Bulgarian legislation does not appear to differentiate between hate crimes and similar violations committed because of other motives, the Chair of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committed has pointed out. “Bulgarian law treats all beatings in a similar fashion – it does not matter if one gets beaten in a drunken melee, or if one gets beaten because of their skin color or different sexual orientation,” the BHC head Krasimir Kanev stated Sunday in Sofia at a news conference dedicated to open and covert racism, neo-Nazism, and politically motivated violence. The initiative has resulted from the several recent cases of far-right groups attacking people in Bulgaria, the last one being a brutal attack on June 6, 2010, when neofascist youth beat four young men in a tram as the latter were on their way to a protest rally against the illegal detainment of foreigners in the notorious prison-like refugee facility in the village of Busmantsi outside of Sofia. “Bulgarian law is seriously deficient and is incapable of tackling racially motivated crimes,” stated Kanev.
“What we are witnessing is a spree of xenophobia and violence inspired by the society and the media,” said Iskra Baeva, a history professor at Sofia University. according to Ana Raycheva, a member of the Federation of Anarchists in Bulgaria, the neo-Nazis in Bulgaria are protected by the police. She criticized Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetano for his first statement after the June 6 attack in which he says that the public transport fight was the brought about by both leftist and rightist anarchist groups. The Federation or Anarchists even expressed their readiness to provide a “training course” for Tsvetanov and his officers. The organizers of the news conference emphasized multiple times that it did not matter if the crimes came from leftist or rightist groups but that the only important thing is to punish the criminals. “Hate crimes threaten entire groups of people based on religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation. They don't target the individuals but their identity, their being different,” said Radoslav Stoyanov, an activist of the LGBT organization.
“Hate crimes are punishable but not in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Internet space is filled with mushrooming sites of neo-Nazis which freely admit teenagers and train them to hate Turks, Roma, Jews, homosexuals,” he added. An African refugee, Javed Nuri, who has been kept illegally in the Busmantsi facility, declared that he has been living in Bulgaria for eight years and has been fighting discrimination constantly. In his words, he had been the victim of racially-motivated attacks five times, with the police failing to react to his calls, and the prosecutor's office dismissing his suits. “Silence against fascist terror is what makes it possible,” reads a statement of the organizers of the press conference who recently staged an anti-xenophobia rally before the Busmantsi facility. They demand adequate sentences for those who organized and executed the tram beating on June 6.
Novinite
Monday, 14 June 2010
ARRESTS AT DUTCH NEO-NAZI DEMO (netherlands)
Police in Venlo on the border with Germany in the southeast of the Netherlands arrested 37 people during a demonstration staged on Saturday by the far-right Dutch People's Union (NVU). Officers on horseback charged the crowd to keep rival protesters apart after left-wingers tried to confront the neo-Nazis. Police picked up one NVU member for making a Hitler salute and 36 left-wingers were detained, mostly for not carrying proper ID, during the trouble, 22 of them Germans. Around 400 officers were deployed to police the NVU demonstration which was attended by about 60, mainly German, radical right-wingers. Police officers from Germany were deployed at Venlo station. The council authorities in Venlo initially banned the demonstration. They said the police would be overstretched because of other events taking place in the town at the same time. The NVU challenged this in the court and won an injunction overturning the council ban.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
BNP’s Nick Griffin now appearing at the Palace
According to the BNP website Herr Griffin and family or off to see the queen.
Well that’s what the BNP website is claiming.
Here’s a link to the item on their site.
BNP Crap website link
Well that’s what the BNP website is claiming.
Here’s a link to the item on their site.
BNP Crap website link
Preston BNP activist 'distributed anti-Muslim leaflets'
A British National Party (BNP) activist delivered leaflets blaming Muslims for the heroin trade intended to stir up religious hatred, a court has heard.
Anthony Bamber, 54, of Preston, printed and distributed the documents claiming Muslims were responsible for importing the drug from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
They demanded that followers of Islam "apologise and pay compensation" for the trade, Preston Crown Court heard.
Mr Bamber denies distributing material intended to stir up religious hatred.
