8 000 burnt cars

2005-11-16 15:54

Elaine Ganley

Paris - Thousands of cars have gone up in flames in nearly three weeks of unrest across France, torched by restive suburban youths with a solid tradition behind them.

In the eastern French city of Strasbourg, youths ring in each New Year by burning cars.

"Little by little, it has become a sport," said Patrice Ribeiro, national secretary of the Synergie police officers' union.

While there has been a history of torching cars in France and some other European countries, experts say youths have an array of motivation, ranging from revenge to marking territory or simply having fun.

Making a statement

The unrest that has raged through France in recent weeks appears to be linked to a desire by despairing suburban youths to make a statement about their plight.

Cars are accessible and easy to set afire and the torcher pays a minimal price - if caught at all, Ribeiro said. Cars "burn well and fast," he said in a telephone interview.

Ribeiro said most of those convicted of car arson do not go to prison and just end up paying a fine.

National police said Tuesday that 8 810 vehicles - cars, buses, trucks - had been set afire since the October 27 start of the urban unrest that began in a northeast Paris suburb and spread to poor suburbs and towns around France.

About 30 000 cars are burned each year in France. This year, between January and the end of October, 30 000 cars had been set alight, National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said in an interview published Tuesday in the daily Le Monde.

Each morning since the start of the unrest, police have issued figures for the overnight arson attacks - which have also hit businesses, schools and other institutions - but limited the count to vehicles, seen as a barometer of the nocturnal marauding.

Marking the new year

Traditionally, gangs have stolen cars to use for another crime, then burned them, said Alain Bauer, president of the French National Crime Commission.

However, in the 1990s, youths in Strasbourg began torching cars to mark the New Year, he said in a telephone interview.

"It was like a fun thing to do," he said. Each year, "they burned 10, 20, 50 then 100. It became a tradition. This tradition spread all over the country."

The burning of cars also has a symbolic value, Bauer said.

"In France, a car is like a jewel," he said. "You use it not only to work but as a representation of your social status."

Car torchings have a "tribal" dimension among suburban gangs.

"It's a way to show they own the neighbourhood. It's territorial control with tribalisation," Bauer said.

Yet another motive - classic but more cynical - is the ambush, said Ribeiro, the police union official. The car is burned to draw the firemen who are followed by police. "You (then) attack the police," he said.

Youths torched cars during its first major bout with suburban violence in the 1980s in tough neighbourhoods ringing Lyon. However, Bauer, a criminologist, said that torched cars at that time were positioned between rioters and police and used as "weapons" against security forces - "like throwing stones."

Most cars burned in the low-income suburbs are older and losing value. BMWs, Mercedes and other high-end vehicles, owned by local drug traffickers, "are never touched," Ribeiro said.

"They steal big cars, but they burn small cars," Bauer said.

- AP