Headlines 27 October, 2006
MINISTER TO TACKLE HUMAN TRAFFICKING(Norway)
The Ministry for Social Affairs will use a multi-million kroner allocation to stop prostitution and other forms of slave labour
25/10/2006 - A new initiative from the Ministry for Social Affairs and Gender Equality hopes to make inroads into the underworld of human trafficking by offering confidential health checks to the illegal workers. The minister for social affairs, Eva Kjer Hansen, plans to intensify scrutiny of areas where slave labour may exist, particularly prostitution. As part of this initiative, fully discreet health care clinics where illegal workers can receive treatment will be established nationwide. The centres will be based on a proven existing model, the Pro Vejle prostitution centre. 'The centre has proved to be a good way of making contact with women from an otherwise closed environment,' said Hansen. Human trafficking is not only a problem in third-world and Eastern European countries. Denmark is unfortunately also an end station for people - especially women - forced to work under degrading conditions and without basic human rights. The new initiative is supported by a DKK 70 million government allocation, to be used over the next four years. Although the initiative will continue to concentrate on women and prostitution, it will also focus on all forms of slave labour. 'The field work has to be strengthened, and therefore I plan to coordinate it and broaden it to the entire country,' said Hansen. Until now, organisations such as Stop Woman Trafficking and Pro Vejle have had to seek out women forced into prostitution on the streets or at other clinics. Besides the obvious health risks involved in prostitution, another major concern has been the problem of what happens to those women when they are expelled from Denmark. Hansen has therefore invited ministers from all the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as those lands neighbouring the Baltic countries, to a meeting next week to discuss the issue of human trafficking.
© The Copenhagen Post
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PUTS OFF ISRAEL TRIP OVER FAR-RIGHT MEP(Belgium)
26/10/2006 - A European Parliament delegation to the Middle East, including Israel, has been thrown into disarray by the presence of far-right politician Marine Le Pen on the 16-strong list of MEPs. Scheduled to begin next 28 October and run to 4 November, the trip has now been postponed because the group ran into problems with the Israeli authorities over National Front member Mrs Le Pen, daughter of party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. "The composition of the delegation which includes a person coming from a party whose ranks are linked to anti-semitism and holocaust deniers made it very, very difficult for us," an Israeli diplomat told EUobserver. The diplomat added that it is now up to the European Parliament to contact the Israelis about a new date and trip. The decision to postpone the date – officially for "technical reasons" - was taken at Thursday's (26 October) weekly meeting of the political group leaders in the parliament and came after several days diplomatic to-ing and fro-ing to try and find an acceptable solution for all sides. The draft agenda had included meetings in Israel with prime minister Ehud Olmert, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and defence minister Amir Peretz. But with the Israelis refusing to schedule high-level meetings with a delegation including Mrs Le Pen, the MEPs risked going to Israel and being ignored by all politicians of consequence making it "rather pointless" as one parliament official said. On the other hand, according to the official, there was concern on the parliament's side that a national government should not be allowed to dictate the composition of the group. MEPs are usually quite adamant about this principle, cancelling a delegation to Turkey recently because the Turkish authorities were objecting to the presence of a Cypriot MEP in the delegation.
Division
The official noted that it is likely to be quite difficult to find a solution on the Israeli delegation in the near future as the participation list has been set, indicating that a lot of negotiation with the non-attached MEPs, to whom Mrs Le Pen belongs, is in the offing. Prior to the postponement decision, members of the delegation were themselves divided on the issue with some wanting to cancel because the trip would be meaningless and others fearing that cancelling the trip would give a platform to the National Front. Speaking before Thursday's decision was announced, Irish centre-right MEP Simon Coveney, on the delegation list, told EUobserver that he believed the trip should go ahead. "I don't think we should be cancelling the event … personally I am going because I am interested [in the issue]." He added that any members of a parliament delegation have to remember that they are representing the views of the EU assembly and not their own personal view points. Meanwhile, National Front deputy Bruno Gollnisch in plenary on Thursday praised the parliament for taking the decision to postpone the delegation rather than let a government dictate its makeup.
© EUobserver
DEBATE ON VEIL SHOWS HOW WEST IS TURNING ON ISLAM, SCHOLAR WARNS(uk)
27/10/2006 - A leading Muslim scholar has said the debate on women wearing veils highlights a growing "global polarisation" between the West and the Islamic world. Tariq Ramadan, a visiting professor at Oxford University told an interfaith conference in London yesterday that the debate sparked by Jack Straw, who said the veil hampered integration, was part of a global phenomenon in which a "them versus us" attitude was being fostered between Muslims and non-Muslims. "The atmosphere has deteriorated in the last year or so," Professor Ramadan said. "It's not only a British reality, but European and American. "To nurture this polarisation is the easiest way for politicians when we don't have social policy. The most dangerous thing is the normalisation of this discourse." The Venerable Michael Fox, Archdeacon of West Ham, echoed Professor Ramadan's sentiments, and said he was worried by the rise of the far-right in Barking and Dagenham. "There has been a normalisation of far-right discourse in the last couple of years," he said. "I grew up in Barking and Dagenham, which now has 12 BNP councillors, and I have listened to people's concerns which include all sorts of fantasies. At the heart of it is the question, 'how do I live with difference?'."
Professor Ramadan said British Muslims should not adopt a "victim mentality" or react "emotionally" to controversial statements made by politicians. Earlier this month, Mr Straw, the Commons leader, triggered a storm when he said he asked women to remove the veil when he met them because it was a "visible statement of separation". Tony Blair was among a number of politicians who supported him. This week, Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, said the discussion had "deteriorated" since it was first raised and he feared that the Muslim community was being unfairly targeted. Professor Ramadan, who was speaking alongside an expert panel in east London yesterday, including Sheikh Abu Sayeed, chair of the Islamic Sharia Council of Britain, Tahir Alam, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, and the Archdeacon, stressed that a mature debate from inside the community was welcomed by him, and that, "we should say thank you for the question". He said: "We know we have a problem in the Muslim community. We better start discussion from within." He also believed that the wearing of the niqab was not compulsory for Muslim women but only meant historically for the wives of the Prophet Mohamed. The United by Faith conference, hosted by Da'watul Islam UK & Eire, in Tower Hamlets, was attended by community and political leaders as well as senior Metropolitan Police officers. It was the first face-to-face meeting between Islamic scholars and the public in which direct questions about the veil could be posed to the experts.
© Independent Digital
MOHAMMED CARTOON NEWSPAPER ACQUITTED(Denmark)
The drawings of Mohammed printed in Jyllands-Posten newspaper were not racist, a court in Århus has decided
26/10/2006 - Two editors of Jyllands-Posten newspaper have been acquitted of racism charges stemming from its publication of 12 drawings of the prophet Mohammed in September 2005. Seven Muslim organisations had charged editor in chief Carsten Juste and culture editor Flemming Rose with racism in civil suit. The court said the organisations had not proven that the drawings or the accompanying articles had intentionally offended Muslims. The decision is the third time the Muslim organisations have had their efforts to have the newspaper charged with racism turned down by the courts. They will appeal today's decision. The courts rejected other attempts to have the paper tried for criminal charges of blasphemy, racism and hate speech. The decision came as no surprise to Juste. 'Anything other than an acquittal would have been a catastrophe for freedom of the press,' he said. 'You can say what you want about the drawings and the decision to publish them, but the paper's inalienable right to do so has been confirmed by the courts.' Representatives from Muslim organisations were disappointed with the decision, but said they would respect it. Others said they feared it would re-open sores created by violent protests against Denmark earlier this year. 'The court has given Jyllands-Posten the right to offend Muslims and Muslims' feelings and to associate us with terrorism,' said Kasem Said Ahmad, the spokesman for the Islamic Faith Association, one of the groups bringing charges. 'I don't think anyone will understand the decision,' he added, referring to how it would be received by Muslims in Denmark and abroad. Ahmad added that his group would use 'all the legal options available to it' to try to overturn the decision and win 'society's understanding' for its position.
© The Copenhagen Post
JOBS, RACE, INTEGRATION: FRANCE YET TO BREAK DOWN BARRIERS
25/10/2006 - Tackling racism and discrimination was declared a top priority after riots broke out in high-immigration suburbs across France, but the country is still struggling to break down the barriers one year on. President Jacques Chirac, in a solemn address at the height of the troubles, vowed to combat the "poison of discrimination", telling black and Arab youths from the run-down areas that they too were "children of the Republic". But while the riots forced France to take a closer look at ethnic discrimination -- north and west African immigrants and their children are underrepresented in public life and harder hit by unemployment -- there have been few signs of radical change. State watchdogs have been given new powers to root out discrimination in the job market and the media, and the issue has been firmly thrust to the centre of public debate ahead of next year's presidential elections. Symbolic changes -- such as the temporary appointment of a black newsreader on the main television news, or the box office success of a recent film, "Days of Glory", on World War II soldiers from France's African colonies -- were also seen as steps in the right direction. But Mouloud Aounit, secretary general of the MRAP anti-racism group, says that although ethnic diversity is "accepted in sports and show-business, in politics and the media, France is still very far behind." Meanwhile, on the central issue of jobs, random tests show that an applicant with a north African-sounding name has five times less chance of securing an interview than one with a traditionally "French" surname.
For many black and Arab youths in riot-hit areas, where unemployment rates among 15-24 year-olds reach twice the national average, the outlook is bleak. Yazid, a 25-year-old of Algerian origin from the Bosquets housing estate in Seine-Saint-Denis north of Paris, has been unable to find a job despite his masters degree in marketing, "I got four interviews in the past year -- and each time they made me feel like they didn't want an Arab, they kept asking me about where I live and whether my qualifications were real," he said. "A lot of promises were made during and after the riots, but we haven't seen anything concrete." "Discrimination is a massive problem in France," French recruitment specialist Alain Gavand confirmed in a recent interview, calling for a "radical change of mindset, for companies to really start thinking in terms of merit and talent -- not just diplomas." Many top French companies will only consider graduates from the country's elite "Grandes Ecoles" -- to which even the brightest of black or Arab students from the suburbs rarely think of applying.
French companies and unions are currently negotiating on the terms of a "diversity charter", but one strong initiative to fight discrimination, anonymous job resumes, was recently dropped by the government in the face of resistance from the business community.
Meanwhile there is still powerful resistance in France towards US-style affirmative action to favour minorities -- despite pressure from the government whose Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is a champion of the idea. "Positive discrimination" is the subject of fierce debate in France, where its critics argue that it undermines the Republican principle of equal citizenship regardless of race or religion.
For the same reasons, France bans any study based on racial, religious or ethnic origin, making it hard to measure the problem of discrimination. The education ministry came under fire recently for a study that tried to pinpoint a link between school performance and a child's country of origin. Some academics favour loosening the rules, arguing that after the riots an accurate picture of France's ethnic mix is increasingly urgent, but many rights groups are adamant that "racial profiling" leads to harmful sterotyping.
© The Tocqueville Connection
ANGLICAN LEADER BACKS RIGHT TO WEAR VEIL AND CROSS(uk)
27/10/2006 - Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said on Friday he opposed any government interference in a Muslim woman's right to wear a veil or a Christian's right to wear a cross. Senior British government minister Jack Straw sparked heated debate earlier this month by saying Muslim women who wore full veils made community relations harder. Prime Minister Tony Blair later called the veil "a mark of separation". "The ideal of a society where no visible public signs of religion would be seen -- no crosses around necks, no sidelocks, turbans or veils -- is a politically dangerous one," said Williams, head of the world's 77 million Anglicans. "It assumes that what comes first in society is the central political 'licensing authority', which has all the resource it needs to create a workable public morality," he wrote in an article in the Times newspaper. Blair and other European leaders have said the wearing of full veils presents difficulties for their nations with Muslim communities and immigrants needing to integrate into Western societies. The question of whether Europe is doing enough to integrate Muslims has been urgently addressed by governments since British-born Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in attacks on London's transport system in July 2005. But some Muslims say there is increasing "Islamophobia".
"The proverbial visitor from Mars might have imagined that the greatest immediate threat to British society was religious war, fomented by 'faith schools', cheered on by thousands of veiled women and the Bishops' benches in the House of Lords," said Williams. Last week, a British employment tribunal ruled a Muslim teaching assistant had not been discriminated against when the school where she worked asked her to remove her veil. Earlier, a British Airways worker said she was sent home for refusing to conceal a small Christian cross while on duty.
© Reuters AlertNet
EXHIBITION EXPLODES MYTH OF SPONGING REFUGEES(uk)
27/10/2006 - One is a doctor who fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq and now runs a £1m felafel business. Another is a young Polish Roma woman who captains a boys' football team while another is a Kurdish separatist with a flourishing acting career. The courage of Britain's refugees and their contribution to their adoptive nation were yesterday highlighted in a new exhibition designed to refute the image of asylum-seekers as a social and financial burden. The show at the Museum of London, entitled Belonging, took two years to produce and is the first major exhibition in Britain focused on refugees. It tells the stories of 150 refugees who arrived in the UK in the past 50 years from countries including Germany, Bosnia, Chile and Eritrea. Organisers said it was an attempt to redress the balance against the portrayal of refugees as "swamping" Britain in search of a lifestyle unavailable in their native countries. The exhibition, which includes a display of alarmist headlines about asylum-seekers from newspapers including the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, was conceived by a refugee agency in London after it was inundated with complaints from clients that their image was being distorted. Tzeggai Deres, the Eritrean director of the Evelyn Oldfield Unit and the creator of the exhibition, said: "A certain image has been created of refugees. Britain has a fine tradition of welcoming outsiders, reinforced by an inherent sense of justice and democracy. But the right-wing media has created confusion and frightened people who think their country is being invaded. In reality, refugees are people who have overcome adversity to come here and make a difference. It is time to make their stories better known."
The project recorded the oral history of each featured refugee, amassing tape recordings from 15 communities. The footage, which took two years to collect and has been stored in a sound archive, would take 400 hours to play back. Organisers said they wanted the recordings to be used to inform future generations of refugees and their children of the challenges and successes of their predecessors.
Nearly a quarter of refugees who arrive in Britain have a university degree from their native country, underlining the fact that many become successful professionals or entrepreneurs once settled in the UK. Among those featured in the exhibition are doctors, teachers, restaurateurs, scientists, a bus driver, a driving instructor and an engineer. The stories range from Shabibi Shah, a poet who fled Afghanistan in 1984 to protect her teenage son from conscription and now works as a charity trustee, to Tesfay Sebhat, a blind Eritrean refugee and now a youth worker who arrived in Britain on Guy Fawkes' night and thought the explosions were fighting between the British authorities and the IRA. Among the items on display are memorabilia, including a model of a refugee centre housed in a north London church, built by two women from Iran and Albania, and the Arsenal shirt worn by a Congolese teenager, Fabrice Muamba, in his first game for the club. But with applications for asylum standing at 25,720 last year, compared to 6,156 in 1986, participants in the project said they were concerned that there has been a change in British attitudes towards refugees. Mahdi Mahdi, who left Iraq in 1979 following intimidation from Saddam Hussein's Baathist movement and now employs 30 people in his Middle Eastern food company, said: "It worries me that the traditional culture of welcome is being eroded. It might not be obvious but it is easier to say something against asylum-seekers now than in sympathy for them. That is a big change since I arrived." The exhibition, which is free, will run until 25 February.
© Independent Digital
POLICE UNABLE TO SHUT DOWN NEO-NAZI WEBPAGE BASED IN US(Czech Republic)
26/10/2006 - The police have been unable to shut down a webpage of the National Socialist Education Centre, which openly promotes Nazism, as its creators have based it in Atlanta, where the promotion of Fascism is not a criminal act, TV Nova reports. US authorities rejected a request for help from the Czech police, Nova said. The appeals published at the controversial web page have hurt representatives of the Czech Freedom Fighters association of WWII veterans and the Jewish and Romany communities. While promotion of fascism is not illegal in the US, anyone from the Czech Republic posting racist texts on the Internet is liable to criminal prosecution, Hantak said, adding that first police must find the computer and find the incriminating evidence on it. The web page in question promotes the former National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). The police said earlier that they were prosecuting two persons in connection with the case. "We have been watching the web page for some time. It is created by a number of persons and also includes the Internet magazine Last Generation, whose two editors are being prosecuted for some racially-motivated crimes," Blanka Kosinova, spokeswoman for the police squad for uncovering of organised crime (UOOZ), told Nova on Wednesday.
© Prague Daily Monitor
CALL TO MAKE STUDY OF ISLAM MAINSTREAM(uk)
26/10/2006 - Leading Muslim academics in Scotland yesterday described the study of Islam in Britain's higher education institutions as divisive and insular. A report by experts from Dundee University claims that only when Islamic education becomes mainstream will extremism and fundamentalism be eliminated. The report, entitled Time for Change, says Islamic studies in universities and colleges are not meeting the needs of the UK's multicultural society. It calls for Islamic studies to be brought into the mainstream of the university curriculum rather than being consigned to religious affairs or Islamic studies departments. The report, written by Professor Abd al Fattah El Awaisi and Professor Malory Nye from Dundee's Al Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies claims education structures are "letting down" Muslims. They are calling for a "new agenda" offering education which is more relevant to contemporary Britain with a more multicultural approach. Prof El Awaisi said a new agenda was necessary to prevent the misguided and narrow interpretation of Islam which is the source of so many problems in Britain's multicultural society. "It is only through multicultural education we can work to eliminate extremism and fundamentalism," he added.
The report found most British non-Muslims do not understand what makes Muslims "tick". "Many British communities, including British Muslims, have failed to understand each other. There is mutual incomprehension and this can only be addressed by education," it says.
It adds that Muslim schools and colleges run by Muslims for Muslims is not the answer. "Multiculturalism is not about separatism, ghetto-isation or Balkanisation, it is instead recognition of diversity, the need for common ground, mutual respect and cultural engagement," it says. The report adds that some departments concentrated on "out-of-date and irrelevant issues", while others chose local religious leaders as lecturers for reasons of "political correctness". It also criticised some Muslim institutions for focusing on their own political links and agendas and not those of multicultural Britain. The report makes recommendations including a government-commissioned study on Muslim institutions and their place in the development of Islam as an integral part of multicultural British society. It also calls for Muslim institutions to be encouraged to integrate into the British higher education system. With more than 1.5 million British Muslims living in the UK, they make up the largest non-Christian grouping. Prof Nye said: "All those who participate in the development of this area of higher education have the responsibility to respond to the new realities of multicultural Britain."
© The Herald
BERLIN POLICE SAY 16 ARRESTED DURING NEO-NAZI DEMONSTRATION
22/10/2006 - Sixteen neo-Nazis were arrested during a demonstration supporting the jailed lead singer of a banned skinhead rock group, Berlin police said Sunday, amid concerns far-right extremists are becoming more active and more violent. Some 750 neo-Nazis and other far-right supporters turned out Saturday outside of a Berlin prison to call for the release of Michael Regener, who has been jailed since 2003, when a Berlin court found his rock band Landser, or Foot Soldiers, guilty of spreading hate in their songs against Jews and foreigners. The demonstration was organized by the far-right National Democratic Party, which last month won representation in the state legislature of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The party, which is growing in popularity in the former East Germany, also holds seats in Saxony's state parliament, where another extremist party is also represented. Mainstream politicians and Jewish leaders have expressed concern that far-right groups, including violent neo-Nazis, are growing in strength, particularly in the east.
Experts say they are exploiting the region's shallow democratic roots after decades of communism and tapping frustration at the depressed local economy. Israeli Ambassador Shimon Stein warned over the weekend that Jews in Germany feel increasingly "unsafe," pointing to the heavy security that surrounds most synagogues or Jewish community centers, according to a newspaper report. "They are not able to live a normal Jewish life," Stein was quoted as telling the Neue Osnabruecker newspaper in its Saturday edition, calling on Germans to take extra measures to fight the trend of what he called rising anti-Semitism. Last week, the German government committed an additional €5 million (US$6.3 million) to nationwide programs aimed at fighting far-right extremism, including teams of traveling consultants, and victims' groups.
© International Herald Tribune
APARTHEID VICTIMS DEMAND SWISS COMPENSATION
The Swiss government has been called on to apologise to and compensate South African victims of human rights abuses for its policies during apartheid.
26/10/2006 - The Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign (ADR) has sent an open letter to the government, which it accuses of helping prolong murder, abduction, rape, forced resettlement, torture, repression and other state-approved crimes. The letter was signed by 268 Swiss personalities and 17 organisations involved in politics, culture, science, religion and development. The ADR also criticised the Swiss government for not taking part in international sanctions against the South African regime. The letter comes exactly a year after research was published by the Swiss National Science Foundation concluding that Switzerland considered trade freedom to be more important than human rights in its dealings with the apartheid regime in South Africa. The government refused to comment on the report.
"Relations between Switzerland and South Africa", carried out by Bern University historian Peter Hug, was the last of ten reports into the issue. It revealed that Swiss connections to South Africa were closest during the 1980s, at the height of human rights abuses and repression of the black resistance movement by the white minority. These military, intelligence service, armaments industry and nuclear relations were closer than previously thought. The Swiss authorities at the time justified their involvement with Pretoria by arguing that South Africa was a bastion against communism, but Hug said that while Switzerland's decision not to apply international sanctions against South Africa benefited the apartheid regime in Pretoria, it did not extend its existence.
Legal rejection
In November 2004 a United States judge rejected a class-action lawsuit brought by victims of apartheid against major multinationals, including leading Swiss banks. The litigation, filed in New York on behalf of thousands of black South Africans, accused around 30 multinationals – including Swiss firms UBS, Credit Suisse, Nestlé, Novartis, Unaxis, Sulzer, Holcim and Ems Chemie – of supporting the former apartheid system. The judge called the actions of the apartheid regime "repugnant" and said decisions by the corporations to do business with it may have been "morally suspect or embarrassing". But he said there was no meaningful assertion by the plaintiffs that actions by these firms directly caused the alleged murders, torture, crimes against humanity and other heinous acts in South Africa from 1948 until 1984.
© Swissinfo
VANDALS SET BUSES ON FIRE IN PARIS SUBURBS
26/10/2006 - Masked vandals set ablaze two buses near Paris overnight in an upsurge of violence ahead of the first anniversary of France's suburban riots, police said on Thursday, prompting opposition calls for the government to act. Passengers managed to escape from the buses in the western suburb of Nanterre and the eastern suburb of Bagnolet before the flames engulfed the interiors. French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told iTELE television the vandals were guilty of "attempted murder". The overnight incidents followed a daylight assault on a bus on Sunday. Youths on ethnically mixed estates around Paris have also staged several apparently concerted attacks on security forces in recent weeks. Police say the violence has been building ahead of the October 27 anniversary of last year's riots in which angry youths from mainly immigrant backgrounds burnt cars and wrecked shops for three weeks in a protest blamed on poverty and discrimination. Police union spokesman Dominique Planchon told iTELE television on Thursday that six unidentified individuals boarded the Nanterre bus and sprayed it with inflammable liquid. "According to our information, the driver's dexterity and alertness enabled the evacuation of the 10 people (passengers) without there being any injuries," he said.
In the Bagnolet attack, one assailant held a pistol to the head of a bus driver while others forced passengers to get off before they set the bus on fire. Cars are regularly torched in France's poor, ethnically mixed suburbs but attacks on buses are rare. In the first six months of 2006, some 21,000 cars were burnt out and some 2,882 attacks registered against the police, fire and ambulance services, the RG police intelligence service said. The leftist opposition accused the government on Thursday of not doing enough to resolve tensions in the deprived suburbs that ring most French cities. "It is about time the government reacted. This is an emergency," the Communist party, which traditionally draws heavy support in the capital's housing estates, said in a statement. However, Equal Opportunities Minister Azouz Begag defended the government's record on crime in a newspaper column published on Thursday in French daily La Tribune. "The government has got the message of the suburbs. We learnt all the lessons and we came out stronger," he said.
© Reuters
IN TIGHT RACE, AD ON BLACK CANDIDATE STIRS FUROR(USA)
25/10/2006 - The Tennessee Senate race, one of the most competitive and potentially decisive battles of the midterm election, became even more unpredictable this week after a furor over a Republican television commercial that stood out even in a year of negative advertising. The commercial, financed by the Republican National Committee, was aimed at Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., the black Democrat from Memphis whose campaign for the Senate this year has kept the Republicans on the defensive in a state where they never expected to have trouble holding the seat. The spot, which was first broadcast last week and was disappearing from the air on Wednesday, featured a series of people in mock man-on-the street interviews talking sarcastically about Mr. Ford and his stands on issues including the estate tax and national security. The controversy erupted over one of the people featured: an attractive white woman, bare-shouldered, who declares that she met Mr. Ford at a “Playboy party,” and closes the commercial by looking into the camera and saying, with a wink, “Harold, call me.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Ford, who is single, said he was one of 3,000 people who attended a Playboy party at the Super Bowl last year in Jacksonville, Fla.
Critics asserted that the advertisement was a clear effort to play to racial stereotypes and fears, essentially, playing the race card in an election where Mr. Ford is trying to break a century of history and become the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction. Hilary Shelton, director of the N.A.A.C.P.’s Washington bureau, said the spot took aim at the sensitivities many Americans still have about interracial dating. John Geer, a professor at Vanderbilt University and a specialist in political advertising, said that it “is playing to a lot of fears” and “frankly makes the Willie Horton ad look like child’s play.” Professor Geer was alluding to the case of a convicted black murderer used in Republican commercials contending that the 1988 Democratic nominee for president, Michael S. Dukakis, was soft on crime. Mr. Ford has been campaigning as an independent, new generation Democrat dedicated to changing the atmosphere in Washington; to putting more attention on the needs of the middle class and on bread and butter issues like health care and to bringing a fresh approach to the war in Iraq. He has strongly resisted Republican efforts to pigeonhole him as a liberal. Bob Corker, the Republican candidate, offers himself as committed to Tennessee values, with a track record in business and public life of solving problems, in contrast to what he asserts is Mr. Ford’s “total life experience” in Washington politics and serving the Ford political dynasty in Memphis.
The debate over the spot was more impassioned on the campaign trail Wednesday, when Mr. Ford and his allies took their bus across a wide swath of eastern and middle Tennessee, campaigning in small towns and courthouse squares. Representative Lincoln Davis, the conservative Democrat from the heavily rural district in the state’s midsection, introduced Mr. Ford at a rally in Crossville with a fierce attack on the advertisement. “I’m ashamed at what I see Republicans putting out today,” Mr. Davis declared, as an overwhelmingly white audience of more than a hundred cheered on the small town square. “You tell Karl Rove that we don’t want this stuff on TV in Tennessee. We don’t want our kids seeing that.” Mr. Ford told his audience here, and elsewhere in recent days, that the attacks were simply a sign of desperation, a sign the Republicans have nothing else to say. He added, “You know your opponent is scared when his main opposition against you is, ‘My opponent likes girls.’ ” The audience erupted in laughter. “You know it’s a big problem if at the end of a race, if the best they can come up with is this sleaze they’re putting up,” he said. In an interview, Mr. Ford demurred when asked if he thought the advertisement was injecting race into the campaign. “You need to ask those people over there what they tried to do with that ad,” he said. “It’s tasteless, but I’ve come to expect that from my opponent.”
Mr. Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga, quickly tried to distance his campaign from the advertisement. The Corker campaign had been claiming momentum in recent days, citing a flurry of recent polls indicating the Republican had regained a slight lead after steadying its message and its campaign organization. A spokesman for the Corker campaign, Todd Womack, said the campaign was pleased that the spot had been taken off the air. “It was tacky, over the top,” Mr. Womack said. “Tennesseans deserve better.” The spot was paid for by the Republican National Committee but was produced by an independent expenditure group that is supposed to have an arm’s length relationship with the actual campaigns. As a result, Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said he did not see the spot before it was broadcast and did not have the power to order it removed. Even so, Mr. Mehlman said he did not see a racial subtext to the ad. “I will tell you that when I looked at the ad, that was not my reaction,” he said. “I hear and respect people who had a different reaction, and I hope they respect me, too.” Moreover, Republican spokesmen said they did not believe the advertisement had been taken off the air in response to the controversy, but had simply, in the words of one, “run its course.”
The furor puts Mr. Mehlman in a difficult position. He has spent considerable time as the national chairman preaching the inclusiveness of the Republican Party and its openness to black candidates and black voters. He said in an interview Wednesday night that he did not believe that this would damage his Republican outreach efforts. Officials with the Republican independent expenditure committee, who include longtime allies of the Bush political circle, did not respond to requests for comment. The Senate race here is one of three, along with Missouri and Virginia, that are pivotal to control of the Senate, and all three are considered neck-and-neck. Mr. Ford and Mr. Corker are seeking the seat left vacant by the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, who is retiring. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll published this week showed Mr. Corker leading Mr. Ford, 49 percent to 44 percent. The poll was conducted last Friday through Monday, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. If he wins, the campaign Mr. Ford has been running here will be considered a roadmap for Democrats in conservative and rural areas. Mr. Davis invariably introduced him this week as a man who would never “take away your Bible or your gun,” but would raise the minimum wage so people could afford them. With just 13 days to go, Mr. Ford is generating an intense response on the campaign trail as elderly white women reach for his hand and tell him they are praying for him, and he is swamped by autograph hunters and picture takers. At one point, Mr. Davis’s eyes welled up as Mr. Ford worked his way through a crowd — largely friendly, although not entirely so — at a heavily Republican barbecue. “You’re watching history,” Mr. Davis said. Mr. Ford said later that he was not thinking history. “I’m trying to win a race,” he said, before he jumped into his bus, whose destination sign read, “success express.”
© The New York Times
NEW JERSEY BACKS SAME SEX MARRIAGE(USA)
26/10/2006 - New Jersey’s lesbian and gay community is waking up to the potential of fairer and equal rights this morning after the state’s Supreme Court agreed that blocking same sex marriage is unconstitutional. In a move universally welcomed by gay groups across the US, the court agreed by a 4-3 split vote decision that the state legislature should allow same sex marriage and equalise gay rights. Justice Barry Albin, who authored the 66 page majority ruling said unequal rights can no longer be tolerated, “[The] unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our State Constitution. “Our decision significantly advances the civil rights of gays and lesbians. We have decided that our State Constitution guarantees that every statutory right and benefit conferred to heterosexual couples through civil marriage must be made available to committed same-sex couples.” Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of gay group, Family Pride, described the ruling as a depiction of the “real needs of the LGBT community.”
She said: “The unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court ruling speaks to the very real needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) headed families and recognises our need to protect one another and our children.
Ms Chrisler said a change in the law would make it easier for children of same sex parents to explain to others that their mums or dads are married. She warned that a new law must give full marriage rights. The case was brought by gay law group Lambda Legal in June 2002 on behalf of seven same-sex couples seeking marriage. After appealing at both the trial court and middle appellate court levels, the last stop for this case was the New Jersey Supreme Court. David Buckel, the group’s Marriage Project Director, expressed hope that a law would be passed quickly, “The Legislature cares about families and helping people be more responsible for each other and their children, so we hope it will pass a law quickly to honor the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.” Joel Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, applauded the decision he said, “We congratulate and commend the work of Lambda Legal and the plaintiff couples who had the courage and resolve to bring this case forward.” However, he warned that an upcoming vote on the Federal Defence of Marriage Act risks taking those rights away, “Although this case is a major step forward in ending discrimination, a federal law, the so-called Defence of Marriage Act, denies same-sex couples over 1,000 protections, and puts these couples at risk that they will not be recognised as families when they cross state lines.”
The plaintiffs in the case were Mark Lewis and Dennis Winslow, two Episcopalian pastors from Union City, Hudson County, Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden, who have been together 17 years and are raising a seven-year-old son, Kasey, and three-year-old daughter Maya; Saundra Heath-Toby and Alicia Toby-Heath, Craig Hutchison and Chris Lodewyks, who have been a couple for 35 years and live in Pompton Lakes; Marilyn Maneely and Diane Marini, a southern New Jersey couple who were together for 14 years before Marilyn died tragically in the fall of 2005, Sarah and Suyin Lael, a 16-year couple raising three girls, nine-year-old Zenzali, seven-year-old Tanaj and six-year-old Danica; and Maureen Kilian and Cindy Meneghin, a couple of 32 years with a 14-year-old son, Josh, and an 12-year-old daughter, Sarah. Massachusetts is currently the only state which allows same sex marriage, but Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin are all set to vote on the issue next month. The ruling comes ahead of Congress elections on November 7 and several gay rights votes across many US states on gay army recruits, same sex marriage and hate crimes.
© Pink News
ROMA IN GREECE FIND LIMITS TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY
25/10/2006 - Home, for Antonis Georgopoulos, his wife, and their six children, was always the same shed without electricity or running water on a patch of wasteland in Patras, the Greek port city chosen as the European cultural capital for this year. But in late August, Georgopoulos, 23, returned from a summer job to find the house reduced to rubble after the local authorities carried out a “clean-up” of the city’s two Roma settlements, Riganokambos and Makriyiannis. The family members now sleep in his pickup truck. They are among about 400 Roma to have lost their homes since July in Patras, a lively trade and transport hub of about 250,000 people that is about 220 kilometers, or 135 miles, west of Athens and is known as Greece’s “Gateway to the West.” When the European Union selected Patras as cultural capital of Europe, the authorities here pledged to “celebrate cultural diversity.” But in an election year, efforts have focused on attracting foreign musicians and performers to the city, not on promoting tolerance toward a stigmatized minority. Public opposition to the Roma was on display before municipal elections this month in a city center buzzing with students and other Patras natives who had come to vote. A banner reading: “No more Roma in Riganokambos” stood out amid a sea of campaign posters. Many here believe the evictions were carried out before the two-stage municipal elections, which concluded Sunday, to win the votes of citizens reluctant to share their city with the Roma and their crude wooden shacks. While the incumbent Socialists won the runoff, their conservative challengers had also declared their intention of clearing out the city’s Roma. Human rights groups, however, protested the Roma evictions, hastening a visit last month by the European human rights commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, to inspect the sites. “There are real problems in Patras,” Hammarberg said in an interview by telephone. “Many families have been evicted without being given adequate notice or a real alternative.”
The Patras evictions this summer follow a pattern of expulsions in Greece. In 1997, about 2,000 Roma, who are often known as Gypsies, were expelled from a rundown district of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city; they camped on the banks of the Gallikos river for three years before being relocated to a former military barracks. In 2003, about 200 Roma were removed from the affluent Athens suburb of Maroussi to make way for the Olympic complex before the 2004 Games. Currently, about 200 Roma face eviction from a large site in Votanikos, central Athens, that is earmarked for the construction of a soccer stadium and the capital’s first mosque by 2009. Elsewhere in Europe, 109 Roma were expelled from the Albanian village of Elbasan in July, and 200 from the village of Dorozhny in Kaliningrad, western Russia, in June, Hammarberg said. While there are no official statistics on the Roma of Greece, nongovernment organizations and the European Council estimate that there are 200,000 to 300,000 in hundreds of settlements across the country, at least half of them living in extreme poverty. Conditions are equally precarious for many of the 8 million to 10 million Roma living across Europe, a third of them in Romania and Bulgaria. Hammarberg emphasized the need for state intervention to ensure that the Roma were treated fairly in Patras and elsewhere. “That abusive decisions sometimes are taken at local level does not absolve the central government of responsibility,” he said. Abet Hasman, the deputy mayor of Patras and head of the municipal social services unit that ordered the recent evictions here, said he would welcome government mediation. The municipality is renting apartments for 18 to 22 of about 70 evicted families, Hasman said, “until the government approves loan applications for them to buy their own homes.” This version was disputed by Panayiotis Dimitras of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, a nongovernmental organization. “Most local Roma are sleeping rough, have left Patras or are looking for a home,” he said, “so where are these relocated Roma?”
The Georgopoulos family, for example, was not offered new housing. Instead, they said, the authorities gave them just €200, or 0, in compensation for the loss of their home. The police, meanwhile, are conducting regular patrols to force out the last few residents, and rubble is being dumped on the site. During a 30-minute visit to Riganokambos, a reporter saw two trucks loaded with debris dump their loads next to the last shack standing. “They threaten to arrest us if we don’t take our sheds down,” said Brigis Danopoulos, 16, after a night in detention. “This rubble has been dumped here to stop us from rebuilding demolished homes.” For the evicted families, financial hardship is not the only problem. Georgios Michalakopoulos and his family are now in their fourth home in two months since leaving Riganokambos. “Landlords do not want Gypsies in their homes,” said Michalakopoulos, 50, who now shares a room in central Patras with his wife and three daughters. According to Yiannis Halilopoulos, president of the Union of Greek Gypsies, ignorance feeds the problem. “The roots of racism against Gypsies are not very deep,” said Halilopoulos, who believes a campaign to educate schoolchildren about the Roma would erode prejudices. “Calling us Roma makes us sound foreign,” he said. “We are Greek.” The Tzigano, or Gypsy, element, he said, “relates to our tradition, our music, not our nationality.”
