TEHRAN As ethnic riots continue in northern cities of England, the discriminatory actions and behavior of British citizens have become a real crisis for the country.

In the latest riot in the northern city of Bradford, more than 120 police and civilians were injured and 36 rioters were arrested before the violence came to an end.

Violence erupted after a group of 300 mainly Asian youths gathered Saturday afternoon for a rally held by the Anti-Nazi League after the extreme right-wing National Front announced they would hold a march in Bradford, which has an Asian population of about 100,000.

The anti-racist gathering was initially peaceful. Witnesses said trouble was sparked after a group of white men came out of a city center pub and began shouting racial insults.

The violence followed recent race riots in the northern towns of Burnley, Leeds and Oldham. Police in Oldham accused the extreme-right wing British National Party (BNP) of inciting racial hatred.

In the June 7 general election, the ultranationalist BNP polled only about 10 percent of the vote in Oldham and Burnley, both towns with large Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian communities.

Observers believe that the failure of the BNP in the recent elections was due to their racist attitude to Asians and other non-white residents. The group is believed to be the main instigator of the racial violence.

But others say this violence is the result of the compromises of successive governments, both Labour and Conservative, with racist groups and the abuse minorities have experienced at the hands of these racist groups. The main reason officials turn a blind eye to the persecution of ethnic groups in Britain is the prejudiced attitude of British leaders toward Asians and other non-whites.

Also, on Friday the British police raided a cinema screening a film on conditions in British prisons.

**** Injustice **** documents the death of a number of Black inmates in British prisons and the difficult living conditions of family members they left behind.

London radio stations repeatedly announced the screening of the film in the cinema in the center of London, and the announcements seem to have attracted the attention of the police, who later stopped the screening of the film.

One of the directors of *** Injustice***, Tariq Mahmoud, said that during the five years it took to make the film they learned of many incidents of brutality committed in British prisons, many more than they had at first anticipated or expected. He said they even came across cases of murder which were not followed up by the police.

As a whole, the two directors said, there is a conspiracy of silence which is maintained with official approval over the deaths in British jails and the film aims to break the silence and tell the truth for the first time.

These developments show that British officials can no longer hide the institutional racism which exists in Britain and not only do not have a solution to the problem, but very often condone the activities of the different racist groups.