사이드바 영역으로 건너뛰기

反국가보안법 #1

S. KOREA MUST ABOLISH

NATIONAL"SECUTITY"LAW!! (*)

 

 

Following was reported in the latest editions of SK newspapers:

 

Politicians held for contacting North's agent (JoongAng Ilbo)
Democratic Labor Party deputy among 5 persons now in custody

 

Seoul prosecutors and the National Intelligence Service said yesterday they had arrested a senior official of the Democratic Labor Party on charges of contacting a North Korean agent during a visit to China.
 
His arrest and that of one other suspect were a significant enlargement of an investigation into 1980s-era student activists. So far, at least five people, including incumbent and former officials of the left-wing political party, are in the prosecution's sights.

 

Sources at the prosecution said the five could eventually be charged with espionage, but it appears that the authorities do not yet have sufficient evidence to accuse them formally of that crime. For the present, those in custody have been charged with unauthorized contacts with a North Korean.

 

Investigators from the Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors Office and the intelligence agency raided the home of Lee Jeong-hun, a former central committee member of the Democratic Labor Party, on Tuesday and detained him for alleged violations of the National Security Law. Yesterday, the prosecution said it had applied for warrants to extend his detention and to keep two other activists arrested at the same time, Jang Min-ho and Sohn Jong-mok, in custody. Prosecutors said all three visited China in March for meetings with a North Korean agent. Mr. Sohn and Mr. Jang also allegedly traveled to North Korea via China without South Korean government authorization.

 

Yesterday, the investigation widened with the arrest of Choi Gi-yeong, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Labor Party, and another activist. They were also charged with contacting a North Korean agent in China.

 

"We obtained the arrest warrants early in the morning and took Mr. Choi into custody at his home," Ahn Chang-ho, a prosecutor in charge of the case, said yesterday. "The National Intelligence Service is currently questioning Mr. Choi."
The pair allegedly accompanied Mr. Lee when he contacted the North Korean spy, the prosecution said, adding that the investigation would focus on the possibility that they had received instructions from the agent and engaged in "anti-government activities" after returning to this country. Such activities would also support an espionage charge.

 

Mr. Jang, a 44-year-old game developer and former student activist, was accused of working under the North's orders for more than a decade. After dropping out of Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul during his sophomore year, prosecutors said, he went to the United States and was a pro-North Korean activist there. Officials added that he is believed to have visited North Korea three times since the mid-1980s.


During the raid at Mr. Jang's home, investigators reportedly seized documents with instructions on how to contact and report to a North Korean agent. The prosecution said Mr. Jang admitted to some of the charges and waived his right to a court hearing on a detention warrant.
 
The Seoul Central District Court heard the cases for warrants yesterday against Mr. Lee and Mr. Sohn. Mr. Lee contended he was in China on business and had received no instructions from North Korean agents. "This is a Roh administration conspiracy to suppress civic movements and to create instability," he complained.
 
Mr. Lee, a history graduate of Korea University, was a well-known student activist. He was arrested in 1985 for leading the occupation of American Cultural Center in central Seoul. He was also convicted in 2000 of trying to enter North Korea by sea.
 
The Democratic Labor Party complained in a statement yesterday that the arrests were "clear political oppression" of the party. It demanded the release of all those arrested, accused the spy agency of fabricating evidence in a conspiracy to maintain its influence and demanded the repeal of the National Security Law.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200610/26/200610262221584239900090209021.html

 

 

About the same case the "left"-liberal daily Hankyoreh wrote following article:

 

3 arrested for allegedly meeting N.K. agent in China

 

 

Korea Herald published this:

 

Probe of pro-N.K. activists widens

 

In K. Times it's the "top" story:

 

Spy Scandal Shakes Labor Party

 

 

Dong-A Ilbo:

 

Activists Arrested for North Contacts

 

 

And last but not least the extreme conservative Chosun Ilbo:

 

Prominent 386ers Help for Espionage

 

 

 

 

* ..but unfortunately, even likely the majority(??) of the S. Koreans is against N"S"L, there is - (just) in my opinion - no real mass movement to struggle against N"S"L.