© Dzeno Association
GERMAN RAIL WON'T HOST HOLOCAUST EXHIBITION
24/10/2006 - German rail provider Deutsche Bahn came under fire from French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld on Tuesday for refusing to allow an exhibition on Jewish children sent to death camps to be shown in its stations. "We have noted with regret that the man whose predecessors transported millions of Jews to death camps has objected to an exhibition that would have drawn the attention of thousands of Germans to this tragedy," Klarsfeld said in a statement. He was referring to Deutsche Bahn chief Hartmut Mehdorn, who has said that stations were not a suitable setting for the exhibition highlighting the plight of 11,000 Jewish children who were deported from France to the Auschwitz death camp between 1942 and 1944. "The subject is too serious. It deserves more than commuters' divided attention as they run to catch their trains while gulping down a sandwich," he told the German press. Mehdorn added that Deutsche Bahn's museum in Nuremberg in southern Germany already deals with the subject. Klarsfeld, the founder of the Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France foundation, said Mehdorn should note that the exhibition had been on show in stations in France with the full support of French rail company SNCF.
© Expatica News
RWANDA GOES PUBLIC ON FRENCH GENOCIDE COMPLICITY
24/10/2006 - Rwanda opened public hearings Tuesday in the second phase of a probe into alleged French complicity during its 1994 genocide to determine if the central African nation will take France to the world court. The sessions before a government inquiry committee, which are being held in meeting hall near the offices of the prime minister and broadcast live on radio, will hear from a total of 25 witnesses over the next week. Tuesday's hearing involves testimony from four current and former senior officials, including Jacques Bihozagara, Rwanda's ambassador to France after the genocide, and current Senator Augustin Iyamulemye, who was the country's intelligence chief in 1993 and 1994. The inquiry panel, made up of historians, legal experts and a senior military officer in the former Rwandan army, began its work in April and is expected to release its findings within the next six months, officials said. "This is an important inquiry that should be witnessed by everyone interested in this important episode of our history," said commission chairman and former Rwandan justice minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo said. "The report will determine whether to pursue legal action at the International Court of Justice or to rest the matter," he told AFP at the weekend.
The panel is looking into claims that France trained and armed those responsible for the genocide, in which some 800,000 people were slaughtered in a 100-day killing spree from April to July 1994, and helped some flee. Kigali has repeatedly accused Paris of abetting the genocide, but France has denied any role in the massacres of mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists. The commission wrapped up preliminary investigations in August and its original mandate was extended for six months earlier this month after members said they would be unable to meet an October 16 deadline to complete its work. Last year, a former French soldier alleged that French troops had trained Rwandan militia in the two years leading up to the 1994 genocide. A French military tribunal is currently investigating claims by six Rwandan Tutsis who filed a complaint accusing French troops of being complicit "in genocide and/or crimes against humanity." The witnesses hail from the mountainous western region of Bisesero, where survivors claim French forces deployed there lured Tutsis from hideouts in the hills to village centers where they were killed. French soldiers were deployed to southwestern Rwanda under a UN mandate in the final weeks of the genocide to set up and secure a humanitarian zone, but have been accused of allowing radical Hutus to enter Tutsi camps.
© Expatica News
BELARUSIAN KGB PLAYS DOWN NEO-NAZI THREAT TO OPPOSITION PARTY ACTIVIST
23/10/2006- The Vitebsk region KGB responded to a complaint by a local opposition party activist that she had received a death threat from the neo-Nazi organization Russian National Unity (RNU) by claiming that the RNU does not exist in that region, according to an October 5, 2006 report by the Charter 97 opposition web site. In July, the head of the Vitebsk city branch of the United Citizens Party—Elena Zalesskaya—received a threatening letter signed by the RNU, which read, in part: “The respected [president of Belarus] Aleksandr Grigorevich Lukashenko is systematically destroying all enemies of Russians on the territory of Belarus. That is why the RNU is supporting him and will help him in this necessary task. Leave your corrupt organization before it’s too late and join us—the pure Russian nation. If you refuse, our actions will follow.” Harassing phone calls to Ms. Zalesskaya’s home then followed. The regional KGB finally responded with a letter stating that no organization calling itself the RNU is registered with the local authorities and that no activists from that group have been detected by the KGB. “The fact that the RNU is not officially registered we already knew without the help of the KGB,” Ms. Zalesskaya said. “But the KGB should be worried about the fact that fascists are active. Yes, there haven’t been any killings yet, but the threats are there. Are we going to wait until there are killings, beatings, arsons and explosions?” For the past several years, Belarusian opposition groups have complained that the RNU and other neo-Nazis have been attacking and threatening them, perhaps with the consent of the government.
© FSU Monitor
FROM DEMONISATION TO EMPOWERMENT(uk)
A BOLD ATTEMPT to shift the 'Muslim debate' away from media demonisation was made today.
24/10/2006 - Ken Livingstone and Muhammad Bari launching the Muslims in London report. The London Mayor Ken Livingstone launched a new report aimed at dismantling barriers of discrimination faced by Muslims. Standing alongside Dr Muhammad Bari, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, Livingstone attacked the "breathtaking verbiage" being pumped out daily by the national press. The report made grim reading. Muslims suffer the worst education failure rates, huge barriers to employment, bad housing and chronic political under-representation. Livingstone said the real problem was not Muslims wanting to be separate, but instead unprecedented levels of discrimination preventing them from getting on in society.
aftermath
The capital's Muslims have the lowest rate of employment of any faith group, especially among the younger generation with 40% of Muslims aged 16-24 classed as economically inactive, compared to 60% for everyone else. 8% of Muslims Londoners over 25 years old were unemployed compared to 4% for the general population. Dr Bari, MCB's Secretary-General, said: 'Education has improved but employment and social depravation remain the issue.' Despite an overall picture of race attacks going down, Muslims continue to experience violence on the street. Muslims are more likely to become victims of race crime than any other group, a situation made worse by a 24% rise in "faith hate crimes" in the aftermath of the 7/7 bomb attacks. The report makes 18 recommendations for tackling social and economic disadvantage among Muslims, including new skills training and regeneration strategies.
lopsided
The 106-page document also calls for greater efforts to improve representation of Muslims in the public and political life of the capital.
Surprisingly the survey found that 19% of Muslims in London are white, 12% are of black African origin, in addition to a growing population of Muslim coverts of Caribbean heritage. Livingstone said: Unlike the vast amount of quite breathtaking verbiage in the media, this report seeks to focus on the systematic discrimination against Muslims. Much of the debate so far has demonised Muslims has been totally lopsided. It has faint echoes of the terminology used during Nazi Germany against the Jews.' The launch of the report follows last week publication of The 1990 Trust's poll of Muslim communities in Britain. Click here for the report. The survey (sample 1,213) revealed that British foreign policy plays a key role in marginalising Muslim people, but also found virtually no support for terrorism. This week promises to see a major Eid festival in Trafalgar Square, on Saturday 28 October, fulfilling an election promise to hold large public events for every significant community and faith group.
© Black Information Link
BISHOP ATTACKS FAITH SCHOOLS PLAN(uk)
Plans for new faith schools in England to admit up to 25% of pupils from other religions "must be resisted", the Archbishop of Birmingham has said.
24/10/2006 - The most Rev Vincent Nichols described the plans as "insulting" and "divisive" and has urged the head teachers of Catholic schools to voice their fears. The plans were introduced in an amendment to the Education and Inspections Bill last week. The government has said schools are in a position to prevent social division. Education Secretary Alan Johnson met with representatives from the UK's major religious groups on Monday for a so-called "inclusion summit" to discuss the role faith schools can play in improving relations between the faiths. The Department for Education and Skills said the meeting had been productive and Mr Johnson had made it clear that the amendment would only apply to new faith schools. He also explained that where there is local opposition, a local authority will need the consent of the education secretary to approve a new faith school with fewer than 25% of non-faith admissions. The Church of England has said its new schools will admit up to 25% of pupils from outside the faith - but said other religions should not be expected to offer the same commitment. But the amendment has met with opposition from Muslim, Jewish and Catholic groups.
'Coercive measures'
Writing in the Telegraph newspaper, the archbishop said coercive measures by the government would not win co-operation and branded them "ill-thought out, unworkable and contradictory of empirical evidence".
He said Catholic schools on average welcome 30% of pupils from other faiths or none, and they were likely to have better academic records and less likely to encounter bullying or racism.
He added that the government appears to hold the view that, left to themselves, Catholic schools would be divisive.
The Jewish community is small, needs to maintain its distinct identity and ethos and has no interest in spreading its message to others
Rabbi James Kennard head teacher
"Since the evidence suggests the opposite, I can only assume that this view rises from muddled thinking or prejudice," he wrote.
He warned: "The introduction of 'admissions requirements' is a Trojan horse, bringing into Catholic schools those who may not only reject its central vision but soon seek to oppose it."
The way forward, he said, was a "mutually respectful co-operation" between faith groups and authorities.
But this amendment, he warned "seems to signal an alternative and deeply divisive step. It has to be resisted."
Last week, he wrote to the head teachers of 2,075 secondary and primary Roman Catholic schools urging them to write to their MPs to voice their concerns.
ENGLAND'S FAITH SCHOOLS
Church of England 4,646
Roman Catholic 2,041
Jewish 37
Muslim 8
Sikh 2
He has also called for talks between the government and the Catholic church.
Rabbi James Kennard, head teacher at King Solomon High School in Ilford, Essex, shared his view, saying Jewish schools had not been able to explain their position.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he said: "The Jewish school is the traditional institution where a youngster's Jewish identity is shaped, through an all-embracing ethos that runs alongside, and integrates with, the educational requirements of the country where Jews are living.
"The Jewish community is small, needs to maintain its distinct identity and ethos and has no interest in spreading its message to others."
He added that when people have a good grounding in their religion, they tend to be able to participate in wider society.
The Department for Education said it welcomed the steps faith groups have already taken to improve community cohesion and said they were talking to them about how to build on this.
© BBC News
ONLINE, THE SHADOW OF AUSCHWITZ(Opinion)
By Christopher Wolf, chair of the International Network Against Cyber-Hate and of the Internet Task Force of the Anti-Defamation League, is a partner in the Washington office of Proskauer Rose LLP.
24/10/2006- Human rights experts from around the world gathered in Poland recently in a bid to counter the misuse of the Internet by hate groups. Sitting in a Warsaw conference room, the group viewed the latest online content produced by neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic hate groups, all reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda seen in that city more than 60 years ago.
Gone are the days when hate groups met in dingy rooms. Now, the Internet is the platform of choice for fringe groups that want to look mainstream. And as the promoters of intolerance and hate well know, on the Internet, video is king. In Poland, the experts on Internet hate speech viewed a kind of "hate film festival" - slickly produced videos promoting white power and demonizing Jews, blacks, gays and other minorities, all available online. The music videos and film were Hollywood quality. A kid looking at what effectively are recruitment ads to join the intolerance movement would be impressed with the production values.
Today, the platform of choice for distribution of online videos is YouTube, which Google recently agreed to purchase for $1.65 billion. YouTube has capitalized on the advent of broadband Internet connections to make it a simple proposition to upload and share videos. Unsurprisingly, there has been a surge in hate videos posted online recently. One likewise would expect a proliferation of pornographic videos on YouTube. But the YouTube terms of service make it clear that pornographic offerings are not allowed. As a result, and through the obvious attention of the YouTube managers, smutty videos are not to be found on the service. The YouTube terms of service also prohibit "harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive" content. Citing the prohibitions in the terms of service, human rights monitors have brought hate videos to the attention of YouTube, and some videos have disappeared. But the presence of many others shows that the current management of YouTube makes the elimination of hateful content a low priority.
The folks at Google have been far more sensitive about the presence of hate speech on the Internet. When the Anti-Defamation League pointed out that the search term "Jew" produced a virulently anti-Semitic site as a highly ranked search listing, Google volunteered to alert users to the fact that the listed site was in fact a hate site. And executives of Google have reached out to groups like the league to explore ways to counter online hate speech, and have even attended conferences on the subject. While the First Amendment permits a wide range of speech in America, including hate speech, private companies do not have to allow their platforms to be used for distribution of such content. That is why activists fighting online hate take heart from terms of service that set standards. So far, it appears that Google takes such standards seriously. Let's hope that if the Google/YouTube deal goes through, enforcement of the prohibition against hate speech becomes a real priority on the online video service.
We know too well what happens when citizens - including corporate citizens - fail to act when hate speech proliferates. A searing reminder was provided to some of the people attending the Warsaw conference on Internet hate speech, who concluded their visit to Poland with a trip to Auschwitz. Before walking to the crematoria at the concentration camp, visitors were invited to a screening of an orientation film containing footage from the days after the camp was liberated. The images are predictably horrific and the film makes the point that the murder of six million was the culmination of a regime of prejudice and hate. For the people viewing the film, and the camp, the experience was painful but the lesson was profound: Expressions of hate and intolerance can lead to unimaginable acts of inhumanity.
© International Herald Tribune
RUSSIA FAR-RIGHT PLANS ANTI-IMMIGRANT MARCHES
24/10/2006 - Far-right groups plan to hold rallies across Russia next month under the slogan "It's our country" as human rights organisations warned of a mounting racist campaign to drive out foreign workers. Anti-immigrant sentiments have been widespread in Russia for years but this month President Vladimir Putin said the "native population" must be protected from "ethnic" criminals after a series of fights between Russians and migrants from former Soviet republics. Police have since deported or arrested thousands of illegal immigrants mainly from city markets which are dominated by traders from Central Asia and the Caucuses. Georgians have been particularly heavily targeted after a row last month over alleged Russian spies in Tbilisi reduced relations between the countries to a new low. A group called Action Against Illegal Immigrants (DPNI) is the main organiser of rallies planned in 10 Russian cities on Nov. 4. Anti-racism campaigners are planning a counter-protest on the same day in the Russian capital. "You can't speak of being Russian as a citizenship only. Native Russians must have priority in our country," Alexei Mikhailov, one of the DPNI's leaders told Reuters. "We have about 10 million illegal immigrants and most of them are criminals," he said.
The DPNI has emerged over the last few years as a self-styled far-right group which advises ethnic Russians on how to organise protests against immigrants. Its leaders say they are against violence but in September DPNI helped organise a protest in the northern town of Kondopoga after a fight between Russians and Chechens. The protest turned into a riot and the Chechen community fled the town. Mikhailov said more needed to be done to protect white, European Russians from immigrants -- many of whom come to Russia from Muslim ex-Soviet republics to Russia's south and east. Authorities in Russia's main cities, including Moscow and St Petersburg, have still to decide whether to grant permission for the marches, but Mikhailov said they will go ahead regardless. He said his group did not support violence but it was likely extremist skinheads would join the marches and there may be some violence. "Fascist groups are not welcome, but some of them will come and we expect provocations," he said. Anti-racism campaigners are also applying to city authorities in Moscow for permission to hold a march. "It's a fascist march in reality," Lyudmilla Alexeyeva, head of the Helsinki Group human rights organisation in Moscow, said of the DPNI's plans. "They are not against illegal immigrants, they are against all foreigners."
© Reuters
GOVERNMENT OF GREECE FAILS TO STOP FORCED EVICTIONS OF ROMA
The Greek Government is failing to curtail ongoing widespread anti-Romani abuses by local authorities, particularly in the area of housing, warn local and international human rights groups.
18/10/2006 - Reports from the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) reveal that local authorities in Patras and Chania have destroyed more than 70 Roma homes since July 2006 while more than 200 homes are threatened with eviction. Jean du Plessis, Executive Director (a.i.) of COHRE, said, “These recent evictions clearly indicate that the Greek government is not taking its international legal obligations seriously and is turning a blind eye to the systemic abuse of the human rights of Roma in Greece. The Government should act immediately to provide secure and appropriate accommodation for all the evicted families, pay compensation for destroyed property and prosecute the local officials and police who carried out the demolitions.” Nearly 60 Roma homes were demolished in Makrigianni and Riganokampos districts by the Patras municipal authorities since July 2006. The Municipality has claimed that some of the Roma families (varying from 5 to 17 in different statements) have been relocated to rented homes. In actual fact, only a few families were each given compensation of a few hundred Euros and, in some cases, an oral promise of a rent subsidy if they agreed to move out. The latest illegal eviction took place during the morning of 26 September 2006. Just hours before the visit to the settlements by the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe (COE), Thomas Hammarberg: a family of eight was rendered homeless. On the following day, two Roma were arrested, remanded in custody and taken to court on the next day, for having added protective nylon covers to their homes. They were acquitted by the court. On 12 October 2006, two more Roma were arrested, remanded in custody and taken to court on the next day, for doing repair work on their home. One was acquitted, while the other was referred to the juvenile court.
Panayote Dimitras, spokesperson for GHM, said, "Greece continues to forcibly evict Roma families without providing adequate compensation and resettlement despite two rulings of the European Committee of Social Rights in 2005 and 2006, which found Greek policies with respect to housing and accommodation of Roma clearly violate Article 16 of the European Social Charter. It is appalling that a particular ethnic minority – the Roma – are being frequently and systematically targeted for forced eviction, and the Government of Greece has made no initiative to ensure that they have equal access to accommodation.” Du Plessis of COHRE, said, “COHRE and GHM are concerned about the threatened eviction of over 200 Roma households in the Votanikos district of Athens to make way for the construction of a football stadium. Moreover, the plight of this community is merely one example of the widespread practise of illegal forced evictions of Roma in Greece. Greece’s policy of forcibly evicting Roma communities in a bid to ‘beautify’ and ‘clean up’ the Greater Athens area is inhumane and in violation of international human rights law and the European Social Charter. There is absolutely no excuse for an EU member state to behave in this inhumane and illegal way.” In an unusual turn of events, local authorities of Patras issued a statement following Thomas Hammarberg's visit to Greece to interview Roma - attributing comments to him that he never made, which both criticised GHM and congratulated the Patras Municipality. Dimitras of GHM said, “We call upon the Government of Greece to take immediate action against the Patras Municipal authorities for making false statements on behalf of an international official, which could mislead public opinion and undermine the efforts of the COE.”
© Dzeno Association
"MIGRANT-FRIENDLY" HANDBOOK HELPS HOSPITALS(Switzerland)
A handbook and accompanying film aim to help Swiss hospitals communicate better with immigrants and deal with their specific needs.
23/10/2006 - The Federal Health Office said that if people from different cultures and linguistic backgrounds received better treatment, overall costs would go down. Thomas Spang, head of equal opportunities and health at the Federal Health Office, said on Monday that migrants do not have the same opportunities regarding health as locals. He said migrants were overrepresented in lower socio-economic groups and poorer jobs and that they often lived with heightened health risks. He added that this was not only because of linguistic reasons, but because socio-cultural barriers prevented them from accessing the healthcare system. Preventative health campaigns and general information were not getting through to migrants satisfactorily, Spang said.
Interpreters
The handbook, "Diversity and equal opportunities", and accompanying film "Understanding can heal", were produced by the Swiss Hospital Association and the Federal Health Office and aim to remedy the situation. They use examples from the "Migrant-friendly Hospitals" project – part of the government's "Migration and Health" strategy – and are targeted at the boards of hospitals, clinics and care homes. When it comes to communication, for example, the patient, friends and relatives could be provided with interpreters or multilingual staff. Further aids could include pictograms and dictionaries. Training should give staff the necessary information to deal with patients from a variety of social and linguistic backgrounds and religions, thereby avoiding misunderstandings and stress. This in turn, it was claimed, would lead to better efficiency and lower treatment costs.
Deterioration
A study by the Geneva-based International Centre for Migration and Health (ICMH), published two years ago, found that nearly a quarter of clandestine migrants felt their health had deteriorated since arriving in Switzerland. Four out of five said they were depressed and many reported problems of a psychosomatic nature such as ulcers, back pains, chronic headaches, loss of appetite and sleep disorders. The report's authors, who interviewed 235 unofficial migrants in Geneva, found that knowledge about certain health matters was limited and that they were often poorly informed about contraception and family planning. Most were not covered by any form of health insurance and those that sought it were generally refused policies by insurance companies. More than 60 per cent could not name one hospital in Geneva and most were unaware that special health services were available to clandestine migrants. More than three-quarters of those questioned feared they would be denounced if they approached social services for help. The ICMH estimates there are 15,000 clandestine migrants in Geneva. The study concluded that more needed to be done to promote and protect the well-being of illegal migrants to prevent long-term social and health problems.
© Swissinfo
TOP JUDGE BACKS HUMAN RIGHTS ACT(uk)
The Human Rights Act is a vital part of the fight against terrorism and should be strongly supported, the most senior judge in England and Wales has argued.
20/10/2006 - Resentment and support for terrorism will grow if immigrants feel their human rights are not being respected, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said. Some anti-terrorism measures have been abandoned after judges ruled they were illegal under the act. But Lord Phillips denied any "strife" with ministers over anti-terror laws.
'Limited action'
Ministers have warned the act may have to be re-examined, if it proves to have hampered the fight against terrorism. Control orders were brought in last year to contain foreign terror suspects after the Law Lords ruled detention without trial, introduced in the wake of the 11 September attacks, was illegal under the act. Lord Phillips' speech, at the University of Hertfordshire, in Hatfield, acknowledged the act has limited action that would otherwise have been "the response to the outbreak of global terrorism that we have seen over the last decade". But he said: "It is essential that [immigrants] and their children and grandchildren should be confident that their adopted country treats them without discrimination and with due respect for their human rights. "If they feel that they are not being fairly treated, their consequent resentment will inevitably result in the growth of those who, actively or passively, are prepared to support the terrorists who are bent on destroying the fabric of our society."
Control orders
Lord Phillips questioned whether there was an alternative to control orders, under which suspects movements are restricted based on evidence they are not allowed to see. The orders are used when there is not enough evidence for a criminal prosecution - sometimes evidence will have been collected by bugging the suspect and is therefore inadmissible in court. Lord Phillips raised doubts about the government's refusal to use intercept evidence in court. "There are many who believe that this blanket embargo [on telephone intercepts] cannot be justified," he said. There has been repeated criticism of the way in which the Human Rights Act has been interpreted in the courts. But the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, said in September the government was "unashamed" of the Human Rights Act. The Department of Constitutional Affairs is to publish two new guides to interpreting it.
© BBC News
OVER 500,000 HOMELESS IN BULGARIA
20/10/2006 - There are over 500,000 people who have no place to live in Bulgaria, and about 150,000 of them are children, Alexander Verezhanski from Homes Amnesty has announced. All those homeless people will not enter the voters' lists in the upcoming elections so they will be denied their right to vote, as the lists are prepared based on current address, the man explained. Verezhanski spoke at the national round table on contemporary state policies that guarantee equality in Bulgaria, organized by the Spanish Labour and Social Policy Ministry and other organizations. He said that the national plan for protection from discrimination in 2007 should also focus on the problems of the homeless. The country also has serious issues with ethnic discrimination, Kemal Eyup, Chairman of the Commission for Protection from Discrimination, announced. He added that 56% of the complaints lodged with the commission since the beginning of 2007 are because of racist discriminations. However, there is an increase of complaints from labour discrimination based on gender, race, education, health and sexual preferences.
© Novinite
MUSLIM STAFF IN PARIS AIRPORT ROW
Four Muslim baggage handlers are appealing against a decision to bar them from working at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
20/10/2006 - They say that the local government's decision to revoke their security passes is evidence of anti-Muslim discrimination. A local government spokesman says the decision was based on an assessment of the terrorist risk. He denied the move was linked to the men's religion.
Passes withdrawn
Lawyers acting for the four men say that dozens of other Muslims who work at the airport have also been stripped of their security passes, leaving them unable to work. The four men, who are of North African origin, say they were summoned by security officials for interviews concerning their employment in August. A few days later they were told that their airport passes, which gave them access to the area near runways, were being withdrawn.
Criminal complaint
A lawyer acting for the men said the baggage handlers were told they had been barred because they had "not shown that their behaviour was unlikely to violate airport security". As well as appealing against the local authority's decision, the baggage handlers' lawyers have submitted a criminal complaint for alleged discrimination against the men on the grounds that they are Muslims. The head of a local government office, Jacques Lebrot, said the ban had nothing to do with religion.
'Islamic radicals'
"For us, someone who goes on holiday to Pakistan several times raises questions," he told Reuters News Agency. Mr Lebrot added that the local authority investigation looked for those who could "compromise airport security". A book published by a far-right politician four months before the security clampdown raised questions about France's airport security. Philippe de Villiers' book alleged that Islamic radicals worked at Charles de Gaulle airport and were planning terror attacks.
© BBC News
GERMAN NEO-NAZIS BRING BACK 1933
24/10/2006 - In the wake of a series of anti-Semitic incidents and with far-right crimes at record highs, the Germany of 2006 reminds some anti-extremism activists of the dawn of the Nazi era. 'The latest incidents ... have proved that anti-Semitism is deeply rooted in some parts of society,' Charlotte Knobloch, head of Germany`s Central Council of Jews, said Tuesday in Berlin. 'Those are not isolated incidents,' she said, adding that the recent upsurge in right-wing violence reminded her 'of the time after 1933.' What some observers would call a controversial statement is backed by the latest statistics. Between January and August, some 8,000 neo-Nazi crimes were recorded, a number that exceeds that of the previous year by more than 20 points. Compared with the 2004 figure of 5,127 crimes, the number of reported incidents nearly doubled. Uwe-Karsten Heye, a German anti-extremism activist and head of the organization Gesicht Zeigen, which promotes taking a stand against neo-Nazism, said such worrisome numbers should have been published earlier. 'Why did we not learn about this until October?' he asked. During the FIFA Soccer World Cup, which Germany hosted in June and July, some 1,000 far-right crimes were recorded. 'How come we haven`t seen anything in the press? Did the officials not want to disturb the soccer party?' he added.
For Knobloch, the party atmosphere has long vanished, as a series of anti-Semitic incidents have caused Jewish organizations in Germany to sound the alarm. A few weeks ago, the players of a Jewish soccer team in Berlin left the field when some 15 fans of the opposing side chanted anti-Semitic slurs at them, such as 'Auschwitz is back,' and 'Burn the Jews.' The Jewish team had repeatedly asked the referee to do something about the racist chanting, but he didn`t. Earlier this month, at a high school in the town of Parey in eastern Germany, a 16-year-old was forced to walk across the schoolyard with a sign around the neck saying: 'I am here the biggest swine, I only deal with Jews.' The police have since started to investigate teenagers. In June, a group of neo-Nazis just a few miles south of Parey burned a U.S. flag and a copy of 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' a book written by a young Jewish girl in hiding from the Nazis who later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The prosecution office in Magdeburg has begun investigating seven men, members of a right-wing group which organized and executed the book burning for inciting the people; if convicted, the men face prison terms of up to five years. What worries activists is that the town`s 1,000 citizens hardly protested the burning, much to the contrary: The city`s mayor, a left-wing politician, was present at the burning and did not interfere. All cases have one thing in common: They took place in what was once communist East Germany, a region with high unemployment and relatively few foreigners.
It is the same region where the far-right National Democratic Party, or NPD, was able to score some unexpected election successes in recent local elections. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the home state of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the NPD made it into the state parliament, with a top candidate who on election day called Adolf Hitler 'a phenomenon -- militarily, socially and economically.' Heye said neo-Nazism was a nationwide phenomenon, but all of the experts admitted that the problems are more apparent in the eastern part of the country. In some regions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the major democratic parties have already lost ground, the experts said. Here, the NPD 'wants to open citizen offices, has soup kitchens and does debt counseling,' said Thomas Heppener, the head of the Anne Frank Center in Berlin. 'They are becoming the only societal power in the region.' Left-wing groups have since called for a 'democracy summit' to discuss the growing danger from far-right crimes. 'What we don`t need is a show event,' Heye said, but one that would summon anti-extremism groups and people 'who really know what`s going on.'
One of the central problems is money. While the German government recently announced that it would boost its funds to fight right-wing extremism by some $6 million to nearly $32 million, some pro-democracy groups have a hard time surviving, Heye said. 'In February, we often don`t know if we`re still there in April,' he added. But there are ways and means of successfully fighting neo-Nazis, and in the best of all cases, such movements come from within the population. One beacon of light in eastern Germany is Sebastian Reissig. In 1999, he and a few friends founded the organization 'Action Civic Courage,' which aims to counter neo-Nazi movements in south-eastern Saxony, a sleepy region near the Czech Republic where the NPD gets as much as 25 percent of the vote in local elections. The organization, which Reissig and friends initially funded with their savings, has received federal finding since 2001; today, more than 30 young people work for the organization, which organizes peaceful vigils, multicultural parties and open-air concerts based on respect for other cultures. 'For the past few years we have been active in our home region,' Reissig said Tuesday in Berlin. 'We now have a mayor who openly addresses the problem of right-wing extremism, and our police isn`t blind on its right eye anymore. So we actually can change things.'
© Monsters & Critics
NEO-NAZIS RALLY FOR JAILED SINGER(Germany)
Hundreds of neo-Nazi sympathisers have demonstrated outside a jail in Berlin calling for the release of the singer of an outlawed far-right rock group.
21/10/2006 - Michael Regener was jailed more than three years ago after a court ruled that the band, Landser, was a criminal organisation spreading racial hatred. Earlier in a newspaper interview, the Israeli ambassador to Germany said he was concerned for Jews in Germany. Shimon Stein said he thought anti-Semitism was increasing there. Speaking to the German newspaper the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung, he said the number of neo-Nazis had also risen and there was a greater willingness to use violence. Mr Stein said there had tightened security had been put in place around synagogues and other institutions. "I have the feeling that Jews in Germany do not feel safe. They are not always able to practice their religion freely," he said.
Racist attacks
Saturday's protest outside the Tegel jail passed off without any violence. About 750 neo-Nazi sympathisers took part in the demonstration, which was sponsored by the far right NPD nationalist party. Several hundred anti-Nazi protesters, some of them elderly people, also turned out and joined chants of "Nazis out". In March 2005, a German court rejected an appeal by Michael Regener - aka "Lunikoff" - to have his sentence repealed. Germany has strict laws against promoting Nazism or using Nazi symbols. Three years ago, a Berlin court found the band Landser - meaning "foot soldiers" - guilty of spreading hatred of Jewish people and foreigners in Germany.
The BBC's correspondent Steve Rosenberg says that in recent days German politicians and German police have expressed concern at the rise of the far right in Germany. There has been a sharp increase in the number of racist attacks carried out by right-wing extremists, says our Berlin correspondent. The NPD has made significant gains in recent regional elections. It now has seats in three regional parliaments in Germany. This week, Germany's coalition government promised to spend more money on the fight against right-wing extremism.
© BBC News
GERMANY BANS MUNICH NEO-NAZI RALLY ON 9 NOV
20/10/2006 - Authorities in Munich banned Friday a neo-Nazi rally that had been planned for next month's 68th anniversary of the start of nationwide Nazi mob violence against Jews. A new Jewish Centre containing a synagogue, museum and kindergarten is set to be opened in Munich on November 9 in the presence of German leaders. The neo-Nazis had planned to demonstrate a few hundred metres away outside Munich's town hall. Every November 9, Germany solemnly remembers how Nazi gangs smashed windows or set fire to Jewish synagogues, shops and homes and beat Jews to death late on that day in 1938. A Munich municipal official, Wilfried Blume-Beyerle, said the November 9 demonstration was prohibited for the sake of public order after evidence that associates of Adolf Hitler had been commemorated at a similar event last year. He said a claim that it would be a memorial event for the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall was not credible.
© Expatica News
FOREIGNERS DETAINED UNNECESSARILY(Belgium)
20/10/2006 - A quarter of all asylum seekers are being held in one of Belgium's six asylum centres (centres fermés) under poor conditions and unnecessarily according to a report based on eye-witness accounts. On average 8 000 foreigners are detained every year in Belgium's 6 asylum centres for illegal immigrants in Steenokkerzeel - 127 et 127 bis near Zaventem airport , Melsbroek (both Flemish Brabant) Merksplas (Antwerp province), Bruges (West Flanders) and Vottem (Liège province). The organisations, including Refugee Work Flanders, base their findings of several eye witness accounts from both asylum seekers and members of staff at the detention centres. The report show that a quarter of the detainees are later released, plus the length of time adults and children spend in the centres has increased. Detainees are described as often being anguished, broken and depressed by their 'degrading' experience. Children in particular are likely to suffer the effects of such treatment in the long-term. Witnesses also observed a lack of medical and psychological help for those being held. Last week, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Belgium's treatment of a 5-year-old Congolese girl, Tabitha, who was detained and subsequently sent back to the Congo unaccompanied, and described it as 'inhumane'. There are also a number of complaints listed about the use of violence during forced repatriations and currently detainees have little chance of proving their claims as currently there is no video surveillance during the process and no overall monitoring of the events following the arrival and detention of asylum seekers. In view of this, Refugee Work Flanders has called for all forced repatriations to be filmed. The report is available in French at http://www.cire.irisnet.be/
© Expatica News
FAR-RIGHT AIMS TO FORM GROUP IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT(Belgium)
23/10/2006 - Far-right politicians in the European Parliament are trying to form a political group in the Brussels assembly, possibly by the end of this year. Bruno Gollnisch, MEP and secretary general of France's right wing National Front (FN), told EUobserver that his party has "reasonable hope" of forming a group in the parliament, whose rules require at least 19 members from five different member states. "We are expecting to build such a political party at the end of this year or the beginning of the next," said Mr Gollnisch. Aside from the national front with seven MEPs, the Flemish Vlaams Belang (with three MEPs), the Austrian Freedom Party (1) and the Lega Nord (3) may also be involved, as well as some non-attached MEPs from other countries, including the UK. A Polish contact also confirmed that three MEPs from Poland's the League of Polish Families are being included in the talks. Mr Gollnisch said that the head of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is also an MEP, is planning to hold a rally from 10-12 November just outside Paris and is expecting many like-minded parties to join him from across Europe at the event. "We should have a better idea of the situation in the middle of November," said Mr Gollnish adding that his party is busy building contacts. Part of this contact-building will take place in Strasbourg this week to try and hammer out a political platform that the diverse parties can agree on. Frank Vanhecke, MEP and chairman of the Vlaams Belang party, told EUobserver that "This is something we've tried very hard for many years" adding "we have now succeeded to get everyone around the table." However, he was phlegmatic about the chances of the new group actually taking off. "I've been in European circles long enough to be realistic and sceptical on the eventual outcome. We've tried this five times before and at those times it looked as good as it looks now," he said. In 2001, an agreement between the Lega Nord, Vlaams Belang and National Front was deemed illegal by the European Court of Justice because it had no political substance.
The programme
This time the generally anti-immigrant and far-right parties are to put this right by setting up what Mr Vanhecke called a "minimum political programme" for the would-be European group. He said it would include "recognition of the cultural diversity of Europe as a factor of richness" as well as "resistance to Turkish EU accession". It is also likely to contain something on the "the recognition of traditional values; based on the Judeo-Christian heritage of Europe" and the "conservation of our identity." At the moment MEPs from parties such as the National Front and the Vlaams Belang are all non-attached members of the European Parliament meaning they have no access to the committee chairs and other posts.
'Europe's bloody past'
Forming a group would give them a far greater say in the European Parliament, however, as well as certain legal entitlements – something likely to cause huge ripples of discontent among other mainstream groups in the EU assembly. Reacting to the news of a possible far-right party, German conservative MEP and head of the parliament's foreign affairs committee Elmar Brok said "these people have learned nothing and only preach hate. They can't get anything off the ground together and can only agree on a negative programme." "Democrats in Europe have to expose these parties and show European citizens how piteously little they achieve in answering today's questions and in solving the problems and worries of the people. They stand for Europe's bloody past," he added. An earlier version of this article suggested that some MEPs from the UK Independence Party may join the group. This is not the case and we apologise for this error.
© EUobserver
EUROPEAN MUSLIMS WORRY ABOUT FRANK NEW ISLAM DEBATE
20/10/2006 - - Britain's heated debate about Islamic veils reflects a growing frustration with Muslims in Europe that risks further isolating these minorities rather than integrating them, leading European Muslim activists say. The new tone in Britain, which Muslims on the continent long saw as a model of tolerance where criticising minorities was politically incorrect, marks a watershed in the way Europeans talk about Islam, they told Reuters. Islamist radicalism, ethnic segregation and clashes of values must be discussed openly, they agreed, but the increasingly polarised debate squeezes out moderates on both sides. Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sparked off the debate this month by saying the full facial veils some Muslim women wear hindered integration. Some Muslim leaders called his remarks offensive and accused him of whipping up Islamophobia.
