Calm back in Guadeloupe after Sarkozy's proposals

The tension has somewhat turn down in Guadeloupe Friday, plunged into chaos by a month's general strike, after the announcement by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy with a budget of 580 million euros for overseas.

•     The night of Thursday to Friday was "much calmer than the previous ones," said the prefecture of Guadeloupe, after three nights of violence marked by the death of a trade unionist.
  
      "There were no stores looted or burned," according to the same source, but the police have been fired in Gosier, resort near Pointe-à-Pitre, the main town of this French island in the Caribbean.
  
      In total, the police have made three arrests during the night. Firefighters have intervened 17 times, against 40 the previous night.
  
      Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been much criticized broke the public silence, received Thursday evening representatives from overseas, whom he promised to act to restore peace, after a month of conflict.
  
      The French president, who must go in Guadeloupe in April to open a series of consultations, also announced an extra effort of the State of 580 million for the overseas departments (DOM).
  
      The government intends to allow an increase of almost 200 euros to the lowest wages, the main claim of the Collective against exploitation (LKP) leading the social movement in the island.
  
      The employers would have to perform a part of the effort in the form of a premium exempt from charges. The measure will affect in case of agreement, about 45,000 Guadeloupeans (about 450,000 inhabitants).
  
      The leader of the LKP, Elie Domota, announced a few hours after the presidential intervention on Friday at 15H00 (19H00 GMT), officially halted discussions last week.
  
      He was extremely cautious, however, finding "particularly vague" the proposals made by Nicolas Sarkozy.
  
      The Secretary of State for Overseas Yves Jégo was "cautious" Friday about the chances of success of the agreement. "This is not because the solution is on the table that the agreement is concluded," he said.
  
      "The hard things, I have said from the beginning, this did not give me only friends, were the employers, who considered that every effort had to pay it should be compensated 100% by state, "said Jégo.
  
      The French president also evoked Thursday evening on television RFO the historical background of the conflict, citing the "frustration, injury, suffering" of people overseas.
  
      The conflict against expensive life began January 20 in Guadeloupe struck the neighbouring island of Martinique in early February.
  
      In these overseas departments where unemployment exceeds 20% and the prices are very high, the conflict also wakes up racial tensions between black and white minorities among them the families "békés" descendants of slave settlers.
  
      These families control much of the economy, including retail, responsible in the eyes of the strikers in the price level.
  
      The socialist president of the region of Guadeloupe, Victorin Lurel, lamented Friday this "racialization of the conflict." "We see the behaviour: specifically burning some white-owned businesses," he regretted.
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• Ennaharonline/ M. O.