Lake Wales, Florida - A mayoral candidate in Lakes Wales is speaking out about his involvement with the Klan.
70-year-old John Paul Rogers wants to become the next mayor of Lake Wales, but critics say he could have a tough time bringing the town together because he's a former member of Ku Klux Klan.
Rogers, who is currently a commissioner, spoke with 10 News Tuesday afternoon and says, "I'm not running for the Klan for Grand Dragon. That's because Rogers has already had that title.
He blames his opponent Mike Carter for bringing up his former involvement in the United Klans of America.
Read the full story at Wtsp.com
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
‘UNPRECEDENTED’ RISE IN RACIST CRIME (Cyprus)
Data collected by anti-racist civil society groups reveal that Cyprus has seen “an unprecedented rise in racist crime and racist violence particularly against migrants and asylum seekers” as well as the rise of far-right nationalistic groups and parties. A press release issued by the Cyprus branch of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) yesterday to mark International Day against Racial Discrimination, reports point to manifestations of racism across Europe in a broad range of areas, including employment, housing, education, health, policing, access to goods and services, and the media. The pending release of the reports covering the 2009-2010 period is expected to highlight that extremism and racist violence are on the rise in Europe.
On Cyprus, the report will conclude that “the strict migration policies and model followed in Cyprus continue to deny migrants, asylum seekers and refugees effective access to basic social and political rights and in most cases to their human rights in general”. While Cyprus has antidiscrimination legislation in place, this “remains largely unimplemented on the ground”, said the ENAR Cyprus branch, adding that the country was “far from taking the necessary measures to achieve real equality for all people irrespective of nationality, race, colour or ethnic origin”. In a damning indictment of the government’s latest efforts to introduce and implement a migration policy on the island, ENAR said: “Whereas integration may stand prominently on the agenda of the Cypriot migration policies, little is achieved to that effect and migrants continue to live at the margins of the society.”
ENAR President Chibo Onyeji said: “The report demonstrates that racism is far from over in Europe -- we still have a long way to go before reaching effective equality for all.” ENAR is a network of European NGOs working to combat racism in all EU member states and represents more than 700 NGOs spread around the EU. The network’s purported aim is to fight racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, to promote equality of treatment between EU citizens and third country nationals.
Cyprus Mail
On Cyprus, the report will conclude that “the strict migration policies and model followed in Cyprus continue to deny migrants, asylum seekers and refugees effective access to basic social and political rights and in most cases to their human rights in general”. While Cyprus has antidiscrimination legislation in place, this “remains largely unimplemented on the ground”, said the ENAR Cyprus branch, adding that the country was “far from taking the necessary measures to achieve real equality for all people irrespective of nationality, race, colour or ethnic origin”. In a damning indictment of the government’s latest efforts to introduce and implement a migration policy on the island, ENAR said: “Whereas integration may stand prominently on the agenda of the Cypriot migration policies, little is achieved to that effect and migrants continue to live at the margins of the society.”
ENAR President Chibo Onyeji said: “The report demonstrates that racism is far from over in Europe -- we still have a long way to go before reaching effective equality for all.” ENAR is a network of European NGOs working to combat racism in all EU member states and represents more than 700 NGOs spread around the EU. The network’s purported aim is to fight racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, to promote equality of treatment between EU citizens and third country nationals.
Cyprus Mail
Big gains for far right in local polls (France)
France’s far right National Front (FN) continued to steal headlines after Sunday’s local elections, in which half of France’s 2,023 cantons, the country’s smallest territorial units, were up for grabs.
Surfing on the popularity of their new leader Marine Le Pen, National Front candidates won a place in the second round in 394 cantons, or one in five of all contested councils.
Socialist candidates won the most votes, with 25% of ballots cast. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), picked up 17% of the votes cast, barely ahead of the National Front’s 15% tally.
"It’s not just a sanction vote,” said Marine Le Pen, who took over as the head of the euro-sceptic, anti-immigration National Front party in January. Since then, the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen has twice polled ahead of President Sarkozy in surveys of voters’ intentions ahead of next year’s presidential election.
In an interview with FRANCE 24 last week, Le Pen said the broad support she is enjoying should not be treated as a surprise. “Those numbers encourage me to keep working and talking about my policy proposals. There are still a lot of French people who have a totally caricatured vision of the National Front,” she said.
FN officials said Sunday’s election results confirmed their progression. The party’s vice-president Louis Aliot declared: "There is something in the air…If things continue this way, the [National] Front is going to replace the right.”
Abstention on the rise
But over 55% of potential voters shunned the ballot box on Sunday, underscoring a growing trend towards abstention that marked elections for the European Parliament in 2009 and French regional polls last March.
“Abstention is France’s first political party,” the free daily 20 Minutes mused on its website on Monday, adding that while turnout was expected to be low, levels had exceeded the worst expectations. Voter participation in France has historically been high.
Jean-François Doridot of the Ipsos polling institute said low turnout provided “further proof of the disenchantment of the French vis-à-vis the political establishment, from both the left and right.”
Sarkozy’s party left smarting
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling centre-right party struggled to inspire voters in what was the final electoral contest before next year’s presidential poll – in which Sarkozy is expected to seek a second term.
UMP officials tried to minimize the results of Sunday’s first-round poll, preferring to comment on the left’s failure to score a decisive win. The party leader, Jean-François Copé, told RTL radio that the results “were not glorious” for the Socialists.
“If we add up the Socialists’ score and that of the other left-wing parties we get 31%, the same score as the presidential majority,” Copé said, referring to UMP allies who ran on independent tickets.
Many French observers said the results reflected the sagging approval rates of Sarkozy and his government. The polls came on the heels of the latest in a series of ministerial scandals that saw UMP party fixture Michèlle Alliot-Marie ejected from the foreign affairs post.
But the UMP was not the only party to bemoan Sunday’s results. The polls have also been described as a step back for the Greens, who failed to establish themselves as the second biggest force on the left. Green candidates picked up just over 8% of the vote, falling short of the 9% tallied by a far-left coalition headed by France’s Communist Party.
France 24
Police warning ahead of EDL protest in Blackburn (UK)
Police have said they will not tolerate acts of violence or damage when up to 4,500 people descend on Blackburn town centre for protests next month.
Members of the English Defence League (EDL), Muslim Defence League and Unite Against Facism (UAF) are all expected to stage demonstrations on 2 April.
Police said they were working to minimise the impact on the community and would facilitate peaceful protests.
Blackburn with Darwen Council said the town would be open for business.
The EDL is being allowed to demonstrate outside King George's Hall for one hour while a counter demonstration will take place at Sudell Cross.
Some roads will be affected, including temporary closures, but officials said they were working hard to make sure that people could "go about their daily business as usual".
Damage 'not tolerated'
Ch Supt Bob Eastwood said: "We will police the demonstration as we would any public event and we will facilitate a peaceful protest.
"Day-to-day policing in Lancashire will carry on as normal and we have detailed plans in place to deal with any issues on the day.
"We will have specially-trained officers policing the demonstration.
"Our role is to facilitate peaceful protest. If anyone commits a criminal offence they will be dealt with fairly but firmly.
"The police will not tolerate damage to the town or acts of violence and I would urge anyone thinking of coming to Blackburn to attend either demonstration to bear this in mind."
Tom Stannard, of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "The bulk of the town centre will remain open for business.
"This borough has a strong track record of good community relations and will continue to support all our community groups and representatives should they have any concerns about this demonstration."
BBC News
Members of the English Defence League (EDL), Muslim Defence League and Unite Against Facism (UAF) are all expected to stage demonstrations on 2 April.
Police said they were working to minimise the impact on the community and would facilitate peaceful protests.
Blackburn with Darwen Council said the town would be open for business.
The EDL is being allowed to demonstrate outside King George's Hall for one hour while a counter demonstration will take place at Sudell Cross.
Some roads will be affected, including temporary closures, but officials said they were working hard to make sure that people could "go about their daily business as usual".
Damage 'not tolerated'
Ch Supt Bob Eastwood said: "We will police the demonstration as we would any public event and we will facilitate a peaceful protest.
"Day-to-day policing in Lancashire will carry on as normal and we have detailed plans in place to deal with any issues on the day.
"We will have specially-trained officers policing the demonstration.
"Our role is to facilitate peaceful protest. If anyone commits a criminal offence they will be dealt with fairly but firmly.
"The police will not tolerate damage to the town or acts of violence and I would urge anyone thinking of coming to Blackburn to attend either demonstration to bear this in mind."
Tom Stannard, of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "The bulk of the town centre will remain open for business.
"This borough has a strong track record of good community relations and will continue to support all our community groups and representatives should they have any concerns about this demonstration."
BBC News
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Victorian neo-Nazi used as medic in Afghanistan (Australia)
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| Kenneth Stewart |
Kenneth Stewart, 36, has worked as a military-trained paramedic, accompanying aid workers around Afghanistan. His Facebook page shows a swastika flag in his room in Kandahar, and another picture shows him surrounded by Afghans he refers to as ''my nignogs'' with a friend adding the comment ''it's lovely to see a white man back in control of the subhuman''. On Stewart's Facebook page he regularly makes disparaging comments about Afghans, Aborigines, Jews and others.
He has worked as a medic for several aid groups based in Kandahar, including the United Nations Development Program.
The Age made several attempts to contact Mr Stewart, but received no reply.
In Melbourne, he helps recruit white supremacists to the local branch of the Southern Cross Hammerskins, an international neo-Nazi group. He described himself on one internet forum as a ''skinhead, mercenary, pork-eating viking; not bad just misunderstood''.
Anti-facist groups in the US say there are growing numbers of neo-Nazis working in the expanding private military sector, and that the Hammerskins are considered to be among the best organised and most violent neo-Nazi groups in America.
The beliefs and photos posted by Mr Stewart have been condemned by the United Nations and the contractor who hired him on their behalf.
Spokesman Brian Hansford said the UN was ''horrified by these … disturbing images''.
 |
| An image of Kenneth Stewart room. |
On Armistice Day last year, Mr Stewart posted on a white supremacist website that he and his colleagues in Kandahar had a service commemorating World War II soldiers, including Germans and Italians ''that did what they thought was right regardless of which side they were on''.
The Age has not been able to establish who Mr Stewart worked for in Afghanistan last year, but it is clear from photos on his Facebook page that he was doing similar work.
One Australian security company that has employed him said it repudiated any far-right views and said the images he posted on Facebook should be removed.
Security experts say any Nazi or racist references could risk endangering the Coalition troops fighting under the NATO banner, including personnel from the Australian Defence Forces.
In the US, an intercepted 2009 email purported to show Oregon fascist organiser Randy Krager warning his colleagues not to email him about his racist skinhead group while he was working in Afghanistan. The email read: ''All communications from the mid-east are monitored by dept. of defense and/or cia … so I will have some contact but will not be able to discuss any business, not even vaguely.''
The Southern Cross Hammerskins also organise music festivals where far-right bands perform in front of vetted audiences. Their next festival is on the Gold Coast next month.
Sydney Morning Herald
Amazon Often Rejects Porn But Helps White Racists Publish Books
And it’s eligible for super-saver shipping.
Amazon will even help novice white nationalists get their library going. For $50.14 – a slight discount – interested readers can buy Bristow’s book together with Racism Schmacism by James Edwards , host of the unabashedly racist radio program “The Political Cesspool,” and A Mighty Fortress by dedicated neo-Nazi Harold Covington, described by one enthusiastic reviewer as “unabashedly pro-white and anti-jew [sic] and non-white.”
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Hatewatch.
When Amazon announced its new self-publishing and POD service in 2005, the press release boasted: “Print-on-demand has changed the economics of small-quantity printing, making it possible for books with low and uncertain demand to be profitably produced. BookSurge [now called CreateSpace] makes it possible to print books that appeal to targeted audiences, whether it’s one copy or one thousand. … Thanks to print-on-demand, ‘out of print’ is out of date.”
Amazon’s forecast turned out to be correct: It is precisely this business model that makes it possible for extremists like Bristow to get their self-published screeds – “books with low and uncertain demand” which a decade ago would have been be limited in quantity, difficult to find, poor in quality, and unknown to anyone but hard-core believers – to a broader audience than ever before. It may well be that no human being at Amazon or its POD service ever actually reads a book like White Apocalypse —the book may be produced entirely by computer.
White Apocalypse is centered on the “Solutrean Hypothesis,” a theory that has almost zero support among anthropologists but bravely insists that whites from Europe managed to cross the North Atlantic to North America 15,000 to 17,000 years ago, thus becoming the real “Native Americans.” Bristow claims that the crossing in fact happened, and that those early whites were massacred by the later-arriving Asiatic people who crossed the ancient land bridge across the present-day Bering Strait. The book’s hero is a white man on a mission to give the hypothesis a fair hearing – but in order to do so, he must vanquish his “evil, anti-western” opponents at the Atlanta-based “Center for Diversity and Multiculturalism” — an organization that bears a striking resemblance to the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center. It even includes characters clearly based on Mark Potok, the director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, and Heidi Beirich, its director of research. The book contains a graphic description of the Potok character’s assassination at the hands of the hero.