"Intolerance is growing in Europe," said Dalil Boubakeur, president of France's Muslim Council, who saw the new mood as a response to security fears and the radicalisation of a small minority of Muslims who do not accept European values. "There is a sense we are living in a different time," said Dilwar Hussain, head of policy research at the Islamic Foundation in Britain. "With all the security concerns, people feel they can be more frank," Hussain said. "The reaction from Muslims is to recede further and further into a sense of victimhood." The activists said politicians and the media blamed religion for problems that are really economic and social, such as unemployment and discrimination. "Before, we were just immigrants from Turkey or Morocco or other places, but then they found something to combine us," said Famile Arslan from the Dutch group Islam and Citizenship. "All immigrant problems have been Islamised. All Muslims have been criminalised," she said.
"NEW OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE"
European policies towards Muslim minorities have ranged from the tolerant British and Dutch "multicultural" path to France's strict ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools. But the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh and the bombings in Madrid and London have deepened concerns about whether Europe's 15 million Muslims all accept European values. "Europeans were stunned to see that even people who were quite integrated could do these things," Boubakeur said. Ali Kizilkaya, head of Germany's Muslim Council, said Muslims were now seen "as a kind of security problem". Yazid Sabeg, France's most successful Muslim businessman, accused the media of tarring all Muslims with the terrorist brush. "Demonising Islam by confusing it with Islamism is the new opium of the people," he complained. One reflex by politicians and the media -- to call on Muslim leaders to denounce violence any time Islamist radicals strike -- was misguided because it identified the peaceful majority with crimes they did not support, the activists argued. "Muslims in Europe feel the need to apologise for deeds they didn't contribute to," Arslan explained.
DANISH WAKE-UP CALL
The activists agreed the disarray of Muslim communities, which are often split by differences of ethnicity, dogma and politics, frustrated efforts to respond constructively and left radical voices to be the ones most frequently heard in public. "Muslims are not a homogenous group," said Arslan. "There is no Muslim community. Maybe that is our biggest problem." Hussain agreed: "There isn't anything like a coherent group of people you can tell what to do or what not to do." While most activists said public clashes could degenerate into anti-immigrant campaigns, one Danish Muslim leader said the uproar over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad there earlier this year had helped calm tensions by promoting a dialogue. "The cartoon crisis did function as a wake-up call for both Danish politicians and Muslim leaders," said Yildiz Akdogan, spokeswoman for the Democratic Muslims group. When more such cartoons surfaced this month, the government promptly denounced them and Muslim leaders avoided exploiting the issue, she said. "The final outcome is good."
© Reuters UK
Headlines 20 October, 2006
NEO-NAZI MEETING IN ANTWERP PROVINCE(Belgium)
16/10/2006 - Two thousand neo-Nazis from across Europe converged on Ravels in Antwerp Province on Saturday night to attend a concert organised by the far right Blood and Honour organisation in the Wall discothèque. The Mayor of Ravels, Flemish Christian democrat Jozef Coppens, said the event passed without incident, and that the lack of violence was the only good thing about the concert. Earlier, Belgian Interior Minister and Flemish liberal Patrick Dewael had called for the banning of Blood and Honour, and the Belgian Parliament will shortly discuss legislation that will make it possible to ban extremist organisations like Blood and Honour. Blood & Honour is a militant neo-Nazi network founded in 1987 in response to the Anti-Nazi League's Rock Against Racism movement. The group organises neo-Nazi concerts and distributes records by Rock Against Communism (RAC) bands. There have been several gatherings of this neo-Nazi group in recent months.
© Expatica News
PRIME MINISTER SAYS BRITAIN NEEDS DEBATE ABOUT ISLAM(uk)
17/10/2006 - LONDON Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that Britain needed a debate about the position of Muslims, but that the faith also needed to decide how it comes to terms with modernity. At his monthly news conference, Blair said he supported a local school authority's decision to bar a Muslim woman from working as a teacher while wearing a veil. He said, however, that should be just one issue in a broader debate about "the relationship between our society and how the Muslim community integrates with our society."
"There's a second issues which is about Islam itself, and how Islam comes to terms with and is comfortable with the modern world," Blair said. Similar debates, he said, were happening around Europe and in the Muslim world. Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw caused controversy recently when he revealed that he requested that veiled women reveal their faces when they come to meet him at his constituency office. "(The veil) is a mark of separation, and that's why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable," Blair said. "Now no one wants to say that people don't have the right to do it, I mean that's to take it too far." Blair acknowledged that it was a sensitive issue, but said all evidence showed that "when people do integrate more, they achieve more as well. There is a reason why minority communities that have integrated well, then end up doing better, achieving more, attaining more."
Blair insisted he was not saying anyone should be forced to do anything. "All I'm saying is that we need to have this debate on integration."
© Associated Press
GERMANY'S FAR-RIGHT ROLLS UP ITS SLEEVES
17/10/2006 - The Federal Police Office (BKA) has revealed that the far-right threat is a very real one, with the number of violent offenses committed by neo-Nazis climbing steeply. Neo-Nazi brutality is rarely out of Germany's newspapers. In January, a 12-year-old boy with an Ethiopian father was beaten and humiliated by a gang of four far-right youths in a small town in eastern Germany. In April, a German man of East-African origin was left fighting for his life after being attacked in Potsdam. In the run-up to the World Cup, a former government spokesman felt compelled to warn visitors to avoid certain areas or "they might not make it out alive." Is the country witnessing a revival of xenophobic violence and racism, or are these incidents blown out of proportion by a media all too aware that headlines about Nazis sell newspapers? While many dismiss the regular reports of xenophobic violence as scare-mongering, statistics revealed by the German interior ministry this week prove that the far-right's gloves are indeed off.
Statistics that speak for themselves
Between January and August, some 8,000 offenses perpetrated by right-wing radicals were reported to the BKA -- 20 percent more than the previous year and 50 percent more than in 2004. While the number of incidents is increasing, the degree of violence is also swelling. In 2006, 325 people had been injured by far-right violence by August, compared to 302 in 2005. The issue has been catapulted back into public consciousness after the success of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD) in regional elections in September. Appearing one day after round table discussions focused on the NPD's encroaching influence were held in Berlin, the figures published by the daily newspaper Tagesspiegel unleashed a wave of calls for the government to clamp down on the country's far-right movement.
The specter of the Third Reich
"Anyone who still talks in terms of unfortunate one-off incidents is failing to grasp a danger facing the whole of society," said Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews. "The aggression has become reminiscent of 1933." She also accused both politicians and society of deliberately neglecting the spiraling anti-Semitism and right-wing radicalism of recent years despite warnings, saying that these attributes were "firmly anchored in certain sections of the population." Meanwhile, Sebastian Edathy of the junior coalition partner SPD suggested what he called a "Democracy Summit," which would bring together representatives from political parties, religious communities, unions and grass-roots associations to flesh out a strategy to tackle right-wing extremism. Petra Pau, head of the Left Party's parliamentary group, proposed the government introduce "an independent watchdog to monitor right-wing extremism." Wolfgang Bosbach from the CDU rejected the idea of a summit, saying he believed that solution was a combination of stringent sentencing and political education.
© Deutsche Welle
SPAIN PUBLISHES PUBLIC SCHOOL PRIMER ON ISLAM
18/10/2006 - Spain has financed publication of a school textbook it says is unlike any other in the European Union - a primer for Muslim first-graders to learn about Islam, but do so in Spanish as a way to integrate better into society, officials said Wednesday. A first run of 15,000 copies of the book "Discovering Islam" have been printed as part of the pioneering project, said Jose Manuel Lopez, managing director of the Pluralism and Harmony Foundation, which is part of the Justice Ministry. The ministry oversees religious issues. The book, written by a Spanish Muslim leader, was exhibited at the Frankfurt book fair this month and drew keen interest from people in other European countries. The same thing happened when it was formally unveiled in Spain on Tuesday, as representatives of the governments of Germany, France and Italy attended the ceremony, Lopez said. "Europe has 40 million Muslims and governments don't know what to do to assimilate them," Lopez said in an interview. "This book is a hint."
© Associated Press
CABINET REBUKES JUSTICE MINISTER(Switzerland)
The cabinet says it regrets comments made by Justice Minister Christoph Blocher in Turkey earlier this month that he wanted to change the Swiss anti-racism law.
18/10/2006 - Swiss President Moritz Leuenberger said this gave the impression that Switzerland could be pressured into changing its laws depending on the circumstances. "The cabinet remains opposed to a pure and simple abolition of the anti-racism law," Leuenberger said on Wednesday. "This text will remain in force and will continue to be used." He said it was legitimate to propose making modifications, but said the cabinet regretted that the discussion had been started during a visit abroad. Blocher, a leading light of the rightwing Swiss People's Party, had remarked during his Turkish trip that part of the anti-racism law – which was adopted in 1994 and includes sections aimed at preventing revisionist views about the Holocaust – gave him a "headache". The law has led to investigations in Switzerland against two Turks, including one historian, for allegedly denying the 1915 Armenian massacre. Armenians say around 1.8 million of their people died as a result of a forced mass evacuation by the Turkish government during the Ottoman Empire. Turkey puts the figure closer to 200,000. Under Swiss law any act of denying, belittling or justifying genocide is a violation of the country's anti-racism legislation. However, Blocher said at the time that it was ultimately up to the government, parliament and possibly the population, to decide on any changes.
Under scrutiny
According to Leuenberger, Blocher has told his cabinet colleagues that a working group at his ministry was already re-examining the law, in particular article 261bis, the cause of Blocher's headache. The justice minister was ready to include a member of the Federal Commission against Racism in this work, Leuenberger added, refusing to any further questions on the matter – which caused a media and political outcry in Switzerland – saying the content of cabinet meetings was confidential. For his part, Blocher, speaking at a different media conference earlier in the day, said he was simply waiting for the feedback from his working group by the end of the year. "It's about making the anti-racism law clearer, more secure and unambiguous," he said.
© Swissinfo
FRENCHMAN HELD OVER DEATH THREATS AGAINST ISLAM CRITIC
17/10/2006 - French police are holding a man accused of sending a death threat to a philosophy teacher who was forced into hiding after writing an article critical of Islam, justice officials said Tuesday. Arrested on Monday in the central city of Orleans, the 25-year-old call-centre employee was held for 24 hours by anti-terrorist investigators, who found no evidence he was linked to a terrorist organisation.
Remanded in custody, he faces up to five years in jail for "aggravated threats" over a threatening e-mail he sent last month to Robert Redeker, a 52-year-old father of three who teaches in southwestern Toulouse. Though a practising Muslim, the suspect apparently has no links to Islamic extremism, according to police who said he acted alone out of "hatred" for the author. Redeker is receiving round-the-clock police protection and changing address every two days after receiving death threats for his September 19 article in the right-wing daily Le Figaro. In it he described the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as "a religion which ... exalts violence and hate". Redeker's supporters have compared him to British writer Salman Rushie, hounded across the planet over his book "The Satanic Verses", and to Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh, murdered by an Islamic radical in Amsterdam in 2004. The teacher, who has published several books of philosophy, wrote his article in reaction to the fury unleashed in Muslim countries by Pope Benedict XVI's references to Islam in an address in Germany last month. Likening Islam to communism, Redeker said that "violence and intimidation are the methods used by an expansionist ideology ... to impose its leaden cloak on the world".
© The Tocqueville Connection
FRENCH FAR-RIGHT POLITICIAN BARRED FROM OFFICE
18/10/2006 - The head of a fringe far-right party hoping to stand in France's presidential election next year was convicted on Wednesday of embezzling public funds and barred from public office for a year. Bruno Megret, leader of the National Republican Movement (MNR), founded in 1999 from a split in Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front (FN), was convicted along with his wife Catherine, former mayor of the southern town of Vitrolles. Both were handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence and fined 8,000 euros (10,000 dollars) for using Vitrolles city hall funds to send out campaign mailshots for Megret's party, in 2000 and 2001, at a cost of 74,600 euros. "I am appealing. That will suspend the application of the sentence and I will be a candidate in the presidential and legislative elections of 2007," Megret vowed, speaking to reporters outside the courtroom. He slammed the verdict as "unfair" and "partisan". "This is not a decision of justice, it's a settling of political scores." The anti-immigration politician, a former dauphin to Le Pen, scored just over 2.3 percent of votes in the 2002 presidential elections, in which the FN leader beat the Socialist candidate to the run-off against Jacques Chirac. Faced with the flagging fortunes of his party, however -- it scored around one percent in the last legislative elections -- Megret has offered to strike an alliance with the National Front for next year's elections. If Le Pen, who has so far dismissed talk of a deal, refuses, Megret has vowed to stand again on his own ticket, though to do so he would need to obtain the signatures of 500 elected officials under French electoral law.
© The Tocqueville Connection
BOOK ON ISLAM SURPRISES TRUSTEES(USA)
19/10/2006 - Trustees all over the country have been receiving a book critical of Islam, with no cover note, leading some to worry about why they were receiving the packages. The address on the packages referred to their trustee status. The book is Islamic Imperialism: A History, published by Yale University Press. The author is Efraim Karsh, a professor at the University of London who is highly regarded in neoconservative circles, but who has been harshly criticized by many in Middle Eastern studies. According to the Yale press, the book argues that the attacks on 9/11 reflect Islamic imperialism, and “Islam’s war for world mastery.” The Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities sent an alert to members Wednesday disavowing any connection to the mailing, and saying that it would not have given out trustees’ names so that someone could mail them the books. The AGB alert said that law enforcement officials were looking into the mailings. The books were sent by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank that says it was founded “to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues.”
M. Edward Whelan III, president of the center, confirmed Wednesday that his group had sent the books, and said that he did not know how many trustees were receiving them. The AGB alert said that 50,000 books had been shipped. Whelan said that trustees were not the only recipients and that some of the books had been sent to journalists and lawmakers, among others. “We sent it to a broad range of folks in positions of responsibility,” he said, “to prod thinking” about the challenges “posed by radical Islam.” Whelan called the book “important, provocative, interesting.” Asked why there was no cover note explaining who was sending the book and why, he said that he believed the book “should speak for itself.” As for trustees being concerned about receiving a book with no explanation, he said that “if trustees are disturbed by receiving this book, I think that signals a bigger problem in higher education.”
© Inside Higher Ed
SABUNI STOPS CASH TO UNCLE'S RACISM BODY(Sweden)
19/10/2006 - She says it's nothing personal but the new integration minister Nyamko Sabuni has decided to stop state funding for the Centre Against Racism (CMR), an organisation headed by her uncle. Since its foundation in 2003 CMR has received annual funding to the value of 5.5 million kronor. Nyamko Sabuni however is of the opinion that the organisation has failed in its mission to counteract racism and xenophobia. "The few times I have heard about their work it has been in connection with some sensation or other," she told Svenska Dagbladet. The minister's uncle, Mkyabela Sabuni, believes that the organisation will struggle to survive without state funding. "We now have to get together with the government and try to find a solution. Otherwise it will be very difficult for us," he told Svenska Dagbladet. The government did not look into a possible conflict of interests before the minister made her decision. Nyamko Sabuni says that she had no hesitation about withdrawing the CMR's funding. CMR came under the spotlight in April 2005 when it saw hidden racism in a popular brand of ice cream. When Svenska Dagbladet took a closer look at the organisation last summer it emerged that state funds were being used more for attractive furniture than the actual business of combatting racism. At the same time as the newspaper published its withering reports, three female board members claimed to have been subjected to sexual harassment by a male board member, a Social Democratic politician. As if that wasn't enough, it also emerged last summer that the organisation's accountant, Saied Tagavi, also a Social Democrat, had been found guilty of electoral fraud. CMR's chairwoman, the Green Party's Yvonne Ruwaida, sees other reasons for the confiscation of state funds. "There is a conviction that market forces should play a greater role. But the fight against racism is in the interest of society and is not something that the market can look after," she told Svenska Dagbladet.
© The Local
VERDONK BACKS BURKA BAN TO HELP MUSLIM INTEGRATION(Netherlands)
20/10/2006 - Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk is in favour of imposing a ban on the wearing of a burka in public spaces. The Liberal VVD told MPs on Thursday night the face-covering clothing is a symbol of division (between the West and Islam) and was not in harmony with the integration of Muslims and the emancipation of women. But Christian Democrat CDA Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin refused to confirm after the parliamentary debate whether he supported Verdonk's proposal, stressing that now was not the time for differences in opinions between ministers. However, Hirsch Ballin also said Verdonk was speaking from an integration perspective, while the commission of seven experts that was advising the Cabinet about a possible burka ban had a broader focus. The commission will need to balance the constitutional rights of citizens against the public opposition against the burka. How the Islamic community views the burka will also need to be assessed. The commission — which includes lawyers, an Arabist and an imam — must issue recommendations to government ministers at the start of November. The Cabinet will then make a decision, Verdonk said. One of the options being studied is whether a general ban on the burka is possible under current regulations. It will then also be assessed whether a ban wearing a burka can be justified based on issues of safety and public order. The final option is whether a ban can be imposed via existing regulations such as a general local ordinance or compulsory identification laws. Government ministers had been called back to the Parliament to explain why they had not yet imposed a ban on the burka, as demanded by MPs in December at the initiative of Geert Wilders. It had previously been revealed that the cabinet was divided over the issue.
© Expatica News
SEVEN CHARGED FOR BURNING ANNE FRANK'S DIARY(Germany)
19/10/2006 - Seven men have been charged with inciting racial hatred after a copy of Nazi concentration camp victim Anne Frank's diary was burned in public, prosecutors said Thursday. The seven, aged from 23 to 28, also faces charges of insulting the memory of the dead in connection with the incident which occurred June 24 in eastern Saxony-Anhalt state. The book was burned along with an American flag during a summer solstice festival at a community centre in the town of Pretzien. The festival was sponsored by a far-right group, the "Heimat Bund Ostelbien" (East Elbian Homeland Federation). Anne Frank, a German-Jewish teenager, hid with her family during World War II in an Amsterdam apartment for 25 months. They were betrayed shortly before the end of the war, arrested and sent to concentration camps. In March of 1945 Anne Frank, aged 15, died of typhoid fever at the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Her diary was first published in 1947 and has since been translated into almost 70 languages making it one of the most widely read books in the world.
© Expatica News
KEEP DARWIN'S 'LIES' OUT OF SCHOOLS: POLISH OFFICIAL
14/10/2006 - Poland's deputy education minister called for the influential evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin not to be taught in the country's schools, branding them as lies in comments published on Saturday. "The theory of evolution is a lie, an error that we have legalised as a common truth," Miroslaw Orzechowski, the deputy minister in the country's right-wing coalition government, was quoted as saying. Orzechowski said that the theory was a feeble idea of an aged non-believer, who had come up with it perhaps because he was a vegetarian and lacked fire inside him. The evolution theory of the 19th-century British naturalist holds that existing animals and plants are the result of natural selection which eliminated inferior species gradually over time. This conflicts with the creationist theory that God created all life on the planet in a finite number. Orzechowski called for a debate on whether Darwin's theory should be taught in schools. "We should not teach lies, just as we should not teach bad instead of good, or ugliness instead of beauty," he said.
"We are not going to withdraw Darwin's theory from the school books, but we should start to discuss it," he added. The deputy minister is a member of a Catholic far-right political group, the League of Polish Families. The league's head, Roman Giertych, is education minister in the conservative coalition government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Giertych's father Maciej, who represents the league in the European Parliament, organised a discussion there last week on Darwinism. He described the theory as not supported by proof and called for it to be removed from school books. The far-right joined the government in May when Kaczynski's ruling conservative Law and Justice party, after months of ineffective minority government, formed a coalition including LPR and the populist Sambroon party. Roman Giertych has not spoken out on Darwinism, but the far-right politician's stance on other issues has stirred protest in Poland since he joined the government. A school pupils' association was expected to demonstrate in front of the education ministry on Saturday to call for his resignation.
© DNA World
HEAD OF CZECH POLICE APOLOGISES FOR ABUSE OF POWERS BY POLICE IN BOHUMIN
Apology Follows Confirmation of Court-Ordered Fine on Bohumin Municipality for Arbitrarily Cutting Off Hot Water to Roma Families. Eviction of Roma and Others from Hostel for the Poor Remains in Effect.
19/20/2006 - Czech Police President Vladislav Husak has apologised on behalf of the Czech Police for its misuse of its powers in the town of Bohumin from 4-6 October 2005. Private security guards hired by the municipality to guard the "Hotelovy Dum", a hostel for poor people, were preventing entry to a number of concerned parties trying to visit the facility. Hostel residents were part of a targeted campaign by Bohumin municipality to expel several hundred persons, a large number of them Romani, from the housing. Czech Police officers summoned to the scene declined to intervene on behalf of the residents and their visitors, despite the fact that a court injunction permitting normal use of the facility by the residents, including the right to receive visitors, was in effect at the time. After more than five hours of delay, the visitors were ultimately permitted entry, but on 6 October 2005, police forcibly expelled local activist and visitor Kumar Vishwanathan from the Hotelovy Dum, claiming a "new agreement" between the town and the police had been reached, that the police would not prevent the private security from barring any guests, and that, if necessary, they would aid in the removal of visitors. In his apology, Husak clarified that "...if any court at any level has issued an injunction, then all parties, including the Police, are bound to obey the order..." In July 2006 the appeals court in Ostrava upheld a lower court ruling imposing a fine on Bohumin municipality for ceasing to supply hot water to the "Hotelovy Dum" during the winter months of 2005-2006.
© Dzeno Association
FARE ACTION WEEK LAUNCHED BY CHAMPIONS(Press release)
17/10/2006- Tonight UEFA¹s flagship club competition, the Champions League, will kick-off the 7th FARE Action Week. Europe's top football stars will help to spread the message as they stand united against racism alongside NGO's, fan groups and ethnic minority communities across the continent.
United against racism
All 32 teams in the Champions League will take part in the FARE action week by supporting the message 'Unite Against Racism' on the t-shirts worn by the mascots leading them onto the field. Other activities will include the captains of all the teams wearing Unite Against Racism armbands, announcements being made to fans in stadiums over the loudspeaker calling for opposition to all forms of racism, and Unite Against Racism adverts being placed in matchday programmes as well as the official UEFA Champions League magazine Champions. During the 16 games of match day 3 more than half a million fans will directly be reached with an anti-racism message.
UEFA president committed
The UEFA president, Lennart Johansson, welcomed the Action Week and called upon anyone in the football world who has not yet taken a stand against racism to join the fight. "UEFA", said Lennart Johansson, "is proud to be backing the FARE Action Week against racism and discrimination. We appreciate the opportunity to underline our unwavering commitment to eradicating racism in our game. We know that racism can¹t be beaten in a single week, but we hope these activities will be a catalyst that engages more and more members of the football family in the fight against racism and discrimination."
Fight racism, celebrate football
From 17 to 30 October the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network is launching for the seventh time the European Action Week against Racism and Discrimination in Football. More than 600 groups in 37 countries will take part. The emphasis for this season is to call for creative action for the inclusion of ethnic minorities into all levels of football (teams, stadiums, administration, coaching). Moreover, in the course of the forthcoming Action Week FARE supports also initiatives who target discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.
Kurt Wachter, from FARE's Austrian partner FairPlay, said:
"The Action Week gains more and more support each year, helping to disseminate the anti- racism message across the continent. The partnerships established during the period have lead to increased action on the issue and we hope that those engaging with the FARE Action Week for the first time will continue to join us in our efforts to eradicate all forms of racism and discrimination from the game after the period."
An electronic version of new FARE Action Week poster can be downloaded from FAREnet. The List of Activities during the FARE Action Week will be published soon on the same website.
© Football Against Racism in Europe
BELGIANS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN MORE PRONE TO POVERTY
17/10/2006- According to a study initiated by the Roi Baudouin foundation and carried out by the University of Liege and Antwerp about one in two Belgians of Moroccan or Turkish descent earns less then EUR 777 Euros per month, which is below the European poverty line. When questioned about how they felt about their situation, 29 percent of the survey participants of Turkish descent and 37 percent of interviewees of Moroccan descent expressed having difficulties or great difficulties living under such conditions. Only 12 percent of people of Belgian origin expressed they had difficulties. Out of the Italian immigrant pool, more than 20 percent are living in poverty. The figure is 10.16 percent for native Belgians. According to the investigators Belgians of foreign origin are more prone to poverty because of limited education, lack of fluency in French and/or Dutch and discrimination in education, employment and housing. They also believe that first generation immigrants, of thinking that they'll return to their home lands, did not make the necessary investments to guarantee a reasonable future for themselves and their children in Belgium. Finally, a decrease in solidarity within immigrant populations has, according to this study, worsened the living conditions of the most vulnerable. Divorced women are said to suffer from this tendency the most even if this very solidarity has been said to work against integration. The Roi Baudouin foundation has been actively fighting poverty for the last 20 years and this is the first study they have financed to investigate the poverty levels of people of foreign origins in Belgium.
© Expatica News
NORWEGIAN NEO-NAZI LEADER CONVICTED FOR ANTI-SEMITIC STATEMENTS
19/10/2006- The leader of a Norwegian neo-Nazi group was convicted of making anti-Semitic statements and given a 45-day suspended jail sentence on Tuesday. Tore W. Tvedt, founder of the Vigrid group, was charged with violating a law that prohibits making disparaging statements against racial or ethnic groups. His group, which describes itself as a religious network, routinely makes racist and anti-Jewish statements, denies the Holocaust and praises Nazi Germany. Members also claim to worship the Norse gods of the Vikings. The group's name, Vigrid, is derived from an ancient Norse word connected with Viking mythology on the end of the world. In a 2003 interview published by Norway's largest newspaper, Verdens Gang, Tvedt was quoted as calling Jews "evil murderers" and saying "they are not people, they are parasites that must be wiped out." In its ruling, the court found Tvedt's statements to the newspaper violated the anti-racism law, and gave him a 45 day suspended sentence and two years probation. "The court sees the accused as a relatively intelligent, competent person," the ruling said. "There can be no doubt he understood what his statements meant." Tvedt was charged after the Anti-Racism Center in Oslo and the country's main Jewish organization, the Mosaic Religious Community, filed police complaints. Oslo police closed the case, citing previous supreme court rulings protecting such statements as free speech. However, state prosecutors later ordered charges. In court, Tvedt said the newspaper had misquoted him, but in later testimony, said the quotes largely reflect his group's views. In the past, Tvedt, 63, was also convicted of assault, illegal weapons possession and spreading racist propaganda.
© Associated Press
SOMALIAN REFUGEES UNDER SUSPICION(Norway)
16/10/2006- Immigration authorities suspect that as many as half of the would-be refugees arriving from Somalia are bluffing their way into Norway. The Norwegian authorities say many of the Somalian asylum seekers claim they're from the war-torn south, when they instead may come from the more peaceful north and thus be inelibigle for refugee status. The authorities therefore have been using language tests in an effort to expose asylum seekers who may be lying about their background. Test results show that as many as half speak dialects found in the north, and not the south. Most of those arriving from Somalia lack passports, and many also have scraped fingertips, making it difficult to determine their identity. More than 320 Somalians were asked to take language tests between January and July, and 37 percent didn't speak the dialect of the south. Test results were inconclusive in another 11 percent of the cases. That placed nearly half under suspicion of lying about their origins, and that they didn't qualify for the asylum protection they claimed they needed. Asylum advocates claim that many Somalians have moved from the south to the north, which could explain the dialect confusion, and that they therefore should still be granted asulum. The authorities are quick to point out that language test results alone aren't the only means of determining whether an aylum application will be approved. Arne Jørgen Olafsen of the police unit charged with enforcing immigration criteria told newspaper Aftenposten, though, that the tests can quickly indicate who is speaking truthfully. The number of Somalian asylum-seekers arriving in Norway, meanwhile, has declined, from 84 in January to just 30 in September.
© Aftenpost
77 NGO's FORCED TO SUSPEND ACTIVITIES(Russia)
20/10/2006- Seventy-seven foreign NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, were forced to suspend activity Thursday after a registration deadline elapsed. The registration deadline was part of a controversial NGO law adopted earlier this year that provoked widespread criticism in the West even as Russian officials insisted it would not jeopardize the country's civil society. But on Thursday some groups felt the heavy hand of the state, as they were forced to stop working temporarily. "We have taken the precaution of suspending our activities in Moscow and the Northern Caucasus," Emma Bell, a spokeswoman for Medicins San Frontieres, said simply. The organization, which provides humanitarians aid, saw its Belgian and French divisions forced to suspend activity; its Dutch arm registered successfully with officials. Still, many groups that have been forced to suspend activity may soon be up and running. The registration service will continue accepting registration documents, Vishnyakova said. Complying with the new law, 185 organizations submitted registration applications to the Justice Ministry's Federal Registration Service by Wednesday. Of those, 108 were granted registration. The remaining 77 are still being reviewed, said Natalya Vishnyakova, director of the ministry's Organization and Control Department.
© The Moscow Times
NGO's FACE SUSPENSION IN RUSSIA
18/10/2006- Dozens of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Russia have been required to suspend operations after missing a deadline to register. Human Rights Watch is one of the bodies that have failed to clear the red tape in time - but it vowed to keep working. Moscow says the new law, allowing monitoring of foreign and domestic NGOs, will stop foreign governments using them for political purposes. Critics say the law is designed to silence independent thought in Russia. There are estimated to be between 200 and 500 NGOs operating in Russia. Registration officials said 80 had registered under the new law by Wednesday's deadline and 72 other applications were still being examined. The other groups will have to suspend their activities but can continue to employ and pay staff. Russian officials say they do not intend to close down a large number of NGOs because they have not registered, as had been feared when the law was passed in April. NGOs can still apply to register. Organisations that are affected by the new law include adoption agencies, social welfare groups and human rights organisations. One of the best-known groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW), says it made repeated efforts to register, but that officials constantly changed the list of documents they require. It said it would continue operating, despite the order to suspend activities. "It's not clear how we're going to work, but we will work," said Alison Gill, director of HRW's Moscow office. The head of the new registration service said many organisations had submitted applications riddled with errors. Sergei Movchan, director of the Federal Registration Service, said on Monday that some NGOs "want to build up an image as victims of repression in Russia". He said the purpose of the registration law was less sinister: "We look at the aims and purposes announced by the organisation and what funds are being spent on them and whether these funds are being spent on these aims and purposes. This is all." The BBC's Russian affairs analyst, Steven Eke, says the controls and monitoring imposed on Russian NGOs are much harsher than those on foreign agencies. Many have reported coming under increasing pressure from the police, security services and apparently co-ordinated campaigns of physical harassment, our correspondent says.
© BBC News
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST PROTESTS FAR-RIGHT MARCH IN MOSCOW(Russia)
17/10/2006- A human rights advocate called on Moscow authorities and the public Tuesday to prevent a march by ultra-right supporters in the Russian capital scheduled for November 4. November 4 was first introduced as National Unity Day last year to mark Moscow's liberation from Polish invaders in 1612, replacing November 7, which commemorated the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Last year, 3,000 people from radical right movements, including the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, the Russian National Union, the National Patriotic Front Memory, and skinheads, gathered for the Right March in central Moscow. Marchers chanted nationalist slogans such as "Russia for Russians." "If Moscow's authorities fail to react to [plans to hold] the march, this will be an aggressive and xenophobic action in the center of Moscow," said Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights. He said such organizers as the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which proactively operates in 40 Russian regions, aim to deport immigrants and limit the rights of ethnic minorities. "And they are planning to gather about four thousand people for the march," Brod said. He said St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko had rigidly opposed plans to hold the rally, and he also urged law enforcement bodies and public organizations to respond properly to such preparations. A total of 40 people have been murdered and some 260 injured in racially motivated attacks in Russia since January, the activist said. "Most of the victims were Azerbaijani nationals, Africans, nationals of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Jews, and immigrants from the Middle East and China," Brod said. He added that Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Voronezh Region in central Russia, the Rostov Region in the south and Vladivostok in the Far East were the most dangerous regions in terms of xenophobic sentiment. "The xenophobic situation in Russia is neither worse nor better than in other countries, but law enforcement has improved since recent years," Brod said adding that 81 people have been prosecuted for fuelling ethnic hatred this year. Still, he continued, law enforcement agencies are insufficiently good at coping with such manifestations, and he called for consolidation of all public organizations throughout the country against xenophobia and intolerance.
© RIA Novosti
POLITKOVSKAYA'S LEGACY OF COURAGE LIVES ON(Russia)
16/10/2006 - Osman Boliyev met Anna Politkovskaya just twice, but he credits the late investigative journalist with saving his life. In February of this year, Politkovskaya wrote an article about Boliyev, a Dagestani human rights activist. She described how police had tortured him and how prosecutors had fabricated the case against him. Boliyev believes the publicity generated by the article influenced public opinion and helped secure his release. Politkovskaya, an internationally recognized journalist who wrote impassioned articles about human rights abuses for Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was murdered Oct. 7 in the elevator of her apartment building. Prosecutors and Novaya Gazeta believe the killing resulted from Politkovskaya's professional activities. "By saving my life, Anna Politkovskaya gave up her own," Boliyev said. "Her death puts us one step closer to a totalitarian regime, to true dictatorship." Boliyev, the head of Romashka, a human rights organization in Dagestan, was detained on a weapons possession charge in November 2005, after he had helped two Dagestani families file lawsuits with the European Court of Human Rights. One family had lost a member to kidnapping, the other to murder. Boliyev was acquitted in February, and the case against him was found to have been fabricated. Boliyev said three judges who refused to find him guilty had been dismissed during the trial. A fourth judge finally acquitted Boliyev, allowing him to get treatment for the multiple injuries he had suffered in jail. "I was close to having a heart attack," Boliyev said. "They had damaged my spine, heart, kidneys and head. It was terrible."
"After Anna Politkovskaya's article appeared, there was a public outcry and things changed very quickly," he said. This past summer, Boliyev learned new charges had been filed against him: He was suspected of aiding the terrorists who seized Moscow's Dubrovka Theater in October 2002. Boliyev and his family fled to Ukraine and appealed to the United Nations for political asylum. The family now lives in Sweden. Many refugees from the conflict in the North Caucasus share Boliyev's sense of indebtedness to Politkovskaya. On its web site, Novaya Gazeta created a forum for condolences after her death. The forum contains a number of postings from refugees now living in Europe. Even if she didn't help a family directly, Politkovskaya greatly improved Chechen refugees' chances of receiving political asylum in the Netherlands, said Islam Bashirov, who previously headed the local Chechen community there. At a 2003 photo exhibition in Amsterdam devoted to Chechnya, Politkovskaya delivered a talk about the persecution Chechens faced across Russia. Refugees were able to introduce her speech in court as expert testimony to back up their asylum claims, Bashirov said. "The Dutch government was trying to close its eyes and force refugees out by saying they could live elsewhere in Russia," Bashirov said. "Many courts were closing people's [asylum application] cases by saying that the situation in Russia was normal, when in fact people faced open discrimination." Bashirov himself received asylum after his arrest on a trumped-up weapons charge in 1999. Nina Levurda sobbed as she talked about Politkovskaya last week. Levurda sued the Defense Ministry when the army refused for six months to provide her with information about the death of her son, Lieutenant Pavel Levurda, in Chechnya. "I'm certain that I won the case thanks to her," said Levurda, a resident of Ivanovo. "She wrote an article about my son and how the trial was conducted improperly. She helped me out financially, too, and I'll remember that for the rest of my life -- that someone I saw for the first time was so gracious toward me."
Pavel Finogenov, whose brother died in the Dubrovka hostage crisis, said that Politkovskaya played a leading role in exposing irregularities during the trials that followed. The crisis ended when Special Forces commandos pumped a knockout gas into the theater and then stormed it. Most of the victims among the hostages died as a result of the gas. Many relatives of the victims filed suit against the government. "Anna was the only reason the public found out what was going on in the courtroom," Finogenov said. Politkovskaya also offered her services as a negotiator during the Dubrovka crisis. "She was the thread that connected the hostages to the people outside the police cordon," said Finogenov, who himself waited outside the theater while his brother with his fiancee languished inside. The people Politkovskaya wrote about generally remember her as being honest, open and compassionate to the point of neglecting her own needs. Levurda remembered Politkovskaya giving her a ride to the Novaya Gazeta office. "We were in her old Zhiguli, and I noticed she was wearing dress shoes -- in November. I said, 'Why are you wearing dress shoes, it's cold!' To which she replied, 'I don't have time to think about shoes.'" Moscow's credibility is on the line over its ability to prosecute those responsible for the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday, Reuters reported. Barroso said he would raise the murder with President Vladimir Putin in person, adding he would be "frank" in his discussions. "We want those who have assassinated Mrs. Politkovskaya, a great fighter for freedom of expression, to be brought to justice," Barroso told BBC Television.
