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Dec 12 2005 | |
icWales |
Police formed a strike force today to track down the instigators of a day and night of racial riots that left more than 30 people injured in a string of Sydney beachside suburbs. “Let’s be very clear, the police will be unrelenting in their fight against these thugs and hooligans,” New South Wales state political leader Morris Iemma said. Racially motivated rioting erupted yesterday after thousands of drunken white youths attacked police and people of Middle Eastern appearance at Cronulla beach in southern Sydney. It spread later with retaliatory attacks by groups of youths of Arab appearance who stabbed one man and smashed dozens of cars. The violence shocked this city of four million which prides itself on being a largely harmonious cultural melting pot. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph tabloid’s front page headline, over a picture of white youths attacking a man of Arab appearance on a train, read: “Our disgrace.” Iemma said the riots, “showed the ugly side of racism in this country.” Prime Minister John Howard condemned the rioting, but added: “I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country.” Iemma said Muslim leaders and community leaders from the suburbs hit by rioting would meet later today in a bid to ease tensions and prevent a recurrence of the violence. Police arrested 28 people in hours of street battles that left 31 people, including two ambulance officers and five police, injured, New South Wales police said in a statement. One man was hospitalised after being stabbed in the back. One lawmaker said anti-Muslim resentment that has risen since the September 11 attacks in the US and the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia that killed 88 Australians also played a role. Government lawmaker Bruce Baird said many Cronulla locals were angry, particularly after six women from the area were killed in the Bali bombings. “Where this riot took place is actually the site of where we’ve got the Bali memorial for these women,” Baird told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. Asked if the rioters could have been influenced by the Bali and September 11 attacks, Baird said: “I think so.” Deputy Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said Neo Nazis were believed to be involved in fanning the violence. “That in fact is something that we’re following up,” he told Australian television’s Nine network. A day of confrontations began when 5,000 white youths and adults, many of them drunk, wrapped in Australian flags and chanting racist slurs, fought a series of skirmishes with police, attacked people of Arab appearance and assaulted a pair of ambulance officers in Cronulla. The violence was a reaction to reports that youths of Lebanese ancestry were responsible for an attack last weekend on two of the beach’s volunteer life guards. One white teenager had the words “We grew here, you flew here” painted on his back. Two paramedics in an ambulance were injured as they tried to get youths of Middle Eastern appearance out of the Cronulla Surf Lifesaving Club, where they had fled to escape one mob. Days ago, police increased the number of officers patrolling the beach after mobile phone text messages began circulating calling for retaliation for the attack on the lifeguards. Television images of the alcohol and hate-fuelled brawls in Cronulla sparked a string of retaliations in nearby suburbs with cars full of young men of Arab descent smashing 40 cars with sticks and baseball bats, police said. A man of Arab appearance was being hunted after stabbing a white man in the back outside a golf club. Calm returned as the suburbs began cleaning up today. Sydney has many beaches, but Cronulla is one of few that are easily accessible by train and often is visited by youngsters – many of Middle Eastern ethnicity - from the poorer suburbs of western and southern Sydney. Area residents accuse the visitors of travelling in gangs, being disrespectful and sometimes intimidating other beachgoers. Kuranda Seyit, director of a group called the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations criticised all those involved in the rioting. “Australia is pluralist society, with many faiths and traditions all ravelled into one,” he said. “This is the unique success of this nation and we cannot let it fall into chaos and lawlessness,” he added. “I realize that the initial behaviour by the thugs who beat the lifeguard was unacceptable but to take it out on anyone who the mob think are not one of them, is not the solution.” | |||
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