Belfast politician defies racists

Lo came fourth in South Belfast with 3,829 first preference votes

Anna Lo - the first person from an ethnic minority to be elected to Northern Ireland's assembly - has told the BBC about an "offensive" and "pornographic" internet campaign against her.

Ms Lo, who is neither Catholic nor Protestant, stood for the Alliance Party and secured the fourth highest vote in the South Belfast constituency, despite being subjected to threats and racist abuse on the internet.

She was targeted by a neo-Nazi site called the White Loyalist Guestbook, as well as on the popular YouTube site. She told BBC World Service's Outlook programme that the sites sprang up almost immediately after her nomination.

"It began quite mildly - I even laughed at one of the messages, which said 'there are so many Chinks about she probably will be elected' - it was a roundabout way of being quite positive," she said.

"But it degenerated into something of a pornographic nature - they posted a picture of me, and later on a picture of two Oriental-looking women in the nude. They were linking me with prostitution. It was very offensive language.

"At that stage, the Alliance party contacted the police, who said they couldn't do anything because there was no direct threat against my safety - which I thought was extraordinary."

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Some friends who were skilled with computers managed to block some of the offensive content for a while, but eventually it came back online.

The police said that, since they had no legal right to prosecute, Ms Lo should carry a personal alarm while canvassing.

The offensive YouTube content has now been removed

Originally from Hong Kong, Ms Lo is the chief executive of the Chinese Welfare Association in Northern Ireland and has been a long-term campaigner for ethnic minority communities in the province.

Her political involvement began after she launched English lessons for the Chinese community and took them on local trips.

"There were so few Chinese people that whenever I met them I started a conversation with them," she said.

"I realised how lonely and how difficult life was for them, with the majority of them coming from the new territories in Hong Kong... I set up this class for them, and I thought that, although I wasn't really a qualified English teacher, I could teach them in their own language."

But Ms Lo also stressed that, despite the racist campaign against her, she felt that being neither Catholic nor Protestant had helped her get elected.

"I think people do know where I stand - I'm in the middle ground - and so have no axe to grind for either side," she said.

"People voted for me on that basis, that I'm on bread and butter issues, not on tribal issues. And I think politicians do have to take note of that."

In the assembly election earlier this month, the DUP and Sinn Fein emerged as the two largest parties.

Their leaders have now agreed that power-sharing will begin on 8 May, meaning the assembly is on course to resume its work. The assembly has been suspended since October 2002, with the UK government running Northern Ireland's affairs.