- SYDNEY - Aborigines rioted
in Sydney's black ghetto of Redfern on Sunday night over the death of a
young Aboriginal cyclist, hurling Molotov cocktails and bricks at police
in a nine-hour battle.
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- Armed with garbage bins full of paving bricks and beer
bottles, Molotov cocktails and fireworks, about 100 Aborigines set fire
to the inner city railway station of Redfern, forcing rail officials to
order trains to speed through the station.
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- Aborigines, some bare chested with T-shirts wrapped around
their faces, pelted lines of riot police with bricks and bottles, and at
one stage pushed a burning garbage bin on wheels towards police and set
off fireworks among them.
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- 'They deserve all they get'
- "They were throwing Molotov cocktails both at police
and at Redfern railway station during the course of the riot," assistant
police commissioner Bob Waites said on Monday.
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- Waites said rioters had eight garbage bins loaded with
paving bricks to be used as missiles, along with large tubs of beer bottles.
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- It took 200 police nine hours to bring the rioters under
control, with about 50 police officers injured, many with broken bones.
Eight police officers remained in hospital on Monday.
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- The riot was triggered by the death of an Aboriginal
boy, Thomas Hickey, who was impaled on a metal fence after falling from
his bicycle on Saturday. He died in hospital on Sunday morning.
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- His mother Gail said her son was injured while being
pursued by police. But police say patrolling officers merely passed by
the boy who then sped off, losing control of his bike.
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- Gail Hickey said her son's friends became wild after
his death and began throwing things at police in retribution.
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- "My son's friends got wild.. .so they started throwing
things at them (police officers). They deserve all they get," an angry
Hickey told local radio.
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- "My 17-year-old boy was just coming down to get
money off his mother and then these dogs (police)... end up killing my
son. How does a... 17-year-old boy end up on the... fence? The police...
killed my son."
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- Sydney's Aboriginal ghetto is a few streets of dilapidated
houses, some abandoned, graffiti-smeared and occupied by black junkies,
adjacent to the Redfern railway station a few kilometres from the city's
central business district.
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- Called "The Block", it is a no-man's-land for
white Australians and has been the site of angry confrontations between
Aborigines and police for years.
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- The entrance to "The Block" looks like a military
checkpoint, with concrete and wire fencing at the top of the main road.
But instead of armed guards there is usually a motley group of alcoholics
and drug addicts ready to confront strangers.
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- The local park is named after Pemulwuy, the first Aboriginal
warrior, who was decapitated by white settlers in 1802 and his head placed
in a jar and sent to England.
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- Black and gold Aboriginal flags, the standard for black
rights in Australia, are painted on walls.
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- Local Aborigines say tensions in "The Block"
began rising last week when Thomas Hickey was badly injured riding his
bike, but when he died on Saturday anger swelled.
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- Wanted posters with the photographs of three police officers
and the words "Child Murderers" started appearing around Redfern
as Aborigines called for an inquiry into Hickey's death.
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- Redfern Aboriginal elder Lyall Munro said relations between
Aborigines and police were at an all-time low, saying police harassed young
blacks on a daily basis and had them running scared.
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- "This type of thing is going to happen and our young
people are going to die in this way whilst ever the police are allowed
to get away with it," Munro said.
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- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1076896980114B223&set_id=1
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