'Copycat' arson attacks hit Brussels

Last updated at 15:59 08 November 2005


Five cars were set on fire in Brussels overnight, raising the number of vehicles burned in the Belgian capital to 10 since Sunday in what officials say appeared to be an imitation of violence in France.

There were also minor incidents of arson in the northern town of Sint Niklaas - where a car was also set ablaze - and the eastern city of Liege, authorities reported.

Belgian officials played down the extent of the incidents.

"There were no riots. These were all very isolated incidents. Whoever set fire to the cars must have been influenced by the footage of what is going on in France," Brussels fire department spokesman Francis Boileau said.

In a deliberate effort to avoid politicising the incidents, federal police and the government's crisis centre declined to comment, referring the matter to local police and municipal authorities.

"These are only isolated cases. Our prevention units and local police officers are working on

it. They really know these youngsters. I have no fear," Jacques Simonet, the mayor of the Brussels district of Anderlecht, told VTM television.

Youths rioted for a 12th successive night in France, torching more than 800 vehicles around the country and injuring four police.

The Belgian authorities have sought to forestall any spillover of the French violence by stepping up visible police patrols in streets and on public transport while increasing dialogue with immigrant community leaders.

Like France, Belgium has a large immigrant population, many of Moroccan origin, with high youth unemployment. But the decentralised country has a more multicultural method of integration than France, respecting ethnic sensitivities.

Philippe Moureaux, mayor of the heavily immigrant Brussels district of Molenbeek, told De Standaard daily: "Our situation cannot be compared with the French one. There are no huge, high-rise suburbs like in France."

He added: "Moreover, we do not have an interior minister like (Nicolas) Sarkozy, who starts provoking the troublemakers."

"We will do nothing that can be perceived as being provocative," he said.

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