Racist attacks in Germany as World Cup approaches


AFP
Saturday, May 27, 2006


[align=justify]BERLIN, Germany (AFP) - Seven foreigners have been injured in Germany and 27 suspects arrested, authorities said on Friday amid rising concern about right-wing violence as the country prepares to host the 2006 World Cup in two weeks.[/align]
[align=justify]In Weimar, in the east, two Mozambicans and a Cuban who have been living in Germany for more than 20 years were attacked as they left a private party on Thursday.[/align]
[align=justify]A 46-year-old Mozambican was seriously injured, and the other two victims slightly wounded. The police said they had arrested eight men aged 19 to 29 in connection with the attack.[/align]
[align=justify]State prosecutors asked that three of the suspects who are believed to be members of the neo-Nazi grouping "Braune Aktionsfront Apolda" be held in preventative custody.[/align]
[align=justify]The prosecutor in Weimar said on Friday five people had been arrested there after an Indian trader was beaten up at the flea market in the northeastern city on Thursday.[/align]
[align=justify]The regional radio station NDR said the victim was attacked by a group that hurled racist abuse at him. He has been hospitalised.[/align]
[align=justify]In Berlin, a Guinean, a Turk and a Lebanese were injured in separate attacks on Thursday, police in the capital said.
They said the Guinean was hurt when a 38-year-old man threw firecrackers at him. The Turkish man was beaten up at another underground station and four men were being held in connection with the attack.[/align]
[align=justify]The spate of apparently racially-motivated attacks in Germany have heightened concerns about right-wing violence here as the country gets ready to host the football World Cup from June 9.[/align]
[align=justify]In April, an engineer of Ethiopian origin who holds a German passport spent two weeks in a coma after he was hit with a bottle, thrown to the ground and beaten in Potsdam, near Berlin.[/align]
[align=justify]Germany's federal prosecutor said he believes the attack was motivated by xenophobia.[/align]
[align=justify]On May 20, a politician of Turkish origin was beaten and slashed with a bottle in Berlind's Lichtenberg district, an area known as a neo-Nazi stronghold. He was called a "dirty Turk".[/align]
[align=justify]Anti-racism groups were due to hold a protest march in Lichtenberg on Friday evening.[/align]
[align=justify]The government released a report on Monday indicating that far-right violence increased by 23 per cent in 2005.[/align]
[align=justify]Right-wing extremism is more pronounced in the former communist east where the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party has managed to gain a following among unemployed youths.
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