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When two Brussels police officers stopped a Moroccan motorcycle rider in an immigrant neighborhood for disturbing the peace last week, their action sparked the worst rioting the quiet capital has witnessed in years. The officers asked the rider to show some identification, and soon local Moroccans, who saw the incident as just the latest in a long campaign of police harassment, were throwing fire bombs and stones. By the next day hundreds of Arabs smashed windows at a nearby police station. Riots raged in immigrant neighborhoods for the three nights that followed, and though no fatal injuries were reported, the fighting got bloody. By week’s end Belgian officials were calling for government programs to aid the foreign community.
The city’s immigrants, mainly Moroccans and Turks, make up a quarter of Brussels’ 970,000 population. But many are poorly educated, unskilled laborers and quite a few are angry and frustrated teenagers. Vic Anciaux, the Secretary of State for Immigration, recommended that some $285 million be spent on education and urban development in an effort to improve the immigrants’ lot. Nevertheless, it could be months before the money is actually spent.