A conference on racism in Belfast yesterday noted how leading European publications had described Northern Ireland as the "race hate capital of Europe". Five, and possibly, six suspected racist attacks over the weekend and high PSNI statistics for racist incidents in the North indicated that the indictment may be justified.
On Sunday two houses in which Lithuanians live in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast were attacked. Three windows were smashed in one house and paint thrown at the other. On Saturday a Latvian man was attacked by two men with bats and sticks on the Moira Road in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Two men were arrested in connection with the attack. On Sunday morning a house at Burleigh Drive in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, where Polish nationals live was damaged in an arson attack. Also on Sunday a man, believed to be Lithuanian, was assaulted at a house in Riverside South in Castledawson, Co Derry.
Late on Saturday night three women were assaulted at their home at Cloughey, Co Down, by five masked men armed with baseball bats. Police said the women were foreign nationals but that the motivation for the attack was yet to be established.
PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde in his annual report published yesterday said that hate crime was "one of the biggest challenges" facing police.
As outlined in the report on racist violence, published at the racism conference by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities yesterday, such crime has increased enormously in the North. There were 41 racist incidents recorded in 1996. But 10 years later in the year 2005/2006 there were 936 cases and 813 cases in the year 2004/2005. There were 226 recorded incidents in 2003 and 453 in 2004.
The report, The Next Stephen Lawrence? - a reference to the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in April 1993, which precipitated a major review of British attitudes to racism - noted how the Guardian newspaper described the North as "fast becoming the race-hate capital of Europe" and how German magazine, Der Spiegel reported that Belfast had become "the most racist city in the world".
The report's author Dr Robbie McVeigh said racism was a serious problem in the North. An urgent review of racist attacks and how the criminal justice system addressed the issue was required. "The scale of the violence is frightening enough but the failure of different elements in criminal justice to deal effectively with that violence is just as problematic," he said.
