Jack van Tongeren

Peter Joseph "Jack" van Tongeren (/væn ˈtɒŋərən/ van TONG-ər-ən, Dutch: [ˈpeːtər ˈjoːzə fɑn ˈtɔŋərə(n)]; born 14 December 1947) is the former leader of the West Australian Neo-Nazi group Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM), a white supremacist and far-right group, and a successor organisation called the Australian Nationalist Worker's Union (ANWU). He served 13 years, one month, and six days in prison from 1989 to 2002 for theft and arson, having robbed and firebombed businesses owned by Asians in Western Australia. In the late 1980s it was revealed Van Tongeren's father was of part-Javanese ancestry. Nevertheless, Van Tongeren resumed anti-Asian activities upon his release in 2002, leading to further convictions, in 2006.

Peter Joseph van Tongeren was born in the Netherlands on 14 December 1947 to a father of Dutch-Javanese descent, Rudi, and an Australian mother, Stella. The family later migrated to Australia. He joined the Australian army and saw action in Vietnam in 1971. Following his military service he travelled throughout Australia from 1979 to 1983 associating with a variety of far-right groups such as the South Australia League of Rights, the Tasmanian branch of the Anglo-Saxon Keltic Society (ASKS), the Sydney based group National Action (NA) and the Los Angeles-based neo-Nazi American Worker's Party.

Van Tongeren's involvement with NA led to his running, unsuccessfully, for the Senate in the 1984 election on an independent ticket, attaining just 861 votes (0.11%). He attempted to gain control of the NA, but when this failed, van Tongeren split from the group and in April 1985 formed his own organisation, the Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM).The ANM was formed in Perth, but soon afterwards gathered membership in the other Australian states. Van Tongeren styled himself as the organisation's "supreme leader", with John van Blitterswyk as second-in-command, Russell Willey as third-in-command and treasurer; other prominent members were Christoper Bartle, Wayne van Blitterswyk, Judith Lyons and Mark Ferguson.

There was also an attempt to set up a parallel group to the ANM, called the Australian Aryan Army (AAA), with John van Blitterswyk as the nominal "Commander". The ANM was conceived as the political branch of van Tongeren's organisation, with the AAA as its paramilitary and terrorist branch (a structure modelled on the Irish separatist groups of Sinn Féin and its paramilitary counterpart, the Irish Republican Army). A training facility for members was set up on a property east of Perth called 'Bindoon', containing a shelter, lookout and rifle range. In reality, however, the AAA "never moved beyond the conceptual stage".

ANM's initial actions involved an extensive flyer-distribution campaign in Perth of more than 400,000 photocopied posters. The crude posters and fliers bore repetitive messages that included phrases such as "No Asians", "White Revolution The Only Solution", "Coloured Immigration: Trickle Is Now A Flood" and "Asians Out Or Racial War" and brought the organisation to the attention of the public. ANM is believed to have had approximately 100 loosely-affiliated members by the mid-1980s.

By 1988, ANM turned towards identifying with international neo-Nazi ideology with public expressions of Antisemitism and holocaust denial.

ANM's criminal activity may have commenced in February 1988 when a member of the group's home was arsoned in a failed attempt at insurance fraud. ANM then turned towards arsoning and fire-bombing Asian-owned businesses with the intention of intimidating Asians and inciting a race war. Between September 1988 and May 1989, five restaurants were arsoned, and one was bombed leading to community tensions, vigilantism, and a decline in Asian investment.

Short on cash, ANM turned to theft, stealing an estimated $800,000 in goods during a series of warehouse robberies. They also bashed a left-wing anti-racist campaigner in a home invasion. A tip-off to the police led them to the location where ANM's stolen goods were being stored and the arrest of Van Tongeren's associates, Russell Willey and John van Blitterswyk. Willey turned informant and collected recordings of the group's leadership leading to their arrest in August 1989. Following the arrest, two other members of ANM suspected fellow member David Locke to be a police informant and lured him into a Park in the suburb of Gosnells where he was beaten with iron bars and his throat slit.