The “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” list for White Apocalypse runs 96 books long and includes Jean Raspail’s white nationalist, anti-immigration classic Camp of the Saints; Holocaust denier and longtime Klan leader David Duke’s My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding; fiction by hard-core nativist Matthew Bracken; and works by white nationalist Jared Taylor, who edits the American Renaissance journal, and anti-Semitic California State University, Long Beach, psychology professor Kevin MacDonald.
Also listed is The 21st Century Sniper: A Complete Practical Guide, described as “a complete practical guide for any modern sniper, [including] tips and basic training necessary to become an efficient marksman.” Amazon’s teaser for the book says, “To the sniper, the battlefield is like a painter’s blank canvas. It is his job to simultaneously utilize tools, training, and creativity to deliver devastating psychological impact upon the battlefield. And it is he alone who is left with the intimacy of the kill.”
On page 195 of White Apocalypse, the main character shoots the Potok character sniper-style from a parking lot roof.
Like any private business, Amazon is entitled to determine what books it wishes to promote. The bookseller seems quite clear on some matters — pornography and books that prove an embarrassment among them.
In 2010, for instance, Amazon got 3,000 negative comments in a single day from people incensed that it had made the self-published The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure available on Kindle. (The author, Phillip R. Greaves, claimed the book was an “attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles … by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow.”) The day the comments came in, Amazon issued a statement claiming that it “believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.” But according to the Los Angeles Times, the next day, links on Amazon to the listing were rerouted to a page that said, “We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.”
Amazon’s Kindle service also has pulled incest-fantasy and other erotica and two books titled How to Rape a Straight Guy and Rape in Holding Cell 6, whose author posted on his blog a letter from Amazon stating that the books “contain content that is in violation of our content guidelines.”
Amazon does sell The Turner Diaries, a race war fantasy novel that inspired crimes including Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Written under a pseudonym by William Pierce, founder of what was once the most dangerous neo-Nazi organization in America, the National Alliance, The Turner Diaries’ plot includes a bomb attack on a federal building by white supremacist guerillas. It also features a bloody section on the “Day of the Rope,” when “race-mixers” are hung from lampposts and trees.
SPLCentre
Birmingham City Council social worker sees discrimination case thrown out (UK)
A white social worker has lost his bid to claim up to £18,000 compensation from Birmingham City Council for race discrimination.
Anthony Francis, employed in the local authority’s controversial child protection unit, alleged he was racially discriminated against for being a white Anglo Saxon by not being included on a course.
A Birmingham employment tribunal heard he previously received an out-of-court settlement when he made a racial discrimination complaint against his employer in 2002.
In his latest claim Mr Francis, of Hagley Road, Halesowen, who has worked at the council for nearly 17 years, also accused a woman boss of covert bullying and alleged she was unpleasant to anyone within the team.
Tribunal judge Victoria Dean told the hearing he had issued three different claims against the council in relatively quick succession since receiving the out-of-court settlement nine years ago. She rejected Mr Francis’ latest allegations and accused him of abusing the claim process. Liz Cunningham, representing the council, previously accused Mr Francis of abusing the tribunal process by including allegations from two previous cases against the council, both of which he lost.
“Mr Francis used 155 paragraphs in his evidence yet used old claims which had previously been dismissed,” said Miss Cunningham previously.
Mrs Dean said the tribunal had no jurisdiction to deal with two of the cases and that, under the current claims, Mr Francis had been seeking between £6,000 and £18,000 compensation.
“But the claimant had filed further particulars in the latest claims which, among other things, represented the claims that were dismissed in previous cases,” said Mrs Dean.
“The tribunal’s judgment is that the latest claims are struck out on the basis that the manner in which the proceedings have been conducted have been vexatious.
“The tribunal doesn’t have jurisdiction over the latest claims.”
Birmingham Mail
Anthony Francis, employed in the local authority’s controversial child protection unit, alleged he was racially discriminated against for being a white Anglo Saxon by not being included on a course.
A Birmingham employment tribunal heard he previously received an out-of-court settlement when he made a racial discrimination complaint against his employer in 2002.
In his latest claim Mr Francis, of Hagley Road, Halesowen, who has worked at the council for nearly 17 years, also accused a woman boss of covert bullying and alleged she was unpleasant to anyone within the team.
Tribunal judge Victoria Dean told the hearing he had issued three different claims against the council in relatively quick succession since receiving the out-of-court settlement nine years ago. She rejected Mr Francis’ latest allegations and accused him of abusing the claim process. Liz Cunningham, representing the council, previously accused Mr Francis of abusing the tribunal process by including allegations from two previous cases against the council, both of which he lost.
“Mr Francis used 155 paragraphs in his evidence yet used old claims which had previously been dismissed,” said Miss Cunningham previously.
Mrs Dean said the tribunal had no jurisdiction to deal with two of the cases and that, under the current claims, Mr Francis had been seeking between £6,000 and £18,000 compensation.
“But the claimant had filed further particulars in the latest claims which, among other things, represented the claims that were dismissed in previous cases,” said Mrs Dean.
“The tribunal’s judgment is that the latest claims are struck out on the basis that the manner in which the proceedings have been conducted have been vexatious.
“The tribunal doesn’t have jurisdiction over the latest claims.”
Birmingham Mail
45 YEARS LATER ENAR SHADOW REPORT SHOWS THAT RACISM IS FAR FROM OVER IN EUROPE
In 1966, the United Nations proclaimed March 21 as the ‘International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’, and every year on this day, all nations are encouraged to examine racial discrimination and take affirmative steps to address racial inequality. This Day takes on even more significance as 45 years later, data collected by anti-racist civil society across Europe show that racism remains a deep-rooted problem in a broad range of areas, including employment, housing, education, health, policing, access to goods and services, and the media. ENAR’s European Shadow Report draws on 27 national shadow reports prepared by ENAR members across the European Union and Croatia. It identifies communities vulnerable to racism and presents an overview of manifestations of racism in a range of areas, as well as an assessment of the legal and political context and responses by governments.
The report reveals that across Europe, ethnic and religious minorities continue to face discrimination and exclusion in all areas of life. For instance, in the field of education, the issues highlighted include lower quality education for ethnic minorities, segregation, racist bullying, as well as lower attendance and schooling rates. Access to public transport is also highlighted as a key area of concern in many countries with regard to various means of transport, including airlines. Another example of such discrimination is in the private rental market, most notably in Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Malta and Spain. Explicit discriminatory remarks in housing adverts are reported in a number of countries. In addition, extremism and racist violence are on the rise across Europe. The rise of extremist organisations and public expressions of racist sentiments within the mainstream political parties and elected governments has hindered the integration of migrants and ethnic minorities. These barriers and challenges have been amplified by the financial and economic crisis. The report also shows some areas of improvement, notably with regard to the positive impact of EU anti-discrimination legislation in EU member states. However, the report shows that legislation alone is not sufficient and that additional measures need to be taken to ensure non-discrimination in practice. These are some of the main conclusions of ENAR’s 2009/2010 Shadow Report on racism in Europe.
Chibo Onyeji, ENAR President, said: “ENAR’s European Shadow Report demonstrates that racism is far from over in Europe -- we still have a long way to go before reaching effective equality for all. It is crucial that decision makers retain a focus on racism and ensure equality of treatment, particularly in times where an essentially negative approach to migration has meant migrants, or individuals perceived as migrants, are often treated as second class persons.”
The European Report, the 27 national reports, as well as a report on Racist violence in Europe, produced by ENAR, are available on the ENAR website
The European report “Racism in Europe - ENAR Shadow Report 2009/2010”can also be ordered in hard copy in English and French from the ENAR secretariat
European Network Against Racism
The report reveals that across Europe, ethnic and religious minorities continue to face discrimination and exclusion in all areas of life. For instance, in the field of education, the issues highlighted include lower quality education for ethnic minorities, segregation, racist bullying, as well as lower attendance and schooling rates. Access to public transport is also highlighted as a key area of concern in many countries with regard to various means of transport, including airlines. Another example of such discrimination is in the private rental market, most notably in Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Malta and Spain. Explicit discriminatory remarks in housing adverts are reported in a number of countries. In addition, extremism and racist violence are on the rise across Europe. The rise of extremist organisations and public expressions of racist sentiments within the mainstream political parties and elected governments has hindered the integration of migrants and ethnic minorities. These barriers and challenges have been amplified by the financial and economic crisis. The report also shows some areas of improvement, notably with regard to the positive impact of EU anti-discrimination legislation in EU member states. However, the report shows that legislation alone is not sufficient and that additional measures need to be taken to ensure non-discrimination in practice. These are some of the main conclusions of ENAR’s 2009/2010 Shadow Report on racism in Europe.
Chibo Onyeji, ENAR President, said: “ENAR’s European Shadow Report demonstrates that racism is far from over in Europe -- we still have a long way to go before reaching effective equality for all. It is crucial that decision makers retain a focus on racism and ensure equality of treatment, particularly in times where an essentially negative approach to migration has meant migrants, or individuals perceived as migrants, are often treated as second class persons.”
The European Report, the 27 national reports, as well as a report on Racist violence in Europe, produced by ENAR, are available on the ENAR website
The European report “Racism in Europe - ENAR Shadow Report 2009/2010”can also be ordered in hard copy in English and French from the ENAR secretariat
European Network Against Racism
NEO-NAZIS FACE COURT FOR ONLINE RADIO CONTENT (Germany)
Eighteen operators of a right-wing extremist online radio station face a Koblenz court on Monday for incitement of hatred. They face up to five years in prison. The trial at the district court was scheduled to begin at 9:30 am, when the men aged 20 to 37-years-old stand accused of forming a criminal organisation. As administrators and moderators of Widerstand Radio, or “Resistance Radio,” the group allegedly played music by German and international neo-Nazi bands. The music was also accompanied by racist commentary and illegal National Socialist sentiments, according to prosecutors. The group was arrested in November 2010 during raids by Federal Criminal Police (BKA) in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North-Rhine Westphalia. If the defendants are convicted they face up to five years behind bars.
The Local Germany
The Local Germany
ITALY: ACT SWIFTLY TO END RACIST VIOLENCE
The Italian government is failing to take effective action to prevent and prosecute racist and xenophobic violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Immigrants, Italians of foreign descent, and Roma have been the victims of brutal attacks in Italy in recent years. The 71-page report, "Everyday Intolerance: Racist and Xenophobic Violence in Italy," documents the state's failure to take effective measures against hate crimes. Prosecutions for racially-motivated violence are rare, with Italian officials downplaying the extent of the problem and failing consistently to condemn attacks. Insufficient training of law enforcement and judiciary personnel and incomplete data collection compound the problem. At the same time, political rhetoric, government policies, and media coverage linking immigrants and Roma to crime have fueled an environment of intolerance.
"The government spends far more energy blaming migrants and Roma for Italy's problems than it does on efforts to stop violent attacks on them," said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The government's alarmist talk of an invasion of ‘biblical proportions' from North Africa is just the latest example of irresponsible rhetoric. Officials should be protecting migrants and Roma from attack." Cities across Italy have seen mob violence and individual attacks targeting migrants, Roma, and Italians of foreign descent. Mobs rampaged through Roma camps in Naples in May 2008 and assaulted African seasonal migrant workers in Rosarno, Calabria, in January 2010. A group of at least 15 people attacked a Bengali bar in Rome in March 2010.
Authorities recorded 142 hate crimes in the first nine months of 2009, but one Italian anti-racism organization registered 398 media reports of such crimes in roughly the same period, with 186 physical assaults (18 of which led to death). Individual attacks include the September 2008 murder of Abdoul Guiebre, an Italian of Burkina Faso origin bludgeoned to death on the street in Milan after a petty theft from a café; the brutal beating of a Chinese man in October 2008 as he waited for a bus in Rome; and the February 2009 attack on an Indian man in a town outside Rome, in which he was beaten, doused with gasoline, and set on fire.
Human Rights Watch also documented troubling cases of law enforcement abuse against Roma, during camp evictions and in the custody of police or Carabinieri (a Defense Ministry force that shares responsibility for civilian policing in Italy). Italian law provides for increased prison sentences for crimes aggravated by racial motivation, but the statute has yet to live up to its promise, Human Rights Watch said. The 1993 statute has often been interpreted by prosecutors and the courts only to apply to cases where racial hatred was the sole motivation, leaving serious racist crimes prosecuted as though they were ordinary offences. The state prosecuted Abdoul Guiebre's murder as an ordinary crime, for example, despite the racist insults uttered by the perpetrators during the attack. Crimes motivated by hatred over sexual orientation and gender identity are not covered at all.
The extreme violence against African seasonal migrant workers in Rosarno, Calabria, in January 2010, including drive-by shootings and three days of mob violence that left at least 11 migrants hospitalized with serious injuries, did not lead to prosecutions and convictions for racially-motivated crimes. Only three Italians were prosecuted and convicted in connection with the violence. Local residents and law enforcement officers also suffered injuries, some of them caused by migrants during riots against the mob attacks. Italian officials minimized the racist dimension of the violence in Rosarno, in keeping with a general tendency to call racially-motivated crimes rare. The Italian government does not collect or publish disaggregated statistics on crime reports or prosecutions. Authorities point to the low numbers of official complaints and prosecutions for racially motivated violence to argue that such violence is rare, ignoring underreporting and the failure of the authorities to correctly identify it.