© The Moscow Times
FIFTY ROMANIES ATTACK CAR IN TRUTNOV(Czech Republic)
15/10/2006 - Over 50 Romanies in Trutnov armed with wooden poles attacked a car with several people inside. Police succeeded in calming the outraged crowd only by firing weapons in the air, Trutnov police spokesman Radek Schovanek said Sunday. No one was injured during the shooting. This incident was allegedly connected with a previous attack on two Romany families in a restaurant in Svoboda nad Upou, east Bohemia, by unknown perpetrators. Police say the incident may have been racially motivated. The case in Svoboda nad Upou is being investigated as breach of the peace. The Romanies involved have refused to be questioned by police. The Romany attack in Trutnov has been qualified as violence against a group of people. If found guilty, the perpetrators face up to three years in prison. Schovanek said that no similar case of racial violence occurred in Trutnov in the past. Police have already questioned several dozen people in connection with the incident. Police are also solving a Romany attack in Bor, west Bohemia, where five Romanies beat up a policeman at a police station allegedly because he detained one of the group on attempting to escape from the scene of an accident.
© Prague Daily Monitor
GAY IRANIANS WIN RIGHT TO STAY AS VERDONK RELENTS(Netherlands)
18/10/2006- In an about face, Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has ruled that gay asylum seekers from Iran will be issued with a residence permit. The Liberal VVD minister has informed the Dutch Parliament of her decision, citing "pressing reasons of a humanitarian nature". Verdonk also said Iranian Christians will be temporarily allowed to stay in the Netherlands until May. She said there was currently insufficient information about the dangers they face in their birth country. Verdonk planned in March to deport Iranian gay asylum seekers, but her stance met with heavy resistance from MPs in the Lower House and her own VVD party. The Liberals said it would be unwise to expel gay asylum seekers to a nation where homosexual sex is punished with the death penalty. Verdonk said her new decision not to deport gay Iranians was based on a letter from Human Rights Watch. The letter indicated that gays and lesbians were at greater risk of human rights violations in Iran. Iranian asylum seekers who can prove they are gay or lesbian will be issued with a residence permit. Abuse of regulations will result in the loss of the right to stay. Iranian Christians will not be deported until at least May next year, by which time Verdonk hopes to have more information regarding the threat posed to Christians in the strict Islamic nation.
© Expatica News
ASYLUM SEEKERS 'SPONGING OFF HEALTHCARE' (Netherlands)
13/10/2006 - Health Minister Hans Hoogervorst has outraged MPs by declaring that discussions over medical care for illegal immigrants is too sentimental, claiming that they receive better care than the Dutch. The statement came after the Christian Democrat CDA and the left-wing opposition parties had demanded better access to GPs for asylum seekers on Thursday. The Liberal VVD minister said that their concern was based on "incidents and TV programmes" and that "access to GPs for asylum seekers is better regulated than for residents of the Netherlands", news service NIS reported. Labour PvdA, Socialists SP, green-left GroenLinks and CDA MPs reacted angrily, accusing the minister of playing down the problems. Hoogervorst said healthcare for asylum seekers costs an average of EUR 10,000 per person per year, excluding hospital charges. The average cost for Dutch nationals is EUR 4,300, including hospital charges.
© Expatica News
GHETTO POLITICS(uk)
BRITAIN’S "RACE RELATION industry" is bloated, ineffective, and could be making the problem of segregation worse.
16/10/2006 - That’s according to a controversial new TV documentary which exposes how bodies set up to promote community relations are actually dividing people. The film called Ghetto Britain is presented by broadcaster Dr Robert Beckford, and investigates why “diversity” appears not to be working. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the pinnacle of what Dr Beckford calls the “race relations industry”, is criticised for failing to combat racism and having little relevance to the lives of ordinary citizens. But other bodies are also lambasted for being “in denial” about inter-ethnic tension, and keeping divided communities apart.
Protests
The programme will infuriate race campaigners with a call for black leaders to leave their comfort zones and talk to the disaffected white working class. Dr Beckford focuses on his home-town of Birmingham where local projects focus on either on the African-Caribbean or Asian community, but do not bring them together. And he goes to Barking in east London where race groups have mounted a series of protests against the BNP and condemned race attacks, but where little dialogue is taking place with ordinary citizens. He says: ‘The race relations industry go on about integration, but in reality they are driving people apart.’ The film looks set to spark a debate about the work of race equality groups and whether they are allowing the public and private sectors to embrace “soft” diversity and cohesion strategies instead of radical changes.
Controversial
Ghetto Britain is due to be screened on C4 in a fortnight after going out on digital channel More4 last Wednesday. Robert Beckford confronts BNP London leader Richard Barnbrook over his party's lies. Dr Beckford, 40, an author and lecturer at Birmingham University, has frequently tackled controversial topics with polemic TV programmes on Christianity such as ‘God Is Black’ and ‘Who Wrote the Bible?’ and ‘The Empire Pays Back’ about reparations for slavery. He said: ‘I’m critiquing the Race Relations Act of 1976 and arguing it’s created a bloated and largely ineffective race relations industry that is failing to do its’ job.’ Jamaican-born businessman Andrew Scantlebury, 67, agreed. ‘They’ve been throwing good money after bad and it hasn’t benefited the black community. ‘The education system still excludes black youngsters and police are still targeting them, yet the CRE has done bugger-all to combat these issues.’ But former CRE commissioner Kamaljeet Jandu said the issue was the ‘bigger picture’ of dealing with a massive problem of entrenched racist attitudes and a lack of resources to tackle discrimination. Race campaigners believe a lot is being done to break down barriers between communities and force institutions to raise their game but they face an elite which talks-up diversity while relegating the goal of race equality low down the political agenda. * Ghetto Britain will be shown on Channel 4 on 21st October at 9pm.
© Black Information Link
GALLOWAY RAISES ISLAMOPHOBIA FEAR(uk)
Islamophobia is a problem that must be addressed, MP George Galloway has told his Respect party's annual conference in North London
14/10/2006 - Mr Galloway's speech focused on the treatment of Muslims in Britain. He singled out Jack Straw, who sparked a row when he revealed he asks Muslim women wearing veils to his surgery if they would consider removing them. Mr Galloway said Mr Straw had joined "the Dutch auction in New Labour of who can be most beastly to a minority". Following criticism about his comments from some Muslim groups, Mr Straw defended his position, saying that he felt full-face veils were a "visible statement of separation". But Mr Galloway said: "Everybody with a brain knows the reason why Jack Straw got down and dirty and scraped the bottom of this filthy barrel was to join the Dutch auction in New Labour of who can be most beastly to a minority - a minority which is already beleaguered and anxious in this country. "And it's a disgusting, ugly sight and sound to see or listen to." Mr Galloway addressed an anti-Islamophobia rally in Euston on Saturday afternoon, where he reiterated comments made by the party's national secretary, John Rees, that anti-Muslim racism was the last "respectable" form of racism in British society. Mr Galloway, the member for Bethnal Green and Bow, founded Respect in 2004 soon after he was expelled from Labour for encouraging Arab armies to resist the invasion of Iraq by British and US troops. The party claims it will be fielding more than 150 candidates at local elections in May next year.
© BBC News
ISLAMIC MILITANTS FACE PURGE IN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES(uk)
Minister will order police and councils to identify hotspots of extremism
HOTSPOTS of Islamic extremism will be identified in schools, colleges and universities under government plans to be announced today.
Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, will defy growing anger from Islamic leaders by ordering police and local authorities to root out Muslim extremists. The announcement comes after the revelation yesterday that new faith schools could be forced to offer at least a quarter of their places to pupils of other religions and non-believers. Ms Kelly will urge representatives from 20 “key” local councils to consider if they are doing enough to tackle extremism in schools, colleges and universities, and if they have identified “hot-spot” neighbourhoods and sections of the community that could be breeding grounds for such activity. “In major parts of Britain the new extremism we’re facing is the single biggest security issue for local communities,” she will stay. “This is not just a problem for Muslim communities. The far Right is still with us, still poisonous, still trying to create and exploit divisions.” The Department for Education has also prepared plans to ask university staff and lecturers to inform police of Muslim and “Asian-looking” students they suspect of involvement in supporting terrorists. An 18-page document due to be sent to universities and colleges by the end of the year expresses concern over Islamic societies and students from “segregated backgrounds”.
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, is expected to suggest that opening up admissions to faith schools would help to ease racial tensions and give parents more choice. The move comes after a proposal this month by the Church of England to open up voluntarily 25 per cent of places in all its new schools to children irrespective of their religious beliefs. The changes are likely to prove more controversial with Roman Catholics and Muslims. Critics of faith schools have long complained that they are exclusive and divide society, rather than promote cohesion. About a third, or 7,000, of all state schools in England have a religious ethos, mostly Christian. Four fifths of the top 200 secondaries are faith schools. Mr Johnson will table an amendment to the Education and Inspections Bill when it returns to the Lords this week requiring new faith schools to reserve a quarter of their places for non-believers or children of other faiths. The change would place the initial decision about a school’s intake in the hands of the local education authority (LEA), enabling it to demand that up to a quarter of its places are open to families of different or no faiths. “It is not a quota, per se, only obviously if there is a demand for places,” a source close to Mr Johnson said. “But if there is demand they [LEAs] will have the power to insist on up to 25 per cent of places being given up to non-faith pupils.” Where there is opposition to the policy within the school, the Church or community, an appeal could be made to the Secretary of State who could allow the LEA to approve a faith school with fewer than 25 per cent non-faith pupils.
Shahid Malik, the Muslim Labour MP for Dewsbury, said of the move: “This is part of a strategy which says we can’t ignore segregation any longer. We have to start working to make people have a greater understanding of one another.” Last week Lord Bruce- Lockhart, the head of the Local Government Association, suggested in The Times that state schools should introduce ethnic quotas into admissions criteria to break down the extreme segregation of pupils along cultural and religious lines. A Tory spokesman gave Mr Johnson’s plan a guarded welcome, saying that David Cameron had made clear that he supported such initiatives, but that it should not be a matter of uniform national rules. Idris Mears, of the Association of Muslim Schools, said that imposing the proposals on minority faiths seemed to be socially unjust. “Most Muslim schools already have this provision in their regulations, but to impose it on us without increasing our numbers substantially doesn’t seem fair,” he said. There are seven Muslim state schools in England, and five more are recommended for public funding. Tony Blair hopes to bring more of the 150 private Muslim schools into the state sector. There are two Sikh schools, 37 Jewish schools, 2,041 Catholic schools and 4,646 Church of England schools.
© The Times Online
CABINET SPLIT OVER NEW RIGHTS FOR GAYS(uk)
Blair backs Ruth Kelly in church row · Faith schools seek equality opt-out
15/10/2006- The cabinet is in open warfare over new gay rights legislation after Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, who is a devout Catholic, blocked the plans following protests from religious organisations. Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, was so angry with the move that he wrote a letter to Kelly three weeks ago, telling her that the new rights should not be watered down. The battle between what is being dubbed the government's 'Catholic tendency' and their more liberal colleagues centres on proposals to stop schools, companies and other agencies refusing services to people purely because of their sexuality. Tony Blair, who sent three of his children to Catholic schools, is said to be anxious about the impact on faith schools and faith-based adoption agencies, which are demanding to be exempt from the law. Kelly has now delayed the introduction of the laws for consideration of what a spokesman said were 'difficult issues'. Johnson is leading the opposition to watering down the laws. 'His department has in the past taken the faith schools' line but Johnson is saying they have got to be sensible about this,' said a senior Whitehall source. 'You can' t have Satan worshippers going into the local church to have their annual meeting, but if there's a publicly funded school and it wants to open its facilities to everyone else but not a local gay and lesbian group - that's discrimination.' The proposed measures would ban discrimination over the provision of goods and services, meaning, for example, that hotels which banned gay couples from sharing a room could be prosecuted. In turn, gay bars would also have to be open to straight clients. More broadly, the rules potentially affect everything from fertility clinics' right to refuse lesbian couples IVF treatment to whether the tourism industry can promote heterosexuals-only honeymoon resorts, drawing several Whitehall departments into the row.
Faith schools have, however, led the protest, arguing that the rules could affect teaching about sex or require them to let gay groups hold meetings on their premises after hours. Catholic adoption agencies fear being forced to allow gay couples to adopt children. The Catholic church, which regards homosexuality as a sin, has suggested adoption agencies would close down rather than obey.Johnson, who originally agreed the proposals when he was Trade and Industry Secretary before a Whitehall reorganisation transferred the issue into Kelly's department, is understood to be dismayed that they are now in jeopardy. The issue has also tested David Cameron's progressive credentials, with senior Conservatives still locked in debate about their response. The new regulations were due to have been introduced this month. That has been delayed until next April after what a spokeswoman for Kelly's Department of Communities and Local Government said was an unusually large number of representations. 'There are some difficult issues,' she said. 'There are issues around Christian B&Bs, where it tends to be Christians that stay there and some of the religious lobby are saying they would not be happy for a gay couple to stay there.' The proposals already exempt so-called doctrinal issues - giving vicars freedom to preach sermons as they wish. Ministers insist religious education teachers would still be able to teach what the Bible says about homosexuality, and that the measures would simply mean faith schools could not, for example, refuse to admit openly gay pupils.
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who is both gay and an ex-vicar, said he was 'very anxious' about the likelihood of exemptions being granted: 'Where organisations are working on behalf of the state, the only thing that should matter is the interests of the children involved. It would be an enormous mistake to provide exemptions for faith-based organisations.' Ben Summerskill of Stonewall, the gay rights lobby group, said backing down particularly over adoption would also have serious consequences: ' It would be playing into the offensive and completely dishonest stereotype that somehow gay people are not safe with children, and the impact that would almost certainly have on the wider gay and lesbian public is [feeling] that the government was stigmatising gay people for no good reason.' The consultation is particularly sensitive because both Kelly and her deputy equalities minister, Meg Munn, as well as Blair, are committed Christians. The dispute is now likely to go to a cross-departmental cabinet committee for resolution. A source close to Kelly insisted the delay did not mean she was refusing to implement the proposals.
© The Observer
BA FACES LEGAL ACTION OVER WORKER'S CRUCIFIX BAN(uk)
Airline defends dress policy after check-in worker refused to conceal cross
15/10/2006- British Airways is facing legal action and calls for a boycott by Christians after it ruled an employee could not display a crucifix the size of a five pence piece on her necklace. Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker at Heathrow, plans to sue the airline for religious discrimination. BA ruled that Eweida's display of a cross on her necklace breached uniform rules. The airline said items such as hijabs and bangles could be worn 'as it is not practical for staff to conceal them beneath their uniforms'. Eweida, 55, claims she was, in effect, 'forced' to take unpaid leave after refusing to remove the Christian symbol. Her case is being supported by the Transport and General Workers Union. Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe told Sky News last night that Christians should boycott BA in protest. Eweida said: 'I was forced to take unpaid leave because I have refused to remove my cross or put it under my cravat. A cross is a cross, when you explain the reason is your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the end of it. Muslims wear their hijabs.' Eweida, from Twickenham, said she had just undergone training on respecting and understanding other people's beliefs with BA when she was asked to remove the crucifix. She said she sought permission to wear it from management, but was refused. After a meeting with her managers in September, she was told in a letter: 'You have been sent home because you have failed to comply with a reasonable request. You were asked to cover up or remove your cross and chain which you refused to do. British Airways uniform standards stipulate that adornments of any kind are not to be worn with the uniform.'
A BA spokeswoman emphasised yesterday that Eweida has not been suspended from work, but chose to take unpaid leave. She said that the matter remained under investigation and an appeal was due to be heard this week. She added: 'British Airways does recognise that uniformed employees may wish to wear jewellery including religious symbols. Our uniform policy states that these items can be worn, underneath the uniform. There is no ban. This rule applies for all jewellery and religious symbols on chains and is not specific to the Christian cross.' The controversy over Muslim women wearing veils escalated last night after the government's race minister demanded the sacking of a Muslim teaching assistant who insisted on the garment. Phil Woolas said that Aishah Azmi, 24, was 'denying the right of children to a full education', and had put herself in a position where she could not do her job. He said: 'She cannot teach a classroom of children wearing a veil. You cannot have a teacher who wears a veil simply because there are men in the room.' Azmi is planning to sue for emotional distress after she was suspended by Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Education officials claim that she refused to take off her veil despite complaints from children that they found it difficult to understand her because they could not see her lips move.
But Azmi insisted yesterday that she had always been willing to remove the veil in front of children, although she would not do so while male colleagues were present. Azmi, who has been suspended on full pay since February, has taken her employer, Kirklees Council, to a tribunal for discriminating against her religious beliefs. A decision is expected in the next fortnight. Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, intervened in the controversy yesterday: 'Getting Muslim women to give up the veil, which I suspect is something most people would like to see in the long term - including myself - is not going to be done by old white male politicians telling them to do it,' he said. 'It will be change from within the Muslim community.'
© The Observer
BELFAST: THE RACIST CAPITAL OF EUROPE(N. Ireland)
15/10/2006 - The "depressing and shocking" development of Belfast as the "racist capital of Europe" has been exposed by the UK's leading anti-fascism campaigners. For Searchlight magazine has highlighted the "appalling surge" in attacks against ethnic communities - in a 10-page special investigation, The Silent War. Reporter Matthew Collins has uncovered the seamy underbelly of paramilitary-inspired violence - revealing that racist incidents have increased by 15pc in Ulster, in the past year alone. According to PSNI figures, a total of 746 crimes with a racial motivation, were committed in the province between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2006. Among the shocking statistics are 25 threat or conspiracy to murder crimes, 238 woundings or assaults, 69 cases of intimidation or harassment and 351 incidents of criminal damage. The worst racist hot spots in Ulster are Belfast, Dungannon, Craigavon and Ballymena. Relatively safe towns for migrants including Larne, Banbridge, Strabane and Limavady. But, possibly the most worrying aspect of such a surge in violence against ethnic minorities is the fact that a whopping 87pc of race crimes are not reported to the police first. Said Matthew Collins: "Racism is rising fast in Northern Ireland. Racist incidents have increased by 15pc in the past year. But it is the growing ferocity and systematic nature of these hate crimes that is shocking. "In the very streets that, for so long, have been divided by sectarian and religious conflict, the province is now earning itself a new reputation as the racist capital of Europe."
In Searchlight's extensive expose of race hate in Ulster, it tells a number of stories, including that of Catholic woman Marie, who married an Asian takeaway owner. She revealed that she has been subjected to a terrifying threat, after covering her head, in deference to her husband's parents. Explained Marie: "A man walked straight up to me and yanked at my head scarf and said 'get that off your f***ing head, you f***ing slut, or I swear to God, I'll kill you and your whole f***ing family' and just walked off." Added Marie: "Sonny (her husband) tries not to see or hear what is happening here. But it really is obvious to me. I want to move to London. Things there could never be as bad, as here." And the racist attacks keep happening. Just last weekend, two Asian men and a police officer were injured and properties damaged in Dundonald and Lisburn. Windows were smashed and fireworks were set off during a series of attacks on homes in Lisburn last Sunday. The previous night, a PSNI officer was injured, after going to the aid of two Asian men, who had suffered facial and rib injuries, at the hands of racist thugs in Dundonald. Searchlight magazine editor, Nick Lowles called its findings "depressing and shocking" and said that loyalist paramilitaries, in particular, were "increasingly turning to racism". He warned: "While there have been real and tangible improvements to the lives of ordinary people across Northern Ireland, there can be no accommodation with racist and fascist activity."
© The Belfast Telegraph
ITALIAN GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR FAKING ATTACK(Germany)
13/10/2006 - An Italian who claimed he was beaten up by right- wing thugs in a racist attack was given a six-month suspended jail sentence on Friday for fabricating the incident. Gianni Congia, 30, had told the court he was attacked in the early hours of May 14 in the trendy Berlin suburb of Prenzlauer Berg. Congia claimed he was hit in the face and struck on the knee with a wooden stick wielded by three shaven-headed men clad in leather jackets who called him "a dirty foreigner." The Italian was admitted to hospital suffering from a broken kneecap, but police investigations showed the injury happened when he fell from a railway platform while drunk. CCTV cameras installed at the Alexanderplatz station showed Congia stumbling onto the tracks, but able to pull himself back onto the platform and limp away, reports said at the time. The Berlin court did not accept the Italian's version of events and handed him a six-month suspended prison term at the end of a month-long trial. The alleged attack attracted a lot of attention at the time as it coincided with a spate of much publicized neo-Nazi assaults in the run-up to the football World Cup.
© Expatica News
GERMANY'S FAR-RIGHT ROLLS UP ITS SLEEVES
The Federal Police Office (BKA) has revealed that the far-right threat is a very real one, with the number of violent offenses committed by neo-Nazis climbing steeply.
17/10/2006- Neo-Nazi brutality is rarely out of Germany's newspapers. In January, a 12-year-old boy with an Ethiopian father was beaten and humiliated by a gang of four far-right youths in a small town in eastern Germany. In April, a German man of East-African origin was left fighting for his life after being attacked in Potsdam. In the run-up to the World Cup, a former government spokesman felt compelled to warn visitors to avoid certain areas or "they might not make it out alive." Is the country witnessing a revival of xenophobic violence and racism, or are these incidents blown out of proportion by a media all too aware that headlines about Nazis sell newspapers? While many dismiss the regular reports of xenophobic violence as scare-mongering, statistics revealed by the German interior ministry this week prove that the far-right's gloves are indeed off.
Statistics that speak for themselves
Between January and August, some 8,000 offenses perpetrated by right-wing radicals were reported to the BKA -- 20 percent more than the previous year and 50 percent more than in 2004. While the number of incidents is increasing, the degree of violence is also swelling. In 2006, 325 people had been injured by far-right violence by August, compared to 302 in 2005. The issue has been catapulted back into public consciousness after the success of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD) in regional elections in September. Appearing one day after round table discussions focused on the NPD's encroaching influence were held in Berlin, the figures published by the daily newspaper Tagesspiegel unleashed a wave of calls for the government to clamp down on the country's far-right movement.
The specter of the Third Reich
"Anyone who still talks in terms of unfortunate one-off incidents is failing to grasp a danger facing the whole of society," said Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews. "The aggression has become reminiscent of 1933." She also accused both politicians and society of deliberately neglecting the spiraling anti-Semitism and right-wing radicalism of recent years despite warnings, saying that these attributes were "firmly anchored in certain sections of the population." Meanwhile, Sebastian Edathy of the junior coalition partner SPD suggested what he called a "Democracy Summit," which would bring together representatives from political parties, religious communities, unions and grass-roots associations to flesh out a strategy to tackle right-wing extremism. Petra Pau, head of the Left Party's parliamentary group, proposed the government introduce "an independent watchdog to monitor right-wing extremism." Wolfgang Bosbach from the CDU rejected the idea of a summit, saying he believed that solution was a combination of stringent sentencing and political education.
© Deutsche Welle
NEO-NAZI CRIME RISES IN GERMANY, REPORT SAYS
17/10/2006- Neo-Nazi crime in Germany has risen sharply this year in tandem with the increasing brutality of attacks by rightists, a newspaper said Tuesday. Almost 8,000 crimes by the far-right were reported during the first eight months of this year, compared with 6,605 for the same period in 2005, said Berlin's Tagesspiegel paper quoting German Interior Ministry figures provided to a member of parliament. A total of 452 violent neo-Nazi attacks were reported in Germany from January to August of this year, leaving 325 people injured. For the same period in 2005 there were 363 attacks and 302 injuries, the newspaper said. A statement by the interior ministry confirmed the latest figures for rightist crime issued in August but cautioned the data was still "preliminary" and might later be adjusted. "At the same time the fact that the number of violent attacks has risen by a not inconsiderable number is causing concern," said the statement. The new figures show "the necessity of intensified measures being carried out by the ministry" against neo-Nazis, the statement said. Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz, says about 40,000 people belong to far-right groups in the country, of whom over 10,000 are deemed to be violent skinheads. The total German population is 82 million.
© Expatica News
NEO-NAZIS FAIL TO BUY HOTEL FOR CONFERENCE CENTER (Germany)
16/10/2006- A bid by neo-Nazis to turn a German hotel into a conference centre for extreme right-wing extremists has failed. The extremist Wilhelm Tietjen Foundation for Fertilization Ltd had expressed an interest in buying the Hotel am Stadtpark in Delmenhorst in Lower Saxony. Its controversial lawyer Jürgen Rieger, who has written a book on eugenics and defended prominent neo-Nazis including Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, had made clear that he wanted to buy the hotel to use it as a neo-Nazi conference centre. Hotel owner Günter Mergel, who had initially admitted that he was entertaining an offer from Rieger, said that, if he did not get the price he wanted for the hotel, he would be happy to lease the property to the Wilhelm Tietjen Foundation. But the moves led to huge protests by locals, who said that they were outraged at the prospect of the building being sold to right-wing extremists. But last month, Mergel admitted that, after Rieger’s initial interest, the lawyer had gone silent on the deal and that neither he nor the foundation had made any further approaches.
Deal with city council
The local city council, which had also protested about plans to sell the property to Rieger, has negotiated a deal to buy the hotel from Mergel for three million euros. Spokesman for town authorities Timo Frers said: "The deal will be finalized after some remaining details are worked out." The city council’s offer had been its last attempt to wrestle the hotel from the hands of the extremists.
Under the deal, 1.6 million euros will be paid from city funds, 500,000 will come from loans, and 920,000 euros have been raised by a citizens’ initiative called "For Delmenhorst". The bid by the right-wing group to buy the Delmenhorst hotel is not the first time that it has made headlines over its property purchases. The foundation, which has its registered headquarters in London, bought a 19th-century manor house from the German army in 2004 to turn it into a reproduction and fertilisation research centre. The group is named after Wilhelm Tietjen - a fiercely-loyal member of the Nazi party after he joined it in the 1930s and who then went on to make a fortune on the stock market after the war. He died in 2002. Rieger, 59, is just as controversial as the group he represents. In 1995, he bought a farmhouse in Sweden with the intention of creating a farm collective for members of the "Nordic blond race". He also heads the "Germanic Faith Community for Life Creation" group, which has an alleged focus on promoting the Aryan race. The lawyer is also chairman of the "Society for Biological Anthropology, Eugenics and Behavioural Research." He is known to admire British fascist Oswald Moseley and has written a book on racial purity and his dream of producing "white giants" and the importance of wiping out the "disastrous effects of bastardising races".
© EJP
HI-TECH HELP IN PROSECUTING WAR CRIMINALS(Germany)
14/10/2006 - A German attorney has developed a new computer system he hopes will help bring international war criminals to justice more quickly and efficiently. Prosecuting criminals for war crimes or genocide requires a complex number of laws that can baffle even the most experienced prosecutor. That's where Case Matrix comes in. The software helps prosecutors manage large, international trials and keeps them from dragging on indefinitely. Klaus Rackwitz, a lawyer and administrator at the International Criminal Court in Den Haag, developed the software. While not yet in widespread use, he hopes his system will help investigators bring order to the thousands of pieces of evidence they deal with each day. The program also contains information about actual case law and important law texts. Complex case facts are simplified. "The system has been designed so it can be used in all national and international courts," Rackwitz said.
International crimes
For the most part, a world-wide legal standard exists for criminal offenses like genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, Rackwitz said. His software sees to it that everyone knows and understands these common standards. International law is a relatively young legal discipline. Historically, very few examples exist. The Nuremberg Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the recent ad-hoc tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda are the most well-known examples. In the case of Rwanda, a coordinated and simplified international approach would have greatly helped with the investigation into the torture and genocide there. Information technology can help make corresponding case law clearer and more coherent.
Keeping perspective
Case Matrix also helps keep users from getting bogged down in thousands of small documents and maintain perspective of the case, Rackwitz said. "We catalogue the case law, develop it, make catchwords available," he said. "The system should help the user…not lose the overview under the hundreds or thousands of documents. And afterwards, should help to order and present the facts." Right now the system is Internet-based. Rackwitz wants to make it also available as a software application for all computers. That would allow investigators in far-flung places without a lot of technology to also use the tool.
© Deutsche Welle
GERMAN SCHOOLBOY FORCED TO WEAR ANTI-SEMITIC PLACARD
16/10/2006- Police in Germany said Monday they have identified the bullying rightist schoolboy who drew a humiliating anti-Semitic placard and forced another boy to wear it at school last week. Three boys face sedition charges over the Nazi-era doggerel, which said, "I'm the nastiest swine in town; with the Jews I always hang around." A teacher called police after seeing the sign Thursday. The 16-year-old who was forced to wear the notice on his chest, in a chilling replication of Nazi bully tactics in the 1930s, had earlier challenged the trio, who live in the small town of Parey, west of Berlin. Prosecutor Thomas Kramer said in the town of Stendal that one of the three suspects, all aged 15 or 16, had "definitely" been identified as the author. The group also face charges of duress and insult. Parents said the victim, who was leftist, had earlier mocked the rightists by shaving his head and wearing jackboots as a parody of them. At the school, principal Anita Krueger has responded with fury, saying a "handful of idiots" had ruined her school's good reputation. She told reporters, "We are working to fix this situation, so please leave us alone." Parents in Parey, population 2,800, said a "hard core" of neo-Nazis had been intimidating other youths for some time. Last year, other youths stubbed out a lighted cigarette on the neck of a Lebanese-born boy and insulted him outside the school gate. Police counted 1,100 racist or anti-Semitic crimes last year in the eastern German state of Saxony Anhalt, of which Parey is part. Charlotte Knobloch, president of Germany's national council of Jews, said such incidents were a threat to society as a whole and could not be brushed aside as "isolated." She said offenders must be punished every time.
© Expatica News
GERMAN SOCCER REFEREE SUSPENDED IN ANTI-SEMITISM INCIDENT
The Berlin Soccer Association has permanently barred a referee after accusations that he did nothing to prevent fans from chanting anti-Semitic slogans at an amateur match.
16/10/2006- The decision comes after a match on Sept. 26 at which a local Berlin club with a number of Jewish players -- TuS Makkabi -- quit in the middle of the game, claiming fans of the home side were subjecting them to racist abuse. The referee, Klaus Brüning, denied hearing the taunts and handed out a red card to one of Makkabi's players, causing the entire team to leave the field in the 78th minute. Brüning's decisions have cost him his job. The Berlin Soccer Association (DFV) has excluded him from its ranks, meaning that he will no longer be eligible to officiate matches. Explaining the ruling, DFV public relations spokesman Frank Schlüter said the organization had found that Brüning failed to ensure that the match was played under safe conditions. "Regardless of whether the claims were true, the referee has a responsibility to investigate," Schlüter said. The DFV also handed down a number of punishments to Makkabi's opponents, VSG Altglienicke. Fans will be barred from the next two home matches, players and coaches will have to attend seminars aimed at preventing racism, and the club has to provide five minders to monitor fan behavior through the end of the 2007-8 season.
Makkabi reviewing decision
The sporting manager for Makkabi's Soccer Division, Claudio Offenberg, said the club would review the reasoning behind the DFV's decision before deciding if it should push for further sanctions against Altglienicke. Offenberg said the club is targeted with anti-Semitic abuse by opposing fans and players "with relative frequency" and said he didn't feel other clubs were doing enough to address the issue. Schlüter said the DFV felt the punishments were "hard enough for a small club," which will be required to pay 1,000 euros ($1,250) for the anti-racism seminars. Officials at Altglienicke are currently waiting to review the DFV's decision in written form before deciding whether to accept the punishment or appeal.
Other racist incidents
Racism among German football fans remains a problem at all levels. The sport's national governing body, the German Soccer Association (DFB), has handed out some record punishments this season. Earlier this month, the DFB fined first-division Aachen and Mönchengladbach 50,000 and 19,000 euros ($62,500 and $24,000) respectively for racist fan abuse when those two teams met. Second-division Eastern German club Hansa Rostock had to cough up 20,000 euros after supporters berated Ghana-born German national Gerald Asamoah during a German Cup match with Rostock's amateur team in September. But many observers worry that it will be hard to prevent racism at lower-division matches, which take place far from the public spotlight -- and the scrutiny of the associations charged with maintaining minimum standards of fair play.
© Deutsche Welle
ANTI-SEMITIC SLURS AT SOCCER GAME SPUR ACTION AGAINST RACISM (Germany)
In the professional soccer stadiums, racism has gone underground but is on the rise in the local leagues and in eastern Germany, according to a recent study. A game last week in Berlin is a disturbing case in point.
15/10/2006- Local soccer games don't usually draw much interest, but when spectators hurled anti-Semitic slurs at Jewish players during last week's match between TuS Makkabi Berlin and VSG Altglienicke, heads turned across the country. Even German Soccer Federation President Theo Zwanziger got involved. The incident also supports a study presented last week in Berlin by the Federal Institute for Sports Science, which indicated that, while racism is increasingly being practiced in professional stadiums with subtle codes and hand signals, it is still very apparent in the minor leagues. "When we went onto the field, I heard a few comments like 'Germany isn't a Jewish republic' and 'no Jewish state,' so I went over to the referee and told him about it," said Vernen Liebermann, a player for the Jewish soccer team Makkabi. "He said he would stop the game as soon as he heard something. But referee Klaus Brüning has repeatedly testified in court that he didn't hear a thing. For 24-year-old Liebermann, whose grandparents had survived life in a Nazi ghetto, the evening game quickly turned into a nightmare.
Yellow card, red card
"At first, we just kept playing, but we got more and more nervous because every 10 minutes someone would shout 'Jewish pig' or 'burning synagogues,'" Liebermann said. The disruption came from a group of men standing next to the players' bench on the Altglienicke side. Beer bottles in their hands, the chants grew louder. The Makkabi players endured the humiliation for over an hour. Then, in the 78th minute of play, Makkabi defender Raffael Tepmann shouted back at the chanters: "Shut up, boys!" Tepmann was given a yellow card. "Then I approached the ref and told him that if he had one ounce of respect for the history of this country he had to do something and help us," Liebermann said. Liebermann was then given a red card. When he refused to step off the field, the whole Makkabi team left together to avoid an escalation. Threats were made against the team, but the police didn't arrive until an hour later.
Concerns about right-wing extremists in the area
After being informed of the incident later that evening, Altglienicke's youth coordinator Sven Klebe offered Makkabi a written apology -- the only one that came from his team. Just a week earlier, the far-right National Democratic Party had won 18 percent of the votes in that district. Klebe said he was concerned that right-wing extremists could influence his soccer club. "We have taken security measures to ensure that a similar incident doesn't occur at the championship game," Klebe said.
Giving racism the red card
Theo Zwanziger, head of the German Soccer Federation (DFB), has spoken out against racism and encouraged the individual soccer clubs to put a lid on racist disturbances. When racist slurs were made in early September against Germany's Ghana-born national player Gerald Asamoah, DFB fined the opposing team Hansa Rostock 20,000 euros ($25,000). The team was also required to play one home game without spectators. The fine is the highest DFB has ever imposed because of racism and the precedent-setting case is seen as a message to soccer clubs that they are responsible for their fans' behavior. The authors of the study on racism by the Federal Institute for Sport Science recommended improving communication between fan groups, soccer clubs and the police. As an example, organizers will distribute symbolic red cards to spectators on the eighth game day in the season as part of a campaign called "Give Racism a Red Card."
Hoping for normalization
As for Makkabi, things aren't back to normal yet. Some of the regular players are afraid to play in eastern Berlin where right-wing tendencies are higher. A TV crew films the team's practices and plain-clothes police officers accompany them to matches. "We don't really want to play soccer under police supervision," said the team's director, Claudio Offenberg. "We hope that the situation will stabilize." Makkabi's umbrella organization in Berlin, the House of Soccer, is expected to announce a verdict on the case on Monday, Oct. 16.
© Deutsche Welle
NO PAPERS, NO AID - PLIGHT OF HIV-POSITIVE MIGRANTS IN FRANCE
09/10/2006 - Tommy had only been in Paris for two months when he discovered he was HIV positive. In a political climate increasingly hostile to immigrants, he is fighting to stay in France legally and get on a treatment programme. Like most of the 20,000 HIV-positive foreigners, mostly from Africa, the 25-year-old Cameroonian was unaware he was positive when he arrived at the beginning of the year. "After about two months I started to experience pain when I urinated, so I went to the doctor and that's when I discovered I was positive." People with a long-term illness are entitled to stay on a residence visa and can qualify for medical treatment, but it is a long procedure and Tommy has been waiting for five months. So far he has only been granted a temporary six-month visa, and is getting anxious. "Here people are more open. In Africa we are often rejected by friends and family when we test positive for HIV. Here I have a network of good friends who don't care whether I'm [positive]," he said. Immigration regulations have been tightened recently, making it harder for HIV-positive Africans to qualify for that vital residence permit, which guarantees access to social services and provides some sense of stability. "I stayed seven months without a proper visa before receiving two temporary ones," said Patricia, 32, from the Central African Republic, who was finally granted a one-year residence permit. Short-term visas do not entitle their holders to work or ordinarily allow them state benefits. Advocacy groups warn that the clampdown on immigrants and so-called "medical asylum" seekers will force HIV-positive people underground, further threatening their health and that of wider society. "Illegal migrants have so many difficulties that even if they wanted to take care of their health, it can't be their first priority. Their morale is low because everything is focused on their visa," said Dr Christine Etchepare, a medical consultant with the Association for Research, Communication and Action for Access to Treatment (ARCAT).
