Phoebe Stewart: NT News | February 20th, 2008

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/02/20/3404_ntnews.html

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd’s national apology to the stolen generation (Australia’s indigenous children raised by the state) has sparked a spate of racial violence in Darwin.

Five people had to be admitted to hospital after one brawl. The Caucasian men were attacked by a group of 10 Aboriginal men, who demanded that their victims “say sorry”.

A 28-year-old Territory woman watched helplessly as her friend was king-hit and kicked to the ground outside a Darwin 24-hour eatery on Sunday morning. She said three men ran at them from across the road, when they looked at the group yelling at two women.

“They just started king-hitting him. They got him on the ground and then two others came over and started kicking him,” she said.

“They kept screaming that we were not sorry at all – ‘Say sorry to us’. You just couldn’t stop them.”

The woman said three more men grabbed another Caucasian man and punched him in the middle of Smith St.

“That’s when I called the police. He managed to roll into the gutter but they kept on kicking him,” she said.

They and her friend ran to the Mitchell St police station, where they met up with other victims of the racial attack.

“The police officer said since the sorry apology on Wednesday, it had been completely out of control.”

The woman said there were four other victims of racial violence in the emergency room at Royal Darwin Hospital. Her friend had fractured ribs and bad bruising. Others had head injuries and bruises.

“I don’t know why they did it,” she said. “They’re just making it worse for everyone. It was gutless. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Another big brawl occurred at Fairway Waters in Palmerston on Saturday night.

Police said witnesses and victims of the “series” of assaults on Sunday were being questioned.

Senior Sergeant Steve Martin warned that “thugs” and “troublemakers” had no place in Darwin.

“Police take a zero tolerance approac ...

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