[news] Aussie riot fuelled by long history of repression

[ron]

Aussie riot fuelled by long history of repression

February 17, 2004
The Star (South Africa)
By Kathy Marks

Sydney - Politicians and community leaders have appealed for calm after 
an unparalleled night of rioting in inner-city Sydney.

It was sparked by the death of an Aboriginal teenager who was impaled on 
a metal railing after allegedly being chased by police officers.

Three inquiries are to be held into 17-year-old Thomas Hickey's death 
and the subsequent violence, one of the worst eruptions of civil unrest 
witnessed in Australia.

Aboriginal youths pelted police with bricks, bottles and petrol bombs 
during nine hours of street battles in Redfern, a neighbourhood with a 
history of volatile community relations

Yesterday the burnt-out cars were removed and the broken glass and rocks 
swept up, but Redfern - just a few kilometres from the city centre and 
Opera House - was still seething with rage and resentment.

"We want an eye for an eye," said one long-term resident, Rodney Murray. 
"If they kill our people, this is how we're going to fight back."

Locals claim that Hickey flew off his bicycle after it was rammed by a 
police car that was pursuing him on Saturday.

He landed on the railing, and was impaled through the neck and chest. He 
died in hospital on Sunday.

Police deny chasing him and described his death as a freak accident.

In a community that long ago lost faith in the criminal justice system, 
such protestations cut little ice.

Redfern, Sydney's Aboriginal heartland, is plastered with posters 
bearing the photos of three police officers and the words "child murderers".

"The police killed my son," said Gail Hickey, Thomas's mother. "I don't 
care what they say. I don't believe them."

Aboriginal leaders say that while the boy's death was the catalyst for 
the violence, it was fuelled by decades of racial tension and social 
neglect.

The suburb is infamous for its slum housing, chronic street crime and 
high unemployment. Heroin is dealt openly in a park near the railway.

Redfern has been a flashpoint for conflict in the past, but the scale 
and ferocity of the disturbances took everyone - including police - by 
surprise.

"They said it would never happen in Australia," said John Watts, a local 
councillor. "They said Australia was the happy country, the lucky 
country. Well, now it's happening here."

While the New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr, claimed the rioting was 
aggravated by alcohol and outsiders, locals blamed police for provoking it.

They said officers patrolled obtrusively while the community were in 
mourning, and alleged that some had been "smiling and sniggering".

The rumours mounted during a stiflingly hot day and, as the sun went 
down, grief turned to anger.

The 150 rioters were well prepared.

They wheeled out eight large rubbish bins filled with broken paving 
stones, and had also stockpiled beer bottles in tubs.
Order was not restored until just before dawn. - Independent Foreign Service