Australian police to get power to quell race riots

SYDNEY, Australia — Lawmakers agreed yesterday to meet in an emergency session to grant police new powers after two days of racial attacks on people of Middle Eastern descent.

The racially motivated attacks have spread to other Australian cities.

Police were out in four times their usual numbers last night, stopping dozens of cars in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla — where an attack Sunday by 5,000 white youths against people they thought were of Lebanese descent sparked two nights of race riots.

Simmering tensions were blamed for more recent racial incidents in Perth, where a group of white men threw eggs and taunted a family of Middle East origin, and in Adelaide, where a taxi driver was punched and injured by a passenger yesterday.

On the Gold Coast in Queensland state, text messages targeting ethnic groups aimed to find recruits to attend a demonstration this weekend and to start “cracking skulls,” Australian Associated Press reported.

The rioting began Sunday on Cronulla Beach when the youths — rallied by neo-Nazi groups and cell-phone text messages — attacked people thought to be of Arab or Middle Eastern descent in retaliation for an assault on two lifeguards earlier this month. Police fought back with batons and pepper spray.

Carloads of young Arab men struck back in several Sydney suburbs Sunday and Monday nights, fighting with police and smashing the windows of stores, homes and parked cars. Nearly 40 people were injured and 27 were arrested in the melees, police said.

In an attempt to keep the peace, lawmakers in New South Wales, where Sydney is located, will meet tomorrow to pass laws giving officers tough new powers to crack down on rioters, including ordering bars to shut and erecting roadblocks to effectively seal off suburbs, New South Wales state leader Morris Lemma announced.

Mr. Lemma said he would urge state lawmakers to pass legislation increasing prison sentences for riot offenses. He also said police would be given “lockdown” powers to stop convoys from forming and driving into communities to carry out acts of retribution.

Mr. Lemma said rioters had “effectively declared war on our society and we won’t be found wanting in our response.”

Beyond New South Wales, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported yesterday that a family of Middle Eastern origin was attacked the previous night in the western city of Perth by 11 white men who threw eggs, shouted abuse and kicked their garage door.

In Adelaide, a taxi driver of Lebanese origin, Hossein Kazemi, was injured yesterday when a passenger punched him. Police said there was an argument over the fare, but the victim was taunted about the riots in Sydney because he was of Lebanese origin.

On Monday, police said they discovered weapons including firebombs and rocks on the roofs of some houses in the beachside suburb of Maroubra. Some of those arrested were armed with machetes and baseball bats.

In the 2001 census, nearly a quarter of Australia’s 20 million people said they were born overseas. The country has about 300,000 Muslims, most in lower-income suburbs of large cities.

Prime Minister John Howard, who has defended Australia’s policy of tolerance, noting the nation has successfully absorbed millions of foreigners, denounced the violence and called for calm.

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