Monday, November 07, 2005
French Embassy on the Paris Riots
From the official government website:
(November 4th, 2005)
INCIDENTS IN PARIS
Q - About the urban violence. Several states are reportedly telling their nationals not to travel to Paris. Portugal is offering consular protection, and the foreign press is full of similar reports. What do you think?
It’s more a question for the Ministry of the Interior than the Foreign Ministry. You’ve all been following, as we have, the incidents in the Paris suburbs. Quite obviously we take them very seriously. You’ll have noted the very strong mobilization by the French government--the prime minister, the interior minister and the entire government--to find a response to the incidents that have occurred. At the same time, I would like to say for the foreign public that we have at times been a bit surprised by the international press coverage of these events. I believe that one must keep this in proportion.
These are indeed very serious incidents, which must be taken as such, but we are very far from a situation as grave as certain press commentaries and television reports that can be read or seen abroad would lead one to believe.
So there you have what I can say about this. I don’t have the feeling, as far as I’m concerned personally but you may perhaps disagree, that foreign tourists in Paris are placed in any danger from these events.
Q - About the consequences for tourism, are you worried about the medium-term effects? For people already here, I imagine there’s no problem but for others with plans to travel to France, what can you say? Also I’d like to know whether you were told about special recommendations--Portugal was mentioned and I believe I also heard China mentioned. So were you told about particular recommendations that the authorities in certain countries were issuing for their nationals in France or for tourists who might be coming to France?
I don’t believe we were informed of such recommendations in an official way. But like you I’ve read about statements by one or another foreign authority. We note them with considerable interest and are quite ready to give all our partners any clarifications they might wish.
As to the first aspect of your question about tourism, we’re not particular worried about the repercussions of these events. Unfortunately, I would have to say that such events have happened elsewhere, in other European countries, we don’t have a monopoly on them.
But I do want to emphasize that the answer is not primarily a matter for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but for the prime minister and government as a whole. As you know, we’re working on answers that can be provided to these incidents.
Q - Clearly, the problematic targets national problems, but it seems there are now international ramifications. The Senegalese president the day before yesterday urged the French authorities to give everyone work. Other Arab countries want to be involved indirectly. I confess I was out there and I can say the scenes were intolerable, you could have said a real war. It’s not nothing, it’s not insignificant. Will France seek help from other partners so as to have a better understanding of this community which has been left to itself for too long with the harmful consequences we can see today?
First, one point, I didn’t say that these events were insignificant. I said these are very serious incidents and that they have to be taken as such, which is what the government is doing. I also said that you have to see these events in proportion and that in reading commentaries about them you get the feeling sometimes that they go a bit beyond the reality you see on the ground.
As for relations with partner countries, we are of course open to dialogue with the countries that are the source of immigration. We believe it’s rather important to have dialogue on these immigration questions, and it’s not for nothing that immigration issues will be discussed at the Barcelona summit. It’s not for nothing we support the Spanish proposal for a Euro-African conference on these questions. As you know, this very evening in Toulouse immigration will be one of the main subjects discussed by EU ministers from southern Europe who are meeting there.
We are perfectly well aware of the need for dialogue on immigration. Secondly there’s one question which is slightly different to immigration and that’s integration. Naturally it’s a matter first for the authorities of the Republic since our French model of integration is at issue in this matter. So it’s a matter first for the authorities of the Republic, but there too, obviously, there can be a dialogue with any country that would like it.
Q - What about?
We’re not necessarily talking about foreign communities, it’s usually about French nationals, and that’s the reason it concerns first and foremost the authorities of the Republic. But in the case of communities from one or another country that is a source of immigration, we do engage in dialogue with these countries. We are open to it even though we consider that it’s our responsibility first to resolve these matters.
So we’ve no intention of requesting assistance from one or another country in particular. It’s our responsibility to ensure that integration takes place under optimum conditions and that there’s no repetition of incidents like those in the past few days. But of course, it’s “yes” to dialogue on these issues.
Q - Do you think there may be political connections to events in the Middle East?
No, we’ve no element to suggest that the explanation is the one you’ve given. We’ve no leads in that sense. It’s a problem of integration and also very largely a social problem as you should remember. I don’t believe these events of the past few days have their origin in politics or religion. It’s more, I think, a matter of integration and the operating of the French model of integration.
New York Times on the French Riots
The New York Times is giving more coverage to the French intifada, though sticking to Craig Smith's denial:
Though a majority of the youths committing the acts are Muslim, and of African or North African origin, the mayhem has yet to take on any ideological or religious overtones.
Debka.com: Paris Now Baghdad-on-the Seine
More on France's Ramadan Uprising, here:
There are plenty of indications that the riots are not simply spontaneous outbursts of frustration by disadvantaged youths of North and black African descent, but centrally organized mayhem, an “intifada” activated by Muslim networking.
The Chirac-de Villepan government, trying to live down interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s provocative pledge to deal with what he called “scum,” is not acknowledging this. Because they refuse to recognize the rampage for what it is, they are withholding the forces required to restore order and so letting the danger get out of hand. Police, firemen and paramedics are no match for a fast developing civil war. The army will have to be brought in at some point, preferably sooner rather than later. For a start, marksmen need to be posted to pinpoint the ringleaders and the bottle-bomb wielders targeting cars, schools, shops, warehouses and public buildings.
France’s leaders, like the British and Dutch, are clinging to the hope that sympathetic dialogue with moderate Muslims will calm the street, despite all the evidence that radical, activist Muslims do not heed established Islamic authorities. On Nov. 6, the Union of Islamic Organizations in France, UOIF, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims to seek “divine grace” by blindly attacking private and public property and urging meditation and calm.
The following night, bands of marauding Muslim youths extended their areas of attack from outlying city districts to urban centers and started shooting at police officers.
The controlling hand, far from being legitimate Muslim authority, is beginning to emerge as the very organization that has for several years been recruiting young fighters in French Muslim ghettos fight al Qaeda’s wars against the West in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq and other sectors.
On February 20, 2004, DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile were first to reveal the extent of al Qaeda’s penetration of West Europe. They turned up French intelligence statistics which estimated that "al Qaeda had recruited in France between 35,000 and 45,000 fighters and was organizing them in military-style units. They meet regularly for training in the use of weapons and explosives, combat tactics and indoctrination and are controlled from local and district command centers under the organization’s national French command."
Sunday, November 06, 2005
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