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Woman Maimed In Bus Attack
Badly-burned woman critically ill as French protests take nasty turn
A 26 year old Marseilles student became the latest victim of France's autumn riots when a gang of teenagers boarded and set fire to the bus she was travelling in. Mama Galledou, who is of Senegalese origin, is said to be fighting for her life in hospital, but doctors warn that if she does survive, she will be scarred for life.
The attack, which took place on Saturday night, was the worst event so far in the protests that have marked the first anniversary of Autumn 2005's riots. Six weeks of rioting and several billion Euros of damage followed the deaths of two teenagers, who police chased into an electricity substation where they were electrocuted.
While a march to commemorate the deaths, held in the estate where the boys lived passed off peacefully, youths in the Paris suburbs and in other French cities have marked the anniversary with a series of attacks on buses and police forces.
Ten buses have been hijacked and burnt to date, mostly in the Paris region. The attack which gravely injured Mme Galledou surprised many in France, as tensions in Marseilles are believed to be at a much lower level than those in other cities. Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy responded by sending several thousand extra riot police to the city - though locals claim that the attack, in which kids as young as fifteen are thought to have taken part, was more likely a "copycat" burning than part of a wider assault on the authorities.
Indeed, the trouble has been relatively low-key throughout France. Car burnings are a regular feature of life in France's grim housing projects, and while the figures for burnings are up, they haven't reached anything like the levels last year. The police presence has helped, though the police themselves have given warnings to the government and media that in the months leading up to the anniversary, there has been a new savagery in attacks on officers patrolling "sensitive neighbourhoods."
At the end of the summer, two cops were lucky to escape with their lives when a mob attacked their car in a housing project north of Paris: Police unions claim that youngsters, some of whom may be inspired by radical Islam, are now trying to kill officers.
Critics of the police say that "heavy handed policing" and racist attitudes provoke youths into violence. The government has also come under fire for failing to make good its promise to deal with unemployment in the banlieus, where joblessness among young people can reach 40 percent. However, the government's main initiative designed to combat youth unemployment, the CRE no-strings employment contract for workers under 26, was roundly attacked in the media, by unions and by France's youth themselves, and was withdrawn this spring.
