Paris – The French government declared a state of emergency Tuesday, enabling police to impose curfews and other extraordinary measures to combat the worst riots in recent history.
President Jacques Chirac’s Cabinet invoked an emergency-powers law that had been used once since first wielded during the Algerian war of independence against France 50 years ago.
Starting at midnight, authorities were authorized to declare curfews in targeted areas, restrict the movement of people and vehicles, authorize police searches and place suspects under house arrest.
“For a period of 12 days, searches will be possible every time we suspect possession of weapons,” said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. He said the measure will help “systematically apprehend troublemakers and systematically prevent a spread of violence.”
Although arson attacks and street clashes continued Tuesday night in Toulouse and Lille, the violence appeared to abate nationwide on its 13th day, authorities said. The number of communities hit by disturbances declined from 300 to 226, said Michel Gaudin, director of national police. The number of vehicles burned overnight dropped to 1,173 from 1,408 the previous night, he said.
Weary police chiefs felt the tide was turning against rampages, which have lost intensity in the region around the capital.
After the initial outbreak last month in the tough immigrant suburbs north of Paris, the riots spread gradually across the provinces as youth gangs sought to imitate the mayhem on their TV screens, said a police commander in Lyon, the nation’s second-biggest city.
“I think that in a few days it will be under control,” said the commander, who asked to remain anonymous.
“We have had problems here – cars, schools, buses burned. But not that many direct attacks on police.”
Still, Chirac’s decision was not taken lightly in this country, which gives its security forces great power but values its traditions of liberty and human rights.
