City Council sets up working party to improve race relations in suburb of Son Gotleu

PALMA
FOLLOWING consultation with residents' associations and representatives of immigrant groups in the Palma suburb of Son Gotleu, the City Council decided yesterday to create a special working party to monitor progress that has been promised in inter-community relations.

The move comes in the wake of last week's race riots in Son Gotleu, largely between Nigerian and gypsy groups, in what the police later surmised may be related to a struggle for control over drugs and prostitution rackets. The disturbances brought around 1'000 residents out onto the street of calle Tomas Rullan where the incident had reportedly been sparked by a petty quarrel over a pair of sunglasses.

The Council said yesterday that in collaboration with the associations representing the different ethnic, socio-cultural and commercial groups in the suburb, it wants to prevent a repetition of such violence and eliminate the image that Son Gotleu has now earned for itself as a “no-go area” and as a “residentially undesirable” part of Palma.