 

 


 

PS:

Already 4 years ago I finished one of my articles about N"S"L (on Base21, the former English section of Jinbonet) like that: "Last weekend around 450 people protested against the NSL. This in a city with over 10 million inhabitants, in a country with nearly 50 million citizens. If this is the beginning of a movement it could be good. But if this is the whole movement, in 50 years we'll still have the lovely NSL."("The struggle against the National Security Law needs a peoples' movement").

 

 

 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

재미있은 미래

 

 

 

 

 

While K. Times reported today that..

 

.. Seoul to Draw Up Sanctions on North ..

 

..the DPRK(leadership) promised a funny future:

 

DPRK tell SK sanctions could mean war (CNN/Reuters)

 

North Korea warned South Korea on Wednesday against joining U.S.-led sanctions against Pyongyang and said it would take action after any such move by Seoul.

 

South Korea's participation in sanctions would be seen as a serious provocation leading to a "crisis of war" on the Korean peninsula, a North Korean spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency..

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/25/korea.threat.reut/index.html

 

 

But actually it's no problem, because..

 

Seoul develops 1,000-km cruise missile (K. Herald, 10.25) 

 

 

 

That's really great! Because, if the DPRK is attacking SK, then SK - as retaliation - can attack China, Japan or Vladivostok(^^). Well, just move on!!

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

아름다운 뮤직 비디오

 

 

Adolf - I'm sitting in my Bunker

 

 

 

Adolf Hitler's last hours in the Fuehrerbunker.

 

"Adolf, du alte Nazi-sau, kapitulier doch endlich! Du Sau!"

Here you can watch the stuff in original German:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfiI4nAdnXU 

 

The French(^^) version you can watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOq-Fm5Qs9c&search=Walter%20Moers%20Adolf

 

 

 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

朝鮮의 핵실험 #11

 

 

 

Now, likely, it's clear..

 

No North Korean apology, China says (IHT, 10.24) 


Kim Jong Il of North Korea did not apologize for his regime's nuclear test, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, and added that there was no guarantee the reclusive state would not detonate another weapon.


South Korean media reported last week that Kim had expressed regret for the Oct. 9 test during a visit last week by Tang Jiaxuan, a Chinese special envoy who was carrying a message from President Hu Jintao.


But a ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said at a news briefing Tuesday: "These reports are certainly not accurate. We haven't heard any information that Kim Jong Il apologized for the test." He also said the North Koreans told Tang's delegation that "it did not have a plan to carry out a second test."


But Liu added that Tang had reported the North had signaled that, "if it faces pressure," it reserved the "right to take further actions." Liu did not say whether Kim or other North Korean officials had made that comment.


Also Tuesday, Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean foreign minister who will take over as secretary general of the United Nations in January, said Seoul fully backed the sanctions that have been agreed upon by the Security Council.


South Korea has not specified what it plans to do to be in accord with the resolution, which calls on the world to prevent Pyongyang from continuing its weapons trade. Washington has urged Seoul to join an anti-proliferation initiative and to take steps to make its projects with the North more transparent.


Ban said Seoul was still reviewing its policies "to bring them closer in line" with the UN resolution. He was scheduled to go to Beijing on Friday for meetings with Hu, Tang and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.


While the North has continued to rail against the United States, a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday that the regime was amenable to returning to international nuclear talks if Washington showed a willingness to resolve a dispute over the North's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.


Washington is trying to cut off the North's access to international banking as punishment for alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and other illegal activity. Pyongyang has denied the charges and boycotted six-nation talks on its nuclear program until the crackdown is ended.


Representative Choi Sung of South Korea's governing Uri Party said he met with a "key North Korean official" in Beijing on Sunday. He declined to identify him. After the meeting, Choi suggested that the United States present the North with evidence of its alleged financial activities so it can punish those responsible. He said the North Korean official had said his country could then return to the talks "even if the issue is not completely resolved."...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/24/news/nuke.php


 

The Guardian (UK) wrote following:

 

China: N Korea did not apologise 

 

Kim Jong-il has reserved the right to escalate the nuclear crisis, China said today, refuting earlier reports that the North Korean leader apologised for this month’s atomic weapons test..

