Chirac says rascisim spoiling Fance

[John Uskglass]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,1...1257445,00.html

The French president, Jacques Chirac, made a national appeal for racial and religious tolerance yesterday as part of a campaign to tackle an alarming surge in racist attacks.

In his strongest condemnation yet of the desecration of Muslim and Jewish cemeteries over the past three months, Mr Chirac called for urgent action to stem a rise in the "despicable and odious acts of hatred soiling our nation".

The setting for this keynote speech was selected to add greater resonance to the president's words.

Mr Chirac travelled to a village in the hills of south-western France famous for the bravery of its inhabitants who risked their lives during the second world war to shelter Jews from the Nazis and French collaborators.

As many as 5,000 people were saved from transportation to death camps as a result.

"Discrimination, anti-semitism, racism - all kinds of racism are spreading insidiously," Mr Chirac said.

"I ask [the French] to remind their children of the mortal danger of fanaticism, of exclusion, of cowardliness and resignation to extremism _ All these acts reflect the darkest side of human nature. They are unworthy of France. I will do everything to stop them."

In a skilful piece of media management, the backdrop of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon was chosen to remind the country of France's shameful record on anti-semitism, while simultaneously evoking the memory of the few thousand villagers who resisted the climate of hatred.

Mr Chirac was accompanied by the former cabinet minister Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor.

The French government has this week stepped up its attempts to be seen to be tackling the unusual rise in xenophobic attacks that has shocked the country in recent months, and attracted bad publicity for France around the world.

At the end of April, 127 tombstones were desecrated at the Jewish cemetery in Herrlisheim-près-Colmar.

Although they have been disputed, official figures indicate that the number of anti-semitic attacks in France has been rising again this year, while Jewish commu nity leaders report a growing, albeit less quantifiable, sense of hostility.

"The anti-semitic atmosphere in France has become a real problem," a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Paris said.

There has also been an apparent surge in attacks on Muslims, and Mr Chirac was careful to insist that all forms of racism must be stemmed. Last month neo-Nazi slogans were daubed across about 50 tombs in a Muslim cemetery in Strasbourg, while in April racist slogans were painted on the wall of a mosque in central France.

In a further indication of the government's determination to be seen to be taking action, the interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, said earlier this week that "anti- semitic and racist acts are on the increase" and that the situation had become very serious. He promised that there would be heavy penalties in the event of future attacks.

Mr Chirac said yesterday it was the duty of teachers, police officers, mayors and local officials to stand firm against the trend.

"In the face of the risk of everyday indifference and passivity, I appeal solemnly for vigilance from each French woman and man," Mr Chirac said.

The timing of Mr Chirac's longest speech on internal affairs in recent months was met with cynicism by some commentators, who argued that the president had seized on an uncontentious and popular theme as part of his latest attempt to boost his crumbling popularity.

One recent poll showed that his rating had dropped 20 percentage points in 15 months - down from 65% last April (when it peaked after his opposition to the war in Iraq) to 45% in June.

"This has been Chirac's strategy for the past nine years," Le Parisien wrote yes terday. "Whenever his popularity drops, he tries to stop the decline with a sudden trip to the provinces."

The newspaper added that the president's public relations office, headed by his daughter Claude, was simply responding to a popular demand for a greater focus on internal affairs.

Mr Chirac also appeared to be attempting to claw back some of the immense support he won in 1995 when he became the first French president to accept France's "criminal" complicity with the Nazis during the war.

Jewish leaders welcomed the general tone of his speech, although there was some frustration that the president had not focused in greater detail on the punishment that might be in store for the perpetrators of racist attacks.

The Interior Ministry registered 67 attacks on Jews or their property and 160 threats against Jews in the first quarter of this year, compared with 42 attacks and 191 threats in the last three months of 2003.

 

[Sovz]

Maybe this has something to do with it :

Almost 2m living in France's angry ghettos

Almost 2 million French citizens are living in newly created urban ghettos in an environment characterised by anti-French feeling, racial hatred and the oppression of women, according to a French intelligence agency report leaked yesterday.
The report, parts of which were published in Le Monde, concluded that approximately 1.8 million people across France were living in places which were either "already ghettos or on the way to becoming them".

The study is set to reignite the debate over France's struggle to integrate its immigrant population and its inability to cope with rising unemployment, sexual inequality and growing fundamentalism in its urban sink estates.

The agency studied 630 at-risk areas in France, places selected because they had experienced some level of urban violence, to assess whether they had already degenerated into ghettos. Most of the "sensitive suburbs" are run-down housing estates built by the French government between the 50s and 70s to house immigrant workers.