"There is this belief that there is an invasion of sick people," said Arnaud Veisse, director of the Medical Committee for Exiles (COMEDE). He said just 16,000 people held visas for medical reasons in 2004, representing only 0.5 percent of migrants living in France. He added that 95 percent of those living with a chronic infection like HIV or hepatitis only learnt of their condition once in France. Although the evidence suggests medical asylum is a myth, the authorities are responding to political demands for more action to slow immigration. "In the last year or two, people have been hearing that they can't apply for a residence visa even if they meet the criteria. They are told that they are here only for treatment and that they'll get sent home. That's discriminatory," said Elodie Redouani, legal counsel to ARCAT. Officials responsible for approving permits on medical grounds "feel they can't make too many concessions in terms of granting visas. Their decisions become quantitative rather than taking into consideration the best interest of the patient and public health policies," she added. Noel Ahebla, president of the African Positive Association (APA), which offers help to HIV-positive Africans in France, recounted the case of a woman who was granted visas on three occasions, but the fourth time was denied. "The authorities refused, saying that she wasn't sick anymore ... when she had AIDS." The biggest deterrent to care can simply be the threat of being picked up on the streets. A pamphlet circulated in February warned that the authorities would be doing random checks at hostels for migrant workers, emergency shelters and refugee centres, and questioning people. Despite interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy clarifying that checks would not be done in medical centres, the rumour had an effect on the migrant population. HIV-positive patients can be repatriated if they do not have the proper papers; if they have omitted their medical condition on their applications, or simply due to an overly complicated application procedure.
"Africans are afraid of going to the hospital to be tested because of more frequent checks," said Ibrahim Fofana, of the Bureau for the Reflection and Action of African Communities (URACA), which provides psychological support to HIV/AIDS patients. Antonin Sopena, of the activist group Act Up, said the "hunt for illegal migrants" prevented people from seeking medical help. "They go to the hospital only when symptoms appear. Some go anonymously, and only from time to time." Nevertheless, especially in Paris where a strong NGO support network exists for those living with HIV, help can usually be found for people in need of treatment but who have failed to get state aid. Several organisations offer HIV-positive migrants hands-on help in navigating the treatment bureaucracy, and provide advice on how to avoid expulsion. "We counsel them to keep a medical testimony stating they are HIV positive on them at all times, which will protect them long enough to take the next steps in the application process," said Ahebla of APA. Not all migrants want to stay in France. Discouraged or sick, many wish to return to their home countries, especially if comprehensive national treatment programmes are available. "When they come from stable countries where treatment is accessible, some hope to go home one day to be reunited with their families, while at the same time receiving treatment," said Dr Etchepare. According to the United Nations, only 17 percent of the estimated 26 million Africans living with HIV/AIDS have access to antiretroviral treatment. The Central African Republic is an example of a country where treatment is almost non-existent. It is "expensive and there are always shortages in stocks, and regular medical check-ups aren't possible," said Patricia. "But if there was a comprehensive treatment programme there, I would be the first to leave and go home." [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
© PlusNews
OSCE OFFICIAL CRITICISES FRENCH BILL ON ARMENIA GENOCIDE
18/10/2006- An official at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Wednesday criticised a French bill making it a crime to deny Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians. Miklos Haraszti, an OSCE representative for freedom of media, asked Senate members to reject the amendment when it reaches the second French chamber, saying it was an attack on freedom of expression. "I acknowledge the humanitarian intentions of those members of the assembly who support this proposal. However, the adoption of the amendment raises serious concerns with regard to international standards of freedom of expression," Haraszti wrote.
"It is in the name of these same standards that I continue to call upon Turkey to remove Article 301 of the Penal Code, 'Insulting Turkish identity', which prosecutors in Turkey repeatedly use in the context of the Armenian genocide debate." The 56-member OSCE, originally set up as a point of contact between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, has evolved since the end of the Cold War into an organisation mainly concerned with safeguarding human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. The bill, which needs to be approved by the French senate and president to become a law, provides for a year in jail for anyone who denies that the World War I massacres of Armenians amounted to genocide. It was voted by the lower house of the French parliament last week. Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917. Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.
© The Tocqueville Connection
FRENCH GENOCIDE LAW A 'BAD MISTAKE' SAYS FINNISH FM
17/10/2006- The French law criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide during the first world war is a "bad mistake" says the Finnish foreign minister, explaining that historical truths should not be up to politicians to decide. "Legislators should never interfere with this kind of open and introspective soul-searching and the debates it fosters," Erkki Tuomioja writes on his internet blog, as Finland currently holds the rotating EU presidency. "Unfortunately the French National Assembly has not respected this," he said. The socialist-drafted law was passed by 106 votes to 19 in the lower house last week and found favour on both sides of the political divide although president Jacques Chirac's conservative government is against it. The legislation - which must still go through France's upper house before it comes into force - follows on the heels of a 2001 National Assembly resolution which recognised the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. But the new bill proposes making Armenia genocide denial punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000. "This legislation is a bad mistake and it should be quickly revoked," Mr Tuomioja wrote. "Parliaments and governments should not … ever attempt to legislate on what historical truths are allowed and which are declared illegal." "For the record I do not consider genocide an exaggerated description for what happened, and I wish the Turks were more ready to recognise this by now," he added.
Orhan Pamuk
The minister explained that the EU has repeatedly called on Turkey to repeal the notorious article 301 of its criminal code, which has been used to bring charges against Nobel-prize winner Orhan Pamuk along with scores of less well-known Turks for expressing opinions deemed insulting to the Turkish state. "Now the conservative forces in Turkey can dismiss these calls and question the right of the EU to demand this, as France has just adopted comparable legislation," the Finnish minister stressed. Both Brussels and Ankara have condemned the law, saying the move is likely to hinder open dialogue on Armenia in would-be EU member state Turkey. Mr Tuomioja is also against laws criminalising the denial of the Jewish Holocaust during the Second World War, which many EU countries put in place years ago. "Such legislation is not defensible either. While Holocaust-denial is almost exclusively associated with anti-Semitism, other laws on the statute books criminalising racist incitement against and defaming of any and all ethnic groups are sufficient to deal with this," he pointed out in his online diary.
© EUobserver
ARMENIA MEMORIAL STOLEN IN FRANCE
14/10/2006- A bronze statue commemorating the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in Turkey has been stolen from the Paris suburb of Chaville. Police say the monument may have been taken to be sold as scrap metal. But some are connecting the theft to last Thursday's vote by the French parliament making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered "genocide". Armenia says Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people systematically in 1915 - a claim strongly denied by Turkey. The 300kg (660lb) sculpture was cut off its pedestal in the suburb of Chaville 13km (8 miles) from Paris some time between Friday night and Saturday morning, local officials said. But the site in front of Chaville's train station had otherwise not been vandalised and there was no graffiti. One motive may have been money with the monument, which was erected in 2002, being taken to be melted down and sold on as scrap. But Stephane Topalian, a member of the Armenian church council in Chaville, said that was unlikely. "Police say it might have been stolen for the metal, but it seems too much of a coincidence that this should have happened just after parliament voted the Armenia bill," he told Reuters news agency. Turkey condemned the French vote which would make it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered "genocide" at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Ankara, which said the move was a serious blow to relations, threatened sanctions. The vote was also criticised by the EU. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate and the president to become law. France has a large Armenian community, with up to 500,000 people of Armenian descent. There are more than 30 memorials to Armenian victims across France.
© BBC News
EU SOCIALISTS SUSPEND SLOVAK PARTY OVER FAR-RIGHT TIES
13/10/2006- Robert Fico, Slovakia's new premier, suffered a humiliating rebuff on Thursday when the Party of European Socialists (PES) suspended his Smer party's membership over its coalition with the xenophobic Slovak Nationalists. The decision of the pan-European Socialist group means that Smer will be shut out of meetings with fellow Socialists ahead of votes in the Council of Ministers and European Parliament. The move signals the international distrust of Slovakia's ruling party and could weaken the country's influence. Smer's ostracism crowns a terrible three months in foreign relations for the new government, which was always going to be unpopular for including the two nationalist parties which led Slovakia into international isolation in the mid 1990s. Over the summer, relations with neighbouring Hungary become embittered by Mr Fico's handling of anti-Hungarian incidents, which Budapest blames on the presence of the Slovak Nationalists in his government. Budapest is angry at what it regards as Slovakia's slowness in condemning the attacks on ethnic Hungarians, while Bratislava accuses Hungary of using the incidents to try to discredit Slovakia. This week Ferenz Gyurcsany, the Hungarian premier, cancelled a scheduled meeting with Mr Fico because of the dispute. The incidents have also been raised at the European Parliament and by the Council of Europe, the pan-European human rights body. Meeting in Brussels on Thursday, the PES's presidency voted by an overwhelming majority to suspend Smer for violating the group's rule not to form alliances with parties that encourage racial hatred. The suspension will be reviewed in June 2007.
Jan Slota, leader of the Slovak Nationalists, has frequently abused Hungarians and gypsies in public speeches and interviews. He once threatened to "jump in a tank and flatten Budapest" to stop Hungary trying to reoccupy Slovakia, a country it ruled until 1918. This week Mr Slota publicly renounced xenophobia but this failed to persuade the PES that he had fundamentally changed his stance. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, PES president said: "The PES does not believe that its member parties can enter government at any price. Slovakia needs social democracy, but not at the cost of compromising with extreme nationalism and xenophobia." In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Jan Kubis, the non-party foreign minister, insisted that suspension would not affect Slovakia's bilateral relations and that Smer's critics were behaving dogmatically. "A government dominated by Social Democrats should not be afraid to make coalitions with nationalist parties provided it can dominate the acts of the government and can moderate the policy of that party," Mr Kubis said. Mikulas Dzurinda, the former rightwing premier, argues that Slovakia's international reputation has been damaged by the new government, particularly by its handling of the dispute with Hungary. "Fico was absolutely unprepared and he failed," Mr Dzurinda told the Financial Times this week. "When he should have been quiet he was talking and when he should have reacted he was quiet."
© The Financial Times
Headlines 13 October, 2006
WALKER RACE HATE MESSAGER JAILED(uk)
A man who posted racist messages on a website set up in memory of murdered black teenager Anthony Walker has been jailed for two years and eight months.
06/10/2006 - Neil Martin, 30, of Maghull, posted the offensive remarks just days after the 18-year-old student was killed with an ice axe in Huyton, Merseyside. He pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to publishing material intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. The teenager was murdered in McGoldrick Park in Huyton on 29 July 2005. At an earlier hearing before South Sefton magistrates, Martin was also convicted of 33 counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child. At the hearing on Friday he was jailed for a further six months for downloading the indecent images. Judge Henry Globe QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, told Martin he had "trespassed and intruded on the grief of the Walker family". "The intention of the website was innocent, honourable and well motivated," he said. "You accessed that website and you abused its use. You posted highly abusive, insulting and racist messages on the site." The judge said there were at least six messages posted on the website, but that he did not want to repeat the content.
Sentence 'adequate'
During police interviews, Martin admitted posting the messages but insisted he was not racist. Heather Lloyd, defending, said Martin had no history of racist behaviour and that he felt "deeply ashamed". She said: "He was isolated and living in a fantasy world, spending hours on his computer in his room where his persona could be as he made it, good or bad." Miss Lloyd said that her client had written a letter of apology to both the court and to the Walker family. Anthony's mother, Gee Walker, attended the hearing and speaking afterwards described the sentence as "adequate". But Mrs Walker said she had refused to accept the letter after hearing what he had written on the online book of condolence for her son. "It was shocking to think someone could think something so evil and it is good that they are doing something about stopping these type of people," she said. "Hitler started with an idea, slavery started with an idea, so it is good that this was stopped in time."
Killers jailed
Two men, Paul Taylor and his cousin Michael Barton, were convicted in November last year of murdering Anthony Walker. The pair had ambushed Anthony after shouting racist abuse at him as he waited for a bus with his girlfriend and cousin. Both were jailed for life and the judge said Taylor would serve at least 23 years and eight months before he would be eligible for parole.
© BBC News
NEW RACE STUDY SHOWS THE STATE OF BLACK BRITAIN
NEW RESEARCH by The 1990 Trust has found 9 out of 10 Black people feel British but still face huge hurdles to top jobs
06/10/2006 - Audrey Adams, human rights officer for The 1990 Trust and author of the 2006 Race Audit, found that race discrimination was as rife as ever despite the best efforts of Black communities to integrate. Among the key findings of the report, Britain's BME population grew by 53% between 1991 and 2001, with the vast majority describing themselves as British in contrast to White groups who mostly identified as English. Launching the report, Audrey Adams said: 'For all the talk about diversity it is clear that race discrimination nationally is not getting any better. It continues to hold back talent from achieving its potential, and all to often destroys lives. 'This report should serve as another reminder that we need to focus public policy on tackling institutional and personal racism in society instead of shifting the blame onto Black communities with an integration and cohesion agenda.' Black communities were more likely to be employed in the distribution, hotel and restaurant sectors compared to the general population, and less likely to work in the more lucrative construction industry. Black people had most success running their own businesses, with a Black business sector having a combined turnover of £4.5 billion and they provide over 70,000 jobs in London's economy alone. Black and other ethnic minority communities are three times more likely to become statutorily homeless than the majority White population. There was a 12% increase in stop and searches for African, Caribbean and Asian people yet despite being over-policed, BME communities are much more likely to be the victims of crime. African and Caribbean heritage people were 4.5 times more likely to be victims of homicides. In addition, Black people were less likely to be referred by their GP for mental health problems and 44 per cent more likely to be sectioned and detained. The Muslim community is the youngest and most rapidly growing faith group, and collectively Muslims are more likely to be socially excluded than Sikhs and Hindus.
© Black Information Link
OSCE HUMAN RIGHTS BODY LAUNCHES INFORMATION SYSTEM AND HATE INCIDENTS REPORT(Press release)
12/10/2006 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today launched a tolerance and non-discrimination information system that focuses on issues such as hate incidents, xenophobia and religious freedom in the OSCE's 56 participating States.
The OSCE/ODIHR also issued a report on hate crimes and violent manifestations of intolerance in the first half of 2006. "Our Office has been tasked to serve as a collection point for information related to tolerance and non-discrimination issues and to closely follow hate-motivated incidents in the OSCE region. The website and the hate incidents report are our way to carry out this important task and to raise awareness about the need to fight intolerance," said Ambassador Christian Strohal, Director of the OSCE/ODIHR. The website gives access to reports, action plans, practical initiatives, tools and resources relating to anti-Semitism, freedom of religion or belief, gender-based discrimination, hate crime, hate on the Internet, homophobia, intolerance against Muslims, racism and xenophobia, as well as on Roma and Sinti issues. The website can be accessed from the OSCE website or directly at: http://tnd.odihr.pl
The report, 'Challenges and Responses to Hate-Motivated Incidents in the OSCE Region, January-June 2006,' is based on information from OSCE States, as well as international and non-governmental organisations. It gives examples of responses of States to hate-motivated incidents as well as challenges that Governments and civil society face in this regard. "While the report is by no means a complete overview of all hate incidents in the OSCE region, it shows some worrying trends," said Ambassador Strohal. "The rise of racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and discriminatory discourse coming from political leaders gives cause for concern. Actions against human rights defenders which are committed on the basis of their actual or perceived affiliation to a particular community are also continuing. "I see this report as an important early-warning tool because it highlights areas where stronger responses to violent acts of hatred are needed."
© OSCE
SCHOOL SUSPENDS WOMAN OVER VEIL(uk)
A Muslim woman has been suspended by a school in West Yorkshire after she insisted on wearing a veil in lessons.
13/10/2006 - Bilingual support worker Aishah Azmi, 24, was asked to remove the veil after pupils found it hard to understand her during English language lessons. Headfield Church of England Junior School, in Dewsbury, said she could wear the veil outside the classroom. Ms Azmi refused and was suspended pending the outcome of an employment tribunal, Kirklees Council said. The tribunal heard the case in September and is due to announce its decision within the next two weeks. Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik backed the school's decision, saying: "In schools the top priority has got to be the education of our children. "I fully support the decision of the education authority and the school in requesting the classroom assistant remove her veil when teaching primary school children. "I believe the education authority has bent over backwards to be accommodating and has been extremely reasonable and sensible in the decision it has come to.
"There is no religious obligation whatsoever for Muslim women to cover themselves up in front of primary school children."
'Inadequate standards'
The school, which has 529 pupils aged seven to 11, takes many children from different ethnic backgrounds where English is not the first language. An Ofsted report carried out in February said: "The first languages spoken by most children are Panjabi, Gujarati and Urdu, and many children are still learning to speak English. "Significant improvement is required in relation to the inadequate standards of achievement reached by children and their slow progress over time. "Children's speaking skills are poor and this holds them back in most aspects of their work." Kirklees Council's children's services spokesman, Jim Dodds, said Ms Azmi's suspension was "nothing to do with religion".
Teachers' concern
"We are simply trying to ensure that our children get the best possible education," he said. "Both pupils and teachers raised concerns because they were finding it difficult to make out what she was saying during lessons. "We have a lot of pupils who do not speak English as a first language and you have to be able to see people's lips move when you are being taught. "We asked this young lady to remove her veil when she was teaching English language, but she refused." Mr Dodds said that even if Ms Azmi won her case the council would not change its position. "Our only concern is that the children are taught properly," he said. Last week, Commons leader Jack Straw angered some Muslims when he said wearing the veil made community relations more difficult.
© BBC News
BELGIAN ANTI-IMMIGRANT PARTY SUPPORT GROWS
09/10/2006 - Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's party sought to put on a brave face Monday after it suffered widespread losses in weekend local elections, which produced gains for the extreme-right Flemish Interest party. Final tallies showed the Flemish Interest party was the main benefactor reaping votes in the northern Dutch-speaking Flanders region away from Verhofstadt's Liberal Democrats.
His national government coalition partners, the French-speaking Socialists, also suffered losses in the French-language region because of a string of corruption scandals, but did not suffer as poorly as expected. "People made a conclusion on the things that went on," said Elio di Rupo, Socialist leader and premier of Wallonia. Newspaper headlines reflected the bad news now facing Verhofstadt's fragile coalition, which has dropped in popularity in recent months because of party infighting and a perception it is weak on crime. The opposition Christian Democrats and Flemish Interest have successfully exploited it.
"We have a lot of work to do, now we have to look in the coming months how to do it," Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, also a Liberal Democrat, said after party talks. "I am convinced that we will succeed in our attempt to recapture our top spot on Flanders next year."
Last week, Verhofstadt hinted that he would not rule out a wider coalition with the rising Christian Democrats in a new national government if elections planned for May or June continue his party's decline. "Liberal Democrat losses go to Flemish Interest," headlined Het Belang Van Limburg. "We must acknowledge that the government has had a few bad months and we know that whoever leads faces the most fire," Verhofstadt said. Flemish Interest made inroads across smaller towns and cities in Flanders beyond its traditional stronghold of Antwerp. In its base, it was beat by a surging Socialist party in the port city. Based on the provincial results, the anti-immigrant party rose to 20.6 percent, up from 14.9 percent six years ago, to win the second-largest number of votes in Flanders overall after the Christian Democrats and beat the governing Liberal Democrats and Socialists. Local media, however, pounced on the victory of incumbent Antwerp Mayor Patrick Janssens against the far right party.
"The rise of the far right is not inevitable," headlined daily Le Soir, while Het Nieuwsblad headlined "No Black Sunday." Socialists captured 22 seats compared with 20 for the extreme-right party on the 55-seat council in Antwerp, according to official results. However, that did not take away from the far-rights success in becoming top seat holders in seven other municipal councils. Flemish Interest party leader Filip Dewinter said his opponents could not claim victory in Antwerp, saying they only maintained the status-quo, with little gains over the last elections six years ago. "We have not done so good" in Antwerp, Dewinter said, because "immigrants got the right to vote, that had an influence." He claimed that other parties pushed measures to fast-track citizenship for migrants in the city, giving them the right to vote. His party, which ran on an anti-immigrant platform, has been kept in opposition in Antwerp by an unlikely rainbow coalition whose only common cause is keeping the city out of the hands of the far right. That scenario is likely to be repeated in other areas in the north, meaning that despite its strong showing overall, the party is unlikely to take part in governing. The French-speaking Socialists were forced to give up their absolute majority in the industrial city of Charleroi in Wallonia and also lost seats in Namur, the capital of the region. French-speaking Christian Democrats were the biggest benefactor of lost Socialist votes.
© CNN
DENMARK ROCKED BY NEW CARTOON ROW
The Danish prime minister has denounced the drawing of new cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad by members of an anti-immigration party's youth wing.
09/10/2006 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen intervened in an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of the widespread protests over similar cartoons a year ago. Danish People's Party activists were shown on TV drawing the images, which were condemned in the Muslim world.
Iran and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the new cartoons insulted Islam. Iran protested to the Danish government on Sunday, saying it was "deplorable that the extremist elements in Danish society have attempted to sabotage Denmark's relations with the Islamic countries once again".
'Tasteless' drawings
The activists were filmed at a summer camp, drinking, singing and taking part in a competition to draw images of Muhammad, including one depicting him as a camel with beer bottles as humps. The publication a year ago of newspaper cartoons - one depicting Muhammad with a bomb in his turban - led to violent protests in which more than 50 people died in Muslim countries. Mr Rasmussen, who insisted then that he could not control independent media, condemned the latest drawings as "tasteless" and "unacceptable". He said the activists' behaviour "in no way represents the way the Danish people... view Muslims or Islam". Danish Muslim leaders, who last year travelled abroad to rally support for their protests, said they would not be provoked by the latest incident, the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott reports.
© BBC News
DANISH EMBASSY IN IRAN ATTACKED
The minister of foreign affairs meets with officials to avert an escalating crisis with Muslim countries
11/10/2006 - Demonstrators attacked the Danish embassy in Tehran Tuesday night to demonstrate their rage over a video depicting members of the Danish People's Party's youth organisation ridiculing the prophet Mohammed. The protests in Iran were believed to be inspired by a vote in the Iranian parliament to cancel all economic and political ties with Denmark. Officials at the Danish embassy reported that some 50 demonstrators encircled the building and threw Molotov cocktails over a wall. Iranian security forces helped to keep the demonstrators at bay, however, and no significant damage was reported. The scene of a Danish embassy being attacked in the Middle East nevertheless represented a flashback of sorts for the minister of foreign affairs, Per Stig Møller. He summoned officials to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to discuss how to avoid a repeat of the Mohammed cartoon crisis that saw protestors in the Middle East torching Danish embassies in Iran, Syria and Lebanon in February.
© The Copenhagen Post
BRUTALITY OF NAZI HEALTH POLICIES ON DISPLAY(Germany)
Nazis murdered more than 200,000 physically and mentally disabled people starting in 1933. An exhibit at the German Hygiene Museum traces the history of the Nazi regime's sinister health policies.
11/10/2006 - The high-ceilinged rooms of the Dresden museum display swastika-stamped posters praising Nazi racial theories that lead to the Holocaust. During the Nazi era, the German Hygiene Museum was used to promote mass sterilizations and bans on what were considered interracial marriages. Many of the posters on display in the museum were designed there. So it's appropriate that the museum would host the exhibit "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race," which opens Thursday. "The Hygiene Museum was not a criminal institute in the sense that people were killed here," museum director Klaus Vogel said. But, he added, "It helped to shape the idea of which lives were worthy and which were worthless."
Exhibit on loan from U.S. museum
"Deadly Medicine" was created by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and marks the first time one of the museum's exhibits has traveled abroad. "This close relationship to the topic made it almost a requirement to bring the exhibit here," Vogel said. The exhibit's opening comes just a week after mass graves were discovered in the western German city of Menden. The grave holds the remains of more than 20 people, many of them children, believed to have been killed by the Nazis because they were disabled. Thousands of frail children were murdered as part of the Third Reich's "euthanasia" program. Children were killed after being deemed unfit to live.
Explaining murderous racial policies
"Deadly Medicine" traces the history of this systematic effort by Nazis to eliminate the "unfit" and create a "master race." The first section of the exhibit shows how eugenics, a pseudoscience which purported to improve the human species by controlling heredity, became a global movement. The second part picks up in 1933, when the Nazis began using eugenic theories to justify forced sterilizations and establish a "master race." The third section explores how the Nazis used science as a weapon not only to murder some six million Jews in the Holocaust, but hundreds of thousands of others who died under euthanasia programs or were otherwise deemed unfit. On Sept. 1, 1939 Hitler signed an order for doctors to kill the fatally ill and handicapped. Historians believe that doctors and nurses stood by as Nazis shot or gassed some 70,000 people from 1940 to 1941. While the program was officially abandoned after protests, the exhibit makes clear the mass killings continued in secret. Tens of thousands of people were killed with medication in 1941 after the program had been ended or were simply starved to death.
© Deutsche Welle
DELMENHORST COUNCIL STILL IN RUNNING TO SAVE HOTEL FROM NAZIS(Germany)
06/10/2006 - The council of the Lower Saxony town of Delmenhorst bid 3 million euros Thursday for the hotel wanted by a neo-Nazi organization. While the hotel's owner rejected the bid, the city is still confident of success. In a bid to save the Hotel am Stadtpark from the clutches of a neo-Nazi organization represented by far-right lawyer Jürgen Rieger, the town of Delmenhorst have upped its bid for the hotel to 3 million euros ($3.8 million). The council met late of Thursday evening and agreed on the price by a majority vote. The offer, the council stated, would be its final one. However, with the hotel still available on the Internet auction site eBay for 3.4 million euros -- the price the extremist Wilhelm Tietjen Foundation for Fertilization LTD offered in September before falling silent on the deal -- hotelier Günter Mergel seems to be holding out for a higher offer than the council is willing to meet. The owner of the Hotel am Stadtpark told the council he would not sell at their price, stating tax reasons for wanting a higher fee.
Hotel burdened in debt
A spokesperson for the Delmenhorst council said the representatives were unimpressed with Mergel's stance but were confident of buying the hotel at their suggested price. The hotel has been empty for the past 15 months and Mergel has been keen to cut his losses, to such an extent that he was willing to give the hotel to the neo-Nazi group as a donation in return for the Tietjen foundation taking over his considerable debts on the property. Since initially offering 3.4 million euros for the hotel early last month, which the foundation wanted to turn into a far-right training and conference center, lawyer Rieger has gone underground and the foundation has been scratched from the British business register due to non-payment of taxes. This has effectively stopped it from legally existing.
Community effort close to saving hotel from Nazis
Mergel now has little leverage in the deal with his only real chance of getting to extra 400,000 euros he wants coming from an eBay sale, unless the neo-Nazis can reform their company and make a concrete bid. The city and people of Delmenhorst are hoping that doesn't happen. They hope their combined offer -- made up of 1.6 million euros from the town coffers, 920,000 euros raised by the concerned townsfolk and 500,000 euros in building society loans -- will be the only offer on the table and the one Günter Mergel accepts out of desperation to sell.
© Deutsche Welle
BLOCHER INSISTS ON REVISED ANTI-RACISM LAW(Switzerland)
Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher says he is intent on revising Switzerland's anti-racism law, confirming comments he made in Turkey earlier this week.
06/10/2006 - Blocher's original remarks, made in Ankara, caused an uproar in Switzerland among politicians and the media. The cabinet is to discuss the minister's statement soon. Speaking in Zurich on Friday, Blocher said he was surprised by the criticism he faced back home after making his comments. He added that what bothered him in the legislation was the "tense relationship" between freedom of speech and anti-racism legislation. Freedom of expression was essential to democracy, affirmed the minister. "I want people to be able to express themselves in Switzerland, even if their opinion doesn't appeal to everyone," he added. During his trip to Turkey, Blocher had remarked that part of the anti-racism law - adopted in 1994 and including sections aimed at preventing revisionist views about the Holocaust - gave him a "headache". The law has led to investigations against two Turks, including a historian, in Switzerland for allegedly denying the 1915 Armenian massacre. Blocher said a working group at his ministry was re-examining the law, in particular article 261bis, adding that it was up to the government, parliament and possibly the population, to decide on any changes. Blocher said on Friday that he had not many any promises to the Turkish government on the matter. Armenians say around 1.8 million of their people were killed in the massacre. Turkey disputes this, putting the figure closer to 200,000. Under Swiss law any act of denying, belittling or justifying genocide is a violation of the country's anti-racism legislation.
Storm of protest
Blocher's comments unleashed a storm of protest in Switzerland. On Thursday Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin said that the justice minister's remarks were "unacceptable". For his part, President Moritz Leuenberger said he was surprised, adding that the cabinet would discuss the issues arising from Blocher's comments. Three of the main political parties in government have also condemned the remarks. Blocher's own rightwing Swiss People's Party has so far declined to comment. However, the House of Representatives, which has just ended its autumn parliamentary session, has decided against debating on the issue. Several political commentators have called the comments provocative and have questioned whether the anti-racism law, voted on by the population, could be changed. Marcel Niggli, professor of law of Fribourg University, told swissinfo that it was strange that Blocher should have made the remarks during a trip abroad and that he should have defended and not criticised the law. Blocher said that on the whole the trip has been positive and that his Turkish counterpart Cemil Cicek had assured him that he was ready to create a commission made up of historians from different countries that would have access to Turkish and Armenian archives.
© Swissinfo
ANTI-RACISM ACTIVISTS FACING HATE CAMPAIGN FROM NEO-NAZI WEBSITE(uk)
08/10/2006 - Scottish politicians and activists have been warned they are in danger of attacks by a neo-nazi organisation whose website has been blamed for inciting assaults against anti-racism campaigners. Redwatch members and sympathisers have been blamed for a number of attacks, including the serious assault of a TUC leader, accused of following campaigners and journalists to their homes, firebombing cars and intimidating other individuals using phone calls, hate mail and email. Redwatch is a white nationalist group which takes its name from a Combat 18 slogan. Its website exists to collect details on “your local Red scumbags” and includes songs with lyrics of “Oh no, here comes a commie/Won’t you off and die?” More than 50 photographs of Scots have been posted on the Redwatch website, including Glasgow MP Mohammed Sarwar, Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) leader Colin Fox MSP, SSP MSP Frances Curran, Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan MSP, and former MP John McAllion. Pictures of activists on Stop the War and G8 rallies are also featured, along with personal details of prominent social campaigners, including Robina Qureshi and Pat Smith.
Mohammed Sarwar MP said yesterday that he would support the site being closed. “Anything that is intimidating should not be allowed.
“I have always had my reservations about banning the BNP as I would prefer that they are defeated in the political forum, but putting photographs of people online as possible targets is not acceptable.” Frances Curran said she feels “vulnerable” after receiving a number of abusive emails and phone calls. “It is not acceptable that this site can’t be closed and that I don’t have protection against these right-wing fanatics. ” Tommy Sheridan said he has had a number of abusive calls to his mobile. He said: “When discussing freedom of speech I’m careful to talk about limits, but there is simply no place for websites like this which spread this kind of message of hate.”
Colin Fox also backed the calls for the site to be closed down. Alec McFadden was lucky not to lose his sight when he was attacked after his photograph was posted on the Redwatch site earlier this year. A respected Merseyside trade union leader, McFadden went outside his home after he thought he saw someone collapse on his driveway – the man jumped up and stabbed him in the face. Subsequently his car has been damaged and hate mail hand-delivered to his home. He told the Sunday Herald he fears for the safety of others featured on the site. “In my view the people on that website should be given protection by the police against Redwatch,” he said. “They put stuff on that site which incites racism, incites violence. If we believe in the UK about democracy, freedom of speech, of the right to work, then how can we tolerate an organisation that preaches violence and hatred in society?” Campaigners told the Sunday Herald that the Home Office seems no closer to closing the site despite three years of protests from victims, MPs and trade unions – the website is hosted in the US, and may be protected by freedom of speech legislation there.
A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers for England and Wales said it will announce a new strategy to deal with extremist websites on Tuesday, which will incorporate Scotland. The Home Office, however, was reluctant to discuss what, if any, action will be taken to close the site or protect those pictured on it. A spokeswoman would only say that “work is ongoing into finding a solution”. McFadden said he was frustrated by the lack of action from the Home Office, highlighting that a sister site run in Poland, but hosted in the US, was closed within two days after officials were attacked there. Curran also added that she suspects the Home Office “may not want to tackle those who are attacking the left”. Angela Eagle MP, who represents McFadden’s constituency of Wallasey, has led the campaign to have the site shut down. She said as soon as reports of her objections to Redwatch surfaced her photograph was added to the site. “We understand there are technical difficulties in closing a site in another country but this is an urgent problem, and there is reluctance within the Home Office to deal with it head on,” she added. A request for an interview with Redwatch leaders was turned down.
© The Sunday Herald
ADVOCATE OF TOLERANCE TARGETED BY EXTREMISTS(Russia)
12/10/2006- She is a leading Russian rights activist, but also a leading target. Svetlana Gannushkina, a devoted advocate of tolerance, tops a list of 89 people a nationalist group has sentenced to death, calling upon "patriots" to take up arms and execute her and other friends of "alien" peoples."Since there is nothing I can do in this situation, I try not think about it," said Gannushkina, 64, a soft-spoken advocate for refugees. The killing of investigative reporter and group, underscored the dangers faced by journalists and rights activists criticizing government policies."I am horrified by what happened with Anya," Gannushkina said, using Politkovskaya's nickname. "Of course, I understand that considering what happened, we are all under the same threat." Gannushkina said she first learned of the ominous list published by a radical nationalist group called the Russian Will in August, where she was named "advocate of alien migrants." Other alleged enemies of the Russian people included journalist and commentator Yevgenia Albats and veteran rights activist Sergei Kovalyov. "It is time for physical reprisal. Mr. Mauser [a type of pistol], your turn has come," the site read,
Gannushkina said. The web site Russianwill.org could not be accessed Wednesday. Gannushkina said it was shut down only this week. Information on the targeted activists and journalists, including their phone numbers and addresses, has spread to numerous other nationalist sites and blogs, however, and Gannushkina has received phone threats. Gannushkina said she had asked prosecutors to investigate the group's activities in August, but that prosecutors so far have failed to open an investigation. A spokesman for the Moscow Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the matter. Gannushkina isn't alone. Last year, Oksana Chelysheva, an activist and journalist with the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, which advocates for Chechen rights, discovered leaflets stuffed in mailboxes in her apartment building in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, proclaiming her "a whore for the Chechens," giving out her full name and address and accusing her of supporting terrorists. Chelysheva has continued working despite the threats, but her boss, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, has been ordered to stop because of a criminal record. In February he was convicted of inciting ethnic hatred and handed a two-year suspended sentence, a verdict he condemned as part of a state assault on nongovernmental organizations. This week, prosecutors asked a court to close the group down.
© Associated Press
'GENOCIDE' VOTE DRIVES WEDGE BETWEEN TURKEY, EUROPE(France)
13/10/2006 - Anti-European sentiment is likely to rise in Turkey after a French vote to make it a crime to deny that the World War I killings of Armenians were genocide, analysts warned Friday. This could weaken Ankara's hand in pushing through reforms to boost its struggling EU bid, they noted. Ankara threatened Paris with unspecified measures and a deterioration in bilateral ties after Thursday's vote on the nationally explosive issue of the 1915-1917 killings Turkey says were not an act of genocide. For the Turkish public, the French vote means France is opposed to Ankara's EU aspirations and is another European affront to Turkey's future membership, said Cengiz Aktar, director of the EU centre at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University. "The vote goes far beyond the Armenian issue," Aktar said. "The deep rationale behind it is the way the French political elite is looking at Turkey. There is a deep mistrust of Turkey's candidacy and future membership. "The Turkish man in the street will interpret the French vote as a vote coming from the whole of Europe," he said.
Turkish public support for EU membership has been declining since Ankara began accession talks in October 2005 amid widespread scepticism on whether this mainly Muslim country has a place in Europe. According to an EU survey, the ratio of Turks supporting EU membership dropped to 44 percent last compared to 55 percent in the fall of 2005 and more than 70 percent two years ago.