"The Italian government likes to pretend that racist violence hardly ever happens," said Sunderland. "But if you are an Italian from an ethnic minority, Roma, or a migrant, the truth is it's all too common. Acknowledging the scale of the problem is a necessary condition for tackling it." A consequence of the authorities' failure to recognize these hate crimes as a significant problem is that law enforcement personnel and prosecutors do not receive systematic, specialized training in identifying, investigating, and prosecuting racist violence. Roma, the most vilified minority in Italy today, are especially at risk of harassment and mistreatment during camp evictions and in police or Carabinieri custody, Human Rights Watch said. With serious allegations of abuse by law enforcement personnel left uninvestigated, and virtual impunity for mob violence against Roma camps, many Roma have little or no faith in public institutions. "Many people, especially undocumented migrants and Roma, are just too scared to go the police," Sunderland said. "The government has to do much more to encourage reporting and build trust among these particularly vulnerable communities."
Political discourse and media coverage linking immigrants and Roma to crime has fueled a dangerous environment of intolerance in a country that has seen a dramatic increase in immigration over the past 10 years. Since 2008, the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in coalition with the openly anti-immigrant Northern League party, has adopted "emergency" decrees to pave the way for strong-handed measures against undocumented migrants and Roma, and passed a law making undocumented entry and stay in Italy a crime punishable by a hefty fine. Elected officials across the political spectrum have engaged in anti-immigrant and anti-Roma rhetoric.
This Human Rights Watch report contains concrete recommendations to the Italian government to strengthen its response to racist violence, including:
* Consistently and forcefully condemning, at the highest level, racist and xenophobic violence.
* Reforming criminal law to ensure that hate motivation can be applied even when perpetrators have mixed motives, and expanding the list of protected characteristics to include, at a minimum, sexual orientation and gender identity.
* Ensuring obligatory training for law enforcement personnel and public prosecutors on detecting, investigating, and prosecuting crimes motivated wholly or in part by racial, ethnic, or xenophobic bias.
* Collecting and routinely publishing comprehensive statistics on hate crimes.
Human Rights Watch
"The government spends far more energy blaming migrants and Roma for Italy's problems than it does on efforts to stop violent attacks on them," said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The government's alarmist talk of an invasion of ‘biblical proportions' from North Africa is just the latest example of irresponsible rhetoric. Officials should be protecting migrants and Roma from attack." Cities across Italy have seen mob violence and individual attacks targeting migrants, Roma, and Italians of foreign descent. Mobs rampaged through Roma camps in Naples in May 2008 and assaulted African seasonal migrant workers in Rosarno, Calabria, in January 2010. A group of at least 15 people attacked a Bengali bar in Rome in March 2010.
Authorities recorded 142 hate crimes in the first nine months of 2009, but one Italian anti-racism organization registered 398 media reports of such crimes in roughly the same period, with 186 physical assaults (18 of which led to death). Individual attacks include the September 2008 murder of Abdoul Guiebre, an Italian of Burkina Faso origin bludgeoned to death on the street in Milan after a petty theft from a café; the brutal beating of a Chinese man in October 2008 as he waited for a bus in Rome; and the February 2009 attack on an Indian man in a town outside Rome, in which he was beaten, doused with gasoline, and set on fire.
Human Rights Watch also documented troubling cases of law enforcement abuse against Roma, during camp evictions and in the custody of police or Carabinieri (a Defense Ministry force that shares responsibility for civilian policing in Italy). Italian law provides for increased prison sentences for crimes aggravated by racial motivation, but the statute has yet to live up to its promise, Human Rights Watch said. The 1993 statute has often been interpreted by prosecutors and the courts only to apply to cases where racial hatred was the sole motivation, leaving serious racist crimes prosecuted as though they were ordinary offences. The state prosecuted Abdoul Guiebre's murder as an ordinary crime, for example, despite the racist insults uttered by the perpetrators during the attack. Crimes motivated by hatred over sexual orientation and gender identity are not covered at all.
The extreme violence against African seasonal migrant workers in Rosarno, Calabria, in January 2010, including drive-by shootings and three days of mob violence that left at least 11 migrants hospitalized with serious injuries, did not lead to prosecutions and convictions for racially-motivated crimes. Only three Italians were prosecuted and convicted in connection with the violence. Local residents and law enforcement officers also suffered injuries, some of them caused by migrants during riots against the mob attacks. Italian officials minimized the racist dimension of the violence in Rosarno, in keeping with a general tendency to call racially-motivated crimes rare. The Italian government does not collect or publish disaggregated statistics on crime reports or prosecutions. Authorities point to the low numbers of official complaints and prosecutions for racially motivated violence to argue that such violence is rare, ignoring underreporting and the failure of the authorities to correctly identify it.
"The Italian government likes to pretend that racist violence hardly ever happens," said Sunderland. "But if you are an Italian from an ethnic minority, Roma, or a migrant, the truth is it's all too common. Acknowledging the scale of the problem is a necessary condition for tackling it." A consequence of the authorities' failure to recognize these hate crimes as a significant problem is that law enforcement personnel and prosecutors do not receive systematic, specialized training in identifying, investigating, and prosecuting racist violence. Roma, the most vilified minority in Italy today, are especially at risk of harassment and mistreatment during camp evictions and in police or Carabinieri custody, Human Rights Watch said. With serious allegations of abuse by law enforcement personnel left uninvestigated, and virtual impunity for mob violence against Roma camps, many Roma have little or no faith in public institutions. "Many people, especially undocumented migrants and Roma, are just too scared to go the police," Sunderland said. "The government has to do much more to encourage reporting and build trust among these particularly vulnerable communities."
Political discourse and media coverage linking immigrants and Roma to crime has fueled a dangerous environment of intolerance in a country that has seen a dramatic increase in immigration over the past 10 years. Since 2008, the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in coalition with the openly anti-immigrant Northern League party, has adopted "emergency" decrees to pave the way for strong-handed measures against undocumented migrants and Roma, and passed a law making undocumented entry and stay in Italy a crime punishable by a hefty fine. Elected officials across the political spectrum have engaged in anti-immigrant and anti-Roma rhetoric.
This Human Rights Watch report contains concrete recommendations to the Italian government to strengthen its response to racist violence, including:
* Consistently and forcefully condemning, at the highest level, racist and xenophobic violence.
* Reforming criminal law to ensure that hate motivation can be applied even when perpetrators have mixed motives, and expanding the list of protected characteristics to include, at a minimum, sexual orientation and gender identity.
* Ensuring obligatory training for law enforcement personnel and public prosecutors on detecting, investigating, and prosecuting crimes motivated wholly or in part by racial, ethnic, or xenophobic bias.
* Collecting and routinely publishing comprehensive statistics on hate crimes.
Human Rights Watch
EQUALITY COMMISSION TO FACE 'MAJOR SURGERY' (uk)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is expected to face a demand for "major surgery" when the Home Office publishes a consultation paper on its future. The commission, chaired by Trevor Phillips, survived October's "bonfire of the quangos" but ministers are expected to say on Tuesday they want its activities to be restricted to its core functions and the management of its finances to be sharply improved. It is expected to be stripped of responsibilities such as promoting social cohesion. The consultation is due to last only three months, with swift action to follow. The EHRC took over from the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission in 2007 to promote and enforce equality and anti-discrimination laws in England, Scotland and Wales.
Phillips told MPs this month that the commission had been considering "radical reform" over the past 12 months. The 630-strong staff has already been cut to 417 and is likely to be cut to between 200 and 250 over the next 18 months. Recent high-profile cases involving the commission, which have included successful legal action against the British National Party and support of legal action against the Christian owners of a Cornish guesthouse who refused to let a gay couple stay in a double room, have fuelled criticism among the Tory right. The commission's £53m budget for this financial year is already earmarked to fall to £45m for 2011/2012. The commission and the government's equalities office are due to share a much deeper cut by 2015.
The commission's helpline, its grant-making function and several of its offices are believed to be under threat. The civil service union PCS, which represents most of its staff, said ballot papers for industrial action were being sent out. Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said cuts on the scale being contemplated could mean employers and public authorities would no longer be held to account for discriminatory policies. He suggested the cuts could end the commission's legal work such as its support for Sharon Coleman, whose victory at the European court of justice ensured six million carers in Britain are protected against discrimination in employment. However, it is expected that the "strategic legal work" will remain an important part of the commission's future.
The commission said: "We plan to respond quickly to this consultation on our powers and duties so that other organisations are aware of our view of our future. It is too soon to comment until we have seen the proposals in detail. "The commission began its own review of its role and focus around 18 months ago, before the review of non-departmental bodies by the government. We are already talking to our staff and stakeholders about our vision for the commission's future and will continue to do so during this consultation and beyond." The commission saw a string of high-profile resignations from its board last year, including its finance director. Its 2008/09 accounts were qualified by the National Audit Office last July who said it had breached rules on pay rises for permanent staff and managed money badly.
The Guardian
Phillips told MPs this month that the commission had been considering "radical reform" over the past 12 months. The 630-strong staff has already been cut to 417 and is likely to be cut to between 200 and 250 over the next 18 months. Recent high-profile cases involving the commission, which have included successful legal action against the British National Party and support of legal action against the Christian owners of a Cornish guesthouse who refused to let a gay couple stay in a double room, have fuelled criticism among the Tory right. The commission's £53m budget for this financial year is already earmarked to fall to £45m for 2011/2012. The commission and the government's equalities office are due to share a much deeper cut by 2015.
The commission's helpline, its grant-making function and several of its offices are believed to be under threat. The civil service union PCS, which represents most of its staff, said ballot papers for industrial action were being sent out. Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said cuts on the scale being contemplated could mean employers and public authorities would no longer be held to account for discriminatory policies. He suggested the cuts could end the commission's legal work such as its support for Sharon Coleman, whose victory at the European court of justice ensured six million carers in Britain are protected against discrimination in employment. However, it is expected that the "strategic legal work" will remain an important part of the commission's future.
The commission said: "We plan to respond quickly to this consultation on our powers and duties so that other organisations are aware of our view of our future. It is too soon to comment until we have seen the proposals in detail. "The commission began its own review of its role and focus around 18 months ago, before the review of non-departmental bodies by the government. We are already talking to our staff and stakeholders about our vision for the commission's future and will continue to do so during this consultation and beyond." The commission saw a string of high-profile resignations from its board last year, including its finance director. Its 2008/09 accounts were qualified by the National Audit Office last July who said it had breached rules on pay rises for permanent staff and managed money badly.
The Guardian
Police defend giving white supremacists bus transportation (Canada)
City police are defending the decision to use a city bus to ferry a dozen white supremacists out of downtown after their march Saturday, saying it avoided a violent battle with anti-racism demonstrators.
On Monday, police faced criticism for using city services to transport the white supremacists, but say the transit vehicle was never a "courtesy bus" for a group called Blood and Honour.
Rather, police say it was a prearranged contingency tactic to evacuate anybody, be they protesters from either side or members of the public caught up in the demonstration.
Police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said officers loaded them onto the bus to avoid a violent confrontation with antiracist activists, who chased the vehicle down the road.
"If we had not extracted them when we did, we would have had a violent face to face, which would have defeated the whole purpose of what we had done up to that point," Brookwell said.
The explanation is of some consolation to Ald. John Mar, who raised his concerns over the use of the bus during a council meeting Monday. Still, the downtown alderman said he doesn't like how it played out from a moral standpoint.
"I'm still disappointed that we provided this transportation, but I understand the rationale as to why it was done," he said.
Others, however, aren't happy. One of the anti-racism leaders, Bonnie Devine, said the two groups were kept apart by police and safety wasn't necessarily an issue.
She said anti-racism demonstrators were there to be confrontational, but non-violent.
It is police prerogative to assess the situation, but she thinks their resources, and not a transit bus, should have been used to take the white supremacists away.
"I don't like that (the) city used any resources to help facilitate neo-Nazis in marching in our streets," Devine said.
Mar said the white supremacist group had originally chartered its own bus, but those plans fell apart when the company learned the identity of the people it was to drive around.
Police say there was some thought given to the police service chartering a bus from a private company, but that was ultimately turned down because of the cost to taxpayers.
Blood and Honour did not pay for the transit bus, according to Brookwell.
He said it is not uncommon in major events like this to use buses as contingencies: "We did not know the numbers that would arise until they actually amassed downtown."
The bus was operated by a transit peace officer, and Calgary police were not charged for the use.
"We sided on the side of safety, regardless of the group," said Brian Whitelaw, the head of transit security. "If there was a confrontation, we'd probably have ended up in the situation we were in several years ago where you've got the risk of property damage, and you've certainly got the risk of physical injury."
Whitelaw said without the bus, the white supremacists would likely have used regular modes of public transit to leave the downtown. This could have created serious problems as confrontation between two groups could have migrated onto the LRT and regulars buses, he said.
Calgary Herald
On Monday, police faced criticism for using city services to transport the white supremacists, but say the transit vehicle was never a "courtesy bus" for a group called Blood and Honour.
Rather, police say it was a prearranged contingency tactic to evacuate anybody, be they protesters from either side or members of the public caught up in the demonstration.
Police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said officers loaded them onto the bus to avoid a violent confrontation with antiracist activists, who chased the vehicle down the road.