The intelligence body based its definition on a range of criteria encompassing high immigration levels, high levels of non-French speakers at school, the presence of anti-semitic and anti-western graffiti, growing numbers of inhabitants wearing religious or oriental dress, and a growth in Muslim religious institutions. They reported that more than 300 areas were already ghettoised. The report added that the wealthier inhabitants "usually of European descent" were moving out en masse.

The agency underlines the "growing role of radical Islamic preachers", whose presence is recorded in 200 of the quartiers studied.

France's commitment to secularism has been under scrutiny during the debate this year over legislation banning headscarves from schools - a move designed in theory to protect the secular state, but which has triggered resentment rather aided integration. The report concludes, according to Le Monde, that preachers are instilling in young inhabitants the idea that they are the "victims of discrimination and racism" triggering a growth of anti-French sentiment.

Women are at risk, the intelligence services add, particularly those of north African origin who choose to adopt European ways of life.

The French interior ministry has not commented on the report, except to state that since taking the job as interior minister this year, Dominique de Villepin has been determined to work towards improving a sense of national unity.

A report published this year by the High Council on Integration said an "enormous effort" was needed to assimilate adolescents of immigrant origin.

Last year the French government began to tackle this issue, launching a renovation programme for its city suburbs, pledging £21bn to improve the worst of the estates.

 

[John Uskglass]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3875277.stm

France opposes UN Sudan sanctions


France says it does not support US plans for international sanctions on Sudan if violence continues in Darfur.
The UN Security Council is debating a US draft resolution imposing sanctions on militias accused of "ethnic cleansing" against non-Arabs.

The US also hinted that the sanctions could be extended to the government.

Meanwhile, African leaders have urged Khartoum to stop bombing Darfur and say their proposed 300-strong force will have a mandate to protect civilians.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says promises to reign in the pro-government militia, known as the Janjaweed, have not been kept by Khartoum so far.

"Only action not words can win the race against death in Darfur," he said.

'Civil war'

Some one million people have fled their homes and at least 10,000 have been killed in what the UN calls "the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

A rebellion broke out in Darfur early last year, when two groups took up arms, accusing the government of ignoring the region.

"In Darfur, it would be better to help the Sudanese get over the crisis so their country is pacified rather than sanctions which would push them back to their misdeeds of old," junior Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier told French radio.

France led opposition to US moves at the UN over Iraq. As was the case in Iraq, it also has significant oil interests in Sudan.

Mr Muselier also dismissed claims of "ethnic cleansing" or genocide in Darfur.

"I firmly believe it is a civil war and as they are little villages of 30, 40, 50, there is nothing easier than for a few armed horsemen to burn things down, to kill the men and drive out the women," he said.

Human rights activists say the Janjaweed are conducting a genocide against Darfur's black African population.

Those who have fled their homes say the Janjaweed ride on horses and camels into villages which have just been bombed by government aircraft, killing the men and raping the women.

Sudan denies backing the militia and, under strong international pressure, has promised to disarm them.

Travel ban

Chairman of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare said that the 300 troops would arrive in Sudan by the end of July.

He said they would intervene if they saw civilians being killed.

"We have called for a halt to the bombings... We received promises today from Khartoum," he said.

Analysts say that at least 15,000 troops would be needed to bring peace to the vast area of Darfur.

The BBC's Barnaby Phillips says the African Union is determined to be taken seriously as a body devoted to solving the continent's problems, but is severely hampered by a lack of resources.

African leaders say they hope richer countries will also do their bit to help.

A draft UN resolution proposed by the US envisages travel and arms sanctions on Janjaweed.

A previous Security Council statement on Darfur failed to criticise Khartoum directly, after resistance from Pakistan and China, instead urging cooperation and the disarming of the Janjaweed.

Question of time

The Security Council met in closed session for several hours on Wednesday and the draft resolution is being discussed again on Thursday.

Council members disagree over how long the Sudanese government should be given to resolve the situation itself, says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs in New York.

Some countries, including Pakistan, say that Sudan should be allowed sufficient time to demonstrate that it means what it says.

But the US remains sceptical over Sudan's commitment to act.

The US draft resolution threatens to escalate the sanctions within 30 days if results are not evident.

But diplomats hope that tough talking will force Sudan to act, our correspondent says.

They admit that imposing such a resolution on the largest country in Africa is fraught with difficulty, he says.

*waits for the "NO BLOOD FOR OOOOIIIIL!" cries to now be directed against France*

 

[perfectdark28]

That's a great article CCR

 

[welsh]

A year or two ago, they brokered a peace plan between the North and South of Sudan with the hope of settling difference so that an oil pipeline could be made stretching from South to the North.

Apparently, someone decided not to share the spoils.

Not sure if the French have any money in it either. But one way for France to keep it's muslim population happy (and avoid another round of bombings) is not to act against Islamic regimes.

I recall the last round of bombings- a bit like in Israel- random explosions in different places, but the Israelis have a reason to stay united.