FRANCE: French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and father of boy killed in last year's riots condenm violence

Masked vandals set ablaze two buses near Paris on Wednesday night (October 25) but passengers managed to escape in the western suburb of Nanterre and the eastern suburb of Bagnolet before the attackers torched the vehicles. The overnight incidents followed a daylight assault on a bus on Sunday. Police appealed for witnesses to the attacks and bus drivers refused to enter some of Paris's most troubled suburbs to protest against the violence. Youths on ethnically mixed estates around Paris have also staged several apparently concerted attacks on security forces in recent weeks. Police say the violence has been building ahead of the October 27 anniversary of last year's riots in which angry youths from mainly immigrant backgrounds burned cars and trashed shops for three weeks in a protest blamed on poverty and discrimination. On Thursday (October 26), French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has vowed swift punishment for those behind the twin assaults. "We can't accept the unacceptable. The situation in Nanterre concerning a bus and the latest attacks in some suburbs must lead to an immediate response. There will be arrests and immediate, exemplary punishment. It's our responsibility to do so," the French prime minister said in his monthly news conference. CGT union representative at RATP and bus driver Antoine Maesano said that the driver of the bus that was vandalised was traumatised by the attack. "Our colleague was attacked by 4 or 5 masked vandals. They asked him to leave the bus, they asked passengers to leave it as well. There was no violence, they stole the bus and burned it. Neither the passengers nor the bus driver were wounded. Our colleague is traumatised, " Maesano said. The leftist opposition accused the government on Thursday of not doing enough to resolve tensions in the deprived suburbs that ring most French cities. But Villepin said his government had done more than any other to improve the lot of people living in the suburbs. Security in the suburbs is likely to be a major issue in the 2007 presidential election, with hardline Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy garnering much support for his tough approach to law and order issues. On the eve of the riots anniversary on Thursday (October 26), Amor Benna, father of Zyed one of the two teenagers who were electrocuted while fleeing police last year, said that setting fire to cars was useless. "It's pointless to set fire to cars, to break everything, really it's useless. It makes people nervous and the tension mounts. I did not do anything, I've waited for the justice to do its work and that's it. It's pointless to burn cars, stores, it's not good at all. We must calm down, let's the justice do its work. Burn the cars and so on, it's not good and it costs billions and billions of euros", he said. Pensioner Amor Benna of Tunisian origin, who worked at Clichy townhall since 1966, stressed that to solve the problems of the suburbs, youngsters should start voting. A silent march will be organised in Clichy-Sous-Bois on Friday (October 27), to pay a tribute to those two teenagers who were electrocuted while escaping police. Amor Benna said that local representatives are highly supporting the families and stressed that the march was necessary to let people understand that his son and his friend did not die for nothing. The mayor of Clichy-Sous-Bois said recently that France must break up the ghetto structure of its poor suburbs. He urged France's political parties to make the suburs isolation, poverty and unemployment priorities for next year's presidential election. He also said that real measures are needed to solve the suburbs crisis. Most people in the suburbs suffer from inequality, unemployment, poor housing and discrimination. But they also suffer from the violence these inequalities spark. Human rights groups have demanded a concerted effort to improve life in mainly non-white ghettos.

ITN Source | October 27, 2006

Tags:. .measures. .incidents. .appealed. .apparently. .wounded