Timeline of The 2005 French Civil Unrest - Third Week

Third Week

• Thursday November 10
  • Day
    • French President Jacques Chirac has acknowledged his country has "undeniable problems" in poor city areas and must respond effectively. "Whatever our origins we are all the children of the Republic and we can all expect the same rights", he said.
    • Meanwhile, eight police officers have been suspended after a young man was beaten up in a Paris suburb. Police said two of the eight were suspected of illegally hitting the man arrested in La Courneuve, one of the riot hotspots. The other six officers are also being investigated as suspected witnesses to the incident on 7 November. "A medical statement shows the man has superficial bruises on his forehead and his feet", a police statement said.
    • Paris police chief Pierre Mutz banned the transport and purchase of petrol (gasoline) in cans, saying he fears violence is being planned in the capital itself.
    • Sarkozy said local authorities were instructed to deport foreigners convicted of involvement in the riots.
  • Night - 15th night of rioting
    • Police said 463 vehicles were set on fire across France, a slight fall from the previous night, but the number of vehicles torched in the areas around Paris rose from 84 to 111. 201 arrests were made during the night.
    • In Alpes-Maritimes, seven towns lifted curfews, including Cannes.
    • Justice Minister Pascal Clément said that in Paris, only two people had been arrested for violating curfews.
• Friday November 11
  • Day
    • All public meetings likely to provoke disturbances are to be banned in the French capital, police have announced. The ban will begin at 0900 GMT on Saturday and end at 0700 GMT on Sunday. The police statement said the measure followed calls for "violent acts" in Paris on 12 November contained in recent e-mail and text messages.
    • Residents of suburban riot hotspots staged a sit-in near the Eiffel Tower on Friday, calling for an end to the car burnings and vandalism.
  • Night - 16th night of rioting
    • In Savigny-Le-Temple, a primary school was attacked and its creche destroyed.
    • In Amiens, about 30 vandals attacked a transformer, causing a blackout in the northern part of the town
    • In Rambouillet, two shops were destroyed.
    • In Carpentras, two fire bombs were thrown at a mosque. Remarkably, president Jacques Chirac immediately condemned the attack, while having remained silent for days when the riots first began.
    • The worst suburban unrest on Friday night was reported in Lyon and the city of Toulouse in the south-west. More than 500 cars were set on fire, two police officers were wounded and 206 people were detained across the country.

• Saturday November 12
  • Day - Paris places a ban on all public meetings, to help stop rioting.
    • The ban started at 0900 GMT and will remain in force until Sunday morning.
    • Police in the city of Lyon have fired tear gas to break up groups of youths who hurled stones and bins hours before a curfew was due to begin.
  • Night - 17th night of rioting
    • A nursery school was torched in the southern town of Carpentras.
    • Ten people were arrested in Lyon after 50 youths damaged vehicles. Regional authorities for the first time declared a curfew for minors in Lyon. "It was the first rioting in a major city's downtown core in more than two weeks of violence."
    • A school was burned down in Carpentras.
    • "More than 370 cars were burned, down from 502 the previous night. A further 212 people were arrested", the BBC said. "Clashes were also reported in Toulouse, Dunkirk, Amiens and Grenoble."

• Sunday November 13
  • Day
    • France has been offered 50m euros ($59m; £34m) by the European Union to help recover from more than two weeks of rioting in poor city suburbs. European Commission head José Manuel Durão Barroso said up to 1bn euros could be made available eventually for job creation and to help social cohesion. French insurers estimate that damage claims alone will reach 200m euros.
  • Night - 18th night of rioting
    • Some 284 vehicles were burned on Sunday night, down from a peak of over 1,000 a week earlier. 115 people were detained overnight.

• Monday November 14
  • Day
    • The French government issues a proposal to extend the State of Emergency for three months.
    • French President Jacques Chirac has pledged to create opportunities for young people in an effort to prevent any resurgence of urban violence. In his first major speech since rioting began, M. Chirac spoke of a "crisis of meaning, a crisis of identity". He condemned the "poison" of racism, and announced measures for the training of 50,000 youths in 2007. Speaking at the Elysee Palace in front of the flags of France and the EU, M. Chirac said the wave of violence had highlighted a "deep malaise" within French society. "We are all aware of discrimination", the president said, calling for equal opportunities for the young and rejecting suggestions of a US-style quota system.
    • Many residents in poor neighborhoods hit by crime, high unemployment and a lack of prospects do not expect the government's plans to bear much fruit. "Nothing will change", Henri-Anne Dzerahovic, 61, said in the bleak Clichy-Sous-Bois suburb in the northeast of Paris. "I'm moving out of here. I've had enough. Anywhere you go, you're afraid of being attacked. Any time. Not just in the past two weeks. It's an awful climate", said Dzerahovic.
  • Night - 19th night of rioting
    • 215 vehicles (60 of which in the Île-de-France) were set on fire and 71 people were detained overnight.
• Tuesday November 15
  • Day
    • The lower house of France's parliament has approved plans to extend special powers until February 21, 2006 to try to bring a wave of urban rioting under control. The emergency laws also need the approval of the Senate, which votes on the issue on Wednesday. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy had told deputies France was facing one of its "sharpest and most complex urban crises", which required "firmness". He said most of those arrested in the riots were already known delinquents.
  • Night - 20th night of rioting
    • Violence subsided further, with 163 torched vehicles (27 of which in the Île-de-France) and 50 arrests. Only five communes had more than five cases of arson, among them Arras, Brest and Vitry-le-François with 11 each. In Romans-sur-Isère, a church was burnt in an arson attack. One policeman was injured in Pont-Evêque (Isère) as he was hit by a bottle filled with acid. Since 27 October, a total of 126 policemen were injured.
• Wednesday November 16
  • Day
    • The French parliament has approved a three-month extension of emergency laws aimed at curbing riots by urban youths. The Senate on Wednesday passed the extension - a day after a similar vote in the lower house. The laws allow local authorities to impose curfews, conduct house-to-house searches and ban public gatherings. The lower house passed them by a 346-148 majority, and the Senate by 202-125.
    • Senior officials from President Jacques Chirac's centre-right party have suggested that polygamy is one factor in the riots, arguing children of polygamous families have less of a father figure and are more likely to live in overcrowded conditions. "Polygamy... prevents people being educated as they should be in an organised society. Tens of people cannot live in a single flat", Bernard Accoyer, leader of the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) in the National Assembly lower house of parliament, told French radio. Polygamy is illegal in France but until 1993, it was possible for immigrants to bring more than one wife from their home country to join them. (Note: Islam allows a man to have up to four wives at a time.)