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Unrest springs from suburban anger

SAINT DENIS, Paris - They move in packs at night, burning and wrecking. Their anger is both blind and targeted. They torch their own neighborhoods as well as symbols of the French state that some feel oppresses them.

Whatever their motivation, youths leading the violence that in 10 nights has spread across France sow fear, anger and frustration among their fellow residents of "Les Cites" - grim, public housing estates on the outskirts of French cities heavily populated by poor Arab and black Africans.

Some officials suspect the unrest that reached into Paris proper early Sunday has in part been instigated by gangs hoping to turn their neighborhoods into no-go zones for police so drug trafficking and racketeering can thrive.

But the roots are broader than that. Racism and widespread joblessness among minorities have left young people of the slums languishing in hopelessness and despair, creating the tinderbox of anger that has exploded.

It is not just the riots. Many in the gritty inner suburbs live in fear of young thugs who roam the streets at night, robbing, selling drugs and intimidating residents, particularly women.

"People here are bad. I don't want to live here anymore," Rebab Khalil, an 11-year-old whose divorced parents came from Tunisia, said when asked about the gangs. She lives in Saint-Denis, northeast of Paris, but she dreams of life "in a big house, on a quiet street. I want to live in the country, where it is calm."

Mounir, a 14-year-old who would not give his name fearing his father's wrath, also wants to leave, saying he does not like that other boys burn cars and steal.

"I want to go somewhere calm," said Mounir, who suffered burns on his left hand - apparently from a projectile thrown during clashes between youths and police in nearby Clichy-Sous-Bois on Oct. 27, the first night of rioting that erupted after two teenage boys were electrocuted while hiding from police in the suburb.

The violence is forcing France to confront the long-simmering anger in its suburbs. They are fertile terrain for crime of all sorts as well as Muslim extremists who recruit frustrated youths. France has 5-million Muslims, the biggest Islamic population in western Europe.

Sonia Imloul, who works with troubled teens in Seine-Saint-Denis, the northeastern Paris suburb hit hardest by the unrest, said youths often feel trapped. "It is very, very difficult to leave this place," she said. "There is a stigma attached to being a resident of this place."

Families break down in the pressure cooker of crime, poverty and unemployment. Many single mothers are left to fend alone, said Imloul, a single mother herself whose Algerian parents divorced before her father's death.

"Fathers do not play any role in their children's lives. The father doesn't exist at all. French justice gives full rights to mothers," Imloul said.

Coming to France has given some Muslim North African women new freedoms.

"They want to lead a similar life as their French counterparts," Imloul said. "But it is very difficult to leave a patriarchal culture all of a sudden. Women take on the responsibility of both mother and father while they are not at all suited for it. In the end, it is their children who suffer."

She estimated 40 percent of families in the suburbs where she works are dysfunctional, causing a high rate of school dropouts, drug use, petty crimes and aggressive behavior. Police records for petty crimes burden youths; it is hard to build a productive life, she said.

"Those who set fire to cars and buildings are not criminals. They are young kids. What are 12-year-olds doing in the streets at midnight? Parents have no control over them," Imloul said.

She the absence of fathers causes some boys to become apathetic, while girls often rush into unsuitable marriages that often lead to divorce and some turn to drugs and prostitution.

Seven-year-old Talal Khalil jumps to the window at every sound from the outside. It is very scary," he said. "Every night they set fire to cars."

Talal wants to be a firefighter when he grows up, "so I can put out the fires of the burning cars."

[Last modified November 7, 2005, 01:11:04]