French riot police evict protesters from occupied welfare

centres French riot police launched early morning operations across France to evict militant unemployment protesters from welfare offices they have been occupying for nearly a month, French Europe 1 radio reported on Saturday.

It said benefit offices in Paris, Poissy, Gennevilliers, Grenoble, Nantes, Marseille and Arras were targeted by police.

A spokesman for the protesters, Laurent van Batten, told the radio that the police actions were "too rough" .

"There is no doubt that we are very bitter," he said.

"I for one say it is unacceptable that one should be able to throw people out on the streets like that, especially because some of our friends, men and women, are homeless.

They were thrown out on the streets like that, like shits.

I think this is deplorable." "It is true that we did not intend to leave," van Batten said.

"We held on tight, we put up resistance.

That is what we wanted, in any case, that is what we had all told one another." "They had to push us out, too roughly I would say, given that one of our friends had to be taken to hospital because he was virtually thrown outside and he fell on the steps." The spokesman for the unemployment activists said Friday's announcement by Lionel Jospin of extra funds for a social emergency fund had failed to defuse the protest movement.

"In any case, even after this, things are not over.

What the prime minister, Mr Jospin, said had nothing to do with our demands.

Therefore, there is no reason why we should stop, even after this," van Batten told the radio.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.