AUSTRALIA: Sydney police boost security around Sydney's beaches fearing fresh outbreaks of racial violence, rally calls for peace

Record ID: 214615

  • Title: AUSTRALIA: Sydney police boost security around Sydney's beaches fearing fresh outbreaks of racial violence, rally calls for peace
  • Date: 18th December 2005
  • Summary: (ASIA) SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA (DECEMBER 18) (REUTERS) PEOPLE AT RALLY CHEERING WOMAN HOLDING A SIGN SHOWING THE AUSTRALIAN FLAG AS A SYMBOL OF RACISM A SIGN SHOWING THE AUSTRALIAN FLAG AS A SYMBOL OF RACISM PEOPLE LISTENING TO SPEAKERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ) PRESIDENT OF THE ISLAMIC FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA, KAYSAR TRAD, SPEAKING TO THE CROWD: "I never lost my faith in the great people of this nation and if a handful of students can muster so many thousands of true Australians here today, than this is a poke in the eye for those racist rednecks and tabloid journalism that for a whole week could only muster 5000 people fuelled with hatred." PEOPLE CHEERING VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LISTENING TO SPEAKERS TWO PEOPLE HOLDING SIGN READING "RACISTS GO HOME" (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER SAYING: "It is just a bit of humour kind of think, you know racist keep telling people to go home and in Australia, besides indigenous people, we all come from somewhere else, so the majority of us are from somewhere else, but also maybe the racists should just go and stay at home and watching television and shut up." PEOPLE LISTENING TO SPEAKERS AND HOLDING SIGN READING 'WE STAND WITH THE LEBANESE AGAINST RACISTS. P.S WE BLAME HOWARD'S 'WAR ON TERROR' '. UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OF SYDNEY (UTS) STUDENT AND SPEAKER FOR THE RALLY AGAINST RACISM ORGANISED BY NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS, CHADY SANKARY SPEAKING TO CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEBANESE UTS STUDENT, CHADY SANKARY, SAYING: "It is one of those things that you keep on watching again and again because you can not believe it is happening. Some of their stuff were horrible, some of the slogans were horrible, I do not believe this is a gang problem because the slogans obviously did not show that, people were not under the influence of alcohol, everything was prepared, banners were prepared, free food was prepared, it was not just a couple of people getting foolish and drunk so, I was really angry and I still am but this rally is getting my hopes up again." PEOPLE FROM THE CROWD SCREAMING "SHAME" (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYDNEY RESIDENT (BELMORE) AND ANTI RACIST, SOUADE DAIZLI, SAYING: "Last Sunday, you know, just unbelievable, it was the saddest day in my life what happened last Sunday, I could not believe I could live to the day that I could see that happening here in Australia, and I would like to believe it is just the heat of the day, it is not coming from their heart because this is not the white Australia that I know." VARIOUS OF PROTEST
  • Embargoed: 2nd January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Australia
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA7YB0STJSTDC4PA4OZC1QRCRMY
  • Story Text: Australian police boosted security around Sydney's beaches on Sunday (December 18), fearing fresh outbreaks of racial violence as they seized petrol bombs, knives, iron bars and mobile phones used to spread racist text messages.
    Police patrolled beaches on horseback and set up checkpoints around some of the city's favourite summer playgrounds, including Bondi Beach, where a peaceful holiday mood was edged by fears of fresh violence between whites and ethnic Lebanese.
    New South Wales Police Commissioner, Ken Maroney confirmed that over fifty people have been arrested in connection with the riots.
    "Some fifty nine persons have been arrested and over a hundred charges have been proffered since Friday last. That brings the total number of charges proffered since the Monday of last week to an excess of 193 charges," he told reporters.
    Cronulla's mainly white beachside community burst into rioting on Dec. 11 after surfers turned on ethnic Lebanese youth whom they blamed for a recent attack on beach life guards.
    The unrest revealed tensions between Sydney's territorial surfing sub-culture, united in surfing shorts and wrap-around sunglasses, and ethnic Lebanese youths from poorer western Sydney who have become regular beachgoers.
    Police deployed another 500 police on Sydney beaches on Sunday, taking the total security cordon to about 2,000, and reiterated warnings for people to stay away from the seaside.
    Overnight, four men attacked a 32-year-old man with an iron bar near an east Sydney beach, police said, adding they had seized knives, a hand spear, axe and knuckle-dusters from cars stopped at seaside check-points.
    White supremacists have added to the tension, along with racist commentary broadcast on talk-back radio, though no one has been killed or reported seriously injured in the clashes so far.
    The violence has hurt Australia's image and rekindled old stereotypes of white Australians as racist, opposition Leader Kim Beazley said in radio and television interviews on Sunday.
    In central Sydney, about 2,000 people held a "United Against Racism" rally, including people who blamed Australia's involvement in the U.S.-led war on Iraq and in Washington's war on terrorism for widening the divide between whites and Muslims.
    "I never lost my faith in the great people of this nation and if a handful of students can muster so many thousands of true Australians here today, than this is a poke in the eye for those racist rednecks and tabloid journalism that for a whole week could only muster 5000 people fuelled with hatred," said Kaysar Trad, the President of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, as he addressed the rally in Sydney.
    Many Australians from both sides of Sydney's cultural and racial divide are trying to ease tensions, with a surf-lifesaving club on the Cronulla coast inviting ethnic Lebanese to join its ranks and asking them to help launch a new surf boat on Sunday.
    Lebanese UTS Student, Chady Sankary expressed his disbelief at the recent riots.
    "It is one of those things that you keep on watching again and again because you can not believe it is happening. Some of their stuff were horrible, some of the slogans were horrible, I do not believe this is a gang problem because the slogans obviously did not show that, people were not under the influence of alcohol, everything was prepared, banners were prepared, free food was prepared, it was not just a couple of people getting foolish and drunk so, I was really angry and I still am but this rally is getting my hopes up again," he said.
    Someone had also written "PEACE" in huge letters made from black electrical tape on the Cronulla sand. Another had scratched "Sorry" along the high-water mark.
    In Bondi, normally packed with sun-worshippers a week before Christmas, special forces scoured the shallows in an inflatable boat while police cars prowled the famous promenade.
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