Racial Violence in Australia Down Under Goes Overboard
Charred girders and blackened bits of corrugated iron stick up into the blue summer sky. A car stops in the quiet side street. The windows are wound down, as a man, with his son and daughter, stare silently at the barrier. Behind it, on Tuesday night, a fire destroyed their parish hall.
According to Australian media reports, the fire in a Christian center in Auburn, a multi-ethnic part of Sydney, was far from an isolated incident. Rather, the blaze was directly related to the race riots of the last few days. In the same night unidentified rioters threw Molotov cocktails at a church in the suburb of Macquarie Fields.
The attacks on religious centers in Sydney follow a series of racist-motivated uprisings, which began on Sunday almost two weeks ago. A group of young men, who, according to newspaper and TV news reports, looked "Middle-Eastern," accosted and threatened visitors at the popular surfing location of Cronulla Beach. Two life-guards, one 17, the other 19, stepped in to help. They were attacked and had to be taken to hospital.
The reaction was swift and brutal. Around 5,000 Australians from the area took to the streets last Sunday. E-Mails and mobile phone text messages had been sent, although it was not known by whom, calling for the "Lebanese to be beaten up" and "Australian culture to be protected." Seventeen-year-old Ashley, a white Australian, lay on the beach at the time and watched the meeting. "They were all white Australians, mostly men," she said. They chanted phrases like "Australians hit back" and "Aussi Aussi Oi Oi Oi!"
"They were wrapped in Australian flags, drank beers in the blazing sun and listened to loud AC/DC music. My friends and I noticed that there were also skinheads in the crowd," she continued. They kept shouting "Lebs go home," in reference to the Lebanese immigrants, she added. Around 20,000 of the approximately 20 million Australians were born in Lebanon -- some are Christian, others Muslim.
Then something happened which for many Australians remains difficult to comprehend. The 43-year-old surfer Paul was an eye witness. He was drinking a beer in the beach hotel "Northies" and was looking out of the window at the crowd. "Suddenly the raging mob stormed towards us," he said, making a movement with his hand, as if he was describing an approaching tidal wave. "They were chasing three or four people who looked Arabic. They were kicking them and were swearing at them loudly."
The angry mob threw beer bottles at the police and, in their thirst for violence, even fought amongst themselves. Those being chased fled into "Northies," and the hotel manager quickly bolted the doors from the inside. In the end, more than 30 people were injured in the incident -- a number of policemen among them -- and 16 people were arrested. The head of police, Ken Moroney, said it was the worst violence he had seen in 40 years of service.
Bikinis and Headscarves
Cronulla Beach is located near Sutherland Shire, a comparatively homogeneous part of Sydney -- a city which is elsewhere ethnically mixed. The area is populated primarily by so-called White Australians. But the visitors of Cronulla Beach, says Brian Ferguson of the local Surf and Life Saving Club, have always been a healthy mix of "different races." "Bikinis should be able to relax next to headscarves here," he says.
But the tension between white visitors to the beach and those of Arabic origin has been building up for some time now, believes Ashley. "The Lebanese come here and want to talk to us girls. And when we don't want to talk to them, they call us sluts because we are wearing bikinis." The young woman is quick to distance herself from racism, though. "If we Australians were racist, we wouldn't let them build their mosques. We respect them. But they have to respect us too." There are beaches, she says, "which white Aussies would hesitate to go to."
In the nights following Sunday's violent outbreaks, convoys of cars filled with "Middle Eastern-looking" young men cruised the streets. In Cronulla Beach and a number of other Sydney beach resorts, they smashed shop windows and shattered car windshields. Two young people were knifed, and a man was hit in the face with a baseball bat, from a passing car, as he was taking the garbage out.
The Strong Arm of the Law Just Got Stronger
Australia has been in a state of shock since the beginning of the week. Morris Iemma, the premier of New South Wales, called the violence "nauseating." And after the first attacks, Prime Minister John Howard called for tolerance. However despite having won an election in 2001 on the back of an anti-immigration campaign, he rejects the claim that there is underlying racism in Australia. Now he is being criticized by opposition politicians, worried about the country's reputation, for hiding his head in the sand.
The regional parliament of New South Wales met on Friday, despite the beginning of the holiday season, and passed special laws giving Sydney police new powers. So-called "lockdown zones" have been set up, in which police are allowed to block off entire sections of the street and spot search cars. Bars and liquor stores can also be temporarily closed down.
The result has been that Cornulla has quietened down. Now, in fact, it is a bit too quiet. "Normally around this time of the year, this area is full of people," says 19-year-old Aron, who comes jogging here everyday. A lot of weekend visitors have cancelled their trips. The holiday season has just begun, but Cronulla does not feel at all relaxed. Policemen stand on every street corner and the terrace of the surf club had been turned into a police headquarters. Even the small train station is patrolled by 12 officers. Everyone is nervous about what might happen this coming weekend. Text messages and E-mails calling people to violence have been cropping up again -- not just in Sydney, but all over Australia.
In contrast, in a symbolic act of forgiveness, representatives of Lebanese communities and local surf clubs embraced each other on the beach on Thursday. A few rioters from Sunday's incidents even apologized in letters to the Lebanese community in Sydney. The events, they say, were the result of alcohol consumption and "bad behavior."
