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Germany: racist violence (1)

01 January 1991

Germany: racist violence
artdoc May=1993

A statement, put out by the German embassy in London on January
14, claiming that `since October 1992 there has been a rapid
decline in the number of xenophobic offences registered' has been
condemned by the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism. In a press
statement they accuse the German government of `purposely
covering up the full extent of racist and fascist violence in an
attempt to mollify international opinion'.
In a letter to the German ambassador, Baron Hermann von
Richthofen, they document twelve murders that `can either be
proved to have been racially motivated, carried out by neo-nazis
or where a racial motive cannot be ruled out' that have taken
place since January 1993. The Campaign expressed particular
concern at the death of Mike Z., who was brutally murdered in
Hoyerswerda, during February, by a group of neo-nazis as two
police officers watched without taking any action.
To date most of the convictions of racists and fascists who
took part in last years violence against refugees and asylum
seekers have resulted in minor sentences. Most of those accused
of involvement in the Rostock attacks received prison sentences
of less than eight months, or suspended sentences and probation
orders. In the most recent case Bernd Teuber was jailed for two
and a half years after being convicted of grievous bodily harm
for throwing a petrol bomb.
In a separate case, resulting from the fire-bombing of a home
for asylum seekers in Neubrandenburg, in north-east Germany, last
August, two youths were sentenced for three years while seven
others received sentences ranging from ten months to two and a
half years; two others were acquitted.
Guardian 4.3.93; Voice 16.3.93.

Statewatch vol 3 no 2 March-April 1993