Racist attacks resume after Christmas lull

THE 'season of goodwill and peace to all' came to an abrupt halt for 65-year-old Adu Kyeremateng when his home on the Shankill Road came under attack from racist thugs in the first week of January.

Paint was splashed over the front door and windows of the house on Upper Townsend Street some time between 4am and 7am on Monday 4 January.

Now the Ghanaian native says he is too scared to live in the house he moved into last September.

“I feel shocked. I feel threatened and I want to get out” he said.

Unfortunately the Shankill attack was just the first in a series of attacks carried out by loyalist thugs since the New Year.

The following week saw a series of racist incidents carried out in the loyalist Village area of South Belfast with the most serious incident being a petrol bomb attack on the home of a young Chinese woman and her baby in Ebor Street on Tuesday 13 January.

Luckily the device, which the assailant used to break in the front window of the house, failed to explode.

Also in the early hours of Tuesday morning three windows were smashed while the front door of a house in Monarch Parade had graffiti reading “locals only” daubed on it.

Earlier in the week, on Sunday 11 January, in Lower Rockfield Street more graffiti reading “locals only” was daubed on the door of a vacant house believed to have been let to a migrant family.

The latest in this series of racist attacks was directed at two Pakistani brothers living in the loyalist enclave on the Blacks Road area in West Belfast who were targeted with graffiti saying 'F*** Allah' painted on the door of their Donegore Gardens home.

Adil and Asim Sadar reported the incident to the PSNI on Saturday 17 January and confirmed the incident is the latest attack on their home. In the past their car windows have been smashed.

Graffiti was also scrawled on a house on Tildarg Avenue, also on the Blacks Road estate.

West Belfast Sinn Féin Councillor Matt Garrett said those behind the "despicable and cowardly attack should hang their heads in shame":

"This attack is in no way reflective of the great people who live along Blacks Road and surrounding communities. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of people from this area are totally disgusted at this attack as I am."

He added:

"I would appeal to anyone with even the smallest bit information to contact the PSNI."