"If we had not extracted them when we did, we would have had a violent face to face, which would have defeated the whole purpose of what we had done up to that point," Brookwell said.
The explanation is of some consolation to Ald. John Mar, who raised his concerns over the use of the bus during a council meeting Monday. Still, the downtown alderman said he doesn't like how it played out from a moral standpoint.
"I'm still disappointed that we provided this transportation, but I understand the rationale as to why it was done," he said.
Others, however, aren't happy. One of the anti-racism leaders, Bonnie Devine, said the two groups were kept apart by police and safety wasn't necessarily an issue.
She said anti-racism demonstrators were there to be confrontational, but non-violent.
It is police prerogative to assess the situation, but she thinks their resources, and not a transit bus, should have been used to take the white supremacists away.
"I don't like that (the) city used any resources to help facilitate neo-Nazis in marching in our streets," Devine said.
Mar said the white supremacist group had originally chartered its own bus, but those plans fell apart when the company learned the identity of the people it was to drive around.
Police say there was some thought given to the police service chartering a bus from a private company, but that was ultimately turned down because of the cost to taxpayers.
Blood and Honour did not pay for the transit bus, according to Brookwell.
He said it is not uncommon in major events like this to use buses as contingencies: "We did not know the numbers that would arise until they actually amassed downtown."
The bus was operated by a transit peace officer, and Calgary police were not charged for the use.
"We sided on the side of safety, regardless of the group," said Brian Whitelaw, the head of transit security. "If there was a confrontation, we'd probably have ended up in the situation we were in several years ago where you've got the risk of property damage, and you've certainly got the risk of physical injury."
Whitelaw said without the bus, the white supremacists would likely have used regular modes of public transit to leave the downtown. This could have created serious problems as confrontation between two groups could have migrated onto the LRT and regulars buses, he said.
Calgary Herald
Monday, 21 March 2011
Roma in Hungarian village terrorized by racist "National Guards"
"In Parliament they told me I'm a disaster tourist," says Gábor Vóna, chair of the opposition Party for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), which is radical, devious, and very far-right. On 15 March the party made the decision in Budapest for the Guard to target the village of Gyöngyöspata. "I don't deny that I was there with them. I both saw and heard a catastrophic situation," Vóna says.
***
The first person this reporter encountered in Gyöngyöspata was Piroska, an approximately 35-year-old woman standing by a house in the center of the Roma quarter. The Roma minority in this village lives in a separate section, in homes that are a bit more shoddy than the houses where the Hungarian majority lives, but there is neither chaos nor squalor there. Conditions overall are fairly orderly, at least as far as the houses and yards are concerned.
Piroska tells me that "THEY" march here every morning, singing their songs, and that at night "THEY" shine floodlights into her windows. This happens even though her family is considered one of the most proper in the village.
Who are "THEY"? They usually wear boots, and some are in camouflage, but the majority are in those black pants, white shirts and a black vest with "For a more beautiful future" inscribed across the back of the uniform. That is the name of their club for "protecting citizens", but in reality they are just ordinary fascist Guards, who have come here to terrorize the Roma population.
The leader of one such group, Tamás Eszes, claims they just wanted to see for themselves what was going on in the village, because they were receiving complaints that the Roma were stealing in large numbers and are impossible to live with. He and his people should have left town by now, but the Hungarian population allegedly demanded they stay. He claims the non-Roma people were glad some soldiers finally showed up.
When I ask Piroska what the local Hungarians think of the Guard, she says her fellow citizens are of two kinds: Those who are glad the Guard is there, and those who have had enough of them. Whether people are going to the store, to the doctor, or waiting for the bus, wherever they go, the "Guardists" are there in large numbers.
"I am not exaggerating: This is a state of apartheid," insists Aladár Horváth, the outraged head of a well-known Hungarian civic association for Roma rights and freedoms. He is surrounded by about 500 people, half of whom are members of various civic associations from Budapest, the other half of whom are local Roma people.
The aim of the gathering is to draw attention to the license being taking by the Guards and to the fact that the police - the only authority with the right to use force when crimes are being committed - is taking no action. To be more precise, the police are active when it is necessary to prosecute Roma people, let's say, for theft - then, they take action - but when an illegal squad of racists has been marching through a village for two weeks, the police do nothing.
The owner of the local bed-and-breakfast, Magdolna Bernáth, invites the activists from the capital to spend a year - or at least three days a week - in the village. If they come for just an hour or two, she says, they will not get a trustworthy image of the real situation in the village of Gyöngyöspata. When asked what the solution is, she has a simple answer: Everyone must work.
If you want to eat, you must make money - that is the local businesswoman's recipe. She doesn't say the "Gypsies" don't want to work, she just says there is a lot of fertile land in the village that would produce for anyone for free, but it continues to lie fallow.
The Roma children in the village, however, are enthusiastically reciting the most revolutionary work of Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi, because at this time of year the whole country marks the anniversary of the 1848 revolution. Everyone in Hungary knows these lines, even Roma children:
"God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee, We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!"
See the full Radiožurnál report in Czech: Maďarskou vesnici terorizují nacionalistické gardy.
Romea.cz
SARKOZY SUFFERS POLL SETBACK AS FAR-RIGHT CLOSES IN (France)
With 86 percent of votes counted, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the president's center-right supporters had won 32.5 percent of the vote, with left-wing parties totaling 48 percent and Le Pen's anti-immigrant party polling 15 percent. However, polling institutes said Sarkozy's own UMP party scored just 16 percent, barely ahead of the National Front. The interior ministry did not issue any separate score for the UMP. The opposition Socialist party won about 25 percent with the hardline Left Front on 9 percent, ecologists on 8 percent and unaffiliated left-wing candidates with another 6 percent. "This may be the best result we have ever recorded in cantonal elections, which are not traditionally favorable to the National Front," Le Pen said on France 2 television. The vote showed people were turning their backs on decades of look-alike policies of center-right and center-left governments that had driven France into economic and social decline, she said.
The local elections, the last popular vote before next year's presidential election in which Sarkozy is expected to seek a second five-year term, confirmed Le Pen's breakthrough to stand neck-and-neck with other likely mainstream contenders. The decisive second round of the departmental elections for some 2,000 local councilors will be held next Sunday. Because the voting system favors alliances, the National Front is unlikely to win many seats since UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope reaffirmed that the mainstream conservatives would not back any far-right candidate. Turnout in the first round was at a record low of 45 percent, according to the interior ministry. One of the most unpopular presidents in recent history, Sarkozy has trailed left-wing rivals in opinion polls for months but he has now also fallen behind Le Pen in three surveys.
Typically, the National Front scores poorly in departmental elections, and Sunday's results were another indication that the far right is eating into Sarkozy's support due to exasperation over unemployment, living standards and immigration. Marine Le Pen, elected leader in January, has given the party a less abrasive image than her father Jean-Marie, who was convicted of inciting racial hatred and minimizing the Nazi Holocaust. While popular Socialist IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is keeping France guessing over whether he will run and Sarkozy has yet to formally announce his candidacy, Le Pen is already on the campaign trail. Her overtaking of Sarkozy has put conservatives on the defensive, insisting he is their best candidate.
Sarkozy's personal popularity ratings have slumped to around 29 percent in recent surveys taken before he put France in the vanguard of an international coalition to stop Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces attacking civilian protesters. A CSA poll this month credited Strauss-Kahn with 30 percent support in the first round of a presidential election, with Le Pen on 21 percent and Sarkozy 19 percent. A second, more recent Ipsos survey gave Strauss-Kahn 33 percent versus 19 for Le Pen and 18 percent for Sarkozy.
Reuters
The local elections, the last popular vote before next year's presidential election in which Sarkozy is expected to seek a second five-year term, confirmed Le Pen's breakthrough to stand neck-and-neck with other likely mainstream contenders. The decisive second round of the departmental elections for some 2,000 local councilors will be held next Sunday. Because the voting system favors alliances, the National Front is unlikely to win many seats since UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope reaffirmed that the mainstream conservatives would not back any far-right candidate. Turnout in the first round was at a record low of 45 percent, according to the interior ministry. One of the most unpopular presidents in recent history, Sarkozy has trailed left-wing rivals in opinion polls for months but he has now also fallen behind Le Pen in three surveys.
Typically, the National Front scores poorly in departmental elections, and Sunday's results were another indication that the far right is eating into Sarkozy's support due to exasperation over unemployment, living standards and immigration. Marine Le Pen, elected leader in January, has given the party a less abrasive image than her father Jean-Marie, who was convicted of inciting racial hatred and minimizing the Nazi Holocaust. While popular Socialist IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is keeping France guessing over whether he will run and Sarkozy has yet to formally announce his candidacy, Le Pen is already on the campaign trail. Her overtaking of Sarkozy has put conservatives on the defensive, insisting he is their best candidate.
Sarkozy's personal popularity ratings have slumped to around 29 percent in recent surveys taken before he put France in the vanguard of an international coalition to stop Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces attacking civilian protesters. A CSA poll this month credited Strauss-Kahn with 30 percent support in the first round of a presidential election, with Le Pen on 21 percent and Sarkozy 19 percent. A second, more recent Ipsos survey gave Strauss-Kahn 33 percent versus 19 for Le Pen and 18 percent for Sarkozy.
Reuters
Anti-Racism Week Starts in Finland
Finland is celebrating the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today, on Monday, with several cities holding events to celebrate. The day kicks off an action week against racism.
The Red Cross is campaigning against racism in schools, workplaces, on the streets and on Facebook. They are handing out anti-racist pioneer awards and ’I am opposed to racism’ badges. An electronic version is also available on their Facebook page.
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination can trace its roots to March 21 1960, to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre in which Apartheid-era South African police killed 69 people demonstrating peacefully against repressive laws.
Six years later the United Nations General Assembly declared the first International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Yle
The Red Cross is campaigning against racism in schools, workplaces, on the streets and on Facebook. They are handing out anti-racist pioneer awards and ’I am opposed to racism’ badges. An electronic version is also available on their Facebook page.
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination can trace its roots to March 21 1960, to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre in which Apartheid-era South African police killed 69 people demonstrating peacefully against repressive laws.
Six years later the United Nations General Assembly declared the first International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Yle
March 21st is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Since then, the apartheid system in South Africa has been dismantled. Racist laws and practices have been abolished in many countries, and we have built an international framework for fighting racism, guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Convention is now nearing universal ratification, yet still, in all regions, too many individuals, communities and societies suffer from the injustice and stigma that racism brings.
The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reminds us of our collective responsibility for promoting and protecting this ideal.
United Nations Website
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Czech Police may handle neo-Nazi march in Brno differently than Nový Bydžov (Czech Rep)
Yesterday Police President Petr Lessy told the Czech Press Agency that police are preparing massive security measures in relation to the announced 1 May meeting of the Workers' Youth (Dělnická mládež - DM) in Brno. Lessy emphasized that officers would be brought in to ensure order not only from South Moravia, but also from other regions.
The police president claims he intends to proceed so that the extremists understand that "things will not be rosy for them" in Brno. Lessy's claim comes less than a week after police cleared the way for neo-Nazis who were breaking the law to march through Nový Bydžov after using mounted officers to brutally disperse counter-demonstrators.
The police leadership is said to be displeased that the radicals have been regularly organizing 1 May events in the city rather frequently. "We do not want Brno to become a war zone, but we will not tolerate displays of substandard behavior," said Tomáš Kužel, the South Moravian Regional Police chief.
The DM is connected to the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS), whose predecessor was the recently dissolved Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS). The Supreme Administrative Court ended the DS activity because of its members' radical approaches.
Two years ago, the DS convened a 1 May demonstration in Brno. The court subsequently handed down suspended sentences and fines to their entire leadership for the radical statements made by its members at that event.
The DM has announced two events for 1 May of this year in the center of Brno. Local authorities did not grant permission for either of them. Court disputes over those events ended in a cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court, which recently overturned the municipal decision that one of the events could not be held.
According to many nonprofit organizations, police totally failed during the most recent extremist event in Nový Bydžov. They did not manage to protect local Roma people and dispersed a peaceful counter-demonstration in a brutal way. Organizations such as the Czech Helsinki Committee and ROMEA say police took no action while extremists violated the law.
Romea
The police president claims he intends to proceed so that the extremists understand that "things will not be rosy for them" in Brno. Lessy's claim comes less than a week after police cleared the way for neo-Nazis who were breaking the law to march through Nový Bydžov after using mounted officers to brutally disperse counter-demonstrators.
The police leadership is said to be displeased that the radicals have been regularly organizing 1 May events in the city rather frequently. "We do not want Brno to become a war zone, but we will not tolerate displays of substandard behavior," said Tomáš Kužel, the South Moravian Regional Police chief.
The DM is connected to the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS), whose predecessor was the recently dissolved Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS). The Supreme Administrative Court ended the DS activity because of its members' radical approaches.
Two years ago, the DS convened a 1 May demonstration in Brno. The court subsequently handed down suspended sentences and fines to their entire leadership for the radical statements made by its members at that event.
The DM has announced two events for 1 May of this year in the center of Brno. Local authorities did not grant permission for either of them. Court disputes over those events ended in a cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court, which recently overturned the municipal decision that one of the events could not be held.