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

팔레스티나/이스라엘 (인터뷰)

Following interview with the Palestine foreign minister was published before y'day in the German magazine Der Spiegel:

 


INTERVIEW WITH PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
"We Will Never Recognize Israel"

 

Mahmoud al-Zahar, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority's Hamas-led government, says a big majority of Hamas supports the struggle against Israel despite recent conciliatory comments from Hamas officials about a possible indirect recognition of Israel and an end to violence.


Mahmoud al-Zahar says a big majority of militant group Hamas backs continued resistance against Israel, which he likens to the Nazis occupying France in World War II.


SPIEGEL: Do you really want to let the talks with President Abbas about a national unity government fail?


ZAHAR: We have accepted the paper on the establishment of a national unity government. It was Abbas' Fatah Party that first agreed to it and then changed its mind a few days later. We are ready to establish a provisional Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and to call for a ceasefire.


SPIEGEL: But you reject a two state solution?


ZAHAR: We will never recognize Israel. The Zionists have occupied our land like the Nazis did with France during the Second World War. Israel is a foreign element in the Middle East. Why don't the Jews establish their state in Europe?


SPIEGEL: Your Deputy Prime Minister, Nasser al-Shaer, views that differently. He thinks that an indirect recognition of Israel, as the Saudi-Arabian initiative of 2002 suggests, is possible.


ZAHAR: This is his personal opinion and not the position of the government.


SPIEGEL: Criticism even comes from the government spokesman. Ghazi Hamad questions the violent "resistance" against Israel.


ZAHAR: In this point, the spokesman of the government does not represent the government.


SPIEGEL: Is there an internal struggle within Hamas?


ZAHAR: There are different opinions. But the big majority supports the resistance. The kidnapping of the Israeli soldier was the only way to release our brothers and sisters who are detained in Israel.


SPIEGEL: Western mediators say Israel would have been ready for an exchange deal. But Iran is said to have paid Hamas $50 million in order to torpedo the deal.


ZAHAR: This is Zionist propaganda. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is the one who is preventing a deal. I call on the family of the kidnapped soldier to pressure their government to do everything possible to release their son.

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

反FTA 투쟁..

 

 

CLASS  WAR ON

"HONEYMOON ISLAND"

Jeju-do: Protests against US-SK FTA Session

 

 




 

 

Related articles you can read here:

 

Bumpy S. Korea-U.S. FTA talks make headway: S. Korean official (Yonhap)

US Offers No FTA Perks to Korea (K. Times)

 

"전용철, 홍덕표, 하중근 그리고 또 오늘..." (VoP, incl. 6 videos)
[한미FTA 제주 투쟁 24일] 투쟁단, 촛불집회로 하루 마무리

http://www.voiceofpeople.org/new/2006102453558.html

 

Some more pics about the protest you can see here:

10월 23일 한미FTA 저지 제주도 원정 시위

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

조선민주주의..#2

 

 

조선민주주의인민공화국

 

 

 

 

NORTH KOREA

"PARADISE OF THE

WORKING CLASS"..

(*)

 

 

..but, if we want to believe following articles, perhaps not longer anymore.

 

‘Coup Possible in Pyongyang’ (K. Times, 10.23)
 
 
A ``Beijing-friendly palace coup’’ may happen in North Korea to drive out the North’s ``dear leader’’ Kim Jong-il, a U.S. weekly magazine reported in its latest issue.
 

Chinese officials used to ``scoff’’ at the idea of effecting Chinese-style regime change in the Stalinist state, but an ``unprecedented debate’’ has taken place over Beijing’s North Korea policies, Newsweek said in its Oct. 30 issue.
 

Mentioning the stoppage of financial transfers and food exports to North Korea, the magazine backed the possibility of a coup.
 

