France hunts arsonists

2004-08-22 12:33

Paris - France launched a hunt on Sunday for arsonists who destroyed a Jewish centre in Paris after daubing it with anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas - the latest in a wave of anti-Jewish acts that has unsettled the country.

President Jacques Chirac in a statement strongly condemned "this indescribable act" and underlined "the absolute determination of the state to find the perpetrators of these unacceptable acts so they are judged and convicted as severely as possible".

The centre, situated in central eastern Paris, was gutted by the fire set around 03:00 on Sunday.

Police found swastikas daubed in red ink on two fridges inside and poorly spelled anti-Semitic slogans.

"Without Jews, we would be happy," one of the inscriptions read, according to police.

The deputy president of the neighbouring synagogue, Serge Benhamou, told AFP another was: "The world would be pure if there were no more Jews."

Paris police chief Jean-Paul Proust, who visited the scene, vowed: "We will find those responsible and take them before the courts."

He said the arson attack "a totally unacceptable criminal act.... If the firemen had not intervened, the lives of the people living in the building would have been in danger."

The Jewish centre sits on the ground floor of five-storey building of which the upper floors are appartments. Firemen extinguished the blaze within an hour of being called out and there were no casualties.

'Revolting'

The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, who also visited the scene, expressed his "shock and horror", adding that the "Nazi and anti-Semitic inscriptions daubed around the centre are revolting."

France has had its image abroad tarnished by anti-Semitic acts that have surged over the past four years, a phenomenon that has paralleled with the rise in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

The country is home to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities, estimated at 650 000 and five million respectively, out of an overall population of 60 million.

The number of racist and anti-Semitic acts committed in the first half of 2004 has soared, according to interior ministry statistics, with 135 acts of physical violence against Jews and 95 against north African and other ethnic groups.

Incidents this month included a swastika painted on the ground in front of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, and swastikas and anti-Semitic messages painted on 60 Jewish graves in Lyon by a neo-Nazi Frenchman who turned himself into police.

Two other Jewish cemeteries, a World War II monument to Jewish soldiers and a synagogue have also been targeted for anti-Semitic graffiti in separate attacks earlier this year.

There have been a few serious assaults.

- AFP