"At a time when relations between Europe and France are in a bad state," commented academic Ahmet Insel told AFP, "this confirms that France considers itself as the anti-Turk shield of Europe. "The more we try to get closer to Europe, the more Europe tries to move away from us," he said. Sedat Laciner of the International Strategic Studies Institute described the French action as a reflection of an EU-wide "identity crisis" on what Europe really is and whether a Muslim country can belong. "The issue is related to the Armenians, but on the other hand it is a blow below the belt to Turkey's bid to join the EU," he said. "Opponents of Turkey's membership instinctively overemphasize tension between Muslims and Christians, placing 'barbarian non-European Turks' on one side and 'poor Christian victims' on the other," Laciner said. The Turkish press also largely saw the French vote as a bid to block Turkey's EU bid, warning Ankara to act sensibly and not slacken its drive to bring itself up to European standards. "Arrogant France does not want to become equals in the EU with the Turks it despises," wrote the popular Vatan. "It is trying with this unjust act to anger Turkey and make it feel insecure in order to sap its will and determination" to join the EU.
The mass-circulation Sabah said the French vote was a blow to freedom of expression and presented an opportunity to Turkey to shine in the EU membership talks by becoming a champion of rights and freedoms. "Let us use... this unique oportunity to embarrass those who accuse us of limiting freedom of expression," it said, urging Ankara to amend a controversial penal code article that has been used to prosecute a string of intellectuals for their dissident views. Turkey is under EU pressure to guarantee freedom of expression by amending Article 301 of the penal code, which stipulates a prison term of up to three years for "insulting Turkishness". Among those prosecuted under the article was Orhan Pamuk, who won the 2006 Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday; the charges, triggered by Pamuk's remarks challenging the official line on the Armenian massacres, were dropped on a technicality. But Laciner said this would not be an easy task for the Ankara government in the current climate. "Article 301 could have been easily amended but the climate has worsened -- the government's maneuvering room has narrowed and it has difficulties in defending the EU process, especially ahead of elections next year," he said. Aktar predicted that such a move could create public backlash. "Any political party in Turkey, especially when heading for elections, will find it very difficult to make more democratic openings. It would be difficult to explain this to the Turkish public," he said.
© Expatica News
SLAIN REPORTER'S LAST STORY TELLS OF ABUSE OF CHECHENS(Russia)
13/10/2006 - MOSCOW The newspaper Novaya Gazeta has published the last article of its slain special correspondent, Anna Politkovskaya, along with transcripts of videotaped torture sessions of Chechens that she had obtained. The article, an unfinished column that presented new allegations of torture by security forces in Chechnya, appeared Thursday, the same day that the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling holding Russia responsible for the killings of five Chechen civilians in early 2000 by Russian police officers. The victims of that incident included a 1-year-old boy and his young mother, who was eight months pregnant. All of the victims were shot, and the mother's jewelry was stolen, the court said. The article also appeared as the Russian prosecutor's office in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, said it was checking into reports of the disappearance of another prominent Chechen: the mother of the last wife of Shamil Basayev, the terrorist leader who died in an explosion in June. The woman, Rita Ersenoyeva, has been missing since Oct. 2, human rights workers say, and had spent the last several weeks searching for her daughter, who had been kidnapped as well after what her mother had described as a forced marriage to the terrorist leader. Politkovskaya, one of the most well- known journalists and human rights advocates in Russia, was shot and killed last Saturday, the victim of an apparent contract killing. The events Thursday served as a sort of coda on her life, reminders of the lingering chaos and human costs of the war in Chechnya, which Moscow insists has been won.
Politkovskaya, 48, was a leader among a shrinking group of Russian journalists who dared to keep challenging that thinking, by writing frankly about the violence and disorder in the republic. Chechnya, her work said, remains a place where fighting has slowed, but murky police and military operations continue, and chilling behavior by Russian forces and the Kremlin's proxies is a dark norm. Her final article, a column under the headline "We Declare You a Terrorist," presented allegations of the use of torture to exact confessions and manufacture good news from the war. "When prosecutors and the courts work, not for the sake of the law, but on political commission and with the only goal of providing good reports for the Kremlin, then criminal cases are baked like pancakes," she wrote. She asked: "Are we, the lawful, fighting against the unlawful? Or are we battling 'their' lawlessness with 'ours?'" The article described the case of Beslan Gadayev, a Chechen migrant deported from Ukraine to Chechnya, where he claimed in a letter to Politkovskaya that he was asked if he had committed certain unsolved murders. When he said he had not, he wrote, he was punched near the eye, beaten, tied up, handcuffed, hung from a pipe and then connected to electric cable, whose current was switched on. In time, he said, he confessed and the next day he was told to confess again in front of journalists and to say that his injuries were the result of an escape attempt.
The article was also accompanied by images from videos that Politkovskaya had obtained of an armed Chechen, who her newspaper said was presumably a member of the Chechen armed forces, torturing at least one man. The European Court of Human Rights, in its unanimous decision, blamed Russia for deaths of five members of the Estamirov family in Grozny in early 2000, a period when Russian forces had just wrested control of the capital from separatists. It also found that Russia had failed to adequately investigate the killings, which were part of a sweep operation that Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based organization, investigated and called a massacre. The court ordered Russia to pay about €230,000, or about $290,000, in damages to the victims' relatives.
© The New York Times
THE CHECHEN SILENCE (Comment)
Anna Politkovskaya's death should awaken us to the vicious injustices in the north Caucasus region
By Thomas de Waal, the Caucasus editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, and the author of the introduction to Anna Politkovskaya's book A Dirty War
12/10/2006- The murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya leaves a terrible silence in Russia and an information void about a dark realm that we need to know more about. No one else reported as she did on the Russian north Caucasus and the abuse of human rights there. Her reports made for difficult reading - and Politkovskaya only got where she did by being one of life's difficult people. Since 1999 she had made dozens of trips to Chechnya and the surrounding regions, reporting on the bombings, torture camps, abductions and corruption in Moscow's second campaign in Chechnya. With the rest of the Russian media toeing the official line and western journalists as good as banned from the warzone, it felt at times that our news from Chechnya came from a remarkable one-woman reporting operation. It was scant consolation to her that she received a shelf full of western journalism prizes. Politkovskaya seemed mainly interested in the award ceremonies as a forum for reminding westerners to do something about Chechnya - she was generally disappointed.
Recently the war has ebbed, and President Putin has more or less succeeded in decimating the separatist rebel movement. War-weariness has taken hold. Much of Chechnya is peaceful, and work is finally being done to reconstruct the city of Grozny. But there is still plenty of reason to worry. Politkovskaya was the first journalist to probe deeply into Putin's weapon of enforcement in Chechnya: a vicious government, led by the pro-Moscow prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, that is accountable to no one. People disappear in the night, and Kadyrov's security forces are the suspects. Kadyrov - who has expressed regret at Politkovskaya's murder - was her special bete noire. "Kadyrov must be put on trial," she said firmly the last time I saw her, at a conference in Sweden three weeks ago. And as Politkovskaya's reports illustrated, if Chechnya is quieter, the rest of the north Caucasus is more disturbed. Unemployment is high, local elites are corrupt, and political violence, often with an Islamic tinge, is on the rise.
With her keen vision, Politkovskaya correctly identified that the central issue here - the flaw at the heart of Putin's Russia - was one of impunity and of the thousands of people who have no recourse to justice when their rights are abused. In Sweden I heard her talk about the dozens of young men who had been "designated as terrorists" in fabricated court cases in the north Caucasus. No one defends them properly in court and they are now serving long, pitiless sentences in Russian prisons. If they ever get out, they will be natural converts to revenge and political violence. There is a wider justice deficit in Russia. Officials like to point out that Russia is now part of the European justice system, with its courts all answerable to Strasbourg. This is good news - but in the past year lawyers and family members of Chechens who have successfully challenged the Russian government in the European court of human rights have been intimidated and threatened.
Justice needs champions, and Politkovskaya had reported on the mysterious deaths of some of those who dissented publicly from Russia's authoritarian trends. The list was already too long. Two liberal Russian MPs, Galina Starovoitova and Sergei Yushenkov, have been assassinated. In Chechnya the remarkable village head Malika Umazheva, who tried to defend her villagers against death squads, was murdered. Politkovskaya reported on her case with passion and precision. Now the messenger is dead, brutally silenced by the very thing she warned so eloquently about.
© The Guardian
Headlines 6 October, 2006
YOUNG GREENS START EUROPEAN-WIDE ACTION WEEK AGAINST XENOPHOBIA!
The Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) launches its action week against Xenophobia on 2nd of October.
03/10/2006 - Marina Barbalata, Campaign Coordinator of FYEG, says: "The action week is part of our campaign "Unity in Diversity” which started in August 2006 and will continue until the end of 2007. With the campaign, linked to the Council of Europe campaign "All different - all Equal”, we aim at fighting against Xenophobia in Europe. During this week, young greens all over Europe will carry out activities against different forms of xenophobia. They will use a variety of methods to bring out their message, including street theatre, demonstrations, street actions, press releases, film projections, artistic expressions etc.” Ska Keller, Spokesperson of FYEG, adds: "Xenophobia, including different varieties such as Homophobia, Romaphobia, Islamophobia and racism is still a huge problem in Europe even though the forms differ in the European countries. With this campaign FYEG promotes a Europe where people are not only tolerant but also show acceptance and respect for others.” More information on the action week, its results and the campaign can be found at http://www.unityindiversity.org
© Young Greens
BLOCHER'S REMARKS CAUSE A STORM IN SWITZERLAND
04/10/2006 - The Swiss justice minister has attacked Swiss anti-racism laws that have led to investigations against two Turks for allegedly denying the 1915 Armenian massacre. Christoph Blocher made his comments during an official visit to Turkey on Wednesday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Turkey's adoption of the Swiss civil code. His words raised a storm of protest back home. "Article 216a [of the Swiss penal code] gives me a real headache," the justice minister told the media, referring to Swiss anti-racism legislation adopted in 1994 to prevent revisionist views about the Holocaust. "No one would have imagined that this law would have resulted in proceedings against a prominent Turkish historian," he said, following his talks with his Turkish counterpart, Cemil Cicek. Blocher added that the justice ministry would be "examining what it could do to prevent this situation from re-occurring", and that it was up to parliament and the government to decide on any possible changes to the law. In 2005, Swiss authorities launched criminal investigations against the historian Yusuf Halacoglu, the president of the Turkish History Organisation, and the politician Dogu Perinçek for allegedly making comments in Switzerland denying the 1915 Armenian massacre. Armenians say around 1.8 million of their people were killed. Turkey disputes this, putting the figure closer to 200,000. Under Swiss law any act of denying, belittling or justifying genocide is a violation of the country's anti-racism legislation.
Scolding
Blocher's remarks in Turkey met with sharp criticism back home. Georg Kreis, president of the Federal Commission against Racism, criticised Blocher for once again ignoring the separation of executive and judicial powers. "As a Swiss citizen I find it disturbing to learn from the foreign press that changes to Swiss legislation are being considered," he noted. Christophe Darbellay, president of the centre-right Christian Democrats, was equally vexed: "It's strange to see a justice minister go to another country, which is not exactly a model for human rights, to criticise a Swiss parliamentary decision." The heads of two other two parties in government - the centre-right Radical Party and the centre-left Social Democrat party - also criticised Blocher's statement. Blocher's own rightwing Swiss People's Party - the fourth party in government - declined to comment. "We regret such irresponsible statements," said Sarkis Shahinian, co-president of the Switzerland-Armenia association. The justice minister, he said, makes a mockery of Switzerland by "giving the worst-possible revisionists the red-carpet treatment". Regarding the Armenian question, which has dogged Swiss-Turkish relations over recent years, Blocher said that it was not up to politicians to comment, alluding to decisions by canton Vaud's parliament and the House of Representatives, which have both voted to recognise the Armenian genocide. "We are convinced that the solution of an international commission of historians [to shed light on the 1915 massacre] is a good one," he added.
Asylum
During the official visit the Swiss justice minister also held "extremely open" discussions with Cemil Cicek on asylum and the fight against terrorism. Anti-terrorism collaboration is said to have helped improve relations between the two countries. Bern has recently handed over to Ankara a suspected terrorist, and three other Turkish citizens also accused of terrorism are being held in Switzerland pending extradition, declared Blocher. Earlier in the day the justice minister gave a speech at Ankara University to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the adoption of the Swiss civil code by Turkey, in which he underlined the solid, long-standing historical ties between both countries. Later he met Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu, and before leaving Ankara laid flowers at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
© Swissinfo
GALWAY UNITED SHOW RACISM THE RED CARD(Ireland)
04/10/2006 - Galway United was on hand this week, along with the Mayor of Galway City, Niall O Brolch�in, to launch the anti-racism venture 'Show Racism the Red Card'. The launch, which was held in the Spanish Arch, serves as a forerunner for major football anti-racism work in the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) and UEFA-led action week later in October. The third regional project of Show Racism the Red Card is run in association with Galway United, the Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland (PFAI), Galway City Partnership, Galway City Council and the Galway Refugee Support Group. Players from Gaelic football and rugby are represented in addition to soccer. Approximately 3,000 posters, showing the Galway United squad and the 'Show Racism the Red Card' slogan in eight languages, will be distributed in the city. Galway United General Manager Nick Leeson said, "While increasing our support base, we also want to promote football in the community and warmly welcome the work of the PFAI and FAI in supporting this work. Mayor Niall O Brolch�in added, "Galway is now home to many nationalities and we must learn to value all they have to offer to our community. As a local authority, we have a responsibility to promote such initiatives because by opposing racism we can encourage integration and a better quality of life for all."
© Galway Independent
FAR-RIGHT PARTY CALLS FOR JEWS TO JOIN WAR ON ISLAM(uk)
05/10/2006 - One of Europe's most successful far-right leaders has appealed to Jewish voters to join forces against radical Islam and back a party denounced as xenophobic. Filip Dewinter, leader of Belgium's Vlaams Belang, described Antwerp's large Jewish community as natural partners "against the main enemy of the moment, the radical Islam, fundamentalism". Vlaams Belang is expected to win at least a third of the votes in local elections on Sunday and emerge as the largest party in Antwerp, a city with tense race relations and one which has suffered racial murders this year. Mr Dewinter has come to the threshold of political power by advocating strict limits on immigration, including the return of economic migrants who fail to integrate, as well as independence for Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking half of Belgium. He called for radical Islam to be denied official recognition and its supporters, and those who fail to integrate, denied Belgian nationality and possibly social security payments.
So far the Vlaams Belang, or Flemish Interest, now the biggest political force in Flanders, has been kept out of any part of government in Belgium by a coalition of mainstream parties. But this so-called cordon sanitaire may crack if the grouping makes widely-anticipated gains on Sunday. In a series of interviews yesterday Mr Dewinter raised the temperature in Antwerp, which has a large Jewish community living alongside thousands of Muslim immigrants. "In the Jewish community we have about 30 to 35 per cent of the vote," said Mr Dewinter. "That's official because we know our score over there in the Jewish neighbourhood." Mr Dewinter denied any responsibility for inciting racial attacks and said that his opponents had found that "demonisation is necessary to maintain the cordon sanitaire against us". The office of the 44-year-old former journalist boasts a Rubens portrait of a 17th-century mayor of Antwerp - a post which the Vlaams Belang leader covets. He spelled out clearly the tougher regime that immigrants, especially Muslim ones, would face were he to be elected. Mr Dewinter said: "If they won't accept our way of life, if they won't accept those principles which are very clear and very necessary for Western democracy, I don't think we have to recognise Islam as an official religion in our country."
Six years ago the Vlaams Blok, which was the forerunner of the Vlaams Belang, won a third of the vote in Antwerp. The Blok was disbanded after a court ruled that it incited racial hatred. In regional elections two years ago the Vlaams Belang, which has most of the same personalities, polled 24 per cent. About 40,000 people attended pop concerts in Antwerp over the weekend called to rally voters against racism and intolerance. But on the streets yesterday views were mixed about the Vlaams Belang agenda. Ludo Bons, an engineer, said: "There is some good and some bad. It's not just immigration. The French [speakers in Belgium] take money from the Flemish. Everybody thinks it is racist but not everyone who votes for Vlaams Belang is racist - some vote because of the French situation." Iskender Zambur, whose parents came from Turkey, said: "The Vlaams Belang is racist and what they want is no solution. It's OK to live here but dangerous."
© Independent Digital
JEWISH, TATAR GRAVESTONES VANDALIZED(Russia)
05/10/2006 - Vandals painted swastikas on more than 100 Jewish and Tatar gravestones in a central Russian city and overturned many others - the latest in a string of anti-Semitic, racist and hate crime vandalism across the nation, police officials said Wednesday. State-run television showed the ransacked Dmitrovo-Cherkasskoye Cemetery in Tver, about 100 miles northwest of Moscow, along with white-and-black paper swastika leaflets scattered about the gravestones. More than 150 gravestones were vandalized, regional police chief Leonid Gagloyev said in televised comments. It was unclear when the vandalism took place; Russian television said it was the third time the cemetery had been vandalized. "We think it was a planned action and the vandals are fascist groups, skinheads," he was quoted as saying. Russia has seen a notable rise in hate crimes and racist violence and vandalism in recent years, which rights groups say is fueled in part by the authorities' reluctance to crack down on extremists. Late last month, assailants threw gasoline bombs at a mosque in the central city of Yaroslavl and scrawled extremist slogans on its fence. Unidentified attackers vandalized two synagogues - one in the Volga River city of Astrakhan and the other in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk -- shattering windows at one and briefly setting a door ablaze.
© Rusnet
GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR CHARLEROI'S ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS(Belgium)
02/10/2006 - The illegal immigrants who have held a vigil of protest in the Basilique Saint-Christophe in Charleroi since March, decided to put an end to their hunger strike after the local government offered 'to help them to regularise their situation'. The hunger strike started on the 29 of August as a protest against the lack of progression made concerning their requests for asylum. A deterioration in the health of some of the striking immigrants may also have spurred the decision to end the vigil. Forty-five of the immigrants had gone on hunger-strike frustrated by the lack of progress made in their negotiations with the local government. They also declared that the strike would include a 'thirst' strike, but in the end didn't go through with it. The decision to end the hunger strike was taken following negotiations with the Chief Cabinet Minister of Christian Dupont's cabinet and the regional secretary of the MOC (Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien ) or Christian Workers Movement.
© Expatica News
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ROMANIES SERIOUS CZECH PROBLEM
04/10/2006 - Discrimination against Romanies is a serious problem in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine, and the United Nations should more protect Romanies' rights and point to the discrimination against them, Romany activist Romani Rose told journalists at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday. The U.N. bodies dealing with human rights should bear in mind that a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) for 2005 showed that Romanies are the most vulnerable minority in Europe, said Rose, the chairman of the Roma and Sinti Central Council in Germany. "This minority that includes 12 million is threatened with racism, discrimination and apartheid," he said. The Roma and Sinti Central Council seeks to provide more information about Romanies who were exterminated in the Holocaust, Rose said, adding that up to 500,000 Romanies died in the Holocaust. Society only has little knowledge about their fate and this also contributes to the present discrimination against Romanies, he said. Neo-Nazi groups more and more use the Internet to spread hostile propaganda against Romanies, he said. A press conference at which Rose spoke was held on the occasion of an exhibition that will open in the U.N. headquarters in January and will focus on the persecution of Romanies by the Nazis. However, the persecution of Romanies continues today, Rose said. The European Monitoring Centre said in May that extensive discrimination and negative stereotypes prevent Romany children from being admitted to state schools in European Union countries. The centre stressed that the governments should exert greater efforts to introduce an equal approach and to suppress segregation. The study said that the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia had sent Romany children to schools for mentally handicapped children.
© Prague Daily Monitor
INQUIRY OVER MUSLIM OFFICER EXCUSED FROM EMBASSY DUTY(uk)
05/10/2006 - The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has launched an urgent review into the decision to allow a Muslim police officer to be excused from guarding the Israeli Embassy in London. Sir Ian Blair called for the inquiry after The Sun newspaper reported that PC Alexander Omar Basha, who is attached to the Metropolitan Police’s Diplomatic Protection Group, asked for special dispensation not to work at the embassy because of his moral objection to Israel’s bombing of Lebanon over the summer. Mr Basha’s wife is Lebanese and he is understood to have relatives in the country. "Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances," Sir Ian said. Superintendent Dal Babu, the chairman of the Association of Muslim Police, said that the officer had asked for dispensation due to concerns about his welfare rather than political objections. "This is about the welfare of an individual and not about a moral issue," Mr Babu told the BBC today. "This particular officer had brought an issue forward - his wife is Lebanese, his father is from Syria - and he brought up this issue at the start of August this year and had expressed a desire to be posted elsewhere while the war was going on." "He is now working normal DPG [Diplomatic Protection Group] duties and, clearly , if an issue happens at the Israeli embassy he will deal with it."
Mr Babu said he had spoken to Mr Basha and his understanding of the situation was that he felt "uncomfortable and unsafe" guarding the embassy during the conflict. He acknowledged that allowing officers to be excused from duties because of their moral positions was unacceptable. "I think we are going down a very, very slippery road if we start having postings based on individual officers’ conscience," he said. "As police officers we have to deal with some very, very difficult situations and we need to be objective and make sure that we police all members of the community fairly. We can’t pick and choose." Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, a former president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, criticised the decision, calling it a "step too far". He said that it was the duty of officers to put aside their personal views on politics and religion while doing their jobs. "If officers have political, religious, ideological or moral views about things - and all officers will do - then they have got to put their duties above that because their service is to the public," he told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. "Once we start going down the road of granting these dispensations it raises all sorts of difficult questions." His comments echoed those made by John O’Connor, a former Flying Squad commander, who told The Sun: "This is the beginning of the end for British policing. "If they can allow this, surely they’ll have to accept a Jewish officer not wanting to work at an Islamic national embassy? Will Catholic cops be let off working at Protestant churches? Where will it end? This decision is going to allow officers to work in a discriminating and racist way." Lord Janner, a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, added that it was the duty of police officers to protect British citizens. "It would be a grave error for this to be permitted. Our police force has to protect British people and their guests."
© The Times Online
STRASBOURG COURT RULES RUSSIA’S REFUSAL TO REGISTER SALVATION ARMY VIOLATES GROUP’S RIGHTS
05/10/2006 - Russia’s refusal to register a Moscow branch of the Salvation Army violated the religious organization’s rights to freedom of religion and association under Europe’s human rights convention, a European court ruled Thursday, The Associated Press reports. The European Court of Human Rights said the Moscow authorities “did not act in good faith” when they refused to register the Salvation Army in 1999, and awarded the organization 10,000 euros ($12,700) in damages. The Moscow branch of the Salvation Army was officially registered as a religious organization in 1992. But after a new Russian law on religious associations took effect in 1997, the Moscow Justice Department did not re-register the branch on the grounds that its founders were foreign nationals. The Salvation Army was founded in 1865 by English Methodist minister William Booth and has its international headquarters in London. A Moscow district then ruled on the Salvation Army’s appeal, saying the branch should be denied registration as a religious body because it was a ’paramilitary organization’ whose members wore uniforms and served in an ’army’. The human rights court ruled there was no reason for Russia to treat foreign nationals differently from Russians when it comes to their ability to exercise freedom of religion. It also ruled that although members of the Salvation Army — an organization best known as a charity — wore uniforms, “it could not be seriously maintained” that it was a paramilitary organization advocating violence or undermining the integrity or security of the state. The European Court of Human Rights deals with violations of civil liberties under the European Convention of Human Rights, a treaty legally binding on all 46 members of the Council of Europe.
© MosNews
COURT: 30-YEAR GERMAN CASE VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS
Germany violated the Convention on Human Rights by letting a court case drag on for more than 30 years, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday. The plaintiff now seeks millions in compensation.
05/10/2006 - Just seven weeks after the soccer World Cup ended in Germany, Jürgen Grässer took his case to court. The young developer sued the city of Saarbrücken, which refused to issue him a building permit for a shopping center on land he already owned.
The above-mentioned World Cup took place in 1974 and Grässer's been making his way through the courts ever since. On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the extraordinary length of the legal proceedings amounted to "a particularly grave violation of the right to a hearing within a reasonable time. "He undoubtedly suffered distress resulting from the protracted length of the proceedings, which he had to conduct for almost all his working life," the court continued. "Throughout these proceedings, his economic existence had been at stake, which is illustrated by the fact that he went bankrupt following the levy of execution to enforce payment of heavy court costs."
A moral, not a monetary victory
While Grässer had hoped for millions of euros in compensation, the judges in Strasbourg sided with lawyers for Germany's government, who had called Grässer's compensation claims "excessive." The government's side also argued that "no causal link between the mere length of these proceedings and the damage alleged" could be found. The court awarded Grässer a total of 60,000 euros ($76,446). "That's a moral victory that doesn't buy me much," the 66-year-old was quoted as saying by German news service DPA. But Grässer hasn't given up hope for more compensation: He still has a case pending before a German court, claiming 180 million euros in damages.
© Deutsche Welle
THE PATHOS OF EXTREME GENOCIDE(Moldovia)
Comments from Helsinki Citizens' Assembly of Moldova
05/10/2006 - Recently Ion Antonescu has been nominated as one of the greatest Romanians by the first TV Channel in Romania. Moldovan newspaper 'Timpul' has covered this event enthusiastically stressing the importance of Antonescu's personality for the Romanian nation. Unfortunately this is not a unique case when the image of Antonescu has been presented in either positive or 'neutral' way.
The uncomfortable truth
What is considered as marginal and criminal in Western Europe, today became dominant in some countries of Eastern Europe, either through the direct or non-direct support of 'respected' national intellectuals. Historical revisionism as regards World War II, including its most extreme form Holocaust denial, has a more mainstream character in Eastern Europe, including Romania and Moldova. And it is deeply interconnected with the issues of statehood and collective identity which includes national pride and excludes inconvenient truths and minority narratives.
The Genocide
The historical details of the Holocaust such as Anonescu's responsibility for the death of at least 400 thousands Jews, Roma and other groups during the Second World War, are little known today both outside and even inside Romania and Moldova. There are those who refute the Holocaust outright, and the Holocaust revisionists, who question certain aspects of it, minimise the amount of suffering and destruction or justify it. The specificity of the Romanian-led Holocaust on the territory of Basarabia/Moldova/Transnistria is often exploited by the local revisionists, among whom are historians and journalists. Holocaust revisionism takes a multitude of forms and uses several strategies and lines of argumentation. The revisionists of the Romanian Holocaust like to twist the definition of the Holocaust itself by linking it firmly with the Germans and Germans only. The framing of the Holocaust as the sole resposibility of the Germans excludes any participation or responsibility of Romanian state structures in the genocide.
People killed "accidentally"
Dealing with the facts of the killing, the revisionists resort to distortion of facts and statistics. For example they are using the fact the killing took place on the spot, the victims were usually not transported to death camps, the killing was largely spontaneous and therefore there is no archive documentation which can be comparable with the careful archivisation of the genocide by the German nazis. Very often, in line with the above mentioned strategy used by revisionists internationally, the nationalist historians like to blame the victims, labelling them as 'communists', 'spies', 'partisans', etc. They relativise the Holocaust by manipulating the history of Soviet rule in Bessarabia in 1940-1941, claiming that the massacres of Jews were only a reaction to Jewish support for the Soviet regime and the support rendered by Jews to the anti-nazi partisans during the war. They often claim that Antonescu did not exterminate all Jews , but instead he saved 400000 from Nazi killings.
Nazis could not handle the anti-Semitic enthusiasm of Antonescu
It is appropriate to remember that even the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels stated in his diary that not even the Nazis could rival Antonescu's murderous antisemitic zeal: ”When it comes to the issue of Jews, one has to say that a man like Antonescu acts much more radically than we do.” The memory debate about these events is just starting and for decades the genocide against the Jews and the Roma committed by the Antonescu regime did not have proper official recognition in both countries. The issue of the Holocaust also has a significance for the contemporary relationship between Romania and Moldova, as well as their internal politics.
"Great Romania's" extreme right
The extreme right in Moldova, working together with the extreme nationalists in Romania, aim to exclude this issue from collective memory, in order to facilitate again a unification of Romania and Moldova on the basis of ethnic and linguistic similarities. This pan-Romanian nationalist attitude to collective memory excludes the narratives of the numerous ethnic minorities such as Jews who have lived on the territory of the so-called 'Greater Romania'. For this reason they need to whitewash the history of the last period when Moldova was controlled by the Romanian government, i.e. the Second World War. Radu Ioanid from the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC stated in his book: “In extreme nationalist circles today an attempt is under way to restore to Ion Antonescu a place of honor in Romanian history as a great patriot. But whether or not the marshal loved his country is not the point: the point is that he was a war criminal in the purest definition of the term”.
© Puls
AFTER THE SWISS REFERENDUM
Nearly 70 per cent of those who voted in a referendum in Switzerland on September 24 said yes to reform of immigration and asylum laws. But the committee formed to oppose laws, which, according to UNHCR are amongst the harshest in Europe, has announced that it will build on the support of the 32 per cent of the electorate which opposed the laws to create a more progressive approach to asylum.
New asylum and immigration laws
04/10/2006 - Under the Swiss political system, parliamentary legislation can be challenged by a referendum. So when the Swiss parliament passed two new laws on asylum and immigration in December 2005, a coalition of centre-left parties, trade unions, churches and aid organisations petitioned for a referendum, arguing that the reforms went against Switzerland's humanitarian tradition. This was the ninth time, since 1984, that Switzerland has revised its asylum law and the fifth time a new law has gone to the popular vote. Under amendments to the asylum law, any asylum seeker who fails to produce valid travel and identity documents within 48 hours of making a claim, will automatically have it rejected. Failed asylum seekers, including children, who refuse to leave the country voluntarily can be jailed for up to two years. Rejected asylum-seekers will no longer be entitled to any financial assistance. And, in a move condemned by Human Rights Watch, confidentiality during the asylum process is likely to be compromised because of the possibility of agreements with other states to help establish 'motives for flight'. The second piece of legislation put to the popular vote on September 24 was the Foreigners National Act which limits immigration for those outside the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to highly skilled workers. (It also places additional obstacles to those seeking family reunification.)The Federal Commission for Foreigners said it was opposed to any law that institutionalised discrimination between people from the EU/EFTA member states and people from third countries. And the mobilising committee for a no vote against the Foreigners National Act observed that the new law ignored 'the realities of the job market'. It encouraged 'more people to work illegally', while 'making it impossible for the 80,000 illegal residents already employed in Switzerland to ever get resident status'.
Policies of Swiss People's Party opposed
The staunchest support for the new laws were in rural areas of German-speaking central and eastern Switzerland. The majorities in French-speaking regions were much lower. The yes vote was seen as a victory for the Swiss People's Party (SVP), which is the largest party in the centre-Right coalition government, and the anti-immigration policies of its justice minister, Christoph Blocher. The SVP ran its campaign on the slogan 'Stop Abuse'. It promised that its reforms would get Switzerland the immigrants it needed and send out the clear message that 'the paradise of Switzerland' (Blocher's words), did not have room for everyone. During the campaign, the UN special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, criticised Switzerland for its discriminatory tendencies and the fact that racism had become an instrument in political debate. He singled out for criticism Blocher's comments during the referendum campaign. Following the yes vote, the SVP vowed to press on and bring in more laws to regulate immigration and foreigners' rights. Campaigners fear that there will be scaremongering on figures in the months to come despite asylum claims in Switzerland having fallen to their lowest level in 20 years (down 30 per cent in 2005, when a total of 10,061 asylum claims were filed). Despite the 70 per cent vote, Ruth Dreifuss, a former cabinet minister and spokesperson for the no vote campaign, expressed herself 'disappointed but not discouraged'. Many of her supporters took heart from the large popular mobilisations against the laws. The Referendum Committee Against Asylum and Immigration Laws is to create an observatory to monitor the new laws and test out whether they are compatible with international law and human rights.
© Institute of Race Relations
BNP ACCUSED OF EXPLOITING CARTOONS ROW WITH MUSLIM LEAFLET(uk)
05/10/2006 - The far-right British National party was yesterday accused of deliberately ramping up racial and religious tensions by launching a leafleting campaign with anti-Muslim messages, including controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The depiction of the prophet with a bomb as a turban was one of several images that sparked protests across the world earlier this year. The BNP's move was criticised as a blatant attempt to reignite the controversy. Azad Ali, of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: "This is a deliberate ploy to create huge tensions ... and it is adding to the isolation, fear and frustration felt by many people in the Muslim communities." The BNP said the leaflet was part of a "coherent campaign to alert people to the Islamification of Great Britain". It has produced another leaflet on immigration and a second on Islam, which describes the faith as "a threat to us all". The leaflet was handed out in Sutton in south-west London. Politicians and community leaders said the BNP was trying to exploit a debate about plans to build a mosque in the area. Lal Hussain, a former Sutton councillor and the area's first Asian mayor, said residents had been shocked. "This is not the sort of thing we expect round here but there is not a chance they will make any headway with these tactics. People here are far too literate and tolerant."
Nick Lowles, of the anti-fascist group Searchlight, said the BNP had run a concerted campaign designed to exploit anti-Muslim feeling since the London bombings last year. "Everywhere the BNP appears racist attacks increase and this leaflet will make it more difficult for Muslims and others to go about their day to day business without being threatened and intimidated." The row began after a Danish newspaper, the Jutland Post, published cartoons mocking Muhammad. When a group of Danish imams travelled to the Middle East with the cartoons, the affair exploded into a worldwide cultural controversy. The BNP leaflet of Muhammad first appeared earlier this year. The party has also called on Muslims to be banned from flying into or out of the country. Yesterday Phil Edwards, a BNP spokesman, denied it was trying to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment and defended the "no-fly" policy. "Rather than inconvenience everybody we should ban all Muslims from flying in and out of Britain," he said. The BNP gained 32 councillors in May's local elections, including 11 of the 13 seats it contested in Barking and Dagenham, east London.
© The Guardian
DETAINED IMMIGRANTS 'ARE ABUSED'(uk)
Hundreds of detained immigrants claim to have been physically assaulted or abused by staff at privately-run detention centres, a charity says.
04/10/2006 - Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) told the BBC's Today programme many are afraid to speak out because they fear that would adversely affect their case. BID says it also gets complaints about a lack of respect in the centres. A Home Office spokesman said that any staff found not to treat detainees with respect and dignity could be dismissed. One detainee - 24-year-old Suzan from Uganda, who is HIV positive and weighs six stone - says she was excessively restrained by four officers at the Colnbrook detention centre near Heathrow Airport, after she refused to hand over her walking stick to a nurse. "Two were holding my arms, two were holding my legs and then they hit my head on the floor," she said. "I was feeling pain and then they twisted my arms and pressed my head on the bed. "I couldn't breathe and then I was shouting 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe' but they were just twisting it harder." BID caseworker Anna Morvern said Suzan's was not an isolated case. "We get enough calls to our helpline to be very concerned about abuse and violence going on in the detention centres. "They're often very scared about reporting abuse or ill treatment to the authorities. "They fear it will have a detrimental effect on their claim to stay here, if they're claiming asylum, or they fear reprisals, they fear further ill treatment."
Injury reports
Dr Frank Arnold, who examines detainees on behalf of the Medical Justice Network, said he had seen a number of injuries consistent with claims of assault. "There are many, many cases of this kind of injury which have been reported to the police, and reported by our organisation, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and by BID." Police and the Home Office are both investigating the complaint made by Suzan, who was due to be removed to Uganda on Tuesday night before being granted a temporary reprieve.
The Home Office spokesman said that anyone found to have contravened rules on humanity and respect would face disciplinary action and possible dismissal. Tom Riall, chief executive of the home affairs division of Serco, which runs Colnbrook, said staff there did "a difficult job". "But we do it with care and decency and considerable respect for all of those in our charge. "We only use physical restraint as a last resort and, on the occasions where we do use physical restraint, absolute minimum force is used." The allegations involving Suzan were now being investigated by the police, he said. "But as I understand it, the detainee concerned was both kicking out at and attempting to bite members of staff and, under those circumstances, it was considered necessary to use physical control and restraint."
© BBC News
FAR RIGHT WOOS A TOLERANT CITY(Belgium)
Most successful anti-immigration party in Europe may make gains in Antwerp
06/10/2006 - OUTSIDE the anonymous offices of Vlaams Belang, Europe’s most successful far-right political party, Paul Holderbeke broke down in tears. The middle-aged taxi driver has voted for the party in the past, attracted by the combination of anti-immigrant rhetoric and its appeal to restore the historic pride of Flanders by claiming independence from Belgium. But the random, racist murder in Antwerp of a pregnant nanny from Mali and the little girl she was looking after have made Mr Holderbeke reconsider. “I saw that little child lying on the street. I was crying for days,” said Mr Holderbeke. “She was 2 years old with beautiful blonde hair and she was shot in the back. In my career as a police officer I saw many dead people, but nothing touched me like this. I can never vote for this party again if there was a link with the VB.” Antwerp built a reputation as a European centre of fine art, shipping and the diamond trade after the religious and ethnic tolerance of the 17th-century Enlightenment. After the recent arrival of about 40,000 African immigrants, increased racial tension is dominating regional elections in which the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party is given 35 per cent support in the polls, a figure that is only dreamt of by other far-right parties in Europe.
