Paris youths rampage for fifth night

PARIS - French youths rampaged through a Paris suburb for the fifth overnight running, prompting fresh criticism of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's "zero tolerance" policy towards the violence.

Eleven vehicles were burned and a policeman lightly injured in the latest overnight disturbances in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, where passions were raised a day earlier when a tear gas grenade was fired into a mosque.

The violence began following the death of two teenagers of African origin who were electrocuted last Thursday night while apparently fleeing police.

"It was less serious than the previous nights," said an official at the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture in Bobigny, which oversees Clichy-sous-Bois.

Sarkozy visited the area on Monday to defend his tough anti-crime policies and vowed to investigate the tear gas incident at the mosque after contradictory reports of what happened. He also promised to put more police on the streets.

But equal opportunities minister Azouz Begag said a stronger police presence was not the way to tackle the violence.

"It is by fighting the discriminations of which young people are victims that we will re-establish order, the order of equality. Not by bringing out more CRS (riot police)," Begag told the newspaper Liberation in an interview.

Opposition Socialists say the unrest on the Paris outskirts shows Sarkozy's tough policies are failing and argue that action is also needed on crime prevention, housing and education.

Socialist Party National Secretary Malek Boutih urged conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to take charge personally of government efforts to deal with the trouble spots.

"Perhaps it is up to the prime minister to step in, to put slightly to one side this excited interior minister," he told i-television.

Twelve people were detained by police during the latest violence in Clichy, which is home to many immigrants and poor families who live in high-rise housing estates notorious for youth violence.

In the nearby neighbourhood of Montfermeil, two cars were destroyed and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a police garage.

The Clichy unrest was the latest in a series of incidents in the Paris suburbs that have attracted the attention of Sarkozy and become the target of his vow to get tough on crime with a "zero tolerance" policy towards violence.

In June, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet in the northern area of La Courneuve. The eastern suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine made headlines in 2002 when a 17-year-old girl was set alight by an 18-year-old boy.

Sarkozy made his name by cutting crime figures during a first stint as interior minister from 2002 to 2004. He returned to the post in May and has continued to be outspoken, keeping his profile high ahead of an expected presidential bid in 2007.

- REUTERS