Kevin Rudd’s nephew in Ku Klux Klan anti-racism protest

MELBOURNE - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s nephew was involved in a bizarre Ku Klux Klan anti-racism protest outside the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park.

According to reports, police moved on artist-activist Van Thanh Rudd and Sam King, from the Revolutionary Socialist Party, who were donning a Ku Klux Klan outfit outside the Rod Laver Arena to protest what they deemed the refusal of the Australian Government to acknowledge the “racist” nature of the attacks on Indians.

The protest came after eight men were arrested overnight over an attack on two Indian students. The attackers allegedly made racist comments before kicking and punching the Indians.

Van Thanh also said that it was an Australia Day protest against the Government’s support for “genocidal regimes”.

“The Australian Government is supporting governments like the Sri Lankan Government, for example, in preventing Sri Lankan Tamils from escaping the Sri Lankan Government,” ABC News quoted Van Thanh, as saying.

“Australia funds the genocidal Sri Lankan regime and then rejects the refugees who flee. In this country you could not get away with doing that against whites. So, they’re the basic reasons we’re having the protest today,” he added.

Van Thanh further said that he chose Melbourne Park as a place to raise the cause, as it would get significant attention on Australia Day.

“I wanted to find a place that means a lot to people on Australia Day and also it being an area that’s quite central in Melbourne … also, in terms of making a theatrical sort of performance in this protest, it wouldn’t be too hard hopefully to get a bit of attention,” he said.

“I’m pretty certain [the public] won’t like it too much - the aim is to create a bit of a scene, not by creating any violence or anything of course, but just parade about a bit. We did not ask for permission to do it, so I guess we fully knew that it may only last 10 minutes,” he added.

The protest came as Kevin Rudd welcomed new Australians at an Australia Day ceremony in Canberra, telling them they were becoming citizens not of “the lucky country”, but of “the country, which we have built together”. (ANI)