[Tezcatlipoca]

"Romanian gypsies beware beware. Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear"

Originally Posted by The Observer

By Henry McDonald, The Observer, Sunday 21 June 2009

Combat 18's message, broadcast by text and email all over Northern Ireland last week, was hate-filled and menacing:

"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'."

The rhyming racist warning has been picked up on mobile phones and computers across loyalist areas of the north of Ireland since the start of last week when the province hit the world headlines again for all the wrong reasons.

This weekend 110 Romanians, including many small children, some as young as six weeks, are under armed police guard at a secret location in Belfast. Seven days ago the 20 families were driven out of several properties on the edge of the city's university district, victims of a racist gang which repeatedly attacked their homes over a number of days. Many of the immigrants, almost all exclusively from the Roma community, have said they want to return home rather than stay in a city being branded as the racist capital of Europe.

(snip)