EAP says students safe in France

UCLA students studying abroad in France are safe despite rioting
which has created mayhem and caused at least one death in Paris and
surrounding cities, University of California officials said
Monday

None of the 35 students studying in France, 14 based in Paris,
are in schools close to areas that have been under heavy violence,
said Bruce Hanna, director of communications for the UC Education
Abroad Program.

All students are accounted for and have been advised by the EAP
and French authorities about how they can protect themselves from
the rioting.

“Concerns are high at this point, but the level of risk is
acceptable right now,” Hanna said. “We’re
watching (the students) very carefully.”

The riots started on Oct. 27 when two youths were accidentally
killed. The teens, who were of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent,
died of electrocution while hiding from police in a power station,
apparently thinking they were being chased.

Their death sparked anger that had been building against the
French government.

The rioters consist mostly of youths protesting against the
French government for neglecting the suburbs and the Arab and black
community.

Many of these youths say they have not been integrated or
accepted into French society, a deficiency on the part of the
government that French President Jacques Chirac acknowledged in a
meeting with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga on Monday.

In some of these suburbs, unemployment is 40 percent, four times
the national rate, Vike-Freiberga said.

Most of the suburbs are still safe, though violence has entered
areas to the north and east of Paris, said Oliver Plancon, deputy
consul general of the French consulate in Los Angeles.

Students have been told to stay out of the streets at night and
to take taxicabs instead of walking alone.

If the situation worsens, EAP and the study centers say they
will evacuate students out of France, most likely by plane.

For now, the violence has not reached that level, and it is up
to the EAP director to decide if evacuation would become necessary,
Hanna said.

“It is not likely that we will need to evacuate,” he
said.

Monday marked the 12th night of riots, as violence spread to
nearly 300 towns and cities.

The first death related to the riots occurred Monday, when a
61-year-old man died from wounds he received Friday while trying to
put out a trash-can fire at his home.

Rioters continued to attack the police with gasoline bombs
through Monday, but the police are still under strict orders from
the government not to return fire on the rioters.

French authorities have attempted to step up control by setting
a curfew and adding 1,500 police reservists to their current 8,000
police.

This has been the worst riot in France in decades and has caused
the most damage in the country since World War II.

For the past two weeks, protesters have set cars ablaze,
vandalized schools, stores and churches, and pelted police with gas
bombs.

With reports from Bruin wire services.