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11/16/2005:

"Roots of violence lie in colonial past"

While immigrants from former colonies helped rebuild post-World War II France, many of their children and grandchildren are setting fire to its buildings and cars in what appears to be a blind explosion of rage - against the schools that failed them, the cars they can't afford to own, the government offices they say treat them like foreigners.

The legacy of France's African colonies weighs heavily over the riots that first exploded in this decaying, largely immigrant suburb of Paris two weeks ago.

Hamdi, a secular Muslim of Algerian parentage, said youths from immigrant families feel betrayed by a nation that plundered their homelands, used their forefathers' muscle for post-World War II reconstruction - then turned its back once the labour market dried up in the late 1970s.

French unemployment is just under 10 percent. Among young people in the housing projects it's as high as 40 percent.

Hamdi flashed his identity card. "I have it, m'sieur, I'm French," he said. "Why can't I work in a government ministry? ... They think we're dirt."
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