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Racial violence continues in Australia
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-13 08:55
Violence spilled into a second night Monday as scores of youths drove through
predominantly white suburbs of Sydney, smashing windows of cars, homes and
stores and raising fears of spreading racial unrest.
Prime Minister John Howard called the violence "sickening," but denied it was
rooted in racism. Arab community leaders said the unrest would heighten racial
tensions as cell phone text messages warned of retribution by the Arab community
and attacks by neo-Nazi groups.
About 5,000 white men, many of them drunk, targeted people believed to be of
Arab or Middle Eastern descent on Cronulla Beach on Sunday after rumors spread
that Lebanese youths 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.
Young men of Arab descent struck back in several Sydney suburbs Sunday,
fighting with police for hours and smashing dozens of cars with sticks and bats,
police said. They said 31 people were injured, including a white man who was
allegedly stabbed in the back, and 16 arrested.
Carloads of youths also tore through the suburbs Monday night, attacking
vehicles and throwing bottles through windows. While only one person was
reported injured and six arrested, there appeared to be more damage to cars and
stores than on Sunday.
An image from Australia's Sky News shows a man
shouting as police stand by to quell racial violence which erupted on
Sydney beaches on Sunday. [AFP] | Television images of Sunday's riot shocked Australians, who pride themselves
on tolerance and credit an influx of immigrants with helping build up the
country after World War II.
Tensions between youths of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent and white
Australians have been rising in recent years, fueled by the Sept. 11 attacks in
the United States and deadly bombings on Bali that killed 202 people, including
88 Australians.
Many Muslims also were angered over Howard's decision to contribute troops to
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar
Trad, said the violence was "bound to happen" following angry calls to radio
talk shows after the attack on the lifeguards. Police have denied the assault on
the lifeguards was racially motivated.
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.
Police spokesman Paul Bugden said he did not have descriptions of those
involved in Monday night's rampage, but said it was linked to Sunday's rioting.
Anti-Lebanese protesters clash with police in
Cronulla, Australia December 11, 2005.
[Reuters] | Witnesses told an Associated Press photographer that some youths involved in
the attacks were Middle Eastern or Arabic in appearance and others wore ski
masks. Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that police said men of Middle
Eastern appearance were involved.
New text messages calling for more violence reportedly were being circulated.
"We'll show them!" one message said, according to The Australia newspaper.
Howard defended Australia's policy of tolerance, noting that the nation has
successfully absorbed millions of foreigners. "I do not accept that there is
underlying racism in this country," he said.
His comments were clearly aimed at immigrants and their families. Howard
repeatedly has come under criticism for refusing to apologize for past
government abuses of Aborigines, Australia's poorest and least educated minority
group.
Morris Iemma, premier of New South Wales state, said police would find those
behind the violence. "Let's be very clear, the police will be unrelenting in
their fight against these thugs and hooligans," he said.
About 300 people of Arab descent demonstrated against Sunday's attack outside
one of Sydney's largest mosques, amid tight security.
"Arab Australians have had to cope with vilification, racism, abuse and fear
of a racial backlash for a number of years, but these riots will take that fear
to a new level," said Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council.
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.
A resident of the predominantly white suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands, Steven
Dawson, said a bottle thrown through his apartment window Monday showered his
5-month-old son with glass, but did not hurt the boy.
Horst Dreizner said a car was rammed through the front doors of his denture
store. "Personally, I think it is only the beginning," he said by telephone.
The violence distressed residents of Sydney.
"What we have seen yesterday is something I thought I would never see in
Australia," Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian told
Sky News.
Religious leaders urged calm, with Roman Catholic Archbishop Cardinal George
Pell urging people to "reject the extremists in both camps and work together so
that this is the end of major disturbances, not the beginning of something
worse."
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