Nazi, KKK leaflets stir up race hate

By Adrian McGregor
August 04, 2003 theaustralian.news.com.au

WHITE racist leaflets, adorned with a Nazi swastika and KKK initials, found in Townsville letter boxes are a threat to all ethnic minorities, not just Aborigines, according to the peak indigenous group.

Townsville detectives are investigating typewritten leaflets, aimed at "blacks", found in the mailboxes of four units of a housing block and another sent to a government department.

The leaflet, entitled "The right to fight back (black)", attacks Aboriginal drunkenness and camping in public parks, an issue that has long vexed local authorities.

The leaflet states: "We don't have to live with the blacks. There is enough white power to make a stand so let's start doing so. Before our children have too (sic)."

Although the leaflets are directed at "blacks", Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission councillor Jenny Pryor said the notes were a threat to all ethnic groups.

"You see how the Ku Klux Klan operate in America, they don't stop at people with dark skin," she said.

"Don't think non-Aboriginal ethnic minorities are off the hook just because it mentions blacks. All ethnic groups are at risk. This is a multi-cultural issue, not an indigenous issue.

"We're a multicultural society in Townsville and this is a very serious development for race relations."

Greater Townsville has a population of about 15,000 Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders of whom only about 80 are reputed to be park dwellers.

Townsville Mayor Tony Mooney labelled the leaflets "cowardly and ignorant", and promised council assistance to help police track down the offenders. "The fact that the leaflets were dropped in one street in one suburb doesn't diminish the seriousness," he said. "It doesn't help race relations and if people think this is a the way to solve anything, they are sadly mistaken."

Single indigenous mother Evelyn Lymburner found the leaflet in her letterbox on Friday and reported it to police and ATSIC officials.

She told Ms Pryor the leaflet had given her a terrible fright.

"She's afraid to go out at night alone now. It's the defenceless who are the prime victims of nonsense like this," Ms Pryor said. "Police have to stamp on this before other right-wing groups jump on the bandwagon."

There have been racist incidents in Townsville in the past. In 1995, the grave of land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo was desecrated and a swastika was daubed in red paint on the tombstone.

ATSIC reported last year that men armed with chains and claiming to be Ku Klux Klan attacked Aborigines at a Townsville camp and threatened to lynch them. Gang warfare has also threatened to break out between indigenous and white youths, the latter calling themselves skinheads.

Regional crime co-ordinator Richard Nikola said that police were urging any residents who received the racist leaflets to protect them in a plastic bag before handing them in for examination.

"We are astounded by this development and we are doing everything we can to work with the community," Detective Inspector Nikola said.

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