French Politician's Racist Comments Inflame Immigrants

by Julio Godoy

(IPS) PARIS -- The urban guerrilla war between immigrant youth and police forces on the outskirts of Paris, and the war of words between politicians this week, have again shaken claims that France is the "cradle of human rights."

Over the last week enraged immigrant youth gangs have burned some 50 automobiles and started more than 100 fires in stores and public places on the northeastern fringe of Paris. In brutal reaction the police hurled gas grenades at a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois district 30 kilometers northeast of Paris.

The violence broke out after three children were electrocuted Oct. 27 in a high-voltage electricity utility in Clichy sous Bois. Minister for the interior Nicolas Sarkozy first said the children were fleeing after a burglary, but the justice department later denied that any crime had taken place.

"The teenagers were fleeing apparently because they thought the police were following them, which was not the case," a spokesperson at the justice department said.

Hundreds of residents of Clichy sous Bois demonstrated in protest. Later, youth gangs set automobiles, stores, and even school buildings on fire. They attacked the police with stones and occasionally fired at them.

A statement by Sarkozy that people resorting to violence in the low-income districts surrounding Paris were "racaille," meaning "rabble" or "scum," inflamed the already explosive situation. These areas are mostly inhabited by immigrants.

Sarkozy said he will clean these areas with a "Kaercher" (high-pressure cleansing machinery mostly used in industry).

The minister's choice of words has provoked a confrontation with human rights and anti-racism organizations, and led to disputes with opposition leaders and also within the government.

Azouz Begag, deputy minister for equality of opportunity in the Chirac government, said Sarkozy was using "warrior" and "insulting" language to deal with social and security problems associated with the low-income immigrant population in France.

"Such remarks are a provocation," Begag, the sole immigrant member of the government, said in a statement.

Begag also questioned Sarkozy's methods of dealing with the explosive social climate in low-income regions of France. "We have to stop going in these sensitive zones of poverty surrounded by journalists and television cameras," Begag said. "What we have to do is to take time to listen patiently to the complaints of people, who have concrete reasons to feel discriminated against."

A recent report by the French parliament describes the low-income neighborhoods around the larger French cities as areas of extreme social disarray. Unemployment and poverty are twice the national average in these areas, the report says, and people have only limited access to medical facilities.

Anti-racism groups such as S.O.S. Racisme have shown that job applications by people from these areas are systematically rejected by employers. There is a constant climate of violence, with unemployed youth often involved in petty crime and gang wars.

Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in the general elections due May 2007, has placed the fight against immigration and petty crime at the center of his electoral campaign. His language is seen by many as an appeal to right-wing extremism.

"I speak the language of the people, the words the French people really understand," Sarkozy said.

The Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, which supports the conservative government, condemned Sarkozy's language as the "rhetoric of right-wing extremists." Former Socialist prime minister Laurent Fabius said "Sarkozy creates with his choice of words and behavior a terrible climate in the poorest regions of our country."

Socialist leader Arnaud de Montebourg called Sarkozy "incompetent" and said he had placed the ministry of the interior at the heart of his own personal campaign. "The only thing Sarkozy is really capable of doing is to misuse all the problems the French are facing for his own personal promotion," De Montebourg told IPS.