There has been a shocking rise in racist intimidation since the ceasefires have bedded down, writes Kitty Holland in Belfast
A dramatic mural on a red background adorns the gable wall at the end of Tarvanagh Street, in the Protestant "Village" area of south Belfast. It depicts a ghostly white figure in military fatigues, carrying a shotgun and seeming to lean menacingly over the quiet, terraced street.
It is, according to the accompanying poem on the next wall, the grim reaper of the Ulster Freedom Fighters. "So when you're in your bed at night/ And hear soft footsteps fall/ Be careful it's not the UFF/ And the reaper come to call," the artist exhorts.
Two doors down from this piece of poetic advice is the house which Hua Long and his heavily pregnant wife Yin Mei were driven out of five days before Christmas, in an attack which left Long with a fractured skull and his young family homeless.
Now staying in the Balmoral Hotel in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of the city, Long looks shattered. He and Yin - who has since given birth to a baby boy - are staying there as guests of the hotel until their legal situation is sorted out. They were housed there initially for three days by the Housing Executive. But when that statutory payment ended, manager Joseph Mikhael let them stay on free of charge. The young couple have named their little boy after him.
Long and Yin had been in Belfast for three months without incident when their house was broken into at about 7.30 p.m. on December 20th. Both from south-east China and speaking no English, they had been living in London. They were advised they could start a new life in Northern Ireland and wanted to open a take-away.
"It is a good environment for opening a business," he says, speaking through an interpreter. "We didn't know there would be trouble for Chinese people."
On the night they were attacked, two men broke into their house and started to hit both of them, shouting at them to get out. Long's move to protect his wife was rewarded with a brick to his face, leading to a fractured skull and injuries that required 12 stitches. He was brought to the City Hospital and then the Royal, although he discharged himself early to be with Yin, who gave birth to Joseph two weeks ago.
"I think even though the baby was still in her abdomen [at the time of the attack] he was affected, because now, even when he is asleep, he is trembling always. My wife, she is a little bit depressed."
The attack on Long and Yin was not the first in a spate of racist attacks which began about six months ago. Nor is it the latest.
In 2002, a group calling itself the White Nationalist Party ran a leafleting campaign in the Craigavon area of Co Armagh against a decision to grant planning permission for a mosque. In the same area last July, a mixed-race Muslim family (the mother was born in the Republic), was attacked by 10 baseball-bat wielding men. The family has since left the island. In March last year there were attacks on Filipino nurses in Ballymena, Co Antrim.
It was in July last year that attacks in the Village area began in earnest. Pipe bombs were left at the homes of three South African families. A black African man's car was set alight and a black woman was pelted with stones. On the day Long and Yin were attacked, two Ugandan families were forced to leave their homes.
Three days after Christmas, two houses occupied by Romanian families and another by a Pakistani family were set on fire. Local estate agent, William Faulkner, spoke this week of how he had been warned twice by loyalist groups not to let properties to foreign nationals.
Racism is not new to Northern Ireland, although some say through 30 years of sectarian violence there has been a complacency about it. Research carried out by the University of Ulster six years ago found more than a quarter of people in the North would not want a black resident in their locality, while more than half would not want a person of a different race as a relative.
It is "galling", says Antoinette McKeown of the Equality Commission. "There has been a shocking increase in racist intimidation since the ceasefires have bedded down." Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) figures released this week show there were 212 reported racist attacks between April 1st and December 22nd last year - almost one a day and a 25 per cent increase on 2002.
There is no immediate evidence that either the UFF's "grim reaper" or the UVF or UDA has been involved in the recent attacks. All deny any link, and David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party which has links with the UVF, says there is "absolutely not" any way the UVF played a part, "structurally". He does, however, concede some individuals involved may also have links with paramilitary organisations.
He is also not alone, however, in stressing that racism is not the prerogative of Protestant communities. Patrick Yu, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Council on Ethnic Minorities (NICEM), tells of the verbal abuse Filipino nurses have been getting in Catholic west Belfast for example. However, there is no doubt that the most violent attacks are taking place in loyalist, working-class areas, where local anger and confusion about rising numbers of immigrants is being stoked by far-right groups - many with links to British nationalist parties.
Combat 18 has been leafleting the area, while the British National Party is said to have plans to run candidates in next year's local council elections.
On Tarvanagh Street, last Thursday, a group of women nod in agreement when one woman, standing in her doorway, tells The Irish Times she is not racist. She has been living in the Village all her life and it has always been a lovely community "where you knew all your neighbours", she says. "Now the landlords are moving everyone and anyone in. Foreigners are coming in and leaching off our health system, taking houses and running our neighbourhood into the ground. They [the authorities] should be putting money into our people and not giving it to foreigners." Asked whether she thought the attacks were wrong, she said, "You have to understand, anger is very high and these attacks are just vigilantes seriously fed up and taking matters into their own hands."
The number of people in ethnic minority groups in Northern Ireland is small - they make up 0.85 per cent of the population. But the numbers are rising and new arrivals are attracted to low-cost accommodation in areas such as the Village and the adjacent Donegall Pass.
"Ethnically" it is staunchly loyalist. Sandwiched between the republican Lower Ormeau Road and Markets Road, a siege mentality thrived throughout the Troubles. While ceasefires may have alleviated that, many Village stalwarts feel peace has brought little economic dividend their way.
As Davey Carlin, of the Anti-Racist Network (ARN) puts it, racism is allowed to fester and flourish in an environment where people are competing for scarce resources.
The ARN is organising a rally, involving politicians, ethnic groups, church leaders and trade union leaders in Belfast city-centre on January 27th. The rally will be a platform "to send a clear message that racist attacks are unacceptable", says Carlin. "Belfast is getting a reputation as the hate capital of Europe."
Leadership is vital on the issue and politicians and churchmen have queued up to condemn the attacks. However, a legislative lead is equally important, stresses the Equality Commission. Since 1998 it has been seeking the extension to Northern Ireland of legislation introduced in Britain that year which made race-hate attacks a crime. "It is unacceptable that ethnic minorities living in Northern Ireland do not have the same protection as those in GB," says McKeown.
Rooting out racism will of course be a "long process", says Anna Lo, chief executive of the Chinese Welfare Association. "We are beginning a process of dialogue with community leaders in the Donegall Pass area, to promote understanding, dialogue and to show them we may look different to them, but they look different to us too. Many people may not want to talk to us, but we have to make a start."
She stresses it is not just in the interests of ethnic minorities to fight racism. "We have seen the effects sectarianism had on Northern Ireland. We are talking about such small numbers involved in racism and we don't want to see it get out of hand. But ethnic minorities are getting angry. They are not going to be always sitting, sitting just taking it. They are going to vent their anger some way."
Ervine, too, is concerned that the attacks are damaging the loyalist image. Although loyalist paramilitaries deny any link to racist attacks, all who speak publicly against the upsurge in racist violence privately agree these groups will have to play a role in ending the violence. It is in the nature of Northern Ireland that those who have influence in many communities are the paramilitaries, not the police.
"They are the ones we have to work with behind the scenes," says one source. It is a delicate balancing act however, and another source working close to the problem expresses his worry that if the attacks don't stop, the loyalists with the bigger picture "will start shooting the racists".
Whatever the causes and the ramifications, the immediate result for those such as Long and his small family, are frightening, miserable and unacceptable. He has been heartened by the outpouring of kindness from people offering baby-clothes, money and sympathy. The local PSNI - who might have chosen to deport them - made a collection of money and brought it to them just before Christmas.
"Everyone in this area is very friendly," he says, nodding his head slowly. "But I think we will go to another town. I think relations between people should just be peaceful."