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Violence in France appears on the wane

Vaiju Naravane

Paris: The urban violence that has rocked France these past two weeks appeared to be waning with just half the number of cars torched on Tuesday night as compared to over 1300 the night before.

"Even though 617 vehicles were burnt, this is nearly a 50 per cent drop in the figure the night before," Claude Gueant, senior aide to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told journalists. His comments gave rise to cautious optimism that the worst of the violence was past and that normalcy would soon be restored. The Government claims the number of arson attacks and clashes with the police diminished because of tough measures, including the imposition of selective curfews adopted on Monday by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Opposition politicians and social workers had condemned the use of a 1995 law first promulgated to subdue the Algerian insurrection as "provocative" warning that enraged youngsters from the estates would see this as further incitement to violence. "The Government's measures have nothing to do with the decrease in violence. That would have happened anyway. How long can you keep up the edge of anger? The youngsters in the cites [suburban housing estates] are spent, both physically and emotionally. Tomorrow is going to be a rude awakening for them," Alicha, a social worker from Aulnay-sous-Bois, one of the first suburbs to go up in flames told The Hindu .

Emergency powers

Under the new emergency powers granted to the police, house to house searches can be conducted without search warrants and, the gathering of over five people in public places could be banned if deemed necessary.

The southern city of Toulouse saw serious unrest at the start of the week but reported only 21 torched cars and six arrests on Tuesday night.

Cities such as Strasbourg, Lille, Nantes and Rennes recorded a sharp decrease in the number of attacks, while the Paris suburbs were also relatively calm.

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