According to many nonprofit organizations, police totally failed during the most recent extremist event in Nový Bydžov. They did not manage to protect local Roma people and dispersed a peaceful counter-demonstration in a brutal way. Organizations such as the Czech Helsinki Committee and ROMEA say police took no action while extremists violated the law.
Romea
Hundreds attend peaceful rally to counter neo-Nazi event in Claremont (USA)
Hundreds of people attended a rally Saturday against hate. The Claremont for Peace rally was held at Memorial Park to counter a neo-Nazi rally by the National Socialist Movement. About 30 people attended the neo-Nazi rally, police said.
The neo-Nazi event was held at Foothill and Indian Hill boulevards.
The white supremacist demonstrators rallied for an hour and a half to oppose illegal-immigrant enrollment at the nearby Claremont Colleges.
Between 300 and 500 counterdemonstrators rallied nearby. Between 200 and 300 others held a separate peace rally in opposition to the white supremacists in a park four blocks away.
About 110 officers were deployed at the white supremacist rally. There were no arrests and no reported injuries or property damage.
In an email before the event, Claremont for Peace said it had called the rally "in the name of peace, celebrating social justice, love and intercultural understanding."
The group is an ad-hoc collective formed to create an organized response to the National Socialist Movement's hateful messages, the group stated.
Southern California Public Radio
The neo-Nazi event was held at Foothill and Indian Hill boulevards.
The white supremacist demonstrators rallied for an hour and a half to oppose illegal-immigrant enrollment at the nearby Claremont Colleges.
Between 300 and 500 counterdemonstrators rallied nearby. Between 200 and 300 others held a separate peace rally in opposition to the white supremacists in a park four blocks away.
About 110 officers were deployed at the white supremacist rally. There were no arrests and no reported injuries or property damage.
In an email before the event, Claremont for Peace said it had called the rally "in the name of peace, celebrating social justice, love and intercultural understanding."
The group is an ad-hoc collective formed to create an organized response to the National Socialist Movement's hateful messages, the group stated.
Southern California Public Radio
Saturday, 19 March 2011
America gets a jarring wake-up call on Islamophobia by Adel Syed and Lana Daoud (Opinion, USA)
Last month, the Islamic Circle of North America Relief (ICNA) sponsored a fundraising dinner in Yorba Linda, California to raise money for women’s shelters and hunger relief across the United States. Families, including young children and elders, arrived to the event, and attempted to remain unscathed by epithets being shouted at them by angry protesters. The widely viewed video documenting the event speaks for itself.
Nonviolent protests, to be clear, are a civil right and valid expression, but the vitriol that attendants were subjected to during the ICNA event is symptomatic of a larger ailment. It is not only indicative of a growing gap of understanding, but a legitimization of fear and paranoia evident in the words of the protesters, and even in speeches by two U.S. congressman, Ed Royce and Gary Miller, and Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly.
The protest rally – sponsored by local Orange County conservative group ACT! for America, and Pamela Geller’s Stop Islamization of America (now designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) – initially took issue with a single speaker at the ICNA fundraiser. But it was their choice of hateful language and insults against Muslims that has since caused the uproar.
The shock of such hate is still palpable, and nearly a month after it took place, the protest has served as a wakeup call. People of all faiths and backgrounds across the country showered the Council on American Islamic Relations-Greater Los Angeles Area (CAIR-LA) with e-mails and phone calls of support, some even crying, showing their solidarity with Muslim-Americans. The heartfelt messages were followed by eager questions: “What can I do? I want to do something, but don’t know where to start.”
The protests have served as a catalyst for dialogue, whereby those who have been working together across various faith communities at a grassroots level can now bring people together for the real discussion. Muslim-Americans have been aware of, indeed feared, the escalation of threatening rhetoric since the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, only after the YouTube video of the protest at the ICNA event permeated the blogosphere did those who had been on the fence decide that enough was enough.
Americans are not a monolithic group, but a diverse nation that can work together. There are steps that can be taken to move toward inclusiveness and greater civility toward one another. Some steps that concerned citizens can take to involve local authorities and create positive change include contacting members of Congress to ensure they know their constituency is represented by diverse voices; or reaching out to local places of worship or organizations to encourage outreach among various faith communities.
This spring, CAIR-LA is organizing a conference to provide necessary leadership skills to encourage civic engagement among Muslim-Americans. In addition, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department initiated an engagement process with Muslim-American community leaders through the Muslim American Homeland Security Congress, a community partnership in which law enforcement, Muslim-American leaders and youth throughout the Los Angeles area work together to keep communities engaged with one another. Such programs can serve as a model across America for people of diverse backgrounds to work toward a common goal of building a balanced society.
The American collective conscience has always been able to differentiate between a few who seek to marginalize and scapegoat a particular community and the majority that values pluralism. The outpouring of support from across religious and ethnic communities is a testament to the belief in equality for all.
The late U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said, “Ultimately America’s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.” Muslim-Americans have been part of the American fabric since the 18th century, and continue to make contributions to society. Muslim-Americans are well represented in the armed forces, and serve as doctors, engineers, and school teachers in America’s classrooms.
Ensuring that America continues to be a model of inclusiveness can only occur when Muslim-Americans are seen as fellow neighbors to engage with, not outsiders to be shouted at, or altogether avoided.
Adel Syed is the government relations coordinator and Lana Daoud is the development coordinator for the Council on American Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Area. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org).
Daily Star
Nonviolent protests, to be clear, are a civil right and valid expression, but the vitriol that attendants were subjected to during the ICNA event is symptomatic of a larger ailment. It is not only indicative of a growing gap of understanding, but a legitimization of fear and paranoia evident in the words of the protesters, and even in speeches by two U.S. congressman, Ed Royce and Gary Miller, and Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly.
The protest rally – sponsored by local Orange County conservative group ACT! for America, and Pamela Geller’s Stop Islamization of America (now designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) – initially took issue with a single speaker at the ICNA fundraiser. But it was their choice of hateful language and insults against Muslims that has since caused the uproar.
The shock of such hate is still palpable, and nearly a month after it took place, the protest has served as a wakeup call. People of all faiths and backgrounds across the country showered the Council on American Islamic Relations-Greater Los Angeles Area (CAIR-LA) with e-mails and phone calls of support, some even crying, showing their solidarity with Muslim-Americans. The heartfelt messages were followed by eager questions: “What can I do? I want to do something, but don’t know where to start.”
The protests have served as a catalyst for dialogue, whereby those who have been working together across various faith communities at a grassroots level can now bring people together for the real discussion. Muslim-Americans have been aware of, indeed feared, the escalation of threatening rhetoric since the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, only after the YouTube video of the protest at the ICNA event permeated the blogosphere did those who had been on the fence decide that enough was enough.
Americans are not a monolithic group, but a diverse nation that can work together. There are steps that can be taken to move toward inclusiveness and greater civility toward one another. Some steps that concerned citizens can take to involve local authorities and create positive change include contacting members of Congress to ensure they know their constituency is represented by diverse voices; or reaching out to local places of worship or organizations to encourage outreach among various faith communities.
This spring, CAIR-LA is organizing a conference to provide necessary leadership skills to encourage civic engagement among Muslim-Americans. In addition, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department initiated an engagement process with Muslim-American community leaders through the Muslim American Homeland Security Congress, a community partnership in which law enforcement, Muslim-American leaders and youth throughout the Los Angeles area work together to keep communities engaged with one another. Such programs can serve as a model across America for people of diverse backgrounds to work toward a common goal of building a balanced society.
The American collective conscience has always been able to differentiate between a few who seek to marginalize and scapegoat a particular community and the majority that values pluralism. The outpouring of support from across religious and ethnic communities is a testament to the belief in equality for all.
The late U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said, “Ultimately America’s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.” Muslim-Americans have been part of the American fabric since the 18th century, and continue to make contributions to society. Muslim-Americans are well represented in the armed forces, and serve as doctors, engineers, and school teachers in America’s classrooms.
Ensuring that America continues to be a model of inclusiveness can only occur when Muslim-Americans are seen as fellow neighbors to engage with, not outsiders to be shouted at, or altogether avoided.
Adel Syed is the government relations coordinator and Lana Daoud is the development coordinator for the Council on American Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Area. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org).
Daily Star
White supremacist gets 60 days in jail for threats (Canada)
Self-professed white supremacist Kyle Robert McKee has been sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading guilty Thursday to three criminal charges -including what Crown prosecutor Janice Rea called "racist motivated threats."
McKee, 25, pleaded guilty to uttering threats and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public in connection with an incident on Feb. 13, and for assaulting a woman at a prior party.
Rea said McKee made the threats when he confronted Jason Divine, who was driving through the southwest neighbourhood and hanging posters, identifying McKee as a member of a neo-Nazi group.
She said McKee made reference in the threats to whether or not Divine needed another visit, alluding to a home invasion last Nov. 8.
No charges have ever been laid in connection with that incident, Rea noted.
Provincial court Judge John Bascom accepted a joint submission for the 60-day total sentence, less credit for 33 days already served. McKee also must provide a DNA sample.
McKee had two attempted murder charges dropped last May in connection with a homemade bomb being planted outside a condo.
Calgary Herald
McKee, 25, pleaded guilty to uttering threats and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public in connection with an incident on Feb. 13, and for assaulting a woman at a prior party.
Rea said McKee made the threats when he confronted Jason Divine, who was driving through the southwest neighbourhood and hanging posters, identifying McKee as a member of a neo-Nazi group.
She said McKee made reference in the threats to whether or not Divine needed another visit, alluding to a home invasion last Nov. 8.
No charges have ever been laid in connection with that incident, Rea noted.
Provincial court Judge John Bascom accepted a joint submission for the 60-day total sentence, less credit for 33 days already served. McKee also must provide a DNA sample.
McKee had two attempted murder charges dropped last May in connection with a homemade bomb being planted outside a condo.
Calgary Herald
CALLS MOUNT FOR PROBE AFTER ATTACK ON ROMA CAMP (Albania)
The OSCE, US and EU ambassadors in Tirana have called for an investigation after a Roma camp on the outskirts of Tirana was burned down three weeks ago by perpetrators who have not yet been found.
“We strongly urge the responsible authorities to take the appropriate action by investigating the disturbing February events in order to ensure that such acts are not repeated,” the three ambassadors said in a statement. “We also encourage the authorities to take the appropriate action to provide necessary social assistance, including housing, to those people who have now found themselves homeless,” the statement added. Some dwellers in the camp, which was home to roughly 40 families, told local media the attackers arrived at night and beat them with sticks while setting fire to their barracks over several days, pressuring them to relocate. The residents of the camps say the police failed to prevent the attacks and provide protection for the families, who now have moved to live in settlements in Tirana and other cities. Police denied on Friday that they had disregarded the laws against discrimination of minorities and the protection of children while dealing with the case. According to the police statement, the Roma “initiated the conflict” with their neighbors, which then escalated. “We have questioned the Roma about the fire that swept their dwelling but they have refused to testify,” read the statement.
According to the Union for Albanian Roma, a Tirana-based NGO, up to 150,000 Roma people live in Albania, part of a community that struggles with discrimination, poor literacy rates and massive unemployment. The ambassadors reminded the Albanian government that it committed itself to the objectives of the Declaration of the Decade of Roma Inclusion and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. The statement also underlined that the fight against discrimination and the protection of the rights of Roma is one the twelve key priority areas needing particular attention, set forth by the European Commission as precondition for Albania to be granted EU candidate status.
Balkan Insight
“We strongly urge the responsible authorities to take the appropriate action by investigating the disturbing February events in order to ensure that such acts are not repeated,” the three ambassadors said in a statement. “We also encourage the authorities to take the appropriate action to provide necessary social assistance, including housing, to those people who have now found themselves homeless,” the statement added. Some dwellers in the camp, which was home to roughly 40 families, told local media the attackers arrived at night and beat them with sticks while setting fire to their barracks over several days, pressuring them to relocate. The residents of the camps say the police failed to prevent the attacks and provide protection for the families, who now have moved to live in settlements in Tirana and other cities. Police denied on Friday that they had disregarded the laws against discrimination of minorities and the protection of children while dealing with the case. According to the police statement, the Roma “initiated the conflict” with their neighbors, which then escalated. “We have questioned the Roma about the fire that swept their dwelling but they have refused to testify,” read the statement.
According to the Union for Albanian Roma, a Tirana-based NGO, up to 150,000 Roma people live in Albania, part of a community that struggles with discrimination, poor literacy rates and massive unemployment. The ambassadors reminded the Albanian government that it committed itself to the objectives of the Declaration of the Decade of Roma Inclusion and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. The statement also underlined that the fight against discrimination and the protection of the rights of Roma is one the twelve key priority areas needing particular attention, set forth by the European Commission as precondition for Albania to be granted EU candidate status.
Balkan Insight
'SUPREME COURT PAVED THE WAY FOR CONVICTION OF WILDERS' (Netherlands)
The accounting that Corstens is said to want to effect arose after Wilders sharply criticised the functioning of the judiciary last October, promoted by his own court case. About a week later, Corstens criticised the statements of the PVV leader on TV programme Buitenhof. According to the lawyer, Wilders undermined confidence in independent jurisprudence with his remarks. Wilders' lawyer Bram Moszkowicz also has doubts on the course of events. He said that his clients is "not amused." Moszkowicz considers it disquieting that members of the Supreme Court make statements about Wilders while his case might still come up there at a later stage. Moszkowicz also referred in this connection to last year's leaked memorandum by Diederik Aben, Solicitor-General to the Supreme Court. In this, Aben termed it wrong that lower courts honoured the request by Wilders to have the judges hearing his case replaced due to the appearance of bias. Wilders is currently on trial for incitement to hatred and defamation of Muslims. The case concerns statements that he made outside parliment, as within parliament, he enjoys immunity.
