riots won't tar australia: pm

Riots won't tar Australia: PM
From: AAP
December 13, 2005


Attacked ... a shopfront in Brighton-le-Sands that was smashed. RACIALLY motivated mob violence in Sydney will have no long-term affect on Australia's international reputation, Prime Minister John Howard says.

Seven people were injured, cars and shops were trashed, and rocks and flares hurled at police last night in a second consecutive night of racial violence at Sydney's southern beachside suburbs.
Mr Howard said today he did not expect the issue of race-fuelled violence in Sydney to be raised during the East Asia Summit which begins tomorrow in Malaysia.

"Every country has incidents that don't play well overseas," Mr Howard said just hours before flying out for the summit.

"You have outbreaks of domestic discord that happens to every country and when it occurs there's publicity, but people make a judgment about this country over a longer term.

"They don't make judgments about Australia on incidents that occur over a period of a few days."


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Asked whether he believed the violence of the past few days would have an impact on Australia's reputation, Mr Howard said: "I don't think in the long term, no."
Eleven men were arrested overnight in apparent reprisal attacks for Sunday's race riot at Cronulla, where alcohol-fuelled mobs chased and bashed people of Middle Eastern appearance.

The trouble began last night when a group of 200 mostly Mus lim men gathered at Lakemba Mosque, in Sydney's south-west, apparently after rumours that an attack on the building was imminent.

Rocks and flares were thrown at police trying to disperse the group, and a female constable was injured when a projectile struck her leg.

Police were also hit with projectiles as a crowd of about 100 people gathered for a second night in Brighton-le-Sands, in Sydney's south.

Two police cars were damaged and rubbish bins were thrown at shopfronts as officers attempted to control the crowd.

A family was forced to move out of their apartment after their five-month-old son narrowly escaped being injured when a bottle was thrown through their apartment window, shattering the glass.

At Cronulla, about 50 men arrived in cars last night before rampaging through the beach community, smashing car windows and shopfronts with baseball bats.

Gunshots were heard near the Northies Hotel, opposite north Cronulla beach, where some of the worst violence was seen on Sunday.

Meanwhile, more than 30 molotov cocktails and crates of rocks were found during a rooftop search at south Maroubra, not far from where a mob smashed car windows on Sunday.

Cricket bats, rocks and iron bars were also confiscated by police monitoring about 100 people who gathered near Maroubra beach.

Six people were arrested at Cronulla and on the Kingsway, in nearby Caringbah, after shops and vehicles were attacked.

Two men and three youths were arrested at Maroubra beach after police discovered a replica pistol in the bushes.

Police said the injured included a Bexley couple attacked as they left a restaurant in Caringbah about 10pm (AEDT).

A 35-year-old Lansvale man suffered head injuries and severe facial bruising after being attacked at a youth hostel at Caringbah. He was taken to Sutherland hospital in a stable condition.

A 45-year-old Cronulla man suffered broken ribs and head injuries when he was attacked as he put his rubbish bin out on the street.

A 51-year-old Woolwooware man suffered a broken arm after he was attacked with a baseball bat at Cronulla.

Details of the seventh person's injuries could not be confirmed.

Police are braced for further violence after new text messages, including one declaring war between Sydney's Middle Eastern youths and Australians, began circulating.

The new messages follow a round of similar ones sent last week, calling for retaliation after an attack on surf lifesavers at Cronulla on December 3.

One of the new messages congratulates Australians for the fight they put up against the Lebanese at Cronulla during Sunday's riots, and called for more attacks.

"We'll show them! It's on again Sunday," The Australian newspaper reported the message said.

Another warned of retaliation from the Middle Eastern groups.

"The Aussies will feel the full force of the Arabs as one - 'brothers in arms' unite now..." it read.

Another called for "straight up WAR. The leb's/wogs won't stand for this".

Police have formed a task force to try to prevent a repeat of Sunday's riots, which have been condemned by NSW Premier Morris Iemma.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17551372-2,00.html