Three Chinese eateries bombed
By Paige Taylor and Roger Martin
February 02, 2004
FEARS of a new terror campaign against Asian Australians living in Perth have been ignited by the fire bombing of three Chinese restaurants.
The restaurants, in Perth's southern suburbs, were all hit within an hour of each other early yesterday morning, and daubed with swastikas.
The attacks were similar to a wave of racially inspired fire bombings to hit Perth Chinese restaurants in the 1980s, but the man behind that campaign yesterday denied involvement in the latest incidents.
White supremacist and self-styled neo-nazi Jack van Tongeren said yesterday that he was on holiday in Gingin, about 70km northeast of Perth, at the time of the bombings.
But van Tongeren expressed sympathy for those behind the attacks.
"This action sounds like the frustrated, angry action of Aussies who feel abandoned by the existing political system," he said.
"Let's face it, we have gone from a prosperous Australian city to a city ravaged by Asian gangs and African crime."
Van Tongeren was responsible for a series of arson attacks on Perth Asian restaurants in the 1980s. He was convicted in 1991 on 53 counts of conspiracy, arson, theft, assault and fraud, and spent 12 years in prison.
He was released from prison in September 2002, vowing to maintain the fight against Asian Australians.
He said yesterday that his neo-Nazi organisation, the Australian Nationalists Workers Union, was no longer interested in bombing Chinese restaurants.
"That was last time. It was an awful long time ago," he said. "We are now in different times and have different methods."
The Lakelands Chinese Restaurant in Yangebup was the first to be attacked just before 3.30am yesterday when a window was smashed and a fire lit using an accelerant.
Ten minutes later, police were called to the Foo Win Chinese restaurant in Willeton, which had also been attacked.
By 4.30am, a third, the Spearwood Chinese Restaurant in Spearwood, had been hit. All three restaurants were daubed with swastikas.
Police Commissioner Barry Matthews, who just hours before had been celebrating the Chinese New Year with members of Perth's Chinese community, said the attacks were clearly racially motivated.
"One would have to look at some obvious suspects and we'll do that, but we also want to make sure that this is not just a loner and we have missed that person.
"We have a strong line of inquiry -- we haven't been sitting on our hands all this time, we've been keeping a watch on certain people but I don't want to go into certain details."
Lakelands Restaurant co-owner Lyn Luong said she, her husband Patrick and their two children had been frightened by the attack, and could not understand it.
"We did nothing wrong," she said.
Mrs Luong said she was a secretarial student in Perth the last time a series of Chinese restaurants were firebombed. "I remember it, but I have never had any racism in Perth."
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