France vows to punish rioters

Youths continued to target churches and schools for the 11th day in succession.

Youths fired birdshot at police and hurled Molotov cocktails at churches, schools, cars and a daycare centre in an 11th night of mayhem in France, while President Jacques Chirac promised to arrest and punish those who "sow violence or fear."

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Ten riot police officers were injured by fine-grain birdshot in a clash with rioters late on Sunday in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny, with two of them hospitalised, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said.

The two officers' lives were not in danger. At least 764 vehicles were torched overnight, while police made 173 arrests, Hamon's office said. The situation appeared calm in Paris, where violence broke out the previous night, the local prefecture said.

"The law must have the last word," Chirac said Sunday after a security meeting with top ministers, making his first public address on the riots. France is determined "to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear, and they will be arrested, judged and punished."

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speeded up trials for rioters and extra security during France's worst civil unrest in at least a decade.

From an outburst of anger in suburban Paris housing projects, the violence has fanned out into a nationwide show of disdain for French authority from youths, including the children of Arabs and black Africans angered by high unemployment, poor housing and discrimination.

The President said France would promote "respect for all, justice and equal opportunities." But the priority for now is "restoring security and public order," he said. Arsonists burned two schools and a bus in the central city of Saint-Etienne and its suburbs, and two people were injured in the bus attack. Churches were set ablaze in northern Lens and southern Sete, Hamon, the police spokesman, said. The extent of damage was not yet clear.

In Colombes in suburban Paris, youths pelted rocks at a bus, sending a 13-month-old child to the hospital with a head injury, Hamon said. In another Paris suburb, Saint-Maurice, a daycare centre burned.

Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested since the violence broke out, he said.

Much of the youths' anger has focused on law-and-order Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as "scum."

In Strasbourg, youths stole a car and rammed it into a housing project, setting the vehicle and the building on fire. "We'll stop when Sarkozy steps down," said the defiant 17-year-old driver, who gave his name only as Murat. Under arrest, he and several others awaited a ride to the police station as smoke poured from the windows of the housing project behind them. Sarkozy said he planned to visit the two hospitalised police officers. It was unclear whether they were shot with hunting rifles or a less lethal weapon, the interior ministry spokesman said. One was wounded in the neck, the other in the legs.

The tough-talking interior minister said police must restore law and order to France, or gangs and extremists would fill the void. "We will take the time we need, but order must return," Sarkozy said.

Overnight, youths set ablaze nearly 1,300 vehicles and torched businesses, schools and symbols of French authority, including post offices and provincial police stations. That was a sharp rise from the 897 vehicles incinerated the night before.

The violence has prompted deep soul-searching about how to ease fear, anger and frustration among troubled youths in the grim public housing estates on the outskirts of French cities, where many residents are minorities. Educators met the French prime minister to think of ways to help.

"These are young people who are generally resigned, they face discrimination everywhere, for housing and work, and their malaise gets expressed in violence," said Ahmed Touabi, principal of an elementary school in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil. The troublemakers "feel rejected by France, and they want to spit on France."

French Muslim group issues fatwa against rioting

One of France's largest Islamic groups issued a fatwa against rioting on Sunday after officials suggested Muslim militants could be partly to blame for violent protests scarring poor neighbourhoods around the country.

The Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF) quoted the Koran and the Prophet Mohammad to back up the religious edict condemning the disorder and destruction the unrest caused.

Many rioters are of North African Arab and black African descent and assumed to be Muslims. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials have hinted Islamist militants may be manipulating angry teenagers to defy the French state.

Muslim residents in the rundown suburbs say rioters' anger is more about unemployment and discrimination than religion. France's 5 million Muslims make up 8 percent of the population and many consider themselves second-class citizens here.

"It is formally forbidden to any Muslim seeking divine grace and satisfaction to participate in any action that blindly hits private or public property or could constitute an attack on someone's life," the fatwa said.

"Contributing to such exactions is an illicit act," declared the edict, which said it was applicable to "any Muslim living in France, whether a citizen or a guest of France."

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin received Dalil Boubakeur, head of France's Muslim Council and rector of the moderate Grand Mosque of Paris, on Saturday but has not publicly met other Muslim leaders.

Apart from Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who brought the UOIF into the Muslim Council at its creation in 2003, most French leaders have kept a critical distance from the group because of its links with the Muslim Brotherhood.

But many influential local Muslim organisations in suburbs such as those experiencing nightly violence are closer to the UOIF than other national Muslim groups. Many imams and mosque groups in the suburbs have called for calm.

Muslims were particularly incensed last week when a riot police tear gas canister landed in a mosque, forcing praying faithful to scatter in panic.