Four major Chinese banks halted financial transfers to North Korea last Friday, and China decreased food exports to the isolated regime by two-thirds, the weekly said.
 

``Among some close advisers to the government, the idea of a Beijing-friendly palace coup has gained new currency,’’ the report said. ``China certainly has the means.’’


The means is the 11,000 barrels of oil China offers the reclusive state every day _ accounting for over 70 percent of Pyongyang’s total energy supply, the magazine said.
 

Chinese officials have said that they want Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament, but some scholars, angry at Kim’s recalcitrance, are asking for the government to pull the oil plug instead, the report said.
 

A former U.S. Pentagon official and Korea watcher said in an interview with Newsweek that the likely pool of moderate North Koreans who could succeed Kim includes Sinophile military officers and technocrats. ``They have come to believe that Chinese-style economic reforms will help transform North Korea,’’ he said.
 

As for post-Kim Jong-il scenarios, the report said, ``China would prefer North Korea to maintain a friendly, ideally socialist, buffer state on its periphery, which could keep U.S. soldiers based in South Korea at arm’s length.’’

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006102317384311990.htm

 

 

 

Here's what K. Times quoted:

 

China's Reaction: Tightening the Screws
Would Beijing dump Kim? It's certainly not likely, but ...

(Newsweek)


Once upon a time Beijing officials and scholars would have scoffed at the idea of effecting Chinese-style regime change in Pyongyang. But in the wake of Kim's nuke test, an unprecedented debate has broken out over Beijing's North Korea policies. Last Friday four major Chinese banks stopped making financial transfers to North Korea—a tactic that could quickly pinch a weak economy that relies on China as a link to the international financial system. And this year China has reduced food exports to Pyongyang by two thirds. "I've never seen the Chinese leadership so resolved to be tougher towards North Korea," says Zhu Feng, head of Peking University's international-security program.


Among some close advisers to the government, the idea of a Beijing-friendly palace coup has gained new currency. China certainly has the means: it provides 11,000 barrels of oil to North Korea every day, accounting for more than 70 percent of Pyongyang's total energy supply. Beijing stopped oil deliveries for three days in early 2003 to pressure Pyongyang to join the Six-Party Talks. (Later Chinese apparatchiks insisted there had been a mechanical malfunction.) Chinese authorities insist they want Kim to return to the talks again, but some scholars, furious at Kim's recalcitrance, are calling on their government to pull the oil plug instead. "Chinese diplomacy has been a failure," says Prof. Zhang Liangui, a foreign-policy analyst at the influential Central Party School. "To not stop oil [deliveries] would be baffling from a moral point of view."


According to a former U.S. Pentagon official and Korea watcher, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, the likely pool of moderate North Koreans who could succeed Kim includes Sinophile military officers and technocrats who have come to believe that Chinese-style economic reforms will help transform North Korea. The presence in China of high-level defectors, including military officers, has sparked rumors of a Beijing supported "Chrysanthemum group" who could be the backbone of a new regime, the source says, though "the Chinese never talk about it." South Korean experts on the North recall similar, albeit "theoretical" talk of a Chinese shadow cabinet in 2003-2004.


A successful coup, while farfetched, would ease Beijing's fears of anarchy and a flood of refugees on its border. But the crucial question is how the interests of China diverge from the United States' and South Korea's when it comes to post-Kim scenarios. Beijing would prefer to maintain a friendly, ideally socialist, buffer state on its periphery, which could keep U.S. soldiers based in South Korea at arm's length. Seoul isn't seeking instant reunification with the North, either—too expensive—but South Korean strategists may want to move troops into the North to prevent its being absorbed by China. Replacing Kim might not be any easier than dealing with him now.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15365945/site/newsweek/

 

*****

 

First of all these kind of theoretic considerations are not really new. Since several years some political analysts are debating this kind of possible future for the DPRK.

But in my opinion this will not be practicable, not really.

 

Why?

