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  • Nov 3rd, 2005
  • Comments Off on French minister cancels Pakistan trip
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday he had cancelled a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan next week to tackle riots which have gripped suburbs around Paris for the past six nights.

He made the announcement in a statement issued after another night of violence in which gangs of youths in poor, high-immigrant areas clashed with police and set vehicles ablaze.

Sarkozy, who has made it clear he intends to stand as a candidate in French presidential elections in 2007, has implemented tough law-and-order policies meant to crack down on delinquency and crime in the low-rent neighbourhoods around Paris and other major cities.

But detractors - and many people living in the suburbs - accuse him of fuelling the tensions behind the riots with his stern rhetoric.

Just a week before the riots erupted on Thursday night of last week, Sarkozy had vowed a "war without mercy" on those who violate the law in those areas.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


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