Sarkozy says "thugocracy" behind French riots

By James Mackenzie

PARIS (Reuters) - Riots which hit a Paris suburb this week were the work of a "thugocracy" of criminals and not the result of social deprivation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday.

Sarkozy's remarks came three days after dozens of police were injured in clashes with rioters following the death of two boys in a collision with a police car in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, to the north of Paris.

"I reject any form of other-worldly naivety that wants to see a victim of society in anyone who breaks the law, a social problem in any riot," he said in a speech to police officers.

"What happened in Villiers-le-Bel has nothing to do with a social crisis. It has everything to do with a 'thugocracy'."

This week's unrest reawakened memories of the violence that struck many poor French suburbs in 2005 when rioting youths torched thousands of cars during weeks of clashes with police.

A massive police presence has restored a tense calm to Villiers-le-Bel over the past two nights but traces of the violence, in the form of a burned-out library and car showroom and smashed shop windows and bus shelters, remain.

The 2005 riots, the worst urban violence in France in 40 years, provoked months of agonized debate over the state of the grim housing estates that ring many French cities and the integration of millions of black and North African immigrants.

Many inhabitants of the poor suburbs say the government has failed to address their problems.