 

A DPRK with "Chinese-style economic reforms" will become very soon a capitalist (at least economical) society. China(PRC), even the ruling party is a "communist" party, is a capitalist society. And nothing different North Korea will be.


But there is a big difference between the PRC and NK. There is only one China(just forget in the moment Taiwan). The PRC, even in the late 1970s, even after years of Culture Revolution, was a huge, powerful country with a lot of own natural resources.


On the other side the PRC had, even in the time of the Great Leap and the Culture Rev., strong relationships to the oversea Chinese community(S.E. Asia, USA..). And especially from this community the first investments("hard" currency, know-how..) in the new econimic reforms in the late 1970s were coming. But this investors had only economic intentions, no politically.

 

For a NK with "Chinese-style economic reforms" the most potentially investors will come from S. Korea. But in this process - of course the country MUST/WILL open its borders(i.e. also the entire society) to the outside world, especially to the South -
the southern "brothers and sisters" will try to influence NK also politically.

 

Finally, like in the case of Germany in 1989/90, after the collapse of the East German ruling system(the so-called "Material Existing Socialsm"), there will be no necessity for two capitalist Korean states!!

 

 

BTW: According to many political analysts/experts(and so on..) for the PRC the main obstacle for a - of course - peaceful re-unification of the Koreas is the presence of USFK on the peninsula (because they worry that after the unification this shit, i.e. USFK, will be moved to the Yalujiang/Amnok-gang).

As I know, nearly everyone in SK wants the unification.. So the first thing to prepare for the re-unification should be the struggle against the presence of USFK in SK. JUST KICK THEM OUT! NOW(ahe~ or at least tomorrow)!!


 

 

 

* according to the NK propaganda^^

 

 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

中國/북한..

 

 

 

 

Following article was already published yesterday in NYT/IHT:

 

Tension and desperation on the China-Korea line 


North Korea's porous 1,400-kilometer border with China is its lifeline to the outside world. About 39 percent of its trade last year was with China, which, critically, supplies it with 80 to 90 percent of its oil. Trafficking in money transfers and human beings also flourishes.


By contrast, the North's border with Russia is 18 kilometers long, or 11 miles, and heavily guarded, and the 240-kilometer-long Demilitarized Zone with South Korea has hundreds of thousands of soldiers on each side.


Until now, the North's ships have regularly visited Japan, from which relatives sent cash and goods, but North Korea's nuclear test was expected to end that trade.


For China, the bottom line is to erect the right number of fences, as it did last week along the border city of Dandong. Build too few and you invite instability in China. Build too many and North Korea collapses.


A collapse is something Beijing does not want, and why it is lukewarm toward harsh United Nations sanctions. A collapse might send more North Koreans into China than the 100,000 to 300,000 estimated to have flooded the border during the North's great famine in the mid- to late-1990s. (Paradoxically, the famine also opened trade links when local North Korean groups formed to barter raw materials for Chinese grain.)


The end of the North Korean state could also bring reunification of the Korean Peninsula under America's ally South Korea, another development Beijing does not want.


Also, the border itself could be put into question. In recent years, South Korea has challenged China over the legacy of Koguryo, an ancient Korean kingdom whose rule extended into present-day China. The region is home to hundreds of thousands of ethnic- Korean Chinese who might be sympathetic to a reunified Korea making territorial claims.

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/22/news/border.php


 

 

 


진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

10.22 전국비정규노동자집회

Yesterday irregular workers took the streets of Seoul to demand the same status like "ordinary" workers: working contracts, same payment, better working conditions..
Between 1000 and 2000 workers participated on the rally and demo.(BTW: There are about 8,000,000 irregular workers in S.K.!!

 

 

Also some representatives of MTU joined the event (사진: 민중의소리) 

 

 

 

For more about it(in Korean) please check out here:
http://www.voiceofpeople.org/new/2006102253436.html
http://www.newscham.net/news/view.php?board=news&id=37714

 

 

 


 


진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

프랑스 2006..(??)

