Free Republic

A TEENAGER who burnt an Australian flag taken from an RSL club during Sydney's racial unrest will come face to face with club members as part of his punishment. The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to removing the flag from the Brighton-Le-Sands RSL club and burning it in a reprisal attack following the Cronulla riot on December 11 last year. In Bidura Children's Court today, the teenager from Hurstville, who cannot be named, was ordered into youth conferencing with the club. He is expected to meet with diggers to discuss how the crime affected them and what the flag means to war...

SOME University of Queensland students aim to put a dampener on moves to set fire to an Australian flag. The university's Liberal Club president Julian Simmonds says he has several buckets of free water available today to anyone who objects to "the madness". Youth Socialist group Resistance has been selling $5 flag-burning kits in the Great Court of the university's St Lucia campus. "We have seen them around, they have been selling them but no-one has lit up any flags yet," Mr Simmonds said. "We are just trying to show people this isn't the way to go. "So, if someone...

A MAN who helped burn an Australian flag after Sydney's Cronulla race riots has been sentenced to three months in jail. Hadi Khawaja, 24, of Peakhurst, yesterday pleaded guilty to charges of malicious damage and entering enclosed property with intent to commit a serious offence during public unrest. Khawaja, who has been an Australian citizen since 1986, admitted damaging an Australian flag at the Brighton-le-Sands RSL on the evening of December 11 as retaliatory violence spread through Sydney suburbs. His teenage co-accused, who cannot be named, is alleged to have climbed the flagpole and thrown the flag down to Khawaja...