The war at home

Serbian and Croatian fans clash in Garden Square on day one of the Australian Open in Melbourne. Photo / Getty Images

AUSTRALIA - In the meltdown of yet another Australian heatwave, the nation's ethnic testosterone has again boiled over.

Last summer it was the beach and Anglo-Celtics versus Lebanese at Sydney's southern suburb of Cronulla: this week it was a Balkan explosion in the unlikely war zone of the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne.

In a brief, violent spasm at Melbourne Park, young Australians of Croatian and Serbian lineage crashed into each other with sticks, bottles, fists and feet. Australia was appalled.

As at Cronulla last summer, word of the violence to come had raced across the city by SMS text messages. Before Croat and Serb players met on the court, young Croatian men gathered at Federation Square on the banks of the Yarra, letting off flares and pumping themselves up for action.

Alarmed at the similarities with the Sydney violence, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission chief executive Dr Helen Szoke attacked what she described as intolerable behaviour. "We do not want another Cronulla-like incident in Australia. It's one thing to be passionate and support your team, but using nationalism as an excuse to abuse others is not acceptable."

Acceptable or not, the tensions that erupted at the Tennis Open are a fact of life in Australian cities. And unlike clashes between other ethnic groups, violence between Croats and Serbs is an enduring enmity that has been passed from generation to generation.

Poverty, a sense of alienation and national rivalry among migrant groups have triggered conflicts in a country that has nonetheless blended a vast spectrum of nationalities and cultures into a largely successful multicultural society.

Wars abroad have brought many underlying tensions to the surface - between Jews and Arabs and Greeks and Macedonians, among others.

Testosterone has inflamed passions in marginalised groups, with young men testing manhood by defending ethnicity and beliefs with fists and clubs.

A study of ethnic gangs by the Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues found that groups of young men fought in both schoolyards and on the streets in violence triggered by racism. Most believed they were treated poorly by society and police, claiming harassment and institutional racism.

Other clashes have been turf wars: Vietnamese and Lebanese gangs in Sydney, for example, battling over the drug trade. But while violence between other opposing communities has tended to peak and trough, Serb-Croat rivalry has been a constant.

More than a decade ago, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity produced a landmark study of racist violence in Australia. While it found violence between ethnic groups was not a major social issue for Australia, it noted the reality of anger and said: "The most widespread and violent form of inter-ethnic conflict is reported to be that between Croatian and Serbian people."