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France Uses Colonial-Era Law To Impose Curfews

HeadlineNov 08, 2005

In France, curfews and emergency measures have been put in place in an effort to stop a two-week uprising led by immigrant and Muslim youths that began in the Paris suburbs. The civil unrest has now spread to over 300 towns and cities in France and even across the border to Brussels and Berlin. Last night Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin appeared on national television to announce that emergency powers would be invoked under a 50-year-old law. The curfew law was first used in Algeria in an unsuccessful attempt to quell an insurrection at a time when the North African country was a French colony. Suburban youths quoted in the Le Parisien newspaper claimed the emergency measures “won’t change anything”. One youth said “This isn’t going to solve things. More repression means more destruction… more cops is just provocation.” Earlier today police announced that nearly 1,200 cars were burnt overnight and 330 arrests were made.

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