Is there a connection between the Moslem-led youth riots in France, and the ones taking place at the same time in Denmark? The week of riots in poor neighbourhoods outside Paris, which has spread to 20 towns, has been well covered by the international media.
Not so for Ã
rhus, Denmark.
âNothing of it has penetrated to the English-language sections of Danish media,â laments the Viking Observer. The Observer took the trouble to translate into English the following from Danish Jyllands-Posten:
âRosenhoj Mall has several nights in a row been the scene of the worst riots in Ã
rhus for years. âThis area belongs to us,â the youths proclaim. Sunday evening saw a new arson attack.
âTheir words sound like a clear declaration of war on the Danish society. Police must stay out. The area belongs to immigrants.
âFour youths sit on a wall in Rosenhoj Mall Sunday afternoon, calling themselves spokesmen for the groups, that three nights in a row have ravaged and tried to burn down the restaurant and other stores.
âAround the parking lot, cars with youngsters from the immigrant community are swarming, and many are walking around, greeting each other with a sense of victory after the worst riots in Ã
rhus for years.
âEvery night 30-40 youths took part, especially immigrants.
âOnly two were arrested, âThat was a victory.â
From the 1990s, groups and organizations formed by extremist Moslems, which present a serious threat to the Danish Jewish Community, have been active in Denmark.
In France, police have made 143 arrests during the unrest, according to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Prime Minister de Villepin vowed to restore order as the violence that erupted Oct. 27 spread to at least 20 towns, manifestation of the collective frustration simmering in housing projects that are home to scores of North African immigrants.
Bands of stone-lobbing and petrol bomb armed bands of youth have thus far ignored President Jacques Chiracâs appeal for calm.
âI will not accept organized gangs making the law in some neighbourhoods, I will not accept having crime networks and drug trafficking profiting from disorder,â Villepin said at the Senate in between emergency meetings called over the riots. Government offices, a police station, a primary school and a college, a Clichy-sous-Bois fire station and a train station were among the buildings targeted by the gangs of youth. Rioters also set fire to a gym near the Les Tilleuls housing complex in the Seine-Saint-Denis region. It burned and smoldered Wednesday night as residents looked on in despair.
On Thursday, rioters fired four shots at police and firefighters but caused no injuries, said Jean-Francois Cordet, the top government official for Seine-Saint-Denis. Nine civilians were injured in other unrest and 415 cars were torched across the Paris area, French authorities have said that the riots are not spontaneous but well organized.
Threats issued by youth rioters in Denmark that âThis area belongs to us,â seem to indicate the same thing. Meanwhile, the whole world may be aware that Paris is burning, but few are aware of the nightly youth riots in Ã
rhus, Denmark. |