CNN.com - Peace march set for Paris

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PARIS, France (CNN) -- Residents from dozens of riot-torn suburbs are planning a peace march in Paris to call for an end to more than two weeks of unrest across France.

Friday's march, which is set to begin near the Eiffel Tower, comes as police go on high alert in the capital at the start of a long holiday weekend that could test a downward trend in the violence.

Police said 463 vehicles were torched across France overnight, a slight decline from the previous night, Reuters reported. However, the number of car fires in the Paris area rose from 84 to 111.

"This confirms the downward trend overall, with some resistance in the Paris region," Reuters quoted national police chief Michel Gaudin as telling reporters.

The number of vehicles destroyed has fallen each night since Sunday's peak of 1,408.

"This weekend we will exercise extra vigilance in the Paris region," Gaudin said.

Police say they hope the violence will ease further during the Armistice Day weekend, when offices close and city centers empty to mark the end of World War I on November 11, 1918.

"Things are calming," The Associated Press quoted Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as telling France-2 television. "But that doesn't mean it won't restart."

There was a visible increase in police numbers in Paris ahead of the afternoon march, AP reported. Trucks of riot police were stationed near the Champs-Elysees boulevard and the nearby presidential Elysee Palace.

Residents waving white handkerchiefs and representing about 160 suburban communities were to assemble for the march at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT) at the Peace Wall on the Champ de Mars, near the Eiffel Tower, AP said.

We "want an immediate end to the violence and for peace to return to the neighborhoods where our parents, brothers and sisters have lived for the past two weeks in a climate of uncertainty," AP quoted the march's organizers, Banlieues Respects, as saying in a statement.

Meanwhile, eight police officers have been suspended pending an investigation into allegations two officers beat a youth during the recent rioting in France while six others looked on.

The French Interior Ministry said Thursday that Sarkozy had ordered the suspensions.

The incident took place in Seine-Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb next to Clichy-Sous-Bois, the suburb that has seen some of the worst of the rioting in France.

The suspensions came as French President Jacques Chirac acknowledged that France must do more to solve the problems that have caused 15 straight nights of rioting.

"It's then time to act, to re-establish public order, and this is my priority," said Chirac in remarks after a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero.

"But this should not obviously stop us from understanding that we have a problem, and that this problem can be analyzed in simple terms as fairness of opportunities, respect of the people, of all the people of the republic.

"We will, of course, at the right moment when public order is re-established, we will need to draw all the consequences of this crisis and do it with a lot of courage and lucidity."

Challenge to deportation plan

A 12-day state of emergency went into effect Wednesday, giving local officials in Paris, its suburbs and more than 30 other cities and towns across the country the power to impose curfews.

The unrest broke out following the October 27 deaths of two young men of North African descent, who were electrocuted when they hid from police in an electricity sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

During a discussion Wednesday in the National Assembly, Sarkozy said he had told local officials that they could deport 120 foreigners who had been arrested and convicted in connection with the rioting.

Sarkozy previously inflamed passions by referring to suburban troublemakers as "scum."

The president of anti-racism group SOS-Racisme said it had filed a complaint to the Council of State, France's highest administrative body, calling Sarkozy's deportation proposal illegal, AP reported. The council had 48 hours to respond.

On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced a sweeping package of reforms aimed at stopping the violence, as well as treating the social ills it stems from.

De Villepin said the rioting was the result of France's failure to provide hope to thousands of youths, most French citizens and the children of Muslim immigrants from northern Africa. (Full story)

Some of the rioting had been organized through Internet blogs that have now been shut down, de Villepin said. (Full story)

In order for French society to provide the same changes and opportunities to all its citizens, said de Villepin, 30 billion euros ($35.28 billion) will be spent in France's riot zones, with the focus primarily on helping young people.

The French employment agency will focus on 239 hot zones, he said, to help provide jobs for 1.5 million people.

Although France's national unemployment rate is about 10 percent, in areas hit by rioting the level is nearer 40 percent.

France has no affirmative action; an official French study found that youths with Arab-sounding names have their job applications rejected up to five times as often as those with traditional French names.

CNN's Jim Bittermann and Chris Burns contributed to this report

Peace march set for Paris

French capital on high alert for holiday weekend

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Challenge to deportation plan