Nis News
TOWN RESIDENTS SIGN PETITION SUPPORTING RIGHT-WING CIVIC GUARD GROUP (Hungary)
Over 1,000 residents of Gyöngyöspata , Heves county, signed a manifesto demanding the operation of the far-right Civil Guard For a More Beautiful Future, citing a lack of public safety, on Wednesday afternoon. Local residents say the police, local government and local civil guard have been unable to enforce order for a number of years. Mayor László Tábi said "we recognise the presence of the civil guard in the village as long as it operates under lawful frameworks." No local Roma attended the village meeting, but relayed a message that said "let police jail the Gypsies who are criminals but all 300 local Gypsies should not be punished." Civil guard members left Gyöngyöspata on Thursday evening, police announced. Heves county police and emergency police are continuing their stepped up patrols of the village.
Politics Hu
Politics Hu
Oldham woman jailed over 'disfigured face' hate attack (UK)
A woman who attacked another woman because she had a facial disfigurement has been jailed for eight months.
Rachel Rooney, 31, of Capesthorne Drive, Oldham, taunted Chantelle Richardson - who has arteriovenous malformation - before punching her.
Ms Richardson's condition means she has an irregular connection between veins and arteries. Trauma to the nose could lead to bleeding and severe strokes.
The judge at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court agreed it was a hate crime.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
No-one should be subject to the violence and verbal abuse that Chantelle experienced”
End Quote Rebecca Radcliffe CPS lawyer
Rooney had admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.
'Example to others'
But, on Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) asked the judge to consider the attack as a hate crime and increase her sentence, using Section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act.
After the sentencing, Ms Richardson said: "Today's result is an important one both for me personally and for disfigured people in society.
"I hope this will be recognised as an example to others - it is unacceptable to bully, abuse and taunt people who look different and I hope it gives other disfigured people the confidence to go out in public without fear of prejudice."
CPS lawyer Rebecca Radcliffe said: "This was a completely unprovoked attack on a young woman who was simply minding her own business and enjoying the company of her friends.
"In our view, Rooney's actions were clearly motivated by hostility towards Chantelle's disability."
BBC News
Rachel Rooney, 31, of Capesthorne Drive, Oldham, taunted Chantelle Richardson - who has arteriovenous malformation - before punching her.
Ms Richardson's condition means she has an irregular connection between veins and arteries. Trauma to the nose could lead to bleeding and severe strokes.
The judge at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court agreed it was a hate crime.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
No-one should be subject to the violence and verbal abuse that Chantelle experienced”
End Quote Rebecca Radcliffe CPS lawyer
Rooney had admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.
'Example to others'
But, on Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) asked the judge to consider the attack as a hate crime and increase her sentence, using Section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act.
After the sentencing, Ms Richardson said: "Today's result is an important one both for me personally and for disfigured people in society.
"I hope this will be recognised as an example to others - it is unacceptable to bully, abuse and taunt people who look different and I hope it gives other disfigured people the confidence to go out in public without fear of prejudice."
CPS lawyer Rebecca Radcliffe said: "This was a completely unprovoked attack on a young woman who was simply minding her own business and enjoying the company of her friends.
"In our view, Rooney's actions were clearly motivated by hostility towards Chantelle's disability."
BBC News
Producer is suspended in TV drama racism row (UK)
It is the TV programme which made Thame and Haddenham famous across the country but a racism storm has now put the future of Midsomer Murders in doubt.
Producer Brian True-May, who brought the show to Thame, was suspended this week for refusing to include ethnic minority actors in the show.
He believed that it wouldn’t ‘truly reflect rural towns like Thame’ to have such diversity in the programme.
The comments came out in an interview with The Radio Times where he said: “We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them.
“It just wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough.
“We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.”
Mr True-May has received some sympathy from the town’s deputy mayor Don Butler.
He said: “I think that he has been treated a little unfairly as he is entitled to his own opinion.
“But it is fair to say that there is some ethnic minorities living in Thame.”
A pathway has been set up in the town based on the fictional show, which passes several places featured throughout the years.
Historic landmarks such as the 16th Century Spread Eagle Hotel has been featured on the programme, as has some of the independent shops and tea rooms.
But it is not yet known if anymore episodes of Midsomer Murders will be filmed. The decision is in the hands of the chiefs at ITV, who are still yet to decide Mr True-May’s fate.
In response to the interview, an ITV spokesman said the broadcaster was “shocked and appalled” at the comments. In the 14 series of the programme, only a single ethnic minority character has appeared .
Thame Today
Producer Brian True-May, who brought the show to Thame, was suspended this week for refusing to include ethnic minority actors in the show.
He believed that it wouldn’t ‘truly reflect rural towns like Thame’ to have such diversity in the programme.
The comments came out in an interview with The Radio Times where he said: “We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them.
“It just wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough.
“We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.”
Mr True-May has received some sympathy from the town’s deputy mayor Don Butler.
He said: “I think that he has been treated a little unfairly as he is entitled to his own opinion.
“But it is fair to say that there is some ethnic minorities living in Thame.”
A pathway has been set up in the town based on the fictional show, which passes several places featured throughout the years.
Historic landmarks such as the 16th Century Spread Eagle Hotel has been featured on the programme, as has some of the independent shops and tea rooms.
But it is not yet known if anymore episodes of Midsomer Murders will be filmed. The decision is in the hands of the chiefs at ITV, who are still yet to decide Mr True-May’s fate.
In response to the interview, an ITV spokesman said the broadcaster was “shocked and appalled” at the comments. In the 14 series of the programme, only a single ethnic minority character has appeared .
Thame Today
Drunk fined for racist abuse in kebab shop (UK)
A drunk man screamed racist abuse at staff in his local takeaway after they refused to give him a free meal, a court heard.
William McNeill also shouted "Al-Qaida" at workers in the kebab shop.
McNeill, 42, appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court yesterday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to acting in a racially aggravated manner and using racially offensive language towards restaurant worker Hazim Hashim on February 27 this year.
Sheriff Donald Muirhead fined McNeill £500.
He told him: "The court has a job to teach people not to behave in a racially aggravated manner the way that you did."
Stewart Peebles, defending, said the accused had visited the busy restaurant many times before without any problems.
"He works as an HGV driver abroad with people from all nationalities and places and he has no difficulty with them whatsoever. He was very drunk on this occasion and has little recollection of anything."
News Scotsman
William McNeill also shouted "Al-Qaida" at workers in the kebab shop.
McNeill, 42, appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court yesterday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to acting in a racially aggravated manner and using racially offensive language towards restaurant worker Hazim Hashim on February 27 this year.
Sheriff Donald Muirhead fined McNeill £500.
He told him: "The court has a job to teach people not to behave in a racially aggravated manner the way that you did."
Stewart Peebles, defending, said the accused had visited the busy restaurant many times before without any problems.
"He works as an HGV driver abroad with people from all nationalities and places and he has no difficulty with them whatsoever. He was very drunk on this occasion and has little recollection of anything."
News Scotsman
Friday, 18 March 2011
White supremacist sought in bombing (Canada)
Police say they are searching for Kyle Robert McKee, 24, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The bombs were left near the intended victim's floor-level suite on Rundlehorn Drive N.E. Investigators believe it was a targeted attack -- but not a hate crime or gang-related.
The bombs were found Saturday morning by a resident. Police say the man made the risky move of throwing the devices into the parking lot, where they exploded.
"We want to know what the motive is. We're not certain of that right now," said Staff Sgt. Keith Cain.
Cain did not know if the wanted minor is also a member of the Aryan Guard.
There were two people in the home at the time. After interviewing them, police identified the two suspects.
"We're very interested in locating both the 17-year-old and Mr. McKee because we believe that there is danger to the victims and possibly to others," said Cain.
McKee could not be reached for comment, and two skinheads at the Rundlehorn Drive apartment where the explosives were located also declined interviews.
In three interviews with the Herald since 2008, McKee identifies himself as a member of the Aryan Guard.
"A lot of us agree that when you can't be proud of being white, that's a problem," McKee has said.
Before the March 2009 white pride rally downtown, McKee spoke of curbing rowdy behaviour during the march and new measures taken by his group to forbid drinking alcohol before the event.
"Ideally, we'd like to see it eventually turn into a fairly mainstream thing. You just get your average Joe out there saying, 'I'm proud to be white.' "
And after the event -- which erupted in violence when confronted by anti-racism activists--he called it a success.
"We didn't make it to City Hall, but I think a lot of people will hear about it, and on that part it's a success."
McKee is also a frequent poster on white pride online forums, most recently praising the spray painting on the Calgary Jewish Centre and Holocaust memorial as funny.
He has been photographed with Nazi flags, white pride logos and with his right arm raised in salute.
Police say they are worried about the use of a bomb.
"Regardless of who these devices are linked to, it's a major concern for us."
The explosives are believed to be homemade, said Cain.
"Unfortunately, this type of information is available readily out there and persons that wish to act upon that can do so," said Cain. "This is definitely a big concern to us."
McKee and the 17-year-old face charges of attempted murder, possessing, making or controlling explosives and possession of a weapon or imitation for a dangerous purpose.
Calgary Herald
The bombs were left near the intended victim's floor-level suite on Rundlehorn Drive N.E. Investigators believe it was a targeted attack -- but not a hate crime or gang-related.
The bombs were found Saturday morning by a resident. Police say the man made the risky move of throwing the devices into the parking lot, where they exploded.
"We want to know what the motive is. We're not certain of that right now," said Staff Sgt. Keith Cain.
Cain did not know if the wanted minor is also a member of the Aryan Guard.
There were two people in the home at the time. After interviewing them, police identified the two suspects.
"We're very interested in locating both the 17-year-old and Mr. McKee because we believe that there is danger to the victims and possibly to others," said Cain.
McKee could not be reached for comment, and two skinheads at the Rundlehorn Drive apartment where the explosives were located also declined interviews.
In three interviews with the Herald since 2008, McKee identifies himself as a member of the Aryan Guard.
"A lot of us agree that when you can't be proud of being white, that's a problem," McKee has said.
Before the March 2009 white pride rally downtown, McKee spoke of curbing rowdy behaviour during the march and new measures taken by his group to forbid drinking alcohol before the event.
"Ideally, we'd like to see it eventually turn into a fairly mainstream thing. You just get your average Joe out there saying, 'I'm proud to be white.' "
And after the event -- which erupted in violence when confronted by anti-racism activists--he called it a success.
"We didn't make it to City Hall, but I think a lot of people will hear about it, and on that part it's a success."
McKee is also a frequent poster on white pride online forums, most recently praising the spray painting on the Calgary Jewish Centre and Holocaust memorial as funny.
He has been photographed with Nazi flags, white pride logos and with his right arm raised in salute.
Police say they are worried about the use of a bomb.
"Regardless of who these devices are linked to, it's a major concern for us."
The explosives are believed to be homemade, said Cain.
"Unfortunately, this type of information is available readily out there and persons that wish to act upon that can do so," said Cain. "This is definitely a big concern to us."
McKee and the 17-year-old face charges of attempted murder, possessing, making or controlling explosives and possession of a weapon or imitation for a dangerous purpose.
Calgary Herald
Dream home turns into racist nightmare as English woman is forced into selling up (UK)
An english mother has claimed racist yobs are forcing her out of her dream home in a tiny Scottish village.
June Broadhurst, 65, was horrified when vandals daubed "go home" in red spray paint all over her white-washed house.
She also had rocks thrown at the property and claims to have been abused and threatened in the street. Now she's had enough and is putting her home, in Findochty, Moray, up for sale.
"The only option left to me is to leave. It's shocking but it's been made obvious that I am no longer welcome here," she said.
Mother-of-two June was married to a Scotsman, Alex, and they lived in Manchester. They often talked about starting a new life together in Scotland, but he died in 1996 before they got the chance.
However, Ms Broadhurst decided a move north would be ideal and the sea air in Findochty, which sits on the Moray coast, might help her osteoarthritis.
She bought a house on the same street as a friend, but he passed away before she moved in. June found herself at the centre of disputes with neighbours and Aberdeenshire Council over right of way wrangles and an extension that bordered her property.
But she believes at the heart of all her problems is that fact that she's not Scottish.
Scotsman.com
June Broadhurst, 65, was horrified when vandals daubed "go home" in red spray paint all over her white-washed house.
She also had rocks thrown at the property and claims to have been abused and threatened in the street. Now she's had enough and is putting her home, in Findochty, Moray, up for sale.
"The only option left to me is to leave. It's shocking but it's been made obvious that I am no longer welcome here," she said.
Mother-of-two June was married to a Scotsman, Alex, and they lived in Manchester. They often talked about starting a new life together in Scotland, but he died in 1996 before they got the chance.
