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Another 21 held in Oldham

Another 21 youths have been arrested in racially troubled Oldham, where police have blamed far right groups from the racist National Front and British National Party for three days of riots, in which gangs of Asians and whites fought pitched battles on the streets of the town.

Tension continue to simmer in the area despite calls for calm by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Home Secretary Jack Straw and local community leaders.

In a statement released from Downing Street, Blair said the Oldham riots were not typical of the state of British race relations. "I think the vast majority of people wants to live together in peace and harmony with one another," Blair said.

Blair's statement preceded the arrest late on Monday night of 18 white youths and three Asian youths, who have been detained on suspicion of public order offences, including possession of offensive weapons.

A spokeswoman for the Greater Manchester Police told India Abroad that two pubs in the town centre were damaged on Monay night and many cars had been vandalised, but a large police presence had prevented a repetition of last weekend's race riots.

Police are now deployed in strategic parts of the town, including the Asian-dominated suburb of Glodwick, which was blocked off from white youth who tried to enter the area on Monday night.

At one point on Monday, another confrontation loomed as groups of young Asians rallied around a shopping area of Glodwick, but police managed to keep them apart from white gangs standing on the other side of a burning barricade.

Police say there will be no scaling down of their presence in Oldham, which has seen some of the worst race-related violence in Britain for 15 years.

Earlier, senior police officers blamed right wing white extremists for the violence, which they said had exploited tension between local whites and Asians.

A police spokesman quoted Greater Manchester police assistant chief constable Alan Bridge as saying the problem had been "brought about by the intervention of outside elements" operating under the guise of "raising political awareness".

Bridge denied police had over reacted. He appealed for calm and a return to normality after "totally unacceptable disorder".

Another police officer, chief superintendent Eric Hewitt, said Oldham had a poor record for race relations and added that most racial incidents in the past year had involved white victims.

But he added in a statement released to the media, "There is no doubt that the presence of the National Front and British National Party in recent weeks would seem to be a deliberate ploy to exploit our racial situation and it has struck a chord of fear among all our communities, not just Asians."

Local white councillor Richard Knowles, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Oldham Council, has also criticised the "vile racists" of the National Front and British National Party.

Knowles added, "These are not people of the respectable right, they are far-right racists who have been stirring up tensions in the town for some time."

The National Front and BNP have been active in Oldham since the end of April. The BNP is fielding candidates in all three local parliamentary constituencies during the forthcoming general election.

Community leaders have told India Abroad how the violence started last Saturday night after an argument between two teenagers, one white and one Asian.

Gang warfare between whites and Asians started after a group of young whites were said to have thrown a brick through the window of a pregnant Asian woman's home.

A the violence spread, police sources say riot police were called out to hold the line against a mob of an estimated 500 angry Asian youths.

Last Sunday, the offices of a local newspaper, the Oldham Evening Chronicle, were attacked by gangs of Asian youths. Managing director Philip Hirst told BBC Radio it was "complete rubbish" to say the newspaper had been targeted by Asians who felt undue prominence to was given racist attacks on whites.

Hirst declared. "Anybody who started life working on a local paper knows we get attacked on all sides, but it's a hell of a way to make a complaint, chucking a firebomb through a window."

Labour Environment Minister Michael Meacher, who is standing for re-election as MP for Oldham West and Royton, said the atmosphere in the town had been aggravated by the mugging a few weeks ago of a 76-year-old white pensioner whose bloodied and bruised face was profiled on the front page of newspapers.

EARLIER REPORT
Oldham race riot continues for second day

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