.
The
French justice ministry said a third had been released without charge,
and 130 have been sentenced to prison with more facing court.
The
new orders followed a decision by the French government to declare a
state of emergency allowing prefects in certain regions to impose
curfews and widen police search-and-seizure powers.
The
city suburbs that have spawned the violence are predominantly home to
immigrant families from north and west Africa, including Algeria,
Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia.
Though
most of the young immigrants are French citizens, born and educated in
the country, some are non-French, given residency papers to stay with
family members.
Waning
Violence
 |
|
Firemen
extinguish a burning car torched in Strasburg's northern suburb of
Cronenbourg. (Reuters)
|
On
Wednesday, violence sharply dropped for the first time in nearly two
weeks of rampages as the state of emergency took effect, raising hopes
the worst unrest since May might be receding.
Claude
Gueant, a senior interior ministry official, said police recorded
"a very significant drop" in intensity.
"We
have reasons to believe that wisdom will prevail in the districts
affected by the violence," he told Europe 1 radio, according to
Reuters.
Police
in major cities such as Strasbourg, Lille, Nantes and Rennes also
recorded a sharp decrease in the number of attacks, while Paris
suburbs were also relatively calm.
The
interior ministry said that fire service reinforcements brought to the
capital have been withdrawn due to the "extremely clear"
fall in the number of arsons in the Paris region.
However
there were still some serious incidents.
A
53-year-old man in the Riviera city of Nice was in a coma Wednesday
after a barbell was dropped onto him from a 15-storey building, AFP
said.
Nearly
two weeks of rioting in the country's high-immigration suburbs has
left more than 6,000 cars burned, public and private property
destroyed, tens of policemen injured and one civilian death.
The
deaths of two youths fleeing police two weeks ago ignited pent up
frustrations among young men, many of them of North and black African
origin, at racism, unemployment, their marginal place in French
society and their treatment by the police.
Jose
Bove, a prominent French anti-globalization activist, has blamed the
unrest on failed government's integration policies as well as the
social and economic marginalization of immigrants.
Muslim
thinker Tareq Ramadan has also held the entire political class in
France responsible for the riots after remaining "blind" to
what has been happening in the suburbs, with their unemployed youth of
Arab and African origin and bleak high-rises.