However, Ms Broadhurst decided a move north would be ideal and the sea air in Findochty, which sits on the Moray coast, might help her osteoarthritis.
She bought a house on the same street as a friend, but he passed away before she moved in. June found herself at the centre of disputes with neighbours and Aberdeenshire Council over right of way wrangles and an extension that bordered her property.
But she believes at the heart of all her problems is that fact that she's not Scottish.
Scotsman.com
Canadian Forces member probed for alleged white pride activities
Canada’s military police are investigating allegations a Canadian Forces member — reportedly a 17-year-old Winnipeg male youth — is involved with white pride activities.
Capt. Karina Holder, public affairs officer with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, confirmed Thursday that military police are probing allegations of alleged racist ties, which she said are unacceptable to the Canadian military.
“We have very strict policies on racist attitudes and behaviours because they run so contrary to our ethos,” Holder said. “The regulations are very clear that such attitudes are not tolerated.”
A Calgary newspaper that interviewed the accused teen identified him as a 17-year-old reservist from Winnipeg, but Holder would not confirm his age, location, or whether he is a member of the regular or reserve force.
“All I can say is the member does not have a long service record in the force,” she said.
Holder couldn’t say whether he has been suspended during the investigation or had his duties changed as a result. She did confirm military police were alerted Wednesday to allegations of a connection to white pride activists.
“We were forwarded certain information that a Canadian Forces member was involved in certain groups and we’re investigating to see whether that’s true or not,” Holder said, confirming that part of the allegation is that the accused was set to travel to a white pride rally in Calgary this weekend. “We were made aware of that. We’re not sure whether there’s any (factual) base to it or not.”
The teen in question told the Calgary Herald he does not believe in white supremacy and said although he had plans to travel to the rally, he cancelled them weeks ago.
The paper reported he had previously posted quotes from Hitler on his Facebook page and also posted comments on a white power website, but the boy told the Herald he has since “matured.”
Winnipeg Sun
Capt. Karina Holder, public affairs officer with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, confirmed Thursday that military police are probing allegations of alleged racist ties, which she said are unacceptable to the Canadian military.
“We have very strict policies on racist attitudes and behaviours because they run so contrary to our ethos,” Holder said. “The regulations are very clear that such attitudes are not tolerated.”
A Calgary newspaper that interviewed the accused teen identified him as a 17-year-old reservist from Winnipeg, but Holder would not confirm his age, location, or whether he is a member of the regular or reserve force.
“All I can say is the member does not have a long service record in the force,” she said.
Holder couldn’t say whether he has been suspended during the investigation or had his duties changed as a result. She did confirm military police were alerted Wednesday to allegations of a connection to white pride activists.
“We were forwarded certain information that a Canadian Forces member was involved in certain groups and we’re investigating to see whether that’s true or not,” Holder said, confirming that part of the allegation is that the accused was set to travel to a white pride rally in Calgary this weekend. “We were made aware of that. We’re not sure whether there’s any (factual) base to it or not.”
The teen in question told the Calgary Herald he does not believe in white supremacy and said although he had plans to travel to the rally, he cancelled them weeks ago.
The paper reported he had previously posted quotes from Hitler on his Facebook page and also posted comments on a white power website, but the boy told the Herald he has since “matured.”
Winnipeg Sun
Never again' says EDL pub landlord (UK)
The landlord of a pub which hosted a meeting of the far-right protest group the English Defence League has vowed it will never happen again.
Shane McDonald, from the Princess Royal pub on Sandon Road, said he had no idea his premises had been booked by local members of the movement, which stages demonstrations about the spread of Islam, until they arrived.
Now, Mr McDonald has banned the group from booking the venue again, despite the group’s claims on social-networking site Facebook they are set to hold a “meet and greet” at the pub in the next few weeks.
He told the Newsletter: “Yes they held a meeting here but I didn’t know until they got here and I have put a stop to it straight away.
“This pub is apolitical and we do not endorse the EDL. I have categorically said no more meetings.” The group met at the Princess Royal last month. In January last year 17 people were arrested at an English Defence League rally in Stoke-on-Trent.
Last week, Staffordshire Police said they were monitoring the Stafford group and anti-facism groups said the formation of an EDL branch in the county town was a “very detrimental” development.
Mr McDonald added: “To be fair, they were a good bunch of blokes when they came in. But with their political views it’s just not worth the hassle.” Local neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, Simon Davies, said: “This sounds like very good news. Hopefully this will mean the EDL has less of a platform in the area.” The Newsletter tried to contact the national EDL group but no-one was available for comment.
Staffordshire Newsletter
Shane McDonald, from the Princess Royal pub on Sandon Road, said he had no idea his premises had been booked by local members of the movement, which stages demonstrations about the spread of Islam, until they arrived.
Now, Mr McDonald has banned the group from booking the venue again, despite the group’s claims on social-networking site Facebook they are set to hold a “meet and greet” at the pub in the next few weeks.
He told the Newsletter: “Yes they held a meeting here but I didn’t know until they got here and I have put a stop to it straight away.
“This pub is apolitical and we do not endorse the EDL. I have categorically said no more meetings.” The group met at the Princess Royal last month. In January last year 17 people were arrested at an English Defence League rally in Stoke-on-Trent.
Last week, Staffordshire Police said they were monitoring the Stafford group and anti-facism groups said the formation of an EDL branch in the county town was a “very detrimental” development.
Mr McDonald added: “To be fair, they were a good bunch of blokes when they came in. But with their political views it’s just not worth the hassle.” Local neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, Simon Davies, said: “This sounds like very good news. Hopefully this will mean the EDL has less of a platform in the area.” The Newsletter tried to contact the national EDL group but no-one was available for comment.
Staffordshire Newsletter
Thursday, 17 March 2011
French Jews protest Marine Le Pen
French Jewish leaders condemned the far right leader Marine Le Pen at a rally in Paris.
Monday's rally was presaged by a French-Jewish radio station's plans to interview Le Pen, the daughter of notorious French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and president of the National Front Party, which many French Jews consider anti-Semitiic. The interview was canceled amid broad community outrage.
"It's sad to come to such an event to warn Jewish people against the National Front," said Pierre Besnainou, president of the Unified Jewish Social Fund, a Jewish welfare agency.
Many French Jews see Le Pen as a somewhat more palatable but fundamentally unchanged politician from her father. In January, she gave an interview to the Israeli daily Haaretz and is believed to be trying to sanitize her party's image in an effort to make inroads with the Jewish community.
At the rally, organized by the French Union of Jewish Students, several speakers emphasized that the National Front Party is structurally anti-Semitic and that Le Pen's efforts notwithstanding, French Jews should be careful not to give her their seal of approval.
"I don't want to exclude the National Front from the republican debate, but to speak on community Jewish radio, there is a margin," said Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions known as the CRIF. "If the Jews host her, she is respectable."
In 2002, Le Pen's father shocked the country by finishing second in the presidential election, defeating the Socialist candidate before being trounced by Jacques Chirac in the second round.
Several polls over the past few weeks have indicated that Le Pen might be able to repeat her father's success in next year's elections. A poll published in Le Parisien earlier this month reported that 23 percent of respondents would vote for Le Pen in 2012, ahead of both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialist Party candidate, Martine Aubry.
JTA
Monday's rally was presaged by a French-Jewish radio station's plans to interview Le Pen, the daughter of notorious French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and president of the National Front Party, which many French Jews consider anti-Semitiic. The interview was canceled amid broad community outrage.
"It's sad to come to such an event to warn Jewish people against the National Front," said Pierre Besnainou, president of the Unified Jewish Social Fund, a Jewish welfare agency.
Many French Jews see Le Pen as a somewhat more palatable but fundamentally unchanged politician from her father. In January, she gave an interview to the Israeli daily Haaretz and is believed to be trying to sanitize her party's image in an effort to make inroads with the Jewish community.
At the rally, organized by the French Union of Jewish Students, several speakers emphasized that the National Front Party is structurally anti-Semitic and that Le Pen's efforts notwithstanding, French Jews should be careful not to give her their seal of approval.
"I don't want to exclude the National Front from the republican debate, but to speak on community Jewish radio, there is a margin," said Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions known as the CRIF. "If the Jews host her, she is respectable."
In 2002, Le Pen's father shocked the country by finishing second in the presidential election, defeating the Socialist candidate before being trounced by Jacques Chirac in the second round.
Several polls over the past few weeks have indicated that Le Pen might be able to repeat her father's success in next year's elections. A poll published in Le Parisien earlier this month reported that 23 percent of respondents would vote for Le Pen in 2012, ahead of both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialist Party candidate, Martine Aubry.
JTA
Supremacist rally planned for Saturday (Canada)
City police say they are prepared and have a security plan in place to handle whatever this weekend's white pride rally brings.
Members of the group Blood and Honour handed out pamphlets in Edmonton a few weeks ago to promote the rally in Calgary. They have also invited members from across North America to take part.
Members of the city's Anti-Racist Action group also plan to attend the rally and counter demonstrate.
Police have seen clashes between the two groups in the past and are ready to intervene if required.
"We have a number of officers who have changed their shifts so they are working a regular day on a regular shift this Saturday. We have resources in place so if we need to call them we will," said Inspector Keith Cain from the Calgary Police Service.
Two years ago both groups clashed during a march through the downtown core and police had to step in and restore order.
This year police say they have plans in place to ensure there is not a repeat of that incident.
Police say they don't know how many protestors are expected this Saturday.
Calgary CTV
Members of the group Blood and Honour handed out pamphlets in Edmonton a few weeks ago to promote the rally in Calgary. They have also invited members from across North America to take part.
Members of the city's Anti-Racist Action group also plan to attend the rally and counter demonstrate.
Police have seen clashes between the two groups in the past and are ready to intervene if required.
"We have a number of officers who have changed their shifts so they are working a regular day on a regular shift this Saturday. We have resources in place so if we need to call them we will," said Inspector Keith Cain from the Calgary Police Service.
Two years ago both groups clashed during a march through the downtown core and police had to step in and restore order.
This year police say they have plans in place to ensure there is not a repeat of that incident.
Police say they don't know how many protestors are expected this Saturday.
Calgary CTV
ROMA NEIGHBORHOOD UNDER CONTROL OF UNIFORMED VIGILANTES IN HUNGARY
By Orsolya Fehé, political analyst of the R. I. S. Network
According to the local representative of the Jobbik party in the Heves County village, crimes against property have become unbearable to the locals, who have therefore called the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future to protect them. Gábor Vona, the president of Jobbik said in Gyöngyöspata[1] that „those are not willing to integrate should leave the country.” More than 2,000 members and sympathizers of Jobbik and the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future held a protest in the village, which counts 2,500 citizens, against „Gypsy terror”, fearing that „crimes committed by the minorities could create a civil war situation.” The Roma were astonished. According to them, generalizing and exercising arbitrary control over the whole village because of a few trouble makers is not a solution. Nearly 2,500 persons marched in black military-like clothing on 6th March 2011 in Gyöngyöspata, after the rally supported by the Jobbik party, through the village’s Roma neighborhood, chanting slogans about the restoration of public safety. The police arrived on the scene on the day of the demonstration but did not interfere in any way, regardless of the “abuse caused to the rights of the local Roma residents, which could have been a ground for the authorities to break up the protest”, as mentioned in the letter written by the members of Gyöngyöspata’s Roma community to the Hungarian Minister of Home Affairs.
After the end of the protest the activists wearing the black uniforms of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future, the “Defense Guard” or the “gendarmerie” did not leave Gyöngyöspata. They are there to this day and still terrorize the local Roma population. They stand in lines and surround the neighborhood. Because of their threatening appearance, the Roma do not dare leave their houses or send their children to school. Their stated goals and behavior clearly questions the state monopoly on the legitimate use of force. The village has a local police chief who had earlier initiated investigations into some thefts and closed some cases. However, many local residents considered it necessary to strengthen public safety by calling on the civil guards to protect their village. While the police doubled their presence on the scene two days after the protest, the members of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future and its sympathizers are still forming a human chain around the houses of Roma residents and say they are there to stay. The police, while present in large numbers, still do not interfere in any way, regardless of the fact that there is reasonable suspicion that offenses such as harassment and bodily injury are occurring on a day to day basis against many of the village’s Roma residents. Some of the protesters have vowed to stay on and guard the village until the local Roma self-government does not sign a declaration stating that the Roma will stop committing crimes. Attila Laszlo, the leader of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future said that he had heard about the municipality requesting that the Civil Guard should leave but that this was later retracted by the mayor. The mayor’s office confirmed his statement. According to their initial plans, they intend to stay until they train and organize a local branch of the organization made up of local residents.
