[How many of the police are members of Ein Reich? - Trudy] THE AGE http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990602/news/news3.html Wednesday 2 June 1999 Racial violence hits Far North By GREG ROBERTS, BRISBANE Bennett and Louise Walker, respected leaders of the Aboriginal community in Mossman, north Queensland, are trying hard to get on with their lives after receiving an appalling letter. ``Dear Bennett and Gin Bennett and little niggers,'' the letter began. ``Aboriginals are the lowest form of human life on earth ... The only bad mistake the British made when they civilised Australia was not to fully exterminate all of you Rock Apes! ``We will get you f...ing niggers one way or the other!'' There was no signature; only the letters KKK. Mr Walker, a national park ranger, says although he received the letter two years ago he continues to worry about his family's welfare. He has received death threats over the phone. Says Mr Walker: ``I play in a band and I always think there might be somebody with a gun or something sitting in the audience.'' Soon after the letter arrived, 17-year-old Dylan Harrigan was walking along a Mossman street at night when he was called over to a van. While talking to the driver, whose face was hidden, he looked into the van's rear and saw five or six people in white hoods and robes crouched on the floor. ``My legs started shaking and I just bolted out of there,'' he says. Many incidents allegedly linked to the KKK in Australia have been reported, but police have repeatedly ruled out the existence of an organised Klan group. In view of the revelation that the KKK has a formal presence here, what might have been dismissed in the past as isolated behavior could be part of a wider, more organised agenda. The KKK insists, however, that its members do not engage in activities which break the law. Mossman, 80kilometres north of Cairns, has had its share of KKK scare stories. Aboriginal leaders suspect a Klan-like group has been responsible for violent late-night attacks on at least three drunken Aborigines. One Aborigine, Mr Josh Williams, told police he saw about six men in white hoods and gowns bashing another Aborigine, Mr Richard Wilson, 35, outside the town post office, soon after Mr Harrigan's encounter. Another victim, Mr Norm Bloomfield, 54, was found by relatives behind a service station, blood pouring from head and back wounds inflicted during an unprovoked attack. Mr Bloomfield has vague memories of a group of non-Aboriginal men hurling racial abuse at him. At Wonga Beach, north of Mossman, Ms Joelene Ross-Kelly's family woke one morning last year to find a burned cross planted in their front yard. Men in a four-wheel-drive had sometimes driven slowly past Aborigines' houses at night. ``People were scared,'' Ms Ross-Kelly says. The unease was heightened last year when a cache of 30 rifles and two pistols was found in an underground pit in the bush at Davies Creek, between Mossman and Mareeba. Two local white men were found guilty of firearms offences and fined $4500 each. Mossman police say they have no evidence indicating that a white supremacist group is in the area, but the Douglas Shire Mayor, Mr Mike Berwick, says he believes there is ``cause for alarm''. Mr Berwick describes Mr Walker and Mr Harrigan as ``very credible'' witnesses. Between Cairns and Townsville, the town of Ingham has also had mysterious goings-on. Ms Shandell Prior says she was drinking with relatives and friends in a house early last year when she opened a window and saw eight or nine men in white hoods surrounding the house. ``I thought I was imagining it,'' she says. The men cut off power to the house before embarking on a 20-minute rampage with iron bars and pick handles, smashing windows, screaming racial abuse and trying to force open doors. ``They were saying things like, `We'll burn you niggers','' Ms Prior says. ``They were throwing rocks and bottles through the windows. We covered the kids, an 18-month-old baby and an eight-year-old girl, with a doona to protect them. I thought I was going to die.'' Shandell's mother, Mrs Dell Prior, has written to the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), asking for a probe into her claim that this and other attacks have not been investigated adequately by police. Mrs Dell Prior says that just after Christmas, white men in a four-wheel-drive tried to run over her son, Raymond, and some other Aboriginal youths in a park. ``These things happen but nothing ever comes out of it when the police investigate,'' she says. A CJC spokesman says the complaint was investigated but could not be substantiated. Senior Sergeant Mick Hervey, of the Ingham Police, describes the attack on the house as ``informal retribution'' by a group of men who had ``sat around having too many beers''. No arrests have been made. Sergeant Hervey says there is no evidence suggesting an attempt was made to run over Aboriginal youths. He describes media reports of an organised KKK group as ``a beat-up''. The list of racially motivated attacks in north Queensland over the past two years is substantial. An Aboriginal mural celebrating reconciliation in Atherton was defaced with the letters KKK and other graffiti. White men shooting from a vehicle as they drove past a shelter for homeless Aborigines in Cairns almost hit a child.' A joint study last year by James Cook University and the Sunshine Coast University College concluded there was a ``worrying pattern of racialised vigilantism'' between Townsville and Mossman. The deputy director of the Cape York Land Council, Mr David Byrne, says he is aware of two recent late-night incidents when the drivers of a white Holden allegedly tried to run over drunken Aborigines in parks in Cairns. (The vehicles reported in such incidents are usually white.) ``There is major harassment going on,'' Mr Byrne says. Mr Seith Fourmile, coordinator of the Mularidgee Housing Cooperative in Mareeba, also believes that the physical and verbal abuse of Aborigines is increasing. He says it is linked to the growth of the One Nation party's popularity. (Voters in his home town elected One Nation's Mr Shaun Nelson as their state MP last year. Mr Nelson angered black leaders when he claimed Aboriginal children in Mareeba were ``lying drunk in the gutter''.) Sergeant Dave Murray, of the Townsville Police and a member of ATSIC's police liaison committee, says police are often not told of racial intimidation. When they are, arrests are difficult because incidents tend to occur late at night, and victims are often inebriated. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
