Vietnamese man killed during police chase
01 January 1991
Vietnamese man killed during police chase
artdoc November=1995
Vo Xuan Cuong, a 37 year-old Vietnamese refugee, was killed
whilst being chased by police in Berlin-Köpenick on June 17th.
The man is reported to have run across railway lines where he was
hit by a train. Eyewitnesses report that the man was chased by
police away from the railway station in Köpenick to a nearby
wood. According to witnesses the pursuing police should have been
able to hear the approaching train, yet failed to break off the
chase. They also report the police officers laughing and joking
near the body of the dead man.
Tamara Hentschel of the German-Vietnamese Friendship Association
"Reistrommel" commented that "Vo Xuan Cuong's death is the result
of the month-long propaganda campaign by the Berlin Senate and
the Federal Government" against (Vietnamese) dealers in illegally
imported cigarettes. According to Ms Hentschel, the campaign has
led to a situation in which the "the sense of proportion in (the
police's) actions against the cigarette dealers has been lost".
"They are obviously reckoning with the fact that people may die".
Berlin Antiracist Initiative, June 1995 Update