Alarming increase in racist attacks in Europe
01 January 1991
Alarming increase in racist attacks in Europe
artdoc December=1991
Recent months have witnessed an dramatic escalation in racist
attacks across Europe. In Germany, as the first anniversary of
unification approached, the Bonn government claimed to be
powerless to halt a flood of coordinated neo-nazi attacks on
refugees and immigrants that have left hundreds injured and
several dead. In one week in September alone eight refugee
hostels were firebombed, sixty asylum seekers injured and two
Africans died.
The attacks have been countrywide, but concentrated in the
east. One of the most serious incidents was at Hoyerswerda, near
Dresden, where hundreds of neo-nazis launched firebomb attacks
on two refugee hostels and rampaged through the town for several
days. A Berlin umbrella organisation, Coordination of Refugee
Groups, ran a convoy of cars between Berlin and Hoyerswerda to
get besieged refugees out of the town. Eventually the siege was
lifted when over 300 asylum seekers were bussed to army barracks.
Much of the blame for the attacks has been attributed to the
German Alternative Movement. In the midst of the terror they
organised a neo-nazi concert, to celebrate reunification, with
by the British band Screwdriver. Before the event several people
accompanying the group were arrested and charged with grievous
bodily harm after stabbing, and seriously wounding, a German
youth following an attack on a youth club in Cottbus. Cottbus is
an industrial town south-east of Berlin which is becoming known
as a centre for violent skinhead activity. The incident lends
credence to the claim that Germany is becoming a focus for
fascists from throughout Europe.
In Berlin a demonstration in support of the refugees attracted
20,000 people but was broken up by police charges after two hours
of peaceful protest. Many people were injured and the organisers
had to disperse the demonstration after the police used tear-gas.
Over 60 people were arrested.
Across the border, in Switzerland, there have also been
firebomb attacks on refugee centres, the most recent at
Schaffhausen.
In Italy, during August, two Senegalese men holidaying in
Rimini on the Adriatic coast, were murdered in a brutal gun
attack by a fascist death squad. A third man was seriously
injured in the attack. The squad has been dubbed the `Uno Gang'
because of its use of a stolen white Fiat Uno car during a series
of attacks, which so far have left 15 dead and 21 wounded. The
majority of those attacked have been either refugees or gypsies.
Prosecutor Roberto Sapio, who is investigating the case, and
Libio Gualtieri, chairman of the anti-terrorist commission have
linked the killings with a series of right-wing terrorist
supermarket killings in Belgium in 1983-84 which left 28 dead.
A Belgian parliamentary investigation into the `Brabant
massacres' in 1990 painted an alarming picture of right-wing
terror and accused police officers of complicity and being
sympathetic to the killers.
In Barcelona, Spain, 400 fascists went on the rampage attacking
blacks, Arabs and other passers-by during October. They also
wrecked a pacifist bookshop and beat-up the staff.
The far right have also made electoral gains in Austria, Sweden
and Denmark. In France former President Valery Giscard
d'Estaing's Union for French Democracy (UDF) have attempted to
exploit the immigration issue by suggesting an alliance with the
ultra-right Front National in the build-up to 1993 general
elections.
CARF Nov/Dec 1991; Guardian, 7.9.91, 27.9.91, 2.10.91, 8.10.91;
Independent, 27.9.91; Irish Times 14.10.91; Socialist 9.10.91