E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.3
page 25
On 7 August, in Lille (59), five skinheads with ties to the Third Path
and the PNFE were arrested just after attacking a Frenchman of Maghrebi
origin and a Cameroonian national;
During the night of 29-30 October, in Klingenthal (67), a group of about
30 skinheads, all of them very young, attacked a vehicle occupied by two
Turks, pushing and shoving them and slightly injuring one of them. Part
of this group then went on to Obernai (67), where they attacked a
Turkish restaurant, broke the window, damaged the premises and sprayed
the clients with tear gas, wounding three more persons. Four
perpetrators were sentenced, two of them to one year of prison with
eight months' suspended sentence and the other two to 10 months. Two
years of probation and three years' deprivation of their civil rights
completed the penalty.
Mosques have also been the targets of many attacks: a Molotov cocktail
was thrown at the one in Creil (60) and there were fires in Nantes (44),
Castelnaudary (11), Metz (57), Rennes (35), Courcouronnes (91) and
Orange (84).
Some of this violence was a reaction to the situation in Algeria,
including the murder of Frenchmen in that country.
Threats
The volume of racist threats has followed the same pattern as racist
acts, increasing until 1991, dropping in 1992, levelling off in 1993 and then
rising slightly in 1994:
1980:
1990:
1991:
1992:
1993:
1994:
20
283
317
141
134
160.
The pattern is similar for the dissemination of racist leaflets:
1991:
1992:
1993:
1994:
205
66
51
67
(out
(out
(out
(out
of
of
of
of
317)
141)
134)
160).
After the large number of racist threats reported in 1991, as a result
of the contagious effect of the Gulf war, threats declined significantly in
1992 and 1993, particularly against the Maghrebi community.
In 1994, such threats started up again, primarily in the form of racist
graffiti and leaflets. The Algerian political context is probably responsible
for the reappearance of incendiary leaflets from the past, such as “JALB” and
“Francarabia musulmane”, which had all but disappeared after January 1992.
They were replaced by other publications, such as “Le Boukcaque”, “Le permis à
points” and “La demande de naturalisation”, which fell out of favour in 1994.