paris is burning
racism and repression explode in week of uprisings
from indymedia // november 2005
africans living and working in paris have been pushed into ghettoized
suburbs of paris (banlieue), where the state has withdrawn education, health,
and other services, while increasing police presence, checkpoints, raids on
sans-papiers and levels of oppression in general. this week the suburbs have
exploded.
the trigger came on thursday, october 27th, 2005, as a group of 10 highschool
kids were playing soccer in the paris suburb of clichy-sous-bois. when police
arrived to do id checks, the kids ran away and hid, because some of them had
no id. three of the children hid in an electrical transformer building of edf
and were electrocuted. two of them, ziad benn (17) and banou traoré (15),
died; the third, metin (21), was severely injured.
on saturday morning, 1000 joined in a march organised by religious associations
and mosques in clichy-sous-bois. representatives of the muslim community appealed
for calm and marchers wore t-shirts saying mort pour rien ("dead for nothing").
the mayor of clichy, claude dilain, called for an enquiry into the deaths of
the two boys. all eyes were on interior minister nicolas sarkozy. the response?
as people were gathering in the mosques for the night of destiny, the most sacred
night in the month of ramadan, a night people usually spent at the mosque, the
empty streets of the cité du chêne pointu filled with about 400
c.r.s. militant riot police and gendarmes, blocking off the neighborhood. yet
very few people allowed themselves to be provoked into breaking the sanctity
of this night, despite racist insults from the police.
on sunday, however, provocation turned into outrage as the women's prayer room
at de bousquets mosque was teargassed by police. as people stumbled out gasping
for air, the policemen called the women "whores", "bitches"
and other insults.
ever since that night, clichy-sous-bois has been burning, with the insurrection
spreading on monday to seine-saint-denis and on tuesday night (november 1st)
to nine other parisian suburbs. a week after the death of the two boys, the
uprising is spreading throughout france -- to dijon, bouches-du-rhone and rouen.
in a press conference held on monday, community-based activists named the causes
of the continuing unrest: "clichy is one of the poorest municipalities
in france and community groups have less and less money to work with."
things are tense as the press conference draws to a close: young people share
their stories, women explain what they experienced and saw first hand. a common
theme in all these accounts is anger at the police, who are carrying out more
and more foolish – and often illegal – "muscular" interventions,
and at the authorities in the ministry who are not condemning the gas attack
against the mosque.
there was a consensus that, in order to calm things down, the police should
leave the area... instead, minister sarkozy has announced a "zero tolerance"
policy, labelling the suburban youth as "scum" and vowing to "clean
out" troubled suburbs. sarkozy's position has divided the cabinet, with
prime minister de villepin apparently rebuking mr sarkozy.
.
eye witness
accounts.
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