The court was told that Mr Bamber, of Greenbank Street, targeted people in Lancashire, Cumbria, Manchester and North Yorkshire in his leaflet drops between March and November 2008.
David Perry QC, prosecuting, said: "This case is about hate speech.
"The objective of the letters and leaflets, the prosecution say, was to provoke hatred of Islam.
"The hatred was not directed just at the concept but at the followers of Islam - Muslims."
Battalion claims
In March 2008, Mr Bamber and another man were spoken to police when they visited Barnoldswick, Lancashire, to deliver leaflets by hand, the court heard.
The leaflet said that 95% of heroin traded in the UK came from the Pakistan and Afghanistan region and was a "crime against humanity".
The leaflet added that Muslims were "almost exclusively responsible for its production, transportation and sale," the court heard.
Jury members were told that it went on to say the trade "caused far more suffering than slavery ever did" and has led to millions of premature deaths.
Muslims should be held to account with condemnation heaped upon them so that it would lead to the abolition of the trade, it concluded.
The leaflet was labelled a Preston Pals publication which was "committed to non-violent democratic resistance" and was set up in honour of the World War I battalion.
Mr Perry said the organisation had nothing to do with the leaflet, and its real intention was "obvious".
"It is no doubt intended to be dramatic. It is no doubt intended to capture the imagination and say 'look at what these people are doing, they are all criminals'.
"The prosecution say that the overall message is that Muslims are killing British youths and they must themselves be made to pay and it is your duty to make them pay. They are 'the invader'."
In June 2008 the head teacher of Sedbergh School, in Cumbria, received a large brown envelope which contained a number of letters with claims along similar lines.
Similar material was also sent to two barristers in Manchester and addresses in Lytham and Eccleston, Lancashire, and Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the court was told.
Mr Bamber, who is representing himself, denies seven counts of distributing threatening written material intended to stir up religious hatred.
The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.
BBC News
Anthony Bamber, 54, of Preston, printed and distributed the documents claiming Muslims were responsible for importing the drug from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
They demanded that followers of Islam "apologise and pay compensation" for the trade, Preston Crown Court heard.
Mr Bamber denies distributing material intended to stir up religious hatred.
The court was told that Mr Bamber, of Greenbank Street, targeted people in Lancashire, Cumbria, Manchester and North Yorkshire in his leaflet drops between March and November 2008.
David Perry QC, prosecuting, said: "This case is about hate speech.
"The objective of the letters and leaflets, the prosecution say, was to provoke hatred of Islam.
"The hatred was not directed just at the concept but at the followers of Islam - Muslims."
Battalion claims
In March 2008, Mr Bamber and another man were spoken to police when they visited Barnoldswick, Lancashire, to deliver leaflets by hand, the court heard.
The leaflet said that 95% of heroin traded in the UK came from the Pakistan and Afghanistan region and was a "crime against humanity".
The leaflet added that Muslims were "almost exclusively responsible for its production, transportation and sale," the court heard.
Jury members were told that it went on to say the trade "caused far more suffering than slavery ever did" and has led to millions of premature deaths.
Muslims should be held to account with condemnation heaped upon them so that it would lead to the abolition of the trade, it concluded.
The leaflet was labelled a Preston Pals publication which was "committed to non-violent democratic resistance" and was set up in honour of the World War I battalion.
Mr Perry said the organisation had nothing to do with the leaflet, and its real intention was "obvious".
"It is no doubt intended to be dramatic. It is no doubt intended to capture the imagination and say 'look at what these people are doing, they are all criminals'.
"The prosecution say that the overall message is that Muslims are killing British youths and they must themselves be made to pay and it is your duty to make them pay. They are 'the invader'."
In June 2008 the head teacher of Sedbergh School, in Cumbria, received a large brown envelope which contained a number of letters with claims along similar lines.
Similar material was also sent to two barristers in Manchester and addresses in Lytham and Eccleston, Lancashire, and Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the court was told.
Mr Bamber, who is representing himself, denies seven counts of distributing threatening written material intended to stir up religious hatred.
The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.
BBC News
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