Behind the locked windows and security doors of No 98 America Avenue, Filip Dewinter, the leader of the VB, tried to distance his party from the killings. The father of the white skinhead who has been charged with the murders is a VB supporter, sparking outrage from opposition parties. Mr Dewinter, 44, said: “The shooting was an atrocity. All over the world you see people who are completely mad doing such things — just a few days ago in the Amish school in the US. So his father votes for VB — in a city where 32 per cent votes for VB. Of course they try to make political gain from this. Demonisation is necessary to maintain the cordon sanitaire against us.” The father of three was first elected as an MP aged 25 and has helped to modernise the appeal of the far Right in Belgium with his open-necked shirts and a willingness to engage with the media. His office is dominated by a magnificent Reubens portrait of Nicolas Rockox, who was the mayor during the 17th-century golden age of Antwerp. The cordon sanitaire, an agreement by all the other political parties in the region to work together, is all that has so far kept Mr Dewinter from following Rockox into office. In elections on Sunday, the VB is expected to win up to three of Antwerp’s nine districts outright. Mr Dewinter hopes that the electoral arithmetic will make him mayor.
He sees his party, with its plans to stop benefits for jobless immigrants and a refusal to recognise Islam as an official religion, as part of a resurgence of a “modern, efficient” far Right across Europe. Support for Jean-Marie Le Pen is running at 15 per cent in France and the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party won 7 per cent of the votes in a German regional election last month. Mr Dewinter is now wooing Antwerp’s 20,000-strong Jewish Orthodox community for the extra votes he needs to win power. “We have a very good relationship with some of the Jewish leaders and I think we are allies in our struggle for our European and western identity,” he said. “For me Europe is Rome, Greece, the Enlightenment, and it is the Jewish-Christian roots of our culture. So I don’t have a problem with the Jews in Europe, not at all. We are allies against the main enemy of the moment, the radical Islam, fundamentalism.” In the multiracial city centre of Antwerp, this message found support from Bela Singer, 60, an Orthodox Jew. “They [the VB] are not against Jewish people. They are only against people who come from other countries not to work. They are coming from Morocco with 12 or 15 children.” A survey from Leuvan University showed that VB was attracting support from a quarter of young people in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium. Aziza Algham, 20, a student with Moroccan parents, said: “I speak the language and I know the habits, but it is not good enough for some people.”
© The Times Online
STRAW DISLIKES ALL MUSLIM VEILS(uk)
Mr Straw has dismissed suggestions that his remarks are designed to raise his profile ahead of Labour's deputy leadership election. He has yet to confirm whether he will join the race to succeed John Prescott but is widely expected to do so.
Meeting strangers
06/10/2006 - Mr Straw is Labour MP for Blackburn, where about 30% of residents are Muslim. He sparked controversy when he told his local paper he asked female constituents visiting his surgery if they would uncover their faces. He said he made sure he had a female colleague in the room when asking someone to show their mouth and nose - and his constituents had so far always agreed to do so. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if he would rather the veils be discarded completely, Mr Straw replied: "Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather." Mr Straw explained the impact he thought veils could have in a society where watching facial expressions was important for contact between different people. "Communities are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers - people being able to acknowledge each other in the street or being able pass the time of day," he said. "That's made more difficult if people are wearing a veil. That's just a fact of life. "I understand the concerns but I hope, however, there can be a mature debate about this. "I come to this out of a profound commitment to equal rights for Muslim communities and an equal concern about adverse development about parallel communities."
'Separateness' fears
Mr Straw stressed it was a choice for women and he was making a request and not a demand. "What I've been struck by when I've been talking to some of the ladies concerned is that they had not, I think, been fully aware of the potential in terms of community relations," he said. "I mean, they'd thought of it just as a statement for themselves, in some cases they regard themselves as very religious - and I respect that - but as I say, I just wanted to put this issue on the table." He said he was worried the "implications of separateness" and the development of "parallel communities". Tony Blair's official spokesman said the prime minister "believes that it is right that people should be able to have a discussion and express their personal views on issues such as this". The spokesman said Mr Straw's comments were not government policy and he refused to reveal Mr Blair's views on the issue.
'Dangerous doctrine'
Mr Straw's comments have provoked a mixed response from Muslim groups. The Islamic Human Rights Commission called Mr Straw's views "astonishing" and accused him of discrimination. The Protect-Hijab organisation said the "appalling" comments showed "a deep lack of understanding". But Dr Daud Abdullah, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he could understand Mr Straw's discomfort adding that women could choose to remove the veil. Labour's Baroness Uddin said debate was needed but perhaps not in the way Mr Straw had framed it.
She was worried he had talked about veils being a statement of separation - that acknowledged the government's failure to ensure Muslim women were "part and parcel" of British society, she argued. Conservative policy director Oliver Letwin said it would be "dangerous doctrine" to tell people how to dress. And Liberal Democrat president Simon Hughes: "The experience of visiting their MP is difficult enough for many people without having to consider a dress code."
© BBC News
GERMANS UNCOVER 'NAZI MASS GRAVE'
05/10/2006 - Skeletons of 22 children and 29 adults have been found in a suspected Nazi-era mass grave excavated in Germany.
The remains were exhumed from the cemetery of a Catholic church in the village of Menden-Barge. Officials said the dead may have been victims of Adolf Hitler's "euthanasia" programme, under which many disabled people were murdered. Hitler's Nazi regime killed more than six million Jews and other minorities across Europe during World War II. "We assume that these were victims of the Nazi regime," state prosecutor Ulrich Maass said.
Difficult search
Mr Maass said authorities would search for evidence about the suspected killings and witnesses to any atrocities. At least one witness, a former church assistant, said he saw corpses brought to the grave by horse-drawn cart. But he admitted that it could be difficult to find enough strong evidence to bring charges against any individual, 61 years after the end of the war. Poisons often used to kill victims would be hard to detect after so many years. The prosecutor said a culture of secrecy surrounded the grave until recent years. The cemetery is near the site of a hospital once run by Hitler's personal doctor Karl Brandt, who headed the "euthanasia" programme, called Action T4. Victims were killed by lethal injection or by carbon monoxide fumes piped into sheds from car exhausts.
© BBC News
EUROPE'S ROMA ASK U.N. TO RECOGNIZE THEM AS HOLOCAUST VICTIMS(usa)
04/10/2006 - - Europe's Roma, or gypises, asked the United Nations to include them in Holocaust commemorations and to be recognized as victims of the Nazis. The German Central Council for Sinti and Roma introduced plans for an exhibition at U.N. headquarters that details gypsies who died in the Holocaust and the discrimination they still endure in Europe. The exhibition will open January 25 as part of annual events commemorating the U.N. International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The council's Chairman Romani Rose spoke about the exhibition at a news conference that was sponsored by Germany's U.N. mission. Rose said to Reuters, "The objective of this exhibition is to raise public awareness of the Holocaust and the murder of half a million Sinti and Roma, which is not as well known as the murder of six million Jews." According to Reuters, between 200,000 and 800,000 Roma people were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Rose said, "Over 60 years after the end of the Second World War, Roma and Sinti continue to face cases of serious violations of their human rights... And there is still insufficient knowledge in the international community of the historical dimension of the Holocaust against the Roma and Sinti." Roma and Sinti are the largest minority in central and eastern Europe, with about 12 million people.
© All Headline News
EMPLOYERS CAN PAY MEN MORE THAN WOMEN, EU COURT SAYS (Belgium)
03/10/2006 - The European Court of Justice has ruled that companies can pay male workers more on grounds of length of employment, even though natural childcare burdens limit the ability of many women to compete on the basis of time served. The case was brought by UK health inspector Bernadette Cadman, who argued that domestic duties such as pregnancy and maternity leave often dictate the length of time women work - leading to diminished "seniority" - and called for employers to provide special justification for paying men more. But Europe's highest court on Tuesday (3 October) rejected her claim, stating that additional years of service allow for greater experience on the job which leads to improved work performance. "Recourse to the criterion of length of service is appropriate to attain the legitimate objective of rewarding experience acquired which enables the worker to perform his duties better," the court stated in the ruling. "Where a job classification system based on an evaluation of the work to be carried out is used in determining pay, there is no need to show that an individual worker has acquired experience during the relevant period, which has enabled him to perform his duties better," it said.
Ms Cadman had taken Britain's Health and Safety Executive to court when she realised that three of her male colleagues were paid up to €13,000 a year more than she was, even though they all held the same position. She won the British case, but an appeals court subsequently referred the case to the Luxembourg-based European courts due to doubts over the implications of the ruling. Leena Linnainmaa, president of the European Women Lawyers' Association, suggested that a solution to the problem would be that men take paternity leave, something most do not do even though they have the right to in most European countries. "The fact that women take maternity leave is a great burden on their career," she said, not commenting on the case specifically. "We strongly encourage men to take paternity leave and the countries that have no specific legislation on the right to paternity leave to amend their law," said Ms Linnainmaa, adding that more paternity leave would benefit both the families and the labour market.
© EUobserver
GROUND BREAKS ON PARIS 'IMMIGRATION MUSEUM'
02/10/2006 - Work officially opened Monday on a new museum of immigration to open next year in Paris in keeping with a campaign promise by President Jacques Chirac. The museum, which will stage its first exhibition next April, is to be sited in the "Palais de la Porte Dorée" — an art deco building in the east of the French capital originally constructed for France's "Colonial Exhibition" of 1931. Following the changes in the political climate, it has since been a museum of the colonies, then a museum of overseas France, and most recently a museum of African and Oceanic art. In 2003 the museum closed and its collection was transferred to the new Quai Branly museum of tribal art that opened earlier this year. Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said the new museum would be "a place of memory to be sure, but also a place of reflexion, of sharing, of learning and communication on the considerable role played by immigration and immigrants in our history."
© Expatica News
THOUSANDS TURN UP FOR CONCERTS AGAINST RACISM IN BELGIUM
01/10/2006 - Belgium Thousands of listeners turned up Sunday for a string of concerts promoting tolerance, a week before municipal elections where immigration is a central theme. About 140 artists were taking part in the concerts in four cities on both sides of the linguistic French-Dutch border that slices Belgium in half. Top draws included Belgian crooner Helmut Lotti, indie rock band dEUS, Hooverphonic and Axelle Red. The right-wing political party Vlaams Belang, or Flemish Interest, which advocates halting immigration from the developing world and imposing measures against the spread of Islam, has complained that the "0110" concerts aim to discredit the party at a critical point in the campaigning for the Oct. 8 municipal elections. Recently Belgium has seen a rise in xenophobia, which many link to the Flemish Interest party. The party has relied on often shrill anti-immigration rhetoric to become one of the biggest parties in northern, Dutch-speaking Belgium, and specifically in the port city of Antwerp, where it leads in the pre-election opinion polls. The idea to stage concerts in Brussels, Antwerp, Gent and Charleroi came from musician Tom Barman, leader of dEUS. The organizers said they expected more than 60,000 spectators in the four cities.
The Flemish Interest party accuses the concerts of representing a coalition of voices led by Barman to undermine the party as it headings toward another victory. "The 0110 concerts are ultimately concerts against Vlaams Belang. If they were truly concerts against intolerance, Vlaams Belang would be invited to participate," he said. The Flemish Interest party has become one of the most successful extreme right parties in Europe, gaining more support in every election since the 1980s. It now has most seats in the Flemish parliament, yet it has always been kept out of coalition governments by the traditional parties. Apart from trying to immigration, it advocates a breakup of Belgium, where Dutch and French speakers have obtained significant powers of regional autonomy in the past two decades. Two years ago, Belgium's High Court upheld a ruling condemning the party for violating racism laws. The party subsequently changed its name from Vlaams Bloc, or Flemish Bloc, to Flemish Interest and said it had removed the offensive elements of its program.
© International Herald Tribune
ROMANIA LAW FAILS TO PROTECT DISABLED -RIGHTS GROUP
02/10/2006 - Thousands of disabled people face discrimination in Romania, which is to join the European Union next year, since vague laws fail to ensure proper care and job opportunities, a U.S. rights promoter said on Monday. The National Council on Disability, a U.S. federal watchdog, said Romania's failure to promote the integration of 400,000 disabled people had kept many locked at home or in state institutions, with no access to public life. "There is a lack of clarity on how the law applies in Romania," said Jeffrey Rosen, policy director at the council during a seminar on disabled people's rights in Bucharest. Rosen said the laws should stipulate the obligation of institutions to hire a fixed number of people with disabilities and provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate their free movement and access to buildings. The government's National Authority for Disabled Persons said Romania was stepping up efforts to address criticism from rights groups and Brussels. "We proposed new legislation aimed at improving the disabled persons' access to jobs and help their integration in society," Adrian Mindroiu, the EU department's director in the agency told Reuters.
Mindroiu said under the new bill, being debated in parliament, professional training for the disabled people will be funded by the state and employers would be forced to hire four challenged people for 75 employees in the scheme. Ex-communist Romania has attracted repeated criticism from democracy groups and Brussels over cases of breaching the rights of people with disabilities, the HIV-positive and discrimination against homosexuals and ethnic minorities. "They (the disabled) have the right to climb the stairs of an university, or walk safely in the parks," Rosen said in reference to poor infrastructure of community-based services. "Employers must not only hire people, they have to train them, make them professionals," Rosen said. In its Sept. 26 monitoring report on Romania, the European Commission said the Black Sea state has made limited progress in the treatment of people with disabilities, the mental healthcare and the protection and integration of minorities. The EU's executive report said promotion of quality services for disabled persons as well as increased access to employment and education need to become a clear priority.
© Reuters AlertNet
BOSNIA APPEARS SPLIT ON WHETHER TO UNIFY
02/10/2006 - Bosnians appeared split in key elections on the country's future Sunday, with Muslims and Catholic Croats voting for politicians who want to unify the Balkan nation, but Serbs backing a candidate who advocates ethnic division, early results showed. With up to 50 percent of the vote counted, election officials said it appeared that Nebojsa Radmanovic - whose party chief recently proposed a referendum that would allow Serb territories to secede - would win the Orthodox Christian Serbs seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. Officials said his counterparts looked likely to be strong advocates of a united Bosnia: Haris Silajdzic, who won election to the Muslim Bosniak seat, and Ivo Miro Jovic, who was leading a tight race for re-election as the Croat representative. ``I will do everything I can to enable Bosnian citizens to live a better life,'' Silajdzic said after the partial results were announced Sunday, calling the election ``an important step towards full democracy.'' ``We all have to work together to make Bosnia a better place,'' he said. ``We will be negotiating the internal setup of the country until we agree.'' He repeatedly claimed the ethnic-based territorial division of the country has to disappear. Radmanovic said, however, that if Silajdzic continues to call for a unified Bosnia, ``the cooperation will be very hard'' since a united Bosnia ``cannot happen.''
Further results were to be announced Monday, the election commission said. The early results reflect the deep ethnic divisions that persist more than a decade after the 1992-95 war in which up to 200,000 people were killed and 1 million were driven from their homes - Europe's worst violence since World War II. Muslim Bosniaks, the largest ethnic group, generally back a united country, as do their Roman Catholic Croat allies. Their ultimate hope is that Bosnia - currently divided between a Bosniak-Croat federation and a Serb republic - will join the EU when its still-fledgling political and economic reforms are completed. But many Serbs still cling to beliefs that sparked the war - namely, that their half of the country can secede and become independent. Since secession is not allowed in the constitution, Serb parties believe that at least the current territorial ethnic-based division must be maintained. Bosnia's Croats say they generally support a united Bosnia but their leaders announced if it remains divided in two mini-states, they will request their own, third mini-state for Croats.
Voters were electing a state parliament and the country's three-member presidency representing each of Bosnia's rival ethnic groups: Orthodox Christian Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats. Voters also chose leaders of the two mini-states - a president and parliament of the Serb republic and a president and parliament of the Bosniak-Croat federation, as well as parliaments of the federation's 10 cantons. The complex political setup was a compromise reached during the Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's war. At stake in the election is not just who will lead the country, but whether those leaders will be doing so in a Bosnia free of international supervision for the first time since the end of the war. An international administrator has had the last say on all important government decisions since the peace agreement in 1995. The administrator's office has said it will close next year if newly elected leaders manage to implement reforms that will end ethnic strife and take the country closer to joining the EU.
© The Guardian
COUPLE COMPARE IRISH GAY RIGHTS TO RACISM
03/10/2006 - The Irish state’s refusal to recognise or allow same-sex marriages was compared to racial prejudice in the US during a landmark case before the High Court today. Lesbian couple Dr Katherine Zappone and Dr Ann Louise Gilligan are taking an action against Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners after it refused to treat them the same as heterosexual married couples for tax purposes. They married under Canadian law in Vancouver in September 13, 2003. Michael Collins, senior counsel for the pair, said they wanted the High Court to recognise the status of their marriage or allow them to marry in Ireland. In his opening arguments in the case, which is expected to run for three weeks, he said they had rights to marry each other under the Irish Constitution and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. He told Judge Elizabeth Dunne they are being discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation and/or gender. The state has never put forward any specific justification for its discrimination and the burden was on it to prove what public good was being served by the ban, according to Mr Collins. Dr Zappone, a public policy research consultant and member of the Irish Human Rights Commission, and Dr Gilligan, an academic, first met when they were both students in Boston, in 1980.
They moved to Ireland three years later and have been cohabiting ever since.
Their claim for the same allowances as married couples in their tax returns for 2004 were refused after the Revenue argued the Oxford English Dictionary’s definitions of a husband and wife as a married man and married woman. Mr Collins warned the state, as co-defendant, could not be directed by a perceived majority view among the public. There were many cases where society outlawed practices “on grounds that were later shown to be utterly indefensible", he said. He cited as an example the prohibition of interracial marriage in many states in the US for years under the threat of criminal prosecution. Dr Zappone, spoke ahead of the hearing, insisting her marriage should be seen as valid in Ireland. “We are most appreciative that the High Court is going to be hearing the arguments. We are married, happily married, living in a lifelong monogamous partnership,” she said. Human rights campaigners, politicians and civil liberties groups all came out in support of the couple. Senator David Norris, human rights campaigner, said: “It strikes a blow for real freedom. It is about human liberty and human freedom, and I think the Irish people are extremely lucky to have such a distinguished dignified couple who have made such a contribution to Irish life.”
The youth wing of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions added their voices. Edward Matthews, head of Congress Youth, said: “Irish society is changing at a more rapid pace than legislation. Katherine and Ann Louise’s relationship should be recognised if the Government is committed to diversity and equality.” The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) said the taking of the case underlines the increased confidence gay and lesbian people have in their status as full and equal citizens under the Constitution. Ciaran Cuffe, Green Party equality spokesman, said discrimination still plagued certain groups in Irish society. “The constitutional rights that we in Ireland cherish, such as the right to equality and marriage, and property and family rights, continue to be denied to certain groups of people living in the state,” Mr Cuffe said. “Furthermore, in denying same sex couples these rights, Ireland is in breach of the rights to privacy, marriage and non-discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights.” Aengus O’Snodaigh, Sinn Fein’s equality spokesman, wished the women every success. “It is deeply regrettable that they have been forced to take this case to vindicate their right to equal treatment by this state, but it is inspiring to see the courage displayed by these women and their supporters,” Mr O’Snodaigh said. He also condemned Tanaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell for ruling out a constitutional amendment to give recognition to same-sex marriages.
© Irish Examiner
HALF OF ROMANY PARENTS WANT CHILDREN TO RECEIVE EDUCATION(Czech Republic)
03/10/2006 - About half of Romany parents would like their children to study and pass at least the secondary school leaving exam, according to a poll carried out by the Dzeno Romany association conducted among more than 200 Romany parents in six Czech towns. One-fifth of the parents said they wanted their children to graduate from a university. About one out of seven parents said that that would be happy for their children to have just elementary education. Dzeno head Ivan Vesely said that education is becoming more and more important in the Romany community. "The attitude of the present generations to their children's education is crucial for the future development of the Romany community in general. Unfortunately, many Romanies have not yet fully understood the importance of education," the report says. It says that some parents want their children to attend special elementary schools, offering a slower pace of learning, because they do not realise that this step practically prevents their children to seek any further education. A group of Czech Romanies filed a complaint with the Strasbourg court against alleged discrimination against their children, arguing that the children were moved to special schools based on their Romany origin and irrespective of their skills and abilities. Dzeno also questioned some 300 Romanies aged over 15 about their attitude to school. Two-thirds of the respondents said that they did not like to attend school. Over one-fourth said that they considered Czech language the most difficult subject at school. The report says that elderly Romanies in particular have problems with Czech as they often speak the Romany language at home, but now Czech is becoming the main language even for children whose families speak Romany. One out of five Romanies said that school teachers treated them worse than other pupils. Dzeno admits that the poll was carried out among a small number of respondents and its results therefore cannot be considered the general opinion of the community. On the other hand, the authors say the study is important as it is probably the first study focusing strictly on the opinions of Romanies in the Czech Republic.
© Prague Daily Monitor
LIBRARY FOR ROMANIES TO OPEN IN OSTRAVA(Czech Republic)
29/09/2006 - The Municipal Library in Ostrava will open a library for Romanies next week that will offer publications written in their language or Czech books about Romany issues, the library's director Miroslava Sabelova has told CTK. Sabelova said that the main idea was to create a place in which Romanies would feel welcome without being separated from the majority society. She said that Romanies often consider libraries as state offices in which they feel inconvenient. The library will be opened as the first part of the Romani kereka (Romany Circle) project launched in 2004. The library wants to concentrate especially on pre-school and school children and organise art workshops and computer courses. "We have been cooperating with schools and mainly with Romany assistants who are a sort of link. Romany children visit our libraries even now," Sabelova said. The new library also wants to focus on Romany mothers on maternity leave and the Romany family as such. "The Romany family is a very firm bond and it is the key to establish positive communication with Romanies as individuals," Sabelova said.
© Romea
MOST CZECHS AFRAID OF ISLAM
03/10/2006 - Some three-quarters of Czechs have a negative attitude to Islam, while 60 percent are afraid of it, according to a poll conducted by the polling agency STEM, published by the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN). The fears may have been enhanced by the recent information that there was a threat of terrorist attack in the Czech Republic. Besides, the Czechs have poor knowledge about the religion. Some 11 percent are of the view that Buddha or Abraham respectively are the founders of Islam. Some 55 percent agree with the view that there is a threat of a war of Western and Muslim civilisations. Almost one half of those polled are afraid of immediate terrorist attack in the Czech Republic. However, Czech intelligence services do not consider Czech Muslims immediate security risk. "The Muslims who have been living here for a long time respect our laws and do not seek any clashes, confrontation or violence," spokesman for the BIS counter-intelligence Jan Subert told the paper. According to the poll, 29 percent of Czechs consider Islam a sect and three-quarters of them would like to ban the building of mosques here. There are three of them in the Czech Republic, namely in Prague, Brno and Teplice, North Bohemia. However, in the latter, Muslims have only one leased storey in a house. Both in Brno and Teplice, local authorities had voiced reservations about the construction of a building with a minaret, the daily says.
There are some 400 Czechs professing Islam, while the total number of Muslims living in the Czech Republic is put at 10,000-20,000, HN writes. "The number includes some Muslims who originate from a Muslim country, but do not know much about Islam. There are some 2,000 of those regularly practicising the religion," Vladimir Sanka, director of the Islamic Foundation in Prague, told HN. The daily Pravo writes today that the Centre of Islamic Communities has asked for the permit to teach Islam at schools, to establish religious schools and to hold Islamic weddings. However, it does not fulfil two legal conditions: it has not been registered for over ten years and it cannot submit 10,000 signatures of those for whom it would ensure the religious rituals as required by law. The exception is to be granted by the government, but the Interior and Justice Ministries have opposed the proposal. Secret services, too, are against it, Pravo writes. The Justice Ministry is afraid of radicalisation of Islam and Education and Defence Ministries have also voiced negative positions, Pravo writes. The Muslims argue that they obtained the first permit for activities in present-day Czech Republic as early as 1912 and that they respect Czech laws and condemn terrorism, it adds.
© Ceske Noviny
CARTOON CONTROVERSY INTERVIEWS HIT DANISH STORES
A new book examines how a series of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed led to violent anti-Danish protests in many parts of the Muslim world. But who was really at fault?
03/10/2006 - Most Danes were shocked by the hostility that flared up last year at caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, which were first published by a Danish newspaper. Muslim protesters attacked Danish embassies and businesses in various countries -- and some 50 people died in clashes between demonstrators and police. Now author Per Bech Thomsen takes a look back at the origins of the conflict and the issues involved. "The Mohammed Crisis: What Happened, What We Have Learned," which hits Danish bookstores on Tuesday, features interviews with some of the principle figures, including Denmark's prime minister and the artist who made the most controversial drawing. In the book, Kurt Westergaard, who depicted Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse, says he was making a political statement. "The idea with my drawing was to illustrate that terrorists get their spiritual ammunition from the fundamentalist part of Islam," Westergaard is quoted as saying. Islam forbids any visual depictions of its main prophet.
Freedom of speech or media campaign?
In Thomsen's book, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen says that, although some Muslims found the drawings deeply offensive, the issue was one of freedom of expression. "I am not a Muslim and am not bound by the depiction ban," Rasmussen told Thomsen. "I must take note of the fact that there were many Muslims who could take offense. It doesn't mean that we should give in to their points of view." But some Danes say the caricatures, first published by the conservative Jyllands Posten newspaper, were only intended to stir up trouble. "The newspaper presented this as being about the fight for free speech," Danish Islamic studies expert Jörgen Baeck told DW-RADIO. "That became problematic. Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen picked up the theme and for months maintained that freedom of expression was the real issue. So publishing these drawings can be seen as a conscious provocation." Thomsen said he hopes his book will stimulate further dialogue. "I think both sides, Christians as well as Muslims, have learned something from this," Thomsen said on the eve of the book's publication. "When someone like me speaks to all the participants, whether editors, imams or journalists, the nuances become clearer and we get a better understanding of different points of view."
Skepticism about dialogue
In Germany, too, many people hope that talking about differences will help resolve conflicts. Last week German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble hosted the country's first-ever "Conference on Islam," in an effort to improve the government's interaction with Muslims living here. But cultural conflicts continue. The debate over Pope Benedict XVI's citation of a text critical of Islam and the cancellation of a Mozart opera in Berlin because of fears of a Muslim backlash are only the two latest examples that the tension described in Thomsen's book is still alive. Some say the problem is with Islam itself. In an article for a mass-circulation newspaper this weekend, the secretary general of the governing Christian Democrats, Ronald Pofalla, wrote: "Certainly it is painful for many Muslims that their religion is misused for violence…But the problem of religiously motivated violence is today almost exclusively a problem of Islam." And some German Muslims criticize Europeans for failing to stick up for their secular values. In an interview published on Wednesday in the online version of the news magazine Der Spiegel, political scientist Bassam Tibi said: "Muslims stand by their religion entirely. It is a sort of religious absolutism. While Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism." Per Bech Thomsen's "The Mohammed Crisis: What Happened, What We Have Learned" reconstructs how a series of cartoons could have led to the spectacle of burning Danish embassies. But the question of what, if anything, was learned from the controversy remains very much open.
© Deutsche Welle
WE'RE NOT RACISTS: BNP HIT BACK OVER PETITION AND COUNCIL DEBATE(uk)
29/09/2006 - THE BNP have again said: We are not racist. That was the message from the party after a debate this week on racism.
The leader of the BNP group on Kirklees Council, Clr David Exley, contacted the Examiner after this week's council meeting. Councillors were addressed by a group of young people who handed over a petition demanding that racism be kicked out of Kirklees. One by one. all the leaders of the main parties spoke to back the campaign. But when it was the BNP's turn no-one said a word. Clr Exley says he was going to speak, but other councillors had taken a few swipes at his party during their statements and he wasn't prepared to be the council's 'whipping boy'. He added: "What I wanted to make clear is that we do support the campaign. "We have one reservation and that is that it's looked at in an even-handed way and it's recognised that racism comes from both sides. "I 100% support it. Lib-Dem leader Kath Pinnock rang me about this about six weeks ago and I agreed we would sign up to it and we have." Asked if the BNP was a racist party Clr Exley replied: "I would defy anyone to come round and say to me you're a racist party because your policy says this, that and the other. "We're a realist party. "These people need to look at our policies and just identify the ones they feel are racist. "If we have any policies that are racist we will be prosecuted. Being racist is a criminal offence. "A number of people will say to me: 'What about your enforced repatriation?' "We don't have anything like that. It doesn't exist. More than 3,000 people have already signed up to the Kick Racism out of Kirklees campaign.
© icHuddersfield
NEW CODE TO ELIMINATE RACISM IN HOUSING(uk)
02/10/2006 - The Commission for Racial Equality today launched its new statutory code of practice on racial equality in housing - a toolkit to eliminate racism from the housing market. The code, which came into force on October 1, offers best practice guidance to everybody operating in the housing sector: from housing associations and estate agents to mortgage lenders and building contractors, as well as tenants and private landlords. Trevor Phillips, CRE Chair, said: "There is a long history of racial inequality in housing. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be homeless and to live in overcrowded conditions. "Imposed 'segregation' through housing continues to pose problems for social integration in some parts of the country and for many people racial harassment is a continuing reality. "Today, the CRE is publishes new guidance to address these issues - drawn up in partnership with an advisory board of key organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors. "Following the code's guidance makes good business sense, will avoid potential for discrimination and bring an end to poor decisions which can lead to increased segregation, leaving communities isolated from the mainstream." Peter Bolton King, Chief Executive at the National Association of Estate Agents represented on the code's advisory board, commented: "Designing the code to be a practical document with workable solutions was a priority for the board. "We now have clear guidance which offers the potential to address racial inequality without being an additional burden on the sector." David Butler, Chief Executive Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), said: "As the professional body representing people who work in housing across all sectors, and in all parts of the UK, CIH welcomes the new code of practice on racial equality in housing. "CIH is committed to ensure that good practice is translated into common practice and the code provides practical guidance, examples and recommendations which will help housing organisations promote equality and diversity." As well as recognising changes to race legislation and the race relations landscape, the new code pulls together the two previous CRE housing codes published 15 years ago, into one document.
© 24Dash.com
PROTESTERS THWART DAWN RAID ON ASYLUM FAMILY(uk)
04/10/2006 - Immigration officials yesterday abandoned a dawn raid on a family of failed asylum seekers after demonstrators gathered outside the tower block where they live. An early-morning candlelight vigil was being held by up to 200 people outside the Kingsway Court flats in Glasgow when police and immigration officials arrived at 6.40am to detain a family of Turkish Kurds. After angry scenes in which other asylum seekers and supporters shouted at officials, it emerged the parents of the family to be detained, Ali and Fatma Uzun, were not at home – they had joined the protest. It is understood that immigration officials abandoned the attempt to detain the family after interviewing Gokhana, 17, the eldest of three children staying at the address in Scotstoun. Amal Azzudin, a 16-year-old Somalian refugee – one of the "Glasgow Girls" who helped persuade the First Minister to intervene on asylum policy – said there had been emotional scenes when police and immigration officials arrived. "People were very angry and very scared. They feel like it could be them next," she said.
The raid followed renewed criticism of the Home Office's asylum policy after it emerged that a protocol agreed with the Scottish Executive six months ago covering the detention of asylum seekers has not been implemented. The protests were sparked by a raid on the tower blocks early on Monday – the home of a Congolese woman and her two children. Caritas Sony was detained along with Heaven, two, and four-month-old Glad, after her application for asylum was rejected. Around 60 asylum seekers and supporters gathered at 5.30am at the Kingsway flats. Campaigners said their number swelled to 200, but Strathclyde Police said there were 150 people.
A police spokeswoman said the event passed off peacefully and no arrests were made. The Home Office declined to comment on the specific detention but said: "In extremely rare cases, families seek to frustrate removal by separating parents from their children.
"In the interests of safety and to help minimise disruption, the visit will normally take place early in the morning when the family is most likely to be together." The protests coincided with criticism of the main detention centre for asylum seekers by Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales. Yarl's Wood, in Bedfordshire, was designated the main UK detention centre after criticism of Dungavel in Lanarkshire. Ms Owers made 48 recommendations to improve health services at Yarl's Wood. Home Office minister Liam Byrne said he took the report "very seriously" and an action plan was being drawn up.
© The Herald
HUMAN TRAFFICKING CENTRE OPENS(uk)
A new, dedicated centre will focus the expertise of many agencies on fighting 'modern slavery'.
03/10/2006 - A new human trafficking centre that opened today in Sheffield will revolutionise the government's response to the international problem, bringing together law enforcement, intelligence gathering, victim care and research, all under one roof. Led by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre will coordinate and direct the country's law enforcement handling of this sensitive, damaging and complex crime. But the unique multi-agency nature of the centre's team will combine the talents of law enforcement with those of other disciplines that would each normally be fighting only its own part of the human trafficking problem. These include academic experts, victim care organisations, representatives of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
A comprehensive approach
DCC Grahame Maxwell, Deputy Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, is the ACPO lead on human trafficking. He said the centre 'will enable a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to the problem than ever before, bringing in partners from all agencies with the desire and expertise to tackle this 21st-century slavery.' The new centre will broaden the scope of investigations into trafficking. Previous investigations centred largely on trafficking for sexual exploitation, but DCC Maxwell said the centre will 'allow us to learn about and work to combat other, lesser-known problems, like trafficking for domestic servitude and forced labour, and indeed child trafficking'.
Taking a human rights approach
The centre aims to stop trafficking by building a knowledge base of the crime, and directing and prioritising a national response. The process will ultimately involve further training for frontline officers, and increased public awareness. The team will take a human rights approach to the problem, with an increased emphasis on victim care, working alongside both governmental and non-governmental agencies. Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker toured the centre this week, and said it would 'provide specialist advice and guidance to police and partner agencies.' 'He added, 'Human trafficking is an appalling crime, which causes terrible trauma to its victims. Anyone who participates in this modern day slave trade can expect to feel the full weight of the law when they are caught.'
© Home Office
VOTERS MAY DEFECT TO UKIP OR BNP, CAMERON WARNED(uk)
03/10/2006 - Key Tory voters will flee to Ukip and the BNP if David Cameron continues to "turn down the volume" on issues such as tax, Europe and immigration, a senior backbencher warned today. Edward Leigh, chairman of the influential Commons public accounts committee, insisted that a sensible political party would not "dump on" its own core supporters. As George Osborne again refused to commit to tax cuts during his conference speech, Mr Leigh told a fringe meeting organised by the rightwing Cornerstone group: "It's obviously vital if we are to win the next election that we remain loyal to our traditional supporters. "You can't just assume that your traditional voters will remain on your side." Mr Leigh repeated his view that the Tory party was "nothing" if it didn't want to return more of taxpayers' money to them. He added that the chancellor, Gordon Brown - widely expected to take over when Tony Blair stands down - would capitalise if the leadership did not make the case for a smaller state. "Unless you make that case now we will lose the next election. "Gordon Brown will say, 'look at those Tories - they want to make tax cuts, the cake is only so big'. And the people will believe him." Mr Leigh said many people had been disappointed that there was no mention of immigration in Mr Cameron's Built To Last mission statement for the party. He stressed the issue could not be seen as racist, because most of the influx was from Europe. He said the topic of Europe was also "not something you can turn down the volume on". "If we don't speak out on these issues there's a real danger that we can become a recruiting agent for Ukip and BNP."
© The Guardian
YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO ROCK AND ROLL - OR WORK (uk)
Anti-ageism legislation is welcome, but why not go the whole hog and abolish retirement at 65?
By Will Hutton
1/10/2006- Today sees the triggering of what promises to be the biggest revolution in social attitudes for a generation. In the 1970s, the banning of discrimination on the basis of gender or race prompted an extraordinary transformation in British attitudes to both. The frontier we are now crossing is age. The anti-age discrimination legislation has crept on us, rather as age itself does, with surprisingly little warning. The government likes to keep its progressive reforms as quiet as possible, especially if they originate from the dreaded EU. Compelled to comply with a directive that requires every employer in Europe not to discriminate against any employee for any reason by the end of 2006, the government has introduced legislation at the last moment it could. But Britain is finally set to tackle one of the most invidious and simultaneously difficult forms of discrimination there is. For age both matters and should not matter. For most of us, certainly myself, the worst form of discrimination is inside in our heads. Terrified before shooting some particularly fierce rapids in an open canoe in the Canadian wilderness this summer, I remember thinking that the entire exercise was stupid for a man in his fifties. But at the end of one of the best holidays in my life, I castigated myself: we are imprisoned by a cultural mindset that tells us our age defines our capabilities within limits that have nothing to do with contemporary realities - and I am more guilty than most. Escape is both vital and liberating.
