European Diary: Joe van Holsbeeck (17) was listening to music on his digital music player while waiting for his friends to meet him at Brussels central station earlier this month. It was just after 4pm, the start of the evening rush hour. The rail platform was crowded with commuters making their way home on the Wednesday before the start of the Easter holidays. It was a normal day, but just a few minutes later Joe lay dying with five stab wounds in his chest. This act of extreme violence has sent a nation into shock.
In response to the murder more than 80,000 people marched through Brussels on Sunday in a silent march against "senseless violence".
People laid flowers at the entrance to the station, where a temporary shrine has been set up to commemorate Joe, whose murderers - two youths of North African origin - were captured on CCTV fleeing the scene. The culprits remain at large, which further traumatises the community.
"It is a great pity to have this type of incident occurring," said Gabriel Wadigesila, a young immigrant from the Congo signing a petition at the shrine close to the spot where the murder occurred on April 12th.
"Belgium is not a particularly dangerous country but there are not many security people around this station or other train stations . . . My girlfriend's son was attacked at a station, although he was not killed."
The petition, signed by Gabriel and thousands of others so far, calls on the authorities to beef up security at train and metro stations and begin a new dialogue with young people who get involved in crime. "We need more educators and trainers on the streets to get in touch with young people," says a man taking names for the petition.
Belgium's elite have intervened in the case. Prime minister Guy Verhofstadt said that the death should not go unpunished to send a signal that such crimes are not tolerated. He also promised to "put more effort into combating youth crime".
Belgian Cardinal Godfreid Danneels used his Easter sermon to criticise witnesses to the attack who did not help. He also criticised materialism and indifference in society.
The murder threatens to raise racial tensions and the issue of immigration in Belgium at a particularly sensitive time for Belgium's political establish-
ment. Local elections are due in the autumn, while parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 2007 and the party riding high is the far-right Vlaams Belang, which claimed 25 per cent of the vote in Flanders at the last election.
It stands on a radical platform for secession of Flanders from Belgium and a crackdown on immigration. It criticises the government for being too politically correct on migrants.
"Immigration and the participation of immigrants in criminal activity has been a taboo subject here in Belgium for many years," says Koenraad Dillen, an MEP for Vlaams Belang. "Belgium is still a very liberal society toward immigration. But I think people are becoming more aware of the issue, for example the cartoon issue in Denmark, the rioting in the banlieue in France and the rise of radical Islam."
But it is not just the far right which is criticising the Belgian government's approach to crime and immigration. Dr Marion van San of the Erasmus University Rotterdam said the government's decision not to talk about or research immigrants' involvement in crime makes it more difficult to tackle the rise of the Vlaams Belang.
"Without studying the problem of immigrant involvement in crime there is no way to solve the problem," says van San, who was commissioned by the previous Belgian government to write on the report on the issue. The report, which concluded that immigrants were over-represented in certain crimes, was buried by the government.
"The minister said he was disappointed in the conclusions," says van San, who notes that in the Netherlands there is much more research into these areas. For example, there are no official statistics on immigrant crime.
Freddy Gazan, deputy director at the Federal Public Service of Justice, says the judicial authorities in Belgium act to avoid stigmatising foreigners.
At the march on Sunday there were no displays of racism or stigmatising of immigrant groups, he says.
Back at Brussels central station, Renaud Hanriot, a passerby who stops to sign the petition, is unsure if Vlaams Belang will benefit from the unease created by the tragedy of the Joe van Holsbeeck's murder.
"There is a feeling among some Brussels inhabitants that they are being pushed out by immigrants," says Hanriot, who worked previously with unemployed young people.
"I think it is the same everywhere in Europe at the moment . . . But I think the basic problem is a lack of community."