Racial tensions lead to riots in Australia
Mike Corder
SYDNEY, Australia — The racial unrest that broke out in Sydney’s
beachside suburbs over the weekend has spread to two other large
Australian cities, where people of Middle Eastern descent were assaulted
by whites, police said Tuesday.
In New South Wales, where Sydney is located, lawmakers scheduled
an emergency session of the state Parliament to consider legislation
cracking down on the rioters who rampaged through the city’s
suburbs for two straight nights, the region’s premier said.
Seven people were injured and 11 arrested after youths rioted in
the suburbs Monday night, smashing the windows of stores, homes
and parked cars. The youths appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent,
leading police to believe the destruction was in response to racially
fueled attacks on a Sydney beach a day earlier.
Calling the rioters “ratbags,” New South Wales premier
Morris Iemma said police would be given special “lockdown”
powers to stop convoys from forming and driving into communities
to carry out acts of retribution. He also said he would urge lawmakers
to pass legislation toughening prison sentences for rioting offenses.
Opposition lawmakers have already called for tough new laws and
are expected to support the legislation. The state Parliament session
is scheduled for Thursday.
“I won’t allow Sydney’s reputation as a tolerant,
vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and
criminals who want to engage in the sort of behavior we’ve
seen in the last 48 hours,” Iemma said.
He added that rioters had “effectively declared war on our
society and we won’t be found wanting in our response.”
The rioting began Sunday on Cronulla Beach when about 5,000 white
youths, many drunk and wrapped in Australian flags, attacked people
believed to be of Arab or Middle Eastern descent after rumors spread
that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards earlier this month.
Police, who had stepped up patrols on the beach after learning of
cell phone text messages urging people to retaliate for the attack
on the lifeguards, fought back with batons and pepper spray.
Carloads of young Arab men then struck back in several Sydney suburbs,
fighting with police for hours and smashing dozens of cars with
sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and
16 arrested in the first day of unrest.
On Monday, police said they discovered weapons including firebombs
and rocks on the roofs of some houses in the beachside suburb of
Maroubra. Some of those arrested were armed with machetes and baseball
bats.
Elsewhere, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported Tuesday
that a family of Middle Eastern origin was attacked in the western
city of Perth by a group of 11 white men, who threw eggs, shouted
abuse and kicked their garage door.
The 42-year-old father, who did not want to be identified, said
his family was badly shaken by Monday night’s incident.
“I don’t know if we were mistakenly identified,”
he said. “What I definitely know is it was something linked
to the escalation in New South Wales.”
Perth police Superintendent Shayne Maines said authorities could
not rule out a link between the attack and the racial violence in
Sydney. “There was some suggestion they did make ethnically-related
comments to the occupant of the house,” Maines said.
In Adelaide, a taxi driver of Lebanese origin, Hossein Kazemi, was
injured when he was punched by a passenger during an incident Tuesday.
“There was some sort of discrepancy and argument over the
fare,” a South Australian police spokesman said on customary
condition of anonymity. “Apparently during the assault, the
victim, because he was of Lebanese origin, was taunted about the
stuff in Sydney and Cronulla beach.”
More violence seemed likely. New text messages circulated Monday,
one of which called for more fighting next weekend: “We’ll
show them! It’s on again Sunday.”
Another message warned of possible retaliation from Middle Eastern
groups.
“The Aussies will feel the full force of the Arabs as one
—‘brothers in arms’ unite now,” the message
said.
Prime Minister John Howard has defended Australia’s policy
of tolerance, noting the nation has successfully absorbed millions
of foreigners. Before leaving Tuesday for a summit of Asian nations
in Malaysia, he said he didn’t believe the rioting would affect
Australia’s overseas reputation in the long-term.
“You have outbreaks of domestic discord that happens to every
country and when it occurs there’s publicity, but people make
a judgment about this country over a longer term,” he said.
Television images of the violence shocked Australians who pride
themselves on their tolerance and credit an influx of immigrants
with helping build up the country in the post-World War II years.
However, tensions between youths of Arab and Middle Eastern descent
and white Australians have been rising in recent years, largely
because of anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror
attacks in the United States and deadly bombings on the Indonesian
island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians,
in October 2002.
In the 2001 census, nearly a quarter of Australia’s 20 million
people said they were born overseas. The country has about 300,000
Muslims, most in lower income suburbs of large cities.
The unrest recalled three weeks of rioting in France that began
in the suburbs of Paris on Oct. 27 and spread nationwide, baring
frustration in communities with high immigrant and Muslim populations.
(Associated Press)
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