80,000 march in Brussels to honor murdered teenager

Some 80,000 people marched through downtown Brussels on Sunday to protest against urban violence and honor a Belgian teenager stabbed to death for refusing to give robbers his MP3 player.

Gray-haired retirees and primary school kids went alongside public sector employees and private company managers in the silent march, the biggest of its kind in the country in 10 years.

No banners or placards were in sight as was requested by the relatives of the victim, who do not want the event to be turned into an instrument of a political campaign.

Joe Van Holsbeeck, 17, was stabbed five times in the chest on April 12 by two youths trying to rob his MP3 player at Brussels central train station. He had been waiting with a friend for another friend's train to arrive at that time.

The brutal killing has triggered public outrage. Many people from other parts of the country traveled to the capital on Sunday to take part in the anti-violence protest.

Speculation that the attackers were of North African appearance has generated fears of a rise in racial tension. But the family of the victim and the organizer of Sunday's march distanced themselves from any criticism targeting any specific group.

"We just have two purposes: to honor the child and to demand more security," said organizer Mr. De Viller, who is the leader of the Ocean Scouts, of which Van Holsbeeck was a member.

Women dressed in Muslim garment were also easily seen in Sunday 's march.

"The government should take tougher measures against crime," said Marianne Bneetch, a 48-year-old social security employee.

The Brussels resident said the march was the largest she has seen in the past 10 years. "I took part in the White March in 1996 which, like this one, was held in memory of murdered children and to protest against crimes," she said.

About 300,000 people attended the march a decade ago to commemorate the victims of paedophile and child killer Marc Dutroux.

Sunday's two-hour march went smoothly and was largely incident- free.

In front of the main entrance of the Brussels central train station, where the killing happened, Van Holsbeeck's parents laid a wreath and other mourners left tributes.

Video footage of the killers, recorded by surveillance cameras, have been made public and the police hope it would lead to a quick arrest of the culprits.

Source: Xinhua