When Lloyd George introduced the retirement pension at 60, life expectancy was 61. Today, a similar relationship would imply the state pension beginning at 75. Already, the famous are carrying on long after we might have expected quiet retirement - Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison are all in their 60s - while Alan Greenspan, the former American Federal Reserve chairman, left office just months before his 80th birthday. These are all cultural examples of a coming trend; within 15 years, one- third of all workers will be over 50. We are going to need the old to work longer and they are healthy enough to do so. The new law is thus an imperative. If you're over 65, you can no longer be retired compulsorily; your employer has to give you six months' notice and justify it not on grounds of your age, but on business needs and your capabilities. And you have the right to fight back. It's the minimal loosening that the government could do and still comply with the EU legislation. But that is not the end of it. The anti- ageism legislation has had to go into the warp and weft of discriminatory practice from 16 to 65. Employers won't be able to recruit on the grounds of youth, reward long service, bias pension schemes towards the older worker, refuse older workers training or do anything where the guiding principle has been age. People are even going to have start watching their language about how they refer to both young and old workers. Ageism, as poisonous as sexism and racism, is under assault. Far from an outlandish proposition from Brussels bureaucrats, this goes with the cultural and economic grain. There has been a quiet transformation in employers' attitudes towards older workers for a good 10 years. For some 25 years, to 1995, there had been a steady reduction in the proportion of over-55s in the workforce as business used early retirement as the easy option to trim and restructure staff. Since then, a decade of steady economic growth has changed the landscape. Now the proportion of over-55s recently finding work, indeed over-65s, is one of the fastest growth areas in the British labour market. The legislation is interacting with an underlying trend.
Older workers, employers are discovering, are more reliable, more team-oriented, more skilled, wiser, cooler in a crisis and more willing to take risks (what have they got to lose?). The concern for the under-fifties is that they are going to find themselves with a huge overhang of greying superiors who refuse to move on. They should relax. The labour market does not work like that and nor do human beings. Older workers and their employers can read the runes; age counts. Sacking somebody who is underperforming is a painful and unpleasant task if they are in the middle of their life. But if somebody is physically infirm because of their age and becoming an economic burden, there can be no argument on either side. It is obvious to everyone that they have to go and the legislation has been crafted to make sure this can happen easily. The old who carry on working will do so because they are needed. The difficulty, I suspect, will be not be too much 'bed-blocking' but, rather, persuading the over-60s to break their own mindset that they are past it and because they only have a few years left, it would be best spent in 'retirement'. The truth is that on today's life expectancy numbers, they have as much 30 years more to live and 'retirement', if it means an active person doing nothing, is close to hell. Which is why it's a great pity the government did not go the whole hog and abolish the concept of an universal retirement age at 65, just as the Americans did. But quivering before the bullying business lobby, the British are going to stand by the familiar idea that 65 remains a watershed between usefulness and uselessness. The chance to challenge and lead attitudes has been lost.
None the less, it is an important moment. No doubt, there will be a flurry of law suits and employment tribunal cases as particular workers and employers test the scope and meaning of the new law, but that does not mean that society should not try to move on. The truth is that age, like gender and ethnicity, should not be the excuse for discrimination by others, or even by ourselves inside in our heads. Left to its own devices, the government would have done nothing. Thank the EU for pushing us towards a more progressive - and more humane - Britain.
© The Observer
A LOCAL LE PEN IN RACE FOR PRESIDENT(Bulgaria)
1/10/2006- An ultra-nationalist whose supporters chant slogans about “turning gypsies into soap” has emerged as the second most popular candidate in Bulgaria’s presidential election campaign. Although Volen Siderov, the leader of the Ataka party, is not expected to win this month’s election, opinion polls suggest he will get enough votes to challenge Georgi Parvanov, the incumbent, in a second round. The scale of his support has set off alarm bells in Brussels as Bulgaria prepares to join the European Union. At a rally in the town of Dobrich, Siderov, an admirer of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front, whipped up supporters who chanted his name along with aggressive anti-minority rhetoric. “Give Bulgaria back to Bulgarians,” has become the catchphrase of his party, which won more than 8% of the vote in a general election last year. Minority parties, especially those that represent ethnic Turks and the Roma community, have come in for particular criticism. Siderov has tapped into popular unrest about crime among the 600,000 Roma. “Stop the gypsy terror!” he screamed on TV. Katinka Barysch, of the Centre for European Reform, said such populists were capitalising on disillusionment with the high expectations of EU membership. “Of course there are losers who don’t gain immediately, and then some demagogue comes along and says it is the fault of the gypsies and such things,” she said. Siderov, 50, a former journalist, is being pursued in the courts for alleged ethnic and sexual discrimination. He also has no love for property buyers from Britain. “A lot of English come here to buy property and feel like conquerors because it is very cheap. But they are saying Bulgarians should not come to England. If England limits Bulgarians then Bulgaria must restrict English people,” he said. Boyko Todorov, of Sofia’s Centre for the Study of Democracy, said: “There is general dissatisfaction with the way politics is conducted. That’s why he’s so popular.” But there was another reason, Todorov argued. “Siderov is a very good speaker and you don’t get that often among Bulgarian politicians — 99.9% of them are unbelievably boring.”
© The Times Online
CHIRAC POKES FINGER IN TURKEY'S EYE ON ARMENIA 'GENOCIDE'(France)
02/10/2006 - French president Jacques Chirac paid no heed to Turkish sensitivities on his first-ever visit to Armenia this weekend, calling on Turkey to own up to "genocide" before joining the EU and comparing the killings to Nazi Germany's holocaust. "Should Turkey recognise the genocide of Armenia to join the EU?" Mr Chirac asked, AP reports. "I believe so. Each country grows by acknowledging the dramas and errors of its past...Can one say that Germany, which has deeply acknowledged the holocaust, has as a result lost credit? It has grown." The French leader made the remarks in Yerevan on Saturday (30 September) at a wreath-laying ceremony beside the country's "Genocide Monument", before visiting the "Genocide Museum" and writing the solitary word "remember" in the visitors' book. Armenia says Turkish forces slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1917 but the Turkish government and Turkish history books claim that 300,000 Armenians and 300,000 Turks died in a 'civil war' in the region. Fifteen countries, including France, Switzerland, Russia and Argentina, have previously classified the killings as "genocide" - defined by the UN as "harmful acts...committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." In Turkey, any deviation from the official line can land novelists or university professors in jail under article 301 of the country's new penal code against "insulting Turkishness." But there has been no official reaction to Mr Chirac's statements so far, despite mumblings by unnamed Turkish diplomats in the Turkish Daily News that they are "worried" about worsening bilateral relations.
Chirac goes further than EU
The French leader's remarks go further than Brussels' formal EU accession conditions, which require Ankara to boost democratic standards in areas such as free speech and to lift its blockade on Cypriot shipping - but do not mention the thorny Armenian question. MEPs voting on a highly-critical report on Turkey's EU accession progress last week also opted to cut out a clause calling for recognition of the Armenian genocide for fear of stirring up a nationalist backlash in the EU's most controversial candidate state. Armenia itself has so far shied away from confrontation on the subject, with president Robert Kocharian on Saturday saying merely "we would like that our interests be discussed" in the EU-Turkey accession talks. The small, landlocked country of 3.6 million people is in a tricky position: it has closed borders with Turkey in the west; the prospect of a Russian-Georgian conflict in the north; escalating tensions with Azerbaijan in the east and borders with international pariah Iran in the south. But France plans to keep on pressing the issue with a vote tabled in parliament on 12 October over a fresh resolution that Turkey must give the Armenian killings their proper name. About 400,000 Armenian ex-pats live in France, with some - such as singer Charles Aznavour - rising to social prominence and with Paris promising to hold a referendum before it ratifies Turkish EU accession in the future.
© EUobserver
TEACHER WHO ATTACKED ISLAM: 'ALONE AND ABANDONED' (France)
29/09/2006 - French anti-terrorism authorities Friday opened an inquiry into death threats against a philosophy teacher who has been forced into hiding over a newspaper column attacking Islam, legal officials said. Robert Redeker, 52, is receiving round-the-clock police protection and changing addresses every two days, after publishing an article describing the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as "a religion which ... exalts violence and hate". He told i-TV television he had received several e-mail threats targeting himself and his wife and three children, and that his photograph and address were available on several Islamist Internet sites. "There is a very clear map of how to get to my home, with the words: 'This pig must have his head cut off'," he said. Speaking on RMC radio, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said such threats were "unacceptable". "We are in a democracy, everyone has the right to express his views freely — of course while respecting others. That is the only restriction that is acceptable on this freedom. "This shows to what extent we live in a dangerous world... and how vigilant we must be to ensure people fully respect one another in our society."
The Paris state prosecutor's office Friday launched a preliminary inquiry for "criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise", asking the DST intelligence agency to look into the death threats. But despite the government's assurances of support, Redeker accused the authorities of leaving him "alone and abandoned". Interviewed over the telephone from a safe house by Europe 1 radio Friday, he said that "the education ministry has not even contacted me, has not deigned to get in touch to see if I need any help." On Thursday Education Minister Gilles de Robien expressed "solidarity" with the teacher, but also warned that "a state employee must show prudence and moderation in all circumstances." Redeker said that "if Robien is correct, then we would never have had any intellectual life in France. The function of politics is not tell us what we are allowed to think, but to defend our freedom to think and speak out." The issue, as it relates to Islam, is a sensitive one in France, which has Europe's biggest Muslim community, estimated at six million or around 10 percent of the population. Le Figaro, which published Redeker's article on September 19, printed a front-page open letter from the editors Friday expressing solidarity with him and "condemning with the greatest severity the grave attacks on freedom of thought and expression that this affair has provoked."
Redeker wrote the piece in reaction to the fury unleashed in Muslim countries by Pope Benedict XVI's references to Islam in an address in Germany two weeks ago. Under the heading "In the face of Islamist intimidation, what must the free world do?", he denounced the "Islamisation of spirits" in France and claimed that "Islam is trying to make Europe yield to its vision of mankind." Likening Islam to Communism, Redeker said that "violence and intimidation are the methods used by an expansionist ideology ... to impose its leaden cloak on the world". He also compared the Prophet Mohammed unfavourably to Jesus Christ, describing the founder of Christianity as a "master of love" and the founder of Islam as a "master of hate". "Exaltation of violence, a merciless war-leader, a pillager, a massacrer of Jews and a polygamist — this is the picture of Mohammed that emerges from the Koran," he wrote. Subsequently Redeker was denounced on Al-Jazeera television by the influential Qatari Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and that day's edition of Le Figaro was banned in Egypt and Tunisia. Speaking on Europe 1, he said his detractors had "already won a victory of sorts." "I cannot do my job. I have no freedom of movement. I am in hiding. Already they have succeeded in punishing me ... as if I was guilty of holding the wrong opinions."
© Expatica News
BLACK GERMAN FOOTBALLER MAY QUIT OVER RACISM
02/10/2006 - Schalke 04 striker Gerald Asamoah is refusing to rule out retiring from the German national team because of the racist abuse he receives on the pitch from fans and in his private life. "Is there any point playing for Germany (in such a situation)?" Asamoah, who is currently recovering from a broken leg sustained in his side's UEFA Cup defeat at French club Nancy on Thursday, asked in an interview published Monday in Kicker magazine. "That's the question, a very serious one." Ghanaian-born Asamoah was the victim of sustained racist abuse during Schalke's German cup match against the amateur team Hansa Rostock last month. The German Football Federation's (DFB) sports court fined Rostock 20,000 euros (about 25,000 dollars) following the abuse. "The moment when it registered in my head was appalling. For a few seconds, I was totally blank. It caused unbelievable distress," said Asamoah of the Rostock incident. "The worst part is that my wife is also on the receiving end - my family. It's shown on television." Asamoah also revealed that his friends and family had been victims of exclusion and assaults. For example, his wife and a cousin were verbally abused at a market. "The monkey chants have led to the situation where some people in Africa now have the same impression as they did before (the success of) the 2006 World Cup," said Asamoah. "The idiots have managed to achieve this."
© Expatica News
MOSQUES IN GERMANY OPEN DOORS TO NON-MUSLIMS
04/10/2006 - Some 800 mosques across Germany opened their doors to the general public on Tuesday, allowing people from other faiths a first-hand glimpse of Islam. Around 90,000 visitors took advantage of the open day to explore the houses of worship and pose questions about Islam, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany said. Some of the mosques organized exhibitions, while others pooled their resources for round-table discussions on religion or information gatherings on integration and language courses. The annual event, which was launched in 1997, this year coincided with the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Visitors to the Central Mosque in Hamburg were invited to join Muslims in an "iftar" - the meal that breaks the fast of Ramadan at the end of the day. There are around 2,300 mosques in Germany, which counts some 3.2 million practising Muslims among its population, the second biggest religious group after Christians.
© Expatica News
RIOTS IN LEIPZIG AS PROTESTORS TRY TO STOP NEO-NAZI MARCH(Germany)
04/10/2006 - Police detained 102 people on Tuesday during violent protests against a neo-Nazi march coinciding with the 16th anniversary of German unification. A police spokesman said hundreds of left-wing radicals hurled missiles, erected barricades and set fire to a patrol car as they tried to stop a neo-Nazi rally in the eastern city of Leipzig. One policeman was injured. Some 2,000 riot police were on duty to protect the neo-Nazi 200 marchers, who paraded through the city centre led by figurehead Christian Worch. Local politicians, trade unions and religious groups had called for a peaceful demonstration against the rally. The nation on Tuesday marked the unification of the former West Germany and communist East Germany on October 3, 1990. Elsewhere the anniversary was celebrated with religious services, street fairs and a pledge by Chancellor Angela Merkel to press ahead with reforms. The northern port of Kiel was the focus of this year's celebrations, which have been held in a different city each year since East and West Germany united in 1990. A huge fair along the Baltic Sea waterfront and a series of concerts highlighted the Kiel festivities, which attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors despite overcast and windy weather. Chancellor Merkel attended a religious service before delivering a keynote address at the city's main convention hall in which she underlined the importance of freedom for the German nation. Freedom "remains for me the key to ensuring that justice and solidarity have a future," the chancellor told an audience that included President Horst Koehler.
Merkel, who hails from the former communist eastern Germany, also underscored her government's plans to institute tax reforms and overhaul the creaking health care system and labour market. A poll for the television news channel NTV conducted on the eve of Unity Day showed 74 per cent of eastern Germany's 17 million inhabitants considered themselves second-class citizens 16 years after unification. The region still lags behind the west of Germany in terms of growth and also has a higher unemployment rate, following the collapse of its economy after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the ensuing demise of communism. "Rebuilding the east will take another 40 years," said Ulrich Blum, president of the Institute for Economic Research in the eastern city of Halle. The German government, which has already pumped billions into the east, needed to develop more economic hubs in the region and invest in research facilities, Blum said. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who attended another Unity Day celebration in Berlin, said the Germans of today were better off than previous generations. "We seem to have forgotten how serious the threat was during the Cold War. It was not about terrorist attacks like it it is today; there was a doomsday scenario hanging over everything," the minister said.
© Expatica News
MINISTER WANTS TO LEGALIZE ANTI-NAZI SWASTIKAS(Germany)
Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries wants to legalize anti-Nazi paraphernalia featuring crossed-out swastikas -- a symbol banned in Germany in any form.
02/10/2006 - Zypries made the announcement Monday, just days after a regional court in Stuttgart fined the owner of a mail order business for selling anti-Nazi T-shirts and badges. The law banning the use of "unconstitutional symbols" needed to be revised, the justice minister told die tageszeitung daily on Monday. Should Germany's highest court uphold Friday's ruling by a regional court in Stuttgart, there was "something wrong" in the law itself, she said, and the government would be forced to change the legislation. Jürgen Kamm, the 32-year-old owner of mail order company Nix Gut Versand was fined 3,600 euros ($4,600) for selling anti-Nazi T-shirts and badges, a decision he plans to appeal. The judge ordered the seizure of 16,000 items of merchandise, as well as brochures and flyers bearing the crossed-out swastika logo. Though the items are printed with the swastika, the symbol either has a large red line through it or a fist is shown smashing the symbol. The logos are popular among left-wing activists and anti-Nazi campaigners.
Anti-symbol makes swastika acceptable?
There was a risk that the merchandise could make the swastika socially acceptable again, said district attorney Bernhard Häussler, the prosecutor in the case against Kamm. "All that came to pass under that symbol of Nazism was so terrible that any use of it should remain banned from politics, and it should also not be allowed to become a fashion article," he said. Under German laws, giving the Hitler salute, wearing Nazi uniforms or displaying the swastika carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. The court ruling caused a public outcry, including a vehement response from mainstream political leaders. Social Democratic Party chief Volker Beck said he found it incomprehensible that the rejection of Nazi symbols would be equated with the propagation of them. While independence of the judiciary must be maintained, citizens expected that the legal means by which right-wing extremism can be combated will be taken advantage of, he said on Saturday.
Berlin demurs
Green party leader Claudia Roth, who purposefully provoked a legal investigation into herself for wearing an anti-Nazi lapel pin, concurred with Zypries that the legislation may need amending. She said once it became clear how the next court would decide Kamm's case, lawmakers should quickly work to clarify the situation. Within the legal community too, there was disagreement with the Stuttgart ruling. Berlin will not prosecute the use of the swastika in anti-Nazi symbols, the city-state's senior district attorney, Jörg Raupach, told the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag weekly. The paper wrote that investigators had decided against prosecuting the Green party for hanging a flag adorned with a swastika in protest against the Stuttgart ruling on the facade their national headquarters in Berlin.
© Deutsche Welle
GERMAN COURT FINES SELLER OF ANTI-NEO NAZI SHIRTS
29/09/2006 - A German judge on Friday fined the seller of a range of anti-neo Nazi t-shirts and badges because the products bear the infamous swastika symbol -- with a large red line through it. The logo -- a red circle with a line across it superimposed on the Nazi emblem -- is a popular image among left-wing activists and anti-neo Nazi campaigners in Germany and can be purchased on lapel-pins and items of clothing. However, Wolfgang Kuellmer, a Stuttgart judge, ruled on Friday that its increasing popularity risked making the Nazi hooked cross acceptable again in Germany, over 60 years after it was outlawed following Hitler's defeat. "In particular this mass market business risked undermining its taboo status," Kuellmer said. Under German law, performing a Hitler salute, wearing Nazi uniform or displaying the swastika can carry a penalty of a fine or up to three years in prison. The 32-year-old distributor, who ran a mail order service and website, was fined 3,600 euros. The judge ordered the seizure of 16,500 pieces of merchandise, two palettes of brochures and around 8,400 publicity flyers bearing the logo. Green party member of parliament, Claudia Roth, herself once investigated by the Stuttgart authorities for wearing an anti-Nazi lapel pin, said the ruling was unjustified. "This ruling is scandalous," she said. "It is a form of autism which completely ignores the real problems of right wing extremism, anti-semitism and racism in this country." The logo, reminiscent of that used in the 1984 film Ghostbusters, is often seen at anti neo-Nazi rallies such as those held to protest against the far-right National Democrat Party's (NPD) election gains in recent regional polls in the formerly communist east of the country. The NPD's gains renewed calls from some politicians to consider banning the party, which has been likened to Hitler's embryonic Nazi party.
© Reuters
NEO-NAZI VICTIM BATTLING TO THE DEATH(Germany)
Noel Martin plans to take his own life in less than a year. Just over 10 years ago, a neo-Nazi attack left him paralyzed from the neck down. He plans to fight right-wing extremists to the very end.
02/10/2006 - Noel Martin has already chosen July 23, 2007 to be the day he dies. On that evening, his pulse will gradually slow down until it stops completely. He has decided to die as a result of a lethal blend of drugs -- administered in Switzerland by Dignitas, an organization that offers its clients medically assisted suicide. Martin publicly announced his decision in June, 10 years after the attack that left him paralyzed and destroyed his will to live. He plans to celebrate his last birthday -- he'll be 48 -- and then drink the cocktail that will put him out of his misery. He has 297 days left. The attack occurred on June 16, 1996 in Mahlow, a town in the former East German state of Brandenburg where the dark-skinned, Jamaican-born Briton was employed as a construction worker. A stone crashed through the windshield of his car and Martin's car veered off the road. He remembers seeing a tree careening towards him and jerking the steering wheel. And then, a thud. Darkness. When Martin woke up, he was lying on his back. He heard a voice. "Can you feel my hand on your leg?" it asked him. "But you're not touching my leg," Martin replied.
"I am not a part of life. I just exist"
Two young Germans, Sandro R. and Mario P., had thrown a lump of concrete at Martin's car. They were 17 and 24 years old at the time and their motive was "explicit xenophobia," as a court later determined. They were sentenced to five and eight years in prison. Noel Martin never got an apology, but by now he doesn't care any more. "It would be a waste of time. God will take care of them," he says, "life will take care of them." Both of his attackers are now free. But Martin is still imprisoned -- in his own body. The attack left Noel Martin paralyzed from the neck down. "I am not a part of life," he says, 10 years and three months later, "I just exist." At home in Birmingham, he leans his heavy head against the headrest of his giant wheelchair. He fixes his weary eyes on his interviewer. Everything has to be figured out by your head. It's torture, mental torture," he sighs. Martin will never be able to move his arms or legs again and he'll never be able to feel what his fingertips touch. He'll never have sex again, never go to the toilet by himself. Nor will he ever feel his own heartbeat. Martin feels comparatively happy this afternoon. He was up at 8:00 and it only took until noon for him to be washed, massaged, and dressed. Mornings aren't always this easy. Sometimes his ulcers bleed and bleed, until his dark face goes ashen and his eyes fall shut from sheer exhaustion. Sometimes his nurses slap his face to wake him up again. They have to slap his face -- that's the only part of his body that Noel Martin can still feel.
Losing control of your body hurts
On this particular afternoon, the idea of death seems absurd. Warm rays of sun shine through the garden window, casting patterns of light on the living room carpet. He looks around at the gilt moulding between the high ceiling and the green walls, at the heavy wooden furniture, the red leather couch and his television. There's a little fire place built into one wall. His huge old desk is covered with photo albums and sheets of paper. Dozens of birthday cards line the cornice along the wall. The room is full of life. This is Martin's kingdom. This is where he spends almost every day. His wheelchair is in the middle of the room. His nurses have dressed him in black trousers and a casual black sweater. His roundish paunch protrudes underneath the sweater. "I used to be fit," Martin says. "I used to run in the mornings. Then I would do sit-ups. I did kung-fu and boxing too." Today he's plagued by chills and hot flashes. His broad shoulders have gone slack. He still has some control over his right shoulder -- which allows him to operate his wheelchair with a joystick and use his phone. Apart from that, Martin needs the assistance of his eight nurses for everything else. They keep an eye on him 24 hours a day. Even now, a small woman with a blonde ponytail is standing in the doorway. "Cath, give me some wine please," Martin says. The nurse reaches him a glass of chilled white wine. He drinks it through a straw. "Good. Give me a cigarette please," he says. Cathy puts one in his mouth and lights it. Martin takes a drag. Then Cathy removes the cigarette from his mouth -- until he wants to take another drag. This constant dependence on other people is agony for Martin. "I can never be alone." The self-confident man suffers from his loss of control. Suddenly he twists his face into a grimace -- he can't stand it anymore. "Cath, scratch please." The nurse wipes his face with a towel. This will happen about 10 times before the afternoon is over.
"You can't suffer every day of your life"
Jacqueline, his strong-willed wife, used to take care of him. She died of cancer six years ago. Two days before she passed away, they married at Jacqueline's sickbed -- after having lived together for 18 years. Martin says he spent 36 hours with her after their marriage before she fell into a coma. "I miss her every day," he says. His voice, which normally sounds so resolute, cracks. He can see her grave outside in the garden. After the attack, he promised Jacqueline to try and hold on for eight years. On the evening of July 23, 2007, 11 years will have passed since the event that changed his life forever. Martin's announcement that he plans to commit suicide has caused an uproar. The phone rang constantly for days. "The only one who didn't call was God," he jokes. Countless journalists asked him for an interview and outraged Christians urged him not to commit such a sin. But Martin says he doesn't need their advice. "Cath, cigarette please." He takes a deep drag and says that "99 percent of them" would already have "ended it all" years ago, in his situation. What does he think about other handicapped people who want to "end it all"? "Suffering is individual," he replies. "And you can't suffer every day." No, he says, he's not afraid to die. "No one escapes death anyway." He seems relaxed now -- almost cheerful. These are thoughts he has often thought. Neo-Nazis are already celebrating the imminent death of the man they despise in their Internet forums. After all, the attack gave rise to an unprecedented campaign against xenophobia. Citizens in Mahlow spontaneously started up a local project called "Tolerant Mahlow." Martin returned to the city in 2001 and he called on its citizens to continue to stand up for the rights of others. He also established a charitable foundation against xenophobia. Right-wing extremists, for their part, see it as a provocation that he is still alive. One of their Internet forums features a post by a neo-Nazi urging Martin to burn himself alive on a market square, noting that this would save money. The author of the post adds that he would be "happy to donate the gasoline." What does Martin think about the neo-Nazis? "Foolish people who know nothing about life. They love white skin, but they lie down in the sun to get a tan." He says to let them talk -- after all, there is such a thing as freedom of speech. "I wasn't afraid of them then, and I'm not afraid of them now," he says.
Noel Martin hasn't yet turned his back on life
Black people still aren't safe in Brandenburg today, 10 years after the attack on Noel Martin. "The government should make sure everyone can go wherever they want and be safe," he says. Martin knows how far-reaching the problem is. The first time he heard the word "nigger" was decades ago, back home, in the British industrial town of Birmingham. And so Martin wants to make the most of the time that's left before the evening of July 23, 2007. His nurses, Cathy and Charity, spread out sheets of paper on the carpet. Martin discusses his appointments with the two nurses and makes a few phone calls. He hasn't turned his back on life yet. He's working on his book and in October he has a meeting with Brandenburg's governor, Matthias Platzeck in London. Later, he wants to return to Mahlow another time.
"I want to tell people they should stop apologizing for their past. They should just teach their children the value of life," he says. He's sure to receive public attention now -- and Martin is using it to support his foundation and other projects. The right-wing extremists may well celebrate his death as a late triumph, but Noel Martin takes a very different view. "I have some bad news for those people," Martin says. He raises his head and his voice as if he were preparing to give a speech: "Of the 6 billion people in the world, 5 billion are people of color. Sooner or later they'll all mix." He grins. "Who knows? Maybe the children of these Nazis will marry a black man or a black woman one day?" He likes the idea. The Nazis are running out of time -- with or without Noel Martin.
© Spiegel Online
DRAMA ABOUT NAZI-ERA BLACK GERMAN AIRS ON TV(Germany)
29/09/2006 - As Allied bombs rained down on the port city of Hamburg in 1943, a German woman and her 12-year-old son raced to an air raid shelter. But the uniformed guard at the entrance took one look at them and slammed the door in their faces. Though the boy was a German, he was also black. That incident is part of the remarkable life of Hans J Massaquoi, whose life story is being brought to television in a precedent- setting two-part docu-drama to be aired on primetime television in Germany. Massaquoi, now 79 and living in the United States, has become a celebrity late in life in his native country. His memoirs, entitled "Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany," became a best-seller nationwide when they were published five years ago. Now the TV docu-drama is introducing the former managing editor of Ebony magazine to a broader audience in the tens of millions. Most Germans are familiar with the book's cover photo, a real-life snapshot taken when Massaquoi was a schoolboy in Hamburg in the 1930s. It shows a sweet-faced black boy wearing a swastika badge over his heart and standing among blond Aryan classmates. Massaquoi is greyer now, but still has the same sweet face and enquiring eyes that make the book cover photograph so intriguing. "This is my home," he tells interviewers. "For better or worse, it is my childhood home and I can't help feeling at home here, even though I have made my adult home in America for nearly 60 years." It was a shock to visit the set where his own life story was being produced for television. "My whole life I have tried to put my dark past behind me," he says. "But this television production has confronted me with unsettling memories of my childhood in Nazi Germany in 1935 that I had thought I had come to terms with."
His eyes turn sad as he adds, "A lot of those memories that have come flooding back are incredibly sad." Grandson of the Liberian consul general to Hamburg, Massaquoi was born in 1926 to a well-to-do African father and a German mother. His early life was one of privilege, befitting the grandson of a diplomat. "I associated black skin with superiority, since our servants were white," says Massaquoi. "My grandfather was 'the man'," he jokes. His circumstances changed dramatically when his father and grandfather returned to Liberia in 1929. Refusing to expose her sickly son to a tropical climate, his mother chose instead to raise her son in Germany as best she could on her meagre wages as a nurse's aide. Suddenly he was not something special, he was something strange. "It was a constant problem," he recalls. "I was always pointed at because of my exotic looks. I just wanted to be like everyone else." Like other boys, he wanted nothing more than to join the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth Movement). "The Nazis put on the best show of all the political parties. There were parades, fireworks and uniforms - these were the devices by which Hitler won over young people to his ideas. Hitler always boasted that despite parents' political persuasion, Germany's youth belonged to him." Massaquoi was dealt a crushing blow when he learned that the Hitlerjugend as well as the local playground were not open to "non-Aryans."
Two events that occurred during the summer of 1936 gave him "a genuine pride in my African heritage at a time when such pride was extremely difficult to come by." Two young black American athletes, boxer Joe Louis and Olympic runner Jesse Owens, dominated the news. Massaquoi initially supported Germany's Max Schmeling, who was scheduled to fight Louis, but quickly switched his allegiance to "the Brown Bomber" in the wake of racist remarks attributed to Schmeling. "I think I was more crushed than Louis when he lost to Schmeling," he remembers fondly. In a rematch several months later, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. Massaquoi took similar pride in Jesse Owens' now legendary performance at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He had the good fortune to be included when the father of one of his classmates took a group of boys to the games. Years later, while working as a journalist, Massaquoi met Owens and Louis and thanked them "for allowing me to walk a little taller among my peers that summer." In contrast to German Jews or German Roma, Massaquoi was not persecuted. He was "just" a second-class citizen, which was actually a blessing in disguise. During World War II, his "impurity" spared him from being drafted into the German army. After the war, he emigrated to the United States, serving two years in the army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He studied journalism at the University of Illinois followed by a career at Jet magazine and then Ebony magazine, where he became managing editor. Over the years he has visited Germany many times. "It's always a home-coming for me," says Massaquoi, who makes his home in New Orleans. "You can't believe how happy and proud I am that my story is being done for television. It is so very important for young Germans to understand how precious freedom is."
© Expatica News
GERMAN NEO-NAZIS TO LAUNCH THEIR OWN VIDEO NEWS CHANNEL
30/09/2006 - The television anchorman has not yet taken to wearing a toothbrush moustache, or ranting about a "Bolshevik-Jewish" conspiracy threatening the Fatherland, but the message broadcast by Germany's new neo-Nazi video news channel is essentially the same. The news - as seen by Germany's far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) - is all about glorious neo-Nazi rallies, unscrupulous foreigners who attack native Germans and a new exhibition in Tehran which purports to expose the Holocaust as a myth. Bolstered by its recent gains in key state elections this month, the NPD is preparing to launch its first weekly online video news channel in an attempt to win new followers and cover stories that regular news channels are alleged to suppress. "The media of the system refuses to recognise us as a democratic party, so we have to find our own way to reach our supporters," said Klaus Beier, an NPD spokesman. "Soon, we will be broadcasting a regular online weekly news programme from our party headquarters." Internet users were given a taste of Germany's first far-right propaganda broadcast since the Second World War this week, when the NPD launched pilot video newscasts on YouTube online, already a favourite neo-Nazi website. A crop- haired young anchorman called Marcel Woell, wearing an ill-fitting brown suit and orange shirt, sat at a polished wooden studio desk against a backdrop of party slogans and what-looked like a pre-Second World War map of Europe.
Were it not for a curious black sun logo - a mythical Germanic symbol revered by the Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler that sat in the top right hand corner of the screen - the setting would have been almost identical to Germany's prime time television news programme. Tagesschau. In deadpan mode, Woell regaled viewers with filmed reports of the party's annual memorial march for Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, a story about a Cologne housing estate that was trying to rid itself of foreigners and a report about Tehran's Holocaust exhibition. Although the broadcasts were mysteriously dropped by YouTube on Thursday , the NPD claimed that its "critical news" programme would be fully online when the party holds its annual congress in mid-November. The programme is a further embarrassment to Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition. Her government was shocked this month after the NPD won parliamentary seats in elections in Ms Merkel's home state of Mecklemburg- Vorpommern in the north-east. In 2004, the party entered a German regional parliament for the first time in 36 years in elections in the eastern state of Saxony. High unemployment and disillusionment with the established parties were the main reasons for the NPD's electoral gains. The German government tried to ban the NPD in 2004, but the case was thrown out by the constitutional court. Judges said key evidence used to incriminate the party had been incited by infiltrated intelligence agents. An opinion poll shows 86 per cent of Germans think the mainstream party politicians should provide convincing arguments to combat far-right extremism. Most people did not believe the NPD could be defeated through prohibition.
© Independent Digital
IND MEETS DEADLINE OVER 26,000 ASYLUM SEEKERS(Netherlands)
29/09/2006 - Almost every asylum seeker who entered the Netherlands prior to April 2001 has been given a definitive assessment on his or her request for a residence permit. Government sources said on Friday the applications of the last 1,226 asylum seekers have been almost completely processed. The Cabinet will discuss the matter later on Friday. The asylum seekers are part of the 26,000 refugees who entered the country before immigration legislation was tightened in April 2001. The Parliament had given Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk until 1 October for the remaining dossiers to be processed. Only a few dozen cases — in which more information is necessary — still need to be processed. These asylum seekers are still waiting a decision from the immigration service IND. They are people possibly linked to war crimes or their medical documents are missing. In a few cases, the IND is still waiting for official documentation from the Foreign Ministry. The initial group of 26,000 has increased over time by 5,600 to a total of 31,600. The increase is due to births, family members who arrived in the country later on and people who were staying in municipal emergency accommodation. Democrat D66 parliamentary leader Lousewies van der Laan asked Minister Verdonk during general discussions around the budget on Thursday whether all of the dossiers would be processed by 1 October. When the D66 was still part of the coalition government in June, Van der Laan had suggested that Verdonk should resign if she missed the deadline. The fate of the 26,000 asylum seekers has received intense attention not only in the Parliament, but beyond The Hague in recent years. Various groups repeatedly urged the government to grant a generous pardon for asylum seekers who had lived in the Netherlands longer than five years while awaiting a decision on their request for asylum. Following the lead of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG), the Amsterdam City Council also urged for a generous pardon in a recent letter to Verdonk. But the Liberal VVD minister told the VNG and Amsterdam that she was not in favour of a more generous amnesty. A one-off, restricted pardon was granted at the time to 2097 people. Since then, Verdonk has granted a residence permit to about 800 other asylum seekers based on their 'distressing situation'.
© Expatica News
BELGOROD EXTREMISTS SENTENCED FOR ATTACKING ROMA FAMILY(Russia)
28/09/2006 - The October district court in the city of Belgorod, Russia has sentenced a group of local youths to prison for attacking a Roma (also known as Gypsy) family earlier this year, according to a September 15, 2006 article in the Voronezh edition of the national daily Kommersant. The September 14 ruling found 10 defendants guilty of hooliganism, aggravated assault, and forming an extremist group, the latter a rarely used segment of the Russian criminal code. Sentences ranged from five years for the leader of the group (a former student at the Belgorod police academy) and between one and a half and four years for his co-defendants. The court found that they had formed an extremist organization (the “Belgorod National Corps”) in 2002 with the goal of forcing out non-Russians from the city. On August 25, the group targeted a Roma family, the Nikolaenkos, who lived on the outskirts of the city in a detached home. Acting with malicious forethought, the extremists placed a sign reading “Road Closed” on the Nikolaenkos’ street in order to isolate their home from any witnesses. They then threw a firebomb and a smoke canister into the house and waited until the family members came out. The teenage son of the home’s owner ran out first and was stabbed multiple times, including once in the neck. His father and mother were then beaten with metal rods (the mother’s arm was broken in three places). The attackers were arrested within a week. Their lawyers argued that the attack was not motivated by ethnic hatred, but rather was a form of revenge for the Nikolaenkos drug dealing—a common accusation against Roma, some of whom are involved in the drug trade. However, a local Roma community leader was cited in the article saying that the Nikolaenkos were not involved with drugs, nor did investigators uncover any evidence to the contrary. The defendants’ lawyers are planning to appeal the verdict, arguing that the use of the anti-extremism law in this case was inappropriate.
© FSU Monitor
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