British Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said on Sunday that his ministry has “no evidence that Chinese catering was responsible for the foot-and-mouth outbreak,” despite British media reports to the contrary.
He also promised to condemn racist reporting, and to investigate claims by The Times and others that their information to this effect came from the Agriculture Ministry.
Following meeting with leaders of the Chinese community, Brown said: “The investigations into the source of the outbreak are still continuing, and ill-informed groundless speculation does nothing to help the situation."
“It would be totally unfair to make a scapegoat of the Chinese community or the Chinese restaurants. I have been concerned at the tone of some reporting, which seems close to carrying racist overtones. I find that utterly unacceptable,” he added.
On Sunday, more than 700 people from the Chinese community in Britain launched a national demonstration in Central London, urging a stop to scapegoat the Chinese for foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Meanwhile, the foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in new areas of Scotland and Wales on Sunday, sparking fears that the disease was spreading further than previously thought.
The new outbreaks came as Agriculture Minister Nick Brown admitted it will be another week before the government can be certain whether the epidemic has peaked.
(Xinhua 04/09/2001)
