Police braced for more violence after race riots
Police in Sydney expect more violence over the weekend following the race riots that rocked southern beachside suburbs for two days this week, a state government minister said today.
New South Wales police minister Carl Scully spoke after more than 400 officers maintained calm overnight in the suburbs hit by earlier rioting. Police stopped and checked hundreds of cars and arrested five men for carrying weapons.
But authorities were investigating whether a fire in the early hours the morning at a Protestant church hall in a Sydney neighbourhood with a large Middle Eastern population was linked to the unrest. Another church nearby also had several windows smashed overnight.
New South Wales state political leader Morris Iemma said police would keep a close watch on places of worship in the coming days.
“Special attention will be paid to places of worship, our churches and our schools,” he said. “These hooligans and criminals will not destroy the fabric of our society.”
Scully said more telephone text messages inciting violence were circulating in Sydney and other Australian cities.
“We expect further problems,” Scully said when asked if more trouble was anticipated this weekend.
“We need to be aware that there is a risk of incidents continuing. On the weekend, there will be a huge police presence across Sydney on Saturday and Sunday, and there will be a large police presence over the next few nights.”
He said police were investigating the new text messages, similar to ones last week that led to a mob of 5,000 white Australians, including pockets of neo-Nazis, gathering at Cronulla beach in southern Sydney and attacking police, paramedics and people of Middle Eastern appearance.
Youths of Middle Eastern appearance responded with a rash of attacks on people and property on Sunday and Monday night.
Nearly 40 people have been injured and 27 arrested.
Police convened a meeting yesterday between Lebanese community leaders and represetatives from Cronulla, in which both sides agreed to try to resolve the issues raised.
“I am encouraged that this meeting will go some way to repair the damage which has been caused to these areas both physically and mentally,” assistant police commissioner Mark Goodwin said.
Anger towards groups of young Lebanese men in Sydney that erupted Sunday has been simmering for years, particularly since a horrific gang rape case in 2002.
At a trial in Sydney, prosecutors and witnesses said members of a Lebanese gang hurled racial abuse at their rape victims, all of whom were white. The ring leader, Bilal Skaf, was sentenced to 55 years, an unusually severe sentence in Australia.
“The rapes have had a significant impact in terms of race relations in Sydney,” said Prof Chris Culleen, director of the Institute of Criminology at Sydney University.
Tens of thousands of people of Lebanese descent, about 60% of them Christians, live in Sydney, mainly in a cluster of lower-income neighbourhoods.
Most of them work, although often in low-paid jobs, while some are conspicuous successes, including New South Wales state’s Governor, Dr Marie Bashir, who comes from a Lebanese family.
Tensions between youths of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent and white Australians also have been fuelled by anti-Muslim sentiment stemming from the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US and deadly bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, in October 2002. Six of the Bali victims were from Cronulla.
In an attempt to keep the peace, MPs will meet tomorrow to pass laws giving officers tough new powers to crack down on rioters, including ordering bars to shut and erecting road blocks to effectively seal off suburbs.
Iemma said he would urge MPs to pass laws increasing prison sentences for riot offences from five to 15 years and double the penalty for affray to 10 years.
