Unrest In Paris Suburbs Spreads

Chirac Calls For Calm As Police Clash With Youths For Sixth Night

(AP)  French President Jacques Chirac, intervening after six nights of rioting in housing projects outside Paris, called Wednesday for calm and said authorities will use a firm hand to curtail what may become a "dangerous situation."

The violence, sparked initially by the deaths of two teenagers, has exposed the despair, anger and deep-rooted criminality in the poor suburbs, where police hesitate to venture and which have proved fertile terrain for Islamic extremists.

"The law must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and respect," Chirac said at a Cabinet meeting. "The absence of dialogue and an escalation of a lack of respect will lead to a dangerous situation."

Chirac's remarks were passed on to reporters by government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

The rioting, which spread Tuesday night to at least nine Paris-region towns, has exposed rifts in Chirac's government, with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy — a potential 2007 presidential candidate — being criticized for his tough talk and police tactics.

It also has renewed debate about France's failure to fully integrate its millions of immigrants, many of whom are trapped in poverty and grinding unemployment, living in low-cost, sometimes decrepit, suburban housing projects where gangs dealing drugs and stolen goods sometimes are in control.

That Chirac intervened personally was a measure of the crisis. He acknowledged the "profound frustrations" of troubled neighborhoods but said violence was not the answer and that efforts must be stepped up to combat it.

"Zones without law cannot exist in the republic," the French leader said.

In Tuesday night's clashes, riot police fired rubber bullets at advancing gangs of youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois, where 15 cars were burned, officials said. Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails at an annex to the town hall and threw stones at the firehouse. It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries.

Sarkozy told Europe-1 radio that police detained 34 people overnight.

Sarkozy — blamed by many for fanning the violence with tough talk and harsh tactics — defended his approach and vowed to restore calm. The minister recently called the rioters "scum" and has vowed to "clean out" Paris' troubled suburbs.

"I speak with real words," Sarkozy told Wednesday's Le Parisien newspaper. "When you fire real bullets at police, you're not a 'youth,' you're a thug."

Housing projects to the north and northeast of Paris are heavily populated by North African Muslim immigrants.

The unrest highlighted the division between France's big cities and their poor suburbs, where anger and despair thrive. The riots have also made clear the frustrations simmering in poor housing projects to the north and northeast of the capital, heavily populated by North African Muslim immigrants and marked by soaring unemployment.

Because of the unrest, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin delayed a three-day visit to Canada due to start Wednesday, and Sarkozy canceled a visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan planned to begin Sunday.