Sunday Times: Cronulla calm despite campaign [ 26jan06 ]

A WHITE supremacist party handed out fliers on Sydney's Cronulla beach today as others, determined to shun racial divisions, donned the Australian flag as a symbol of unity. Six weeks on from the Cronulla riot and the reprisal attacks that followed, locals were eager to present a different picture of their community. There was no sign of the ugly violence that erupted on December 11 last year, when 5000 people rioted at the beach, some chasing down and attacking people of Middle Eastern appearance. The following day, carloads of men and youths went on a rampage through Cronulla and other southern suburbs, assaulting people and smashing property in apparent reprisal attacks. However the ultra-nationalist Australia First Party said it deliberately set out to use Cronulla on Australia Day as a platform to spread their demands that Australia close its borders to immigrants.