The death of a Greek minority man in an apparent road rage incident in Southern Albania has provoked fears of unrest among ethnic communities.
Officials from Athens, Tirana and the Orthodox Church have condemned the killing of Aristotel Gumi, 35, who died after being struck by a car in his home village of Himara four days ago following an argument with a group of Albanians.
Grigoris Delavekouras, the Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman, condemned the death, calling on the entire Albanian political class to react.
“Unacceptable criminal acts like that aim to arouse ethnic tension with unpredictable consequences and undermine the bilateral relations between Greece and Albania,” he said.
Sali Berisha, the Albanian Prime Minister, said: “If the motives reported in the media are right, this was a terrible crime, an extremely fanatical and blind act.”
Vangjel Dule, the head of the minority party, the Union for Human Rights, PBDNJ, said in a statement on Monday that only officers from the Greek minority should police Himara to avoid problems in the future.
Gumi is reported to have got into a quarrel with an Albanian man and four of his friends at a roadside bar on Thursday night.
He was allegedly run down by a car driven by his rival as he fled on his motorcycle.
The local community has been angered over reports the suspects turned on Gumi over his use of the Greek language.
Dozens of townspeople from Himara and nearby villages used boulders to block the main road connecting the town with city of Vlora in protest over the killing, leaving thousands of tourists stranded for nearly 14-hours.
Seven youths from the nearby city of Vlora have been charged with Gumi's premeditated murder and aiding a fugitive, after being arrested on Friday.
The main suspect reported to police on Sunday evening.
The head of Albania’s Orthodox Church, Archbishop Janullatos, who is also Greek, called on the authorities to inform the public about the incident “in order not to ruin the climate of coexistence between the two ethnic communities”.
In a string of interviews with the local media, the mayor of Himara Vasil Bollano, called the death “unprecedented,” saying it was motivated by ethnic hatred.
A controversial figure, Bollano was acquitted by an appeals court two months ago over charges of abuse of power for ordering the removal of road signs because they were not bilingual.
He has previously declared large areas of southern Albania as 'Greek land' and claimed autonomy for the region.
Estimates of the Greek minority in Albania range around three per cent of the total population.
Monday, 16 August 2010
Indonesia urges religious tolerance
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, has stressed the need for religious tolerance amid growing calls for him to act against extremists who regularly attack minorities in the country.
In a speech to parliament on Monday, the eve of the country's independence day, Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to exercise the "true philosophy of harmonious living in a pluralistic society".
"To build a democratic and fair life, I want to underline the importance of maintaining and strengthening our brotherhood, harmony and tolerance as a nation," he said.
"In everyday life we still find cases that don't reflect the harmony, tolerance and mutual respect ... related to religion, ethnicity, tribe and regions. We must not ignore such a situation."
Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the country of some 240 million people, 80 per cent of whom are Muslim, has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
However, in recent months, it has been plagued by rising violence by Islamic groups who have launched attacks on mosques belonging to minority sects and Christian churches.
Call for action
Hundreds of Indonesians, mostly Christians, held a prayer vigil in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Sunday urging Yudhoyono to stop the attacks and guarantee religious freedom.
In July the Indonesian rights group the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace said there were 28 cases of religious freedom violations from January to July, up from 17 for the whole of 2008 and 18 in 2009.
The violations, mostly by radical Muslim groups, included forced closure of churches and attacks such as torching and damaging churches, it said.
Human Rights Watch early this month said Indonesia was letting Islamist groups trample the constitutional rights of minorities, leading to inter-communal violence.
It called on Yudhoyono to repeal laws that it said gives extremists from the dominant religious group the legal space to launch violent attacks on people of other faiths and sects.
Yudhoyono also said during his speech that the government was optimistic of a 7.7 per cent growth in the economy by 2014.
aljazeera
In a speech to parliament on Monday, the eve of the country's independence day, Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to exercise the "true philosophy of harmonious living in a pluralistic society".
"To build a democratic and fair life, I want to underline the importance of maintaining and strengthening our brotherhood, harmony and tolerance as a nation," he said.
"In everyday life we still find cases that don't reflect the harmony, tolerance and mutual respect ... related to religion, ethnicity, tribe and regions. We must not ignore such a situation."
Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the country of some 240 million people, 80 per cent of whom are Muslim, has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
However, in recent months, it has been plagued by rising violence by Islamic groups who have launched attacks on mosques belonging to minority sects and Christian churches.
Call for action
Hundreds of Indonesians, mostly Christians, held a prayer vigil in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Sunday urging Yudhoyono to stop the attacks and guarantee religious freedom.
In July the Indonesian rights group the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace said there were 28 cases of religious freedom violations from January to July, up from 17 for the whole of 2008 and 18 in 2009.
The violations, mostly by radical Muslim groups, included forced closure of churches and attacks such as torching and damaging churches, it said.
Human Rights Watch early this month said Indonesia was letting Islamist groups trample the constitutional rights of minorities, leading to inter-communal violence.
It called on Yudhoyono to repeal laws that it said gives extremists from the dominant religious group the legal space to launch violent attacks on people of other faiths and sects.
Yudhoyono also said during his speech that the government was optimistic of a 7.7 per cent growth in the economy by 2014.
aljazeera
Roma protest blocks French bridge
Around 250 vehicles blocked the bridge for five hours on Sunday, causing tailbacks of up to five kilometres on a public holiday weekend.
More than 40 illegal camps have been closed in the past week.
The French interior minister says Roma from Eastern Europe will be deported on "specially chartered flights".
