Police warn Australians off beaches due to unrest

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australians were warned on Friday to
stay away from beaches in three cities this weekend with police
saying they have credible evidence that racial violence was
being planned.

Police urged people to avoid Cronulla Beach in Sydney’s
south, where racial violence first flared last Sunday, as well
as eastern suburbs beaches which include Maroubra and Bondi,
and beaches in regional coastal cities Wollongong and
Newcastle.

“Our latest intelligence tells us that large numbers of
people are planning to go to these areas on Sunday to cause
riotous behavior,” New South Wales state Police Commissioner
Ken Moroney said in a statement on Friday.

“I would urge people who do not live in these areas to stay
away unless they have a good reason to be there,” Moroney said.

“It is my duty to warn the public that these areas have
been identified as targets.”

Racist text messages and emails have been circulating
calling for violence this Sunday — the one week anniversary of
the unrest — and media reported talk of Lebanese youths
calling themselves the “lions of Lebanon” coming from across
the country to fight this weekend.

Sydney’s racial violence erupted at Cronulla when thousands
of people, some yelling racist chants, attacked people of
Middle East appearance, saying they were defending their beach
from Lebanese youth gangs.

Police said white supremacists incited violence at
Cronulla.

Lebanese and Muslim youths retaliated with two nights of
violence in several different beachside suburbs.

A major police crackdown restored calm, but a Molotov
cocktail was thrown at police, a stockpile of incendiary
devices uncovered, and 19 people arrested in Sydney on Thursday
night.

Police will launch the biggest security operation since the
2000 Olympics in a bid to halt further racial unrest.

Up to 1,500 police, triple the current number on the beat,
will be on the streets on Saturday and 2,000 on Sunday.

“There will be lockdown areas. There will be areas where
alcohol can not be consumed or purchased,” said NSW Police
Minister Carl Scully.

“There will be roadblocks and cars confiscated and people
arrested. It will be zero tolerance. We will not put up with
any nonsense,” Scully told local radio.

A police command center has been established on the same
lines as if Sydney faced a “terrorist threat,” said Assistant
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

“This is a long-term fight to ensure the hooligans, thugs
and criminals who want to create trouble and disorder will not
win,” Morris Iemma, NSW state premier, told reporters.

Arab-Muslim leaders and beachside communities have held
“peace talks” and called for an end to the violence.
Invitations have been sent to 28 Lebanese leaders to attend the
launch of a surfboat at Cronulla Beach on Sunday, while the
Cronulla surf lifesavers club has launched a drive for Lebanese
membership.

The Australian newspaper reported on Friday that Lebanese
youths, calling themselves “the Lions of Lebanon,” were talking
about heading into Sydney, intent on violence.

“We’re expecting about 30 cars and a couple of busloads of
Leb, Serb, Italian and Greek lions to punch on with us,” said a
young Lebanese man in the southern city of Melbourne.