Following interesting report was published in y'day's NYT/IHT (of course the article just reflects the bourgeois point of view^^):

 

A year later, France fears renewed unrest

 

 

Last year's mass riots in France

(I wrote about it here: http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/?pid=322 )

 


When the call came about a car burglary in this raw suburb north of Paris one night last weekend, three officers in a patrol car rushed over, only to find themselves surrounded by 30 youths in hoods throwing rocks and swinging bats and metal bars.


Neither tear gas nor stun guns stopped the assault. Only when reinforcements arrived did the siege end. One officer was left with broken teeth and in need of 30 stitches to his face.


The attack was rough but not unique. In the past three weeks alone, three similar assaults on the police have occurred in these suburbs that a year ago were aflame with the rage of unemployed, undereducated youths, most of them the offspring of Arab and African immigrants.


In fact, with the anniversary of those riots approaching in the coming week, spiking statistics for violent crime across the area tell a grim tale of promises unkept and attention unpaid. Residents and experts say that fault lines run even deeper than before and that widespread violence could flare up again at any moment.


"Tension is rising very dramatically," said Patrice Ribeiro, the deputy head of the Synergie-Officiers police union. "There is the will to kill."


The anger of the young is reflected in the music popular in the suburbs. In her latest album, the female rap singer Diam's accuses Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy of being a "demagogue" and the police of hypocrisy. The rapper Booba proclaims that "Maybe it would be better to burn Sarko's car," while Alibi Montana, another rapper, warns Sarkozy, "Keep going like that and you're going to get done."


Next Friday is the one-year anniversary of the electrocution death of two teenagers as - rumor had it - they were running from the police in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.


The tragedy triggered three weeks of violence in which rioters throughout France torched cars, trashed businesses and ambushed police officers and firefighters, plunging the country into what President Jacques Chirac called "a profound malaise."


Last month, a leaked law enforcement memo warned of a "climate of impunity" in Seine-Saint-Denis, the notorious district north of Paris, where clusters of suburbs like Clichy-sous- Bois and Epinay-sur-Seine are located.


It reported a 23 percent increase in violent robberies and a 14 percent increase in assaults in the district of 1.5 million people in the first half of 2006, complaining that young, inexperienced police officers were overwhelmed and that the court system was lax. Only one of 85 juveniles arrested during the unrest had been jailed, it added.


In all of France, according to the Ministry of Interior, 480 incidents of violence against the police were recorded in September, a 30 percent increase from the month before.


On the other side of the debate, however, local officials and residents are disheartened that the shock of the unrest last year did not trigger a coherent plan to create more jobs, better housing and education and more social services - or even to raise the consciousness of the citizenry.


"Ours is a population that truly has been abandoned to its sad fate," said Claude Dilain, the mayor of Clichy- sous-Bois and a local pediatrician who recently wrote a book about the plight of his town.


"French society wants the poor to be squeezed into ghettos rather than have them living right next door. It says, 'Put the poor out there in the suburbs, but avoid violence at all costs so that all goes well and we don't have to talk about them anymore.' Our people feel betrayed. All the conditions are there for it to blow up again."


Clichy-sous-Bois is worse off than many other suburbs. It has no local police station, no movie theater, no swimming pool, no unemployment office, no child welfare agency, no metro or inter- urban train into the city.


For even some of the most crime-ridden suburbs, it is a 20-minute ride into central Paris; for Clichy-sous-Bois, depending on whether there is space on the bus, it can take an hour and a half. Unemployment is at 24 percent, and much higher among young people. Thirty-five percent of the population consists of foreigners, many non- French-speaking. The town's only municipal gymnasium and sports center was burned during the unrest last year.


When Nadia Boudaoud, a 27-year-old part-time educator, was asked why her family moved from Clichy-sous-Bois two years ago, she gave three reasons: the noise, the garbage and the rats.


But on the same evening that young people were attacking the police in Epinay-sur-Seine a few dozen kilometers away, Clichy-sous-Bois's only cultural space held the kind of special event they have in places like Paris: the opening of an ambitious photo exhibit about daily life in the town of 23,000 people.


