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10/09/2005:

"USVI wants action on hate crimes"

St Johns, US Virgin Islands:
..."On August 30, I was raped by three white men. After they finished raping me they threw me overboard. I was bound, my lips were glued, I couldn't speak, I couldn't scream."

"Two construction workers found me and they took me to the clinic," she said.

Mrs Fretts said the men who allegedly raped her were "heavily masked" and wore gloves.

She believes she was targeted because she was the only black business owner in a certain part of the island.

Prejudice

"From the beginning when I got there, I was told that 'my kind' don't have business for long," she said. "They used to throw garbage, broken bottles, they wrote racial slurs on my door."

Dr Chenzira Kahina is a member of the group We The People For Justice which organised the weekend protest.

She explained that explained that there was a lot of racism on St John's and blamed the territory’s leadership for the situation.

"While we would like to say that we have control of our own destiny and we do have predominantly African leaders representing us, they do not focus on the needs of the people of the Virgin Islands," Dr Kahina said.

"They focus on the tourists and they also focus on the predominantly minority white investors."
bbc.co.uk