‘Language War’ Flares Up

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 13

‘Language War’ Flares Up

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright >

DIXMUDE (Belgium), August 21. Angry Flemish youths clashed with riot police in Dixmude early today as Belgium’s “language war” flared up again.

One youth was taken to hospital with serious head injuries after being clubbed by a policeman.

The police said the young demonstrators had attacked them with their fists. Two policemen were slightly injured. Ten demonstrators were arrested and driven away in a police van. Flemings are flocking into Dixmude'for a mass rally at the Yser Tower, a World War I shrine and symbol of Flemish nationalism. Time-bombs The rally comes hot on the heels of a police announcement that they have foiled a Flemish extremist plot to set off time-bombs across Belgium. The bomb plot was believed to be linked with today’s rally, and security reinforcements of black-helmeted riot police have been drafted to Dixmude. Nine members of Flemish extremist organisations, including a new “Flemish Liberation Army,” were arrested on Thursday night as they were about to leave a clandestine explosives workshop. Four were released yesterday and the other five were charged with unlawful handling and possession of explosives.

: Flemish,” and “Out with the Walloon Rats.” , Another slogan demanded . that French names and signs on shops, cafes, and hotels in tourist centres along the Belgian coast —which is in Flemish territory—should be changed into Flemish

Rivalries between the five million Flemish-speaking Belgians and the four million Walloons, whose language is French, have made the “language war” Belgium’s most bitter political problem. Autonomy Sought Extremists on both sides seek autonomy for their own linguistic regions. The emphasis in today’s rally is on the Flemish demand for the 500-year-old bilingual Catholic University of Louvain, near Brussels, to be made a purely Flemish university.

Last night uniformed youths, wearing black shirts

5-and yellow scarfs—colours of the Flemish nationalist movement carried placards through Dixmude streets with slogans reading “Louvain—