New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
12 busted in Aussie race riot
BY DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, December 12th, 2005

The land of sun, fun and "g'day, mate" turned into a racial battleground yesterday as Australian whites and Arabs fought running battles - and both sides used cell phone text messages to rally thousands of supporters.

More than 5,000 angry surfers and drunken supporters attacked Middle Eastern-looking people and chanted anti-immigrant slogans on a beach outside Sydney.

"No more Lebs," they chanted, using a derogatory term for Lebanese.

"This is Australia, if they don't like it they can go home," a local resident told reporters as he watched the violence on CronullaBeach, Sydney's southernmost coastal suburb.

Police arrested 12 people for assault or disorderly conduct on the beach, where whites said they were retaliating for an attack on two lifeguards a week earlier.

Arabs, immigrants and darker-skinned Australians ran into hotels, shops and restaurants for shelter as marauding mobs carrying Australian flags ran unchecked on the beachfront.

With broken beer bottles littering the beach, Australian authorities branded the attacks as some of the worst racial violence in years.

The usually laid-back land down under was founded by descendants of British prisoners but is now home to large immigrant communities from eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

"The behavior that has been seen down here at Cronulla today is nothing short of disgusting and disgraceful," said Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin. "It is certainly not the Australian way."

Cronulla resident Tertia Harry wept as she watched the violence.

"In 2005, there should not be this disgusting display of racism," she said.

White residents summoned a crowd for the attacks with a text-message campaign to take back the beach. Arabs from Sydney's western suburbs countered with their own digital campaign to defend themselves.