The exhibit featured the works of a dozen world-renowned photographers, including Marc Riboud, William Klein and Sarah Moon, who mingled with hundreds of local residents. Visitors were met at the entrance with a long white panel bearing the photos of the two teenage electrocution victims, Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17.


The one disappointment of the evening, Dilain said, is that not one French official showed up. "It is symptomatic of the absence of interest in us," he said. "I'm ashamed for France."


Indeed, interviews with residents and officials in several suburbs ringing Paris in recent weeks made it clear that many are convinced that the government's main interest in them is to maintain security in advance of the presidential election next spring.


Sarkozy, the front-runner for the nomination of the governing center- right party, has staked his reputation on an uncompromising attitude toward young offenders. But his increase in the number of police officers in the suburbs - many of them from far-away parts of France - has meant more harassment and random searches of young people, fueling complaints of unfairness.


Not to be outdone, the front-runner for the Socialist Party, Ségolène Royal, has offered her own proposals to curb youth violence, including military-led training programs to deal with young offenders and parenting school for parents of unruly primary school children.


Clearly, the French favor a tough line on security issues. According to an Ifop poll for Le Figaro published last month, 77 percent said that the judicial system was not harsh enough against young offenders.


After the unrest last fall, the government announced measures to improve life in the suburbs, including extra funds for housing, schools and neighborhood associations, and counseling and job training for unemployed youths. None have gone very far.


New legislation promoting the "equality of chances" passed with much fanfare last March largely has been ineffectual. An initiative to create blue- collar apprenticeships for teenagers from the age of 14, has been criticized for removing children from the universal educational system at early an age.


Another law aimed at curbing illegal immigration - and deporting youthful offenders - ignored the fact that most suburban youth are French, and a law to spur youth employment was abandoned following massive street demonstrations against it last spring.


The government said this week that it needed more "experimentation" before implementing the law requiring corporations with more than 50 employees to use anonymous résumés aimed at curbing discrimination against job-seekers with foreign-sounding names from troubled neighborhoods.


In any case, many young job-seekers and community activists consider the initiative gimmicky, even humiliating.


"We have to fight discrimination - not disguise differences as if differences are a crime," said Samir Mihi, a founder of ACLEFEU, an association created in Clichy-sous-Bois to promote the suburbs.


In an exercise that aims to celebrate the identity of the applicant, APC, another organization, has created a project - the videotaped résumé - that trains job-seekers how to sell themselves on camera.


At a training and taping session in the Paris suburb of Nanterre this week, Mariama Goudyaby, 33, said that she has been looking for a job as a receptionist for six months, but has been turned down 15 times.


"When I come, they see, 'she is black,'" she said. "And then they say, 'We've already found somebody.'" With the video, she said defiantly, "You like me; it's me. You don't like me, too bad."


Certainly, there have been changes since last year, though many of them seem symbolic or cosmetic.


The television channel TF1, for example, assigned Harry Roselmack, a 33- year-old black journalist of French Caribbean descent, to anchor the main evening news for six weeks this summer, the first time a Frenchman of color has served in that role. He became an overnight sex symbol and national hero.


The Henry IV public high school, one of the best in Paris, in September recruited thirty students from underprivileged backgrounds for its preparatory program that feeds some of France's most elite universities.


Marking anniversaries is deeply embedded in French tradition, so a number of events are scheduled in the run-up to Oct. 27. At a town meeting in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois on Wednesday, some speakers worried aloud about the street chatter they are hearing from young people about how best to "celebrate" it.


"The most violent of them think of it in terms of a celebration," said Franck Cannarozzo, a deputy mayor of Aulnay- sous-Bois. "For them last year was a victory over authority."


But for a 25-year-old man who lives in Clichy-sous-Bois and asks to be called Karim, the day will be one of mourning, not celebration. Karim had been showing the two teenagers how to play a new video game in the basement of his building the night before they were electrocuted.


"It is the anniversary," he said, "of a death."

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/20/news/france.php

 

 


 

 

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