Racist messages from Northern Ireland: Romanian Gypsies, beware. Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear

Romanian Gypsies, beware. Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear. This is the shocking message that Combat 18 sent to Romanian Gypsies last week, but it came to notoriety after the 115 Romanian Roma ethnics had been the victims of racist outbreaks. But even the anti-immigrants in „the Village”, where the sentiment is most passionate, people condemn the racist violence, The Guardian informs.

Combat 18’s message has been heavily distributed in all Northern Ireland, featuring hatred and threats:

„Romanian gypsies beware beware

Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear

Stay out of South Belfast and stay out of sight

And then youse will be alright

Get the boat and don’t come back

There is no black in the Union Jack

Loyalist C18 ‘whatever it takes’.”

About 130 Romanians fled their homes in Belfast after being the victims of racist violent outbursts. They gave been taken into protection to a secret location, after they sought shelter in a local church.

The message was texted to supporters’ mobiles, after the racist violent events made the headlines last week. According to the publication, „the Village” is „working-class loyalist district wedged between the edge of the university and the M1 motorway”. 46 Polish citizens fled the are in April, after a series of planned attacks.

The attitude along Lisburn Road, an area rich in restaurants and coffee shops, there are negative attitudes towards Gypsies. „I don’t mind the Poles and the Slovakians who come here. They work hard, harder than indigenous people

from here, but all you see now are these Romanians begging and mooching about. We’d all be better off – them and us – if they went back to Romania or somewhere else in Europe,” Derek Orr, a Lisburn Road resident said.

Although locals condemn the attacks, they are not in favour of the immigrants. „It was terrible putting wee children in danger, but they [the Romanians] are living on top of each other. They’re begging outside shops and banks. They send their kids out to sell roses outside bars at night. They shouldn’t be allowed to use their kids like that. They shouldn’t even be allowed into the country because they don’t want to work,” a middle-aged woman who wanted to keep her anonymity told The Guardian.

The Irish Independent read on Saturday two teenagers had been arrested on Saturday, accused of racist attacks against the Roma families in Belfast. The youngsters, aged 15 and 16, were arrested during a Police operation in South Belfast.

Over 200 persons took part in an anti-racist march in central Belfast on Saturday. The house of Romanian Gypsy family was attached on Wednesday night, after several Roma families had fled their homes in other part of Belfast to seek protection in the face of extremist outbreaks.

Romanian Foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu said 140 Romanians from Belfast, most of them Gypsies, 40 of them children, are to return to Romania after the events from last week, according to Romanian press agency NewsIn. According to Romanian authorities in the UK, the Romanian ethnic minority received all support necessary, including finance, from the authorities and people in Belfast.

Diaconescu indicated that the image problems Romania faced internationally are now starting to become personal safety issues, with the economic crisis increasing the tensions leading to the temptation to blame others for inner problems.