Abuse by young Irish 'not infrequent'

Members of the Chinese community in Ireland have expressed their anger and concern at the attack which led to the death of Mr Zhao Liu Tao. Reluctant to comment on the record about what is believed to be the first racially motivated fatal attack in the State, Chinese residents say assaults on their community are not infrequent.

One man said of Mr Zhao: "I really could not understand why such an innocent student was attacked. Such things have happened several times. Some young Irish have attacked Chinese with knives, iron bars, glasses and beer bottles and I don't know why."

There are 20,000 students and 50,000 Chinese people living in the Republic. The Chinese embassy said yesterday it was "very shocked at the death of a Chinese student in what was apparently a racial attack".

Ironically, the Garda Racial and Intercultural Unit, established in March last year, had only last week met Chinese students as part of its programmes to inform that community about the role of the office which has links to some 35 Islamic, church and ethnic groups.

Gardaí have just begun to record racially motivated attacks separately on their PULSE computer system.

The ICTU general secretary, Mr David Beggs, said: "Anyone who engages in racist behaviour cannot wash their hands of the death of this young Chinese man".

Residents against Racism expressed its "sadness and horror".

Ms Áine Ní Chonaill of the Immigration Control Platform said it did not comment on individual crimes. The only way to end racial hostility was to ensure that all migrants from outside the European economic area were in the State strictly at "our invitation".

Victim Support said it believed there were many racially motivated attacks which had not been reported. Its spokeswoman, Ms Ann Meade, said the organisation would be recruiting volunteers from ethnic minority communities to deliver a support service for victims of racist crime.

The director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, Mr Philip Watt, said there had been a decline in the number of assaults reported in recent weeks. Since it was established in May last year, 40 attacks were reported with the Chinese and Asian communities particularly targeted for assault and abuse in the wake of the September 11th atrocities in the US.

Amnesty International's refugee and legal officer said it was vital that racist attacks were taken seriously and such crimes should have an appropriate sentence.

Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, expressed his concern that the hostility "being directed towards refugees and asylum-seekers is creating a climate of intolerance against non-nationals generally, which can soon escalate into physical attacks".

The Government "must bear a share of responsibility for the growing climate of intolerance".

The young Chinese couple who were murdered in Dublin last year in an internal Chinese incident were from Shenyang the Liaoning province, as was Mr Zhao. Most applications to the Irish embassy for educational visas come from that province.

Last year, 13,500 applied to the embassy in Beijing. Some 11,500 students arrived last year to study in Ireland and Mr Zhao is believed to have been one of that number.