Attila Laszlo added that during the night, his guards had once again helped capture two wood thieves in the surroundings of the village. As they caught the thief red-handed, they called the local police, who initiated proceedings. Food is regularly being collected and accommodation offered to the civil guards by local residents. László Tabi, the independent mayor of Gyöngyöspata told the press on 9th March that the civil guards had since been actively involved in capturing wood thieves. Simultaneously, local residents continued to offer accommodation and food to their “guests” and initiated a petition to demand that the Civil Guard stay on. Jobbik representative András Kisgergely reminded his followers that “Gypsies attack Hungarians each and every day. Typically, the gypsy carries a knife, and after having committed a theft and met with resistance, he starts his killing spree. It is not enough for him to hurt the one who resists, it is his life he wants to take!” According to the politican, “gypsy criminals are left free to maraud in villages, terrorize and murder the Hungarians while they are protected through every means possible and their acts are left out of the public eye.” One article in major ultra-nationalist website begins with the statement that in Gyöngyöspata, on the day of the protest, the population had once again approached the ideal Hungarian “ethnic ratio”, a concept which, with demographic decline among non-Roma and high birth rates among Roma in Hungary, is gaining in importance in the ultra-nationalist narrative in Hungary. Gábor Vona, president of the Jobbik party, said that he had received information from different sources that the local Roma had been threatening the “Hungarian” residents in Gyöngyöspata, promising that revenge would be taken after the civil guards left the village. The politician promised that: “if need be, twice, three times as many civil guards will come back.” Mr. Vona added that they would organize the civil guard movement across the country’s cities and villages.
“We went to Gyöngyöspata on Thursday, 10th March, and found we had to cross two checkpoints reminiscent of war movies to enter the Roma neighborhood.” wrote the www.sosinet.hu website. At that point tension was intense between the Roma and the people clad in black uniforms surrounding them. “During our interviews, local Roma inhabitants told us about the psychological terror and humiliation they are suffering, the constant fear they are feeling. It is not safe for them to leave their homes, even to go to work.” In their declaration, the local Rona draw attention to the fact that the members of the Hungarian Guard hidden behind “Civil Guard Association for a Better Future” and “gendarme” uniforms and openly supported by the Jobbik party have kept the Roma residents of the village in a state of constant fear for the past two weeks. The situation has come to a point where the Roma are terrified to leave their houses, stopped sending their children to school and do not even feel secure inside their own homes. Activists began organizing a crowd to “celebrate” the 15 March National Holiday in Gyöngyöspata. Between 230-250 people arrived to the village in the morning and spent the day in the Roma neighborhood to celebrate Hungary’s commemoration of its revolution against Austrian rule in 1848. They walked together to the Kossuth (a hero of the revolution) statue, claiming in statement signed by spokespersons Tamás Bauer, László Márton and Iván Vitányi that “laws apply to all, not only to those who commit crimes against other persons’ property. They also apply to those self-appointed militia members who keep others in a state of terror.” Today is 16 March, a day after the National Holiday. A few people were taken to the police station yesterday in Gyöngyöspata because they could not show their ID’s.
“The police, the legitimate guardians of public safety, have been watching on silently as an aggressive organization bulldozes through the basic norms of any democratic state based on the rule of law and attacks members of the Roma minority arbitrarily instead of preventing this state of affairs from developing from the day it started.” – says the Hungarian Democratic Charta in their statement. The Hungarian Democratic Charta and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), two NGOs, have expressed their shock at the lack of response of the Hungarian authorities: “We are shocked by the inaction of the police, which could encourage others to take similar actions and could deepen the loss of trust of the Roma minority in the authorities and the administration.” While many representatives of European governments and journalists from all over the world are currently in Hungary for the EU Presidency summits, neither the events, nor their statement have made it into the international press. The question is whether Hungary, which is currently holding the European Union Presidency, will acknowledge that vigilantism, the concept of demographic “ ethnic ratio” and the meaning given to Hungarian national values by those who claim to protect this country and their sympathizers is a direct path back to where Hungary stood in the 1930s, and whether this government will finally take real steps to stand by its stated principles and stop militias advocating crimes against humanity from taking our country over once again. “After Gyöngyöspata”, the Jobbik party has asked the members of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future “to take the restoration of public safety into their own hands in Borsodnánasd also.” We urge all to unite against the recent racist trend!
The Hungarian Guard is a Hungarian ultra-nationalist movement supported by the ultra-nationalist Jobbik party, which won 16 % of the national vote in the 2010 general elections. The Guard was banned in July 2009 by a Budapest court. Judge Pataki, in charge of the case, decided that the Hungarian Guard’s main aim is to spread fear among Roma and noted that the Guard is also anti-Semitic because in a speech a spokesman of the Guard talked about “Zionist rats, locusts, and grave diggers of the nation.” The judge pointed out that all these activities are unconstitutional and not in conformity with Hungary’s international obligations. The Civil Guard Association for a Better Future was founded in 2010 and has been trying ever since to join the National Federation of Civil Guards to legitimize its activities. These attempts have been met with the Federation’s refusal to cooperate. Most Hungarians acknowledge that due to the support of Jobbik and to the similarity of the organization’s stated objectives and the methods used and black uniforms of its members, the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future is the successor of the banned Hungarian Guard.
Roma Buzz Aggregator
According to the local representative of the Jobbik party in the Heves County village, crimes against property have become unbearable to the locals, who have therefore called the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future to protect them. Gábor Vona, the president of Jobbik said in Gyöngyöspata[1] that „those are not willing to integrate should leave the country.” More than 2,000 members and sympathizers of Jobbik and the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future held a protest in the village, which counts 2,500 citizens, against „Gypsy terror”, fearing that „crimes committed by the minorities could create a civil war situation.” The Roma were astonished. According to them, generalizing and exercising arbitrary control over the whole village because of a few trouble makers is not a solution. Nearly 2,500 persons marched in black military-like clothing on 6th March 2011 in Gyöngyöspata, after the rally supported by the Jobbik party, through the village’s Roma neighborhood, chanting slogans about the restoration of public safety. The police arrived on the scene on the day of the demonstration but did not interfere in any way, regardless of the “abuse caused to the rights of the local Roma residents, which could have been a ground for the authorities to break up the protest”, as mentioned in the letter written by the members of Gyöngyöspata’s Roma community to the Hungarian Minister of Home Affairs.
After the end of the protest the activists wearing the black uniforms of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future, the “Defense Guard” or the “gendarmerie” did not leave Gyöngyöspata. They are there to this day and still terrorize the local Roma population. They stand in lines and surround the neighborhood. Because of their threatening appearance, the Roma do not dare leave their houses or send their children to school. Their stated goals and behavior clearly questions the state monopoly on the legitimate use of force. The village has a local police chief who had earlier initiated investigations into some thefts and closed some cases. However, many local residents considered it necessary to strengthen public safety by calling on the civil guards to protect their village. While the police doubled their presence on the scene two days after the protest, the members of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future and its sympathizers are still forming a human chain around the houses of Roma residents and say they are there to stay. The police, while present in large numbers, still do not interfere in any way, regardless of the fact that there is reasonable suspicion that offenses such as harassment and bodily injury are occurring on a day to day basis against many of the village’s Roma residents. Some of the protesters have vowed to stay on and guard the village until the local Roma self-government does not sign a declaration stating that the Roma will stop committing crimes. Attila Laszlo, the leader of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future said that he had heard about the municipality requesting that the Civil Guard should leave but that this was later retracted by the mayor. The mayor’s office confirmed his statement. According to their initial plans, they intend to stay until they train and organize a local branch of the organization made up of local residents.
Attila Laszlo added that during the night, his guards had once again helped capture two wood thieves in the surroundings of the village. As they caught the thief red-handed, they called the local police, who initiated proceedings. Food is regularly being collected and accommodation offered to the civil guards by local residents. László Tabi, the independent mayor of Gyöngyöspata told the press on 9th March that the civil guards had since been actively involved in capturing wood thieves. Simultaneously, local residents continued to offer accommodation and food to their “guests” and initiated a petition to demand that the Civil Guard stay on. Jobbik representative András Kisgergely reminded his followers that “Gypsies attack Hungarians each and every day. Typically, the gypsy carries a knife, and after having committed a theft and met with resistance, he starts his killing spree. It is not enough for him to hurt the one who resists, it is his life he wants to take!” According to the politican, “gypsy criminals are left free to maraud in villages, terrorize and murder the Hungarians while they are protected through every means possible and their acts are left out of the public eye.” One article in major ultra-nationalist website begins with the statement that in Gyöngyöspata, on the day of the protest, the population had once again approached the ideal Hungarian “ethnic ratio”, a concept which, with demographic decline among non-Roma and high birth rates among Roma in Hungary, is gaining in importance in the ultra-nationalist narrative in Hungary. Gábor Vona, president of the Jobbik party, said that he had received information from different sources that the local Roma had been threatening the “Hungarian” residents in Gyöngyöspata, promising that revenge would be taken after the civil guards left the village. The politician promised that: “if need be, twice, three times as many civil guards will come back.” Mr. Vona added that they would organize the civil guard movement across the country’s cities and villages.
“We went to Gyöngyöspata on Thursday, 10th March, and found we had to cross two checkpoints reminiscent of war movies to enter the Roma neighborhood.” wrote the www.sosinet.hu website. At that point tension was intense between the Roma and the people clad in black uniforms surrounding them. “During our interviews, local Roma inhabitants told us about the psychological terror and humiliation they are suffering, the constant fear they are feeling. It is not safe for them to leave their homes, even to go to work.” In their declaration, the local Rona draw attention to the fact that the members of the Hungarian Guard hidden behind “Civil Guard Association for a Better Future” and “gendarme” uniforms and openly supported by the Jobbik party have kept the Roma residents of the village in a state of constant fear for the past two weeks. The situation has come to a point where the Roma are terrified to leave their houses, stopped sending their children to school and do not even feel secure inside their own homes. Activists began organizing a crowd to “celebrate” the 15 March National Holiday in Gyöngyöspata. Between 230-250 people arrived to the village in the morning and spent the day in the Roma neighborhood to celebrate Hungary’s commemoration of its revolution against Austrian rule in 1848. They walked together to the Kossuth (a hero of the revolution) statue, claiming in statement signed by spokespersons Tamás Bauer, László Márton and Iván Vitányi that “laws apply to all, not only to those who commit crimes against other persons’ property. They also apply to those self-appointed militia members who keep others in a state of terror.” Today is 16 March, a day after the National Holiday. A few people were taken to the police station yesterday in Gyöngyöspata because they could not show their ID’s.
“The police, the legitimate guardians of public safety, have been watching on silently as an aggressive organization bulldozes through the basic norms of any democratic state based on the rule of law and attacks members of the Roma minority arbitrarily instead of preventing this state of affairs from developing from the day it started.” – says the Hungarian Democratic Charta in their statement. The Hungarian Democratic Charta and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), two NGOs, have expressed their shock at the lack of response of the Hungarian authorities: “We are shocked by the inaction of the police, which could encourage others to take similar actions and could deepen the loss of trust of the Roma minority in the authorities and the administration.” While many representatives of European governments and journalists from all over the world are currently in Hungary for the EU Presidency summits, neither the events, nor their statement have made it into the international press. The question is whether Hungary, which is currently holding the European Union Presidency, will acknowledge that vigilantism, the concept of demographic “ ethnic ratio” and the meaning given to Hungarian national values by those who claim to protect this country and their sympathizers is a direct path back to where Hungary stood in the 1930s, and whether this government will finally take real steps to stand by its stated principles and stop militias advocating crimes against humanity from taking our country over once again. “After Gyöngyöspata”, the Jobbik party has asked the members of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future “to take the restoration of public safety into their own hands in Borsodnánasd also.” We urge all to unite against the recent racist trend!
The Hungarian Guard is a Hungarian ultra-nationalist movement supported by the ultra-nationalist Jobbik party, which won 16 % of the national vote in the 2010 general elections. The Guard was banned in July 2009 by a Budapest court. Judge Pataki, in charge of the case, decided that the Hungarian Guard’s main aim is to spread fear among Roma and noted that the Guard is also anti-Semitic because in a speech a spokesman of the Guard talked about “Zionist rats, locusts, and grave diggers of the nation.” The judge pointed out that all these activities are unconstitutional and not in conformity with Hungary’s international obligations. The Civil Guard Association for a Better Future was founded in 2010 and has been trying ever since to join the National Federation of Civil Guards to legitimize its activities. These attempts have been met with the Federation’s refusal to cooperate. Most Hungarians acknowledge that due to the support of Jobbik and to the similarity of the organization’s stated objectives and the methods used and black uniforms of its members, the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future is the successor of the banned Hungarian Guard.
Roma Buzz Aggregator
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Latvians honour those who fought for Nazi Germany in Waffen SS units amid angry counterprotests
Hundreds of Latvians have gathered in downtown Riga to commemorate World War II veterans who fought on the side of Nazi Germany in Waffen SS detachments.
A small group of mainly ethnic Russians also have assembled nearby to protest the ceremony, which they claim glorifies fascism and discredits the Soviet Union's enormous sacrifice in defeating Nazi Germany.
A large police contingent is on hand to keep the two sides apart.
Participants in Wednesday's ceremony, including a small number of veterans, will attend a church service and then proceed to the Freedom Monument, where they will lay flowers and sing patriotic songs.
The annual event evokes strong feelings in ethnically divided Latvia.
CJBK
A small group of mainly ethnic Russians also have assembled nearby to protest the ceremony, which they claim glorifies fascism and discredits the Soviet Union's enormous sacrifice in defeating Nazi Germany.
A large police contingent is on hand to keep the two sides apart.
Participants in Wednesday's ceremony, including a small number of veterans, will attend a church service and then proceed to the Freedom Monument, where they will lay flowers and sing patriotic songs.
The annual event evokes strong feelings in ethnically divided Latvia.
CJBK
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