Author: Shyam Bhatia, London
Publication: Indian Abroad
Date: June 29, 2001
There bomb attacks in Lancashire
country have prompted fears among Asian and white community leaders that
Britain's racial violence may be spiraling out of control.
Petrol bombs were thrown through
the window of a predominantly white catholic school and at two local businesses
in the town of Accrington overnight Thursday. The police are investigating
all three incidents.
The latest attacks follow pitched
street battles between Asian and white gangs and the police in the nearby
towns of Burnley, Oldham, Leeds and Bradford.
The continuing violence has sparked
calls for restraint and peace. A right-wing British politician is already
calling for a de facto Berlin Wall to keep whites and Asians apart.
Shoukat Khwaja, a Muslim leader
from Oldham, said he wants peace talks with the racist British National
Party (BNP) to "get the hate out of the heart" of BNP chief Nick Griffin.
Griffin won 16 percent votes in
the strife-torn constituency of Oldham West and Royton in the June 7 elections.
He has proposed the building of so-called "peace walls" to physically separate
warring whites and Asians.
"In Oldham, Burnley and towns like
that white people are being forced out of their homes by Asian racists
and Asian people are being forced out of their homes by white racists,"
he said.
"Unless they are moved peacefully
to divide the communities, as the British state has done in Belfast, they
are going to be moved by violence, which nobody wants to see."
Leader of the House of Commons Robin
Cook told MPs: "The only people who gain from violence and from the destruction
are extremists who wish to turn racism to their own poisonous political
objectives -- such as the BNP. It is important that we defeat them."
Cook was responding to a question
by MP Alan Simpson, who has called for a debate on the "hopelessness and
despair" that resulted from poor social conditions being exploited by the
far right.
Simpson told the Commons: "I know
the leader of the house will be as appalled as anyone else about the rioting
that has taken place in Burnley, Bradford and Oldham, and the ways in which
the National Front and the BNP have targeted areas in order to ferment
divides that split and devastate communities."
One member of the House of Lords
warned Thursday that the violence seen in Burnley could spread if steps
are not taken to address the underlying causes.
Lord Tony Greaves said the police
seem to be chasing the problem after the event. He stressed the importance
of police working closely with community and youth leaders in racially
troubled Lancashire communities such as Burnley.
In the adjoining county of Yorkshire,
police say they have taken precautions to prevent any trouble at this weekend's
annual "Bradford Mela" of music, food and entertainment.
The "Bradford Mela" is the largest
Asian ethnic festival of its kind in Britain. Chief Superintendent and
divisional commander Phil Read told IANS: "We have been working with organizers.
A number of measures have been taken to limit the opportunity for disorder."
Police precautions follow a report
that says the number of white victims of racist attacks in Bradford has
risen 30 percent in a year to more than 300. An Asian politician says the
police was afraid to take on the culprits.
In 1999-2000, there were 249 racist
attacks reported by whites in Bradford. This has leaped to 324 in 2000-01.
The number of attacks on Asians rose by nine percent to 275.
Mohammed Riaz, an adviser to Conservative
leader William Hague, claimed the police was reluctant to take on criminals
in cities with large ethnic minorities for fear of antagonizing them. But
he said falling police numbers were also partly to blame.
Riaz said: "Compared to 15 years
ago, police are not as direct and as comfortable in trying to tackle problems.
They are reluctant to tackle issues seen as sensitive. It's not just in
Bradford but most large cities with an ethnic mix. Maybe they haven't found
the right formula."
A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire
said: "We would be very interested to hear the evidence from Riaz. That
isn't our experience."
Phillip Lewis, interfaith adviser
to the Bishop of Bradford, said: "Pockets of disaffected youth among Asian
and white communities were responsible for the troubles. These statistics
indicate a new generation of British Asian youngsters just as assertive
as the English guys on council estates."
He said children of first-generation
Asians were more assertive and refused to keep their heads down. "In a
city like Bradford there is a growing Asian community - it is in young
men where these episodes happen. You would expect to see an increase."
