Attacks on refugees and asylum-seekers in Germany
01 January 1991
Attacks on refugees and asylum-seekers in Germany
artdoc July=1992
CARF, November/December 1991
[Campaign Against Racism and Fascism]
During the months of September and October, as the catalogue
of hate bears witness, Germany was sucked into a whirlpool of
racism, compared by some in its intensity to the latter days
of the Weimar Republic. This level of popular racism, not
confined to the far Right, was fuelled by politicians who
repeatedly and cynically linked the violence to the presence
of `bogus refugees' in Germany, and called for a change to the
constitution to keep asylum-seekers out, culminating in an
all-party agreement to create new `collection camps' for
asylum-seekers where asylum requests will be examined by
judges on the spot and rejected applicants deported within six
weeks.
The anti-racist and anti-fascist movement throughout Germany
has mobilised its forces to end this murderous violence and
defend refugee rights. Demonstrations took place in Berlin,
Hamburg, Frankfurt and Freiburg. In Berlin, an umbrella
organisation, the Coordination of Refugee Groups, organised
the first car convoy from Berlin to Hoyerswerda, a lignite
mining town of 68,000 people on the Polish border, where
refugees were being hounded out of their hostels.
On 3 October, as Germany celebrated its first `Holiday of
Unification', a demonstration of 20,000 people took place in
Berlin, only to be violently attacked by police - a fact that
no German newspaper or television channel has reported on.
Organised by Nozizwe (a multicultural women's group), and
supported by immigrant and black organisations, anti-fascists,
feminists, students and sections of the Greens and the PDS in
Berlin, the demonstrators marched under the slogan `No more
pogroms'.
Britta Grell of the Anti-Racist Initiative told CARF of the
police attack on the demonstration.
`At least 3,000 black people participated in the
demonstration, many Turkish families and Turkish youths.
They marched in front of the demonstration and were
violently attacked by police after two hours of peaceful
protest. The police in riot gear tried to arrest people
for no reason. The demonstrators fought back and the
whole situation escalated.
`Many people were injured and the organisers had to
disperse the demonstration because of the massive use of
tear gas by the police and because of the need to protect
the kids and the old people.
`After the violent and cowardly attacks of the police,
German and Turkish people in Kreuzberg (a Turkish quarter
of Berlin) went out on to the streets to force the police
out of their neighbourhood. The fight against more than
600 policemen went on the whole evening and over 60
people were arrested. This was described by the German
media as another riot in Kreuzberg started by anarchist
groups and Turkish youth gangs.'
We publish below an edited version of a speech given at the
rally, on behalf of the Coordination of Refugee Groups in
Berlin during the demonstration:
`Friends, comrades and people of the neighbourhood, every
day we are overwhelmed by news of more violent
anti-refugee attacks.
`In order to protect their lives, refugees and migrant
workers are forced again to flee within Germany, where
once they thought they could find refuge and peace.
`We went to Hoyerswerda for the first time on 22
September and were shocked by the bloodthirsty mood in
this small town. In spite of the many problems caused by
the police and the authorities, we were able to speak to
some of the refugees who, in fear of their lives, wished
to leave the place as soon as possible.
`One day later the local government in Sachsen forced the
refugees into buses and transported them to camps and
locations close to