The English city of Bradford is riddled with racism, gangs and drugs,
according to a special report published today after weekend raceriots - the worst in Britain in two decades.
The northern city was quiet overnight for the first time in fivedays, but the report by Lord Herman Ouseley, the former head of theCommission for Racial Equality, described it as a tinderbox oftensions.
During four nights this week, Bradford police came under attack fromrioting white and Asian youths who hurled petrol bombs, bricks andother objects, injuring more than 200 officers and resulting inalmost 80 arrests.
The report said communities were split along racial, ethnic andreligious lines, and that Asian gangs were considered virtuallyuntouchable with people afraid to confront them for fear of beingvictimised or branded racist.
There is a fear of confronting the gangs' culture, the illegal drugstrade and the growing racial intolerance, harassment and abuse thatexists, said the report which was carried out in the months beforethe rioting erupted.
There is a fear of people talking openly and honestly...because ofpossible repercussions, recriminations and victimisation, it added.
Mr Ouseley accused local schools of having done little to promoteracial harmony, tending instead towards segregation.
There is a fear of confronting all-white and all-Muslim schools abouttheir contribution, or rather lack of contribution, to social andracial integration and communities were fragmenting along racial,cultural and faith lines, the report said.
It recommended introducing citizenship studies in local schools toensure children learned to respect people from other culturalbackgrounds.
Bradford, 15 per cent of whose 482,000 residents are of Bangladeshior Pakistani origin, is the fourth northern English town to be rockedby racial unrest in recent weeks.
In May, race riots broke out in the industrial town of Oldham,followed by neighbouring Leeds and Burnley.
The violence, which has been blamed on the presence of whitesupremacists in northern towns, has been condemned by British primeminister Tony Blair as simple thuggery.
Bradford Vision, a group made up of key organisations within thedistrict, commissioned the Ouseley review which was based oninterviews with thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds.
The group said a team would be set up to push through the report'srecommendations.
PA