The blockade on the Aquitaine Bridge was the first major counter-protest by Roma and travellers since the French government began its crackdown.
The regional traffic information centre said the blockade caused tailbacks of five kilometres on the Paris-bound carriageway of the A630.
Police said the Roma had been expelled from a camp in the town of Anglet, to the south, and were prevented from setting up a new camp on an exhibition ground nearer Bordeaux.
There are hundreds of thousands of Roma or travelling people living in France who are part of long-established communities.
The other main Roma population is made up of recent immigrants, mainly from Romania and Bulgaria. They have the right to enter France without a visa, but must have work or residency permits to settle over the long term.
The interior minister has announced that he will be meeting Romanian junior minister next week to call on Romanian police to assist in the crackdown in France.
BBC News
Breaking through hate crime barriers (UK)
A squad of students who aim to banish hate crime have taken their campaign all the way to Westminster.
The pupils from De La Salle High School earned a top five place in a Parliamentary awards scheme with their project aimed at creating awareness of hate crime.
The School Council Awards were open to every primary and secondary school in the country and De La Salle’s effort won them a place at the final in London.
De La Salle students made the grade with their hate crime project – which aimed to remove the barriers created by racism and intolerance of just being ‘different’ – whether it be age, sexuality, disability, religion, or even the area are you come from, the music people listen to or the way they dress.
Council members Stephen Pennington, Catherine Brown, and Rachel Eden travelled to Westminster for the final, where they just missed out on first place in the 11-16 age group to a London school.
Back home, there was more civic recognition – with the pupils greeted in the Mayor’s Parlour.
St Helens Star
The pupils from De La Salle High School earned a top five place in a Parliamentary awards scheme with their project aimed at creating awareness of hate crime.
The School Council Awards were open to every primary and secondary school in the country and De La Salle’s effort won them a place at the final in London.
De La Salle students made the grade with their hate crime project – which aimed to remove the barriers created by racism and intolerance of just being ‘different’ – whether it be age, sexuality, disability, religion, or even the area are you come from, the music people listen to or the way they dress.
Council members Stephen Pennington, Catherine Brown, and Rachel Eden travelled to Westminster for the final, where they just missed out on first place in the 11-16 age group to a London school.
Back home, there was more civic recognition – with the pupils greeted in the Mayor’s Parlour.
St Helens Star
'White supremacist' puts a genteel face on racism (Canada)
It continued last week in Calgary, when he led a group of Aryan Guard skinheads to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's constituency office, and so terrified the receptionist that she locked the door and would not accept Mr. Fromm's delivery of a letter until police arrived.
But for Canada's best known racist agitator, things did not really get going until he reached the Pacific shore at Esquimalt, B.C., on Saturday, where the boat was docked.
There, accompanied by Doug Christie -- famous as the go-to civil liberties lawyer for every top Canadian racist of the last 30 years -- Mr. Fromm got himself front and centre on the national weekend news, flanked by his small group of two dozen protesters.
Mr. Fromm, whose license to teach high school in Ontario was revoked in 2007 for his activism against non-white immigration and ties to groups like the defunct neo-Nazi Heritage Front, appeared in reports by three major news outlets, identified only as the leader of a group called "Canada First," or "Canada First Immigration Reform Committee."
“If we do need immigrants, the public opinion polls show that the majority of Canadians don’t want the ethnic balance upset,” Mr. Fromm said, according to the Toronto Star story.
The media exposure for his message recalls an episode in 2008, when Fox News was criticized by a U.S. anti-hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, for allowing Mr. Fromm to appear as a "free speech activist."
Fox News is one thing, but to score prominent coverage offering comment on a national refugee crisis to the Toronto Star, Canadian Press, and CTV indicates that Mr. Fromm's nose for media is especially refined.
No outlet responded to requests for comment.
Mr. Fromm said he was "pleasantly surprised at the amount of press interest."
"I did find it unusual," he said. "I took it to mean that some of the journalists have actually gone to journalism school."
The Victoria Times-Colonist reported on the protest and identified Mr. Fromm as a "white supremacist."
The others are not the first media outlets to be fooled in this way. On the surface, "immigration reform" has the same kind of naive appeal as "historical revisionism," a euphemism for Holocaust denial, and a field in which Mr. Fromm is highly regarded as a free speech champion.
Dressed as he was in a suit and tie on a sunny summer's day, Mr. Fromm made an obviously professional spokesman for the media pack. His manner is typical of the public pose struck by other elder statesmen of Canadian racism, such as Don Andrews, a fellow traveller back to university days in Toronto, whose conviction for the wilful promotion of hatred against blacks and Jews was upheld in 1990 at the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Andrews has a similar attention-grabbing prank of getting municipal governments across Canada to declare "European Heritage Week," without realizing that the sponsoring organization, his Nationalist Party of Canada, is explicitly white supremacist.
It is a winning strategy, to put a genteel face on racism for the unsuspecting public, as Jared Taylor of American Renaissance discovered in Halifax in 2007, when he challenged an unwitting Black studies professor to debate him on multiculturalism, then basked in media coverage when the professor realized he was an avowed racist, and cancelled.
In the case of the Tamil migrants, all Mr. Fromm had to do to seize the spotlight as a voice of dissent was to gather a few people on a roadside outside of Victoria, B.C., and just start talking.
"The only way to really do something about people smuggling is to make sure that if you come in through the back door illegitimately like this, you don't get in," he said in the CTV report. For balance, his remarks were followed by the more welcoming sentiments of a group of native women from a nearby reserve.
For the modern "immigration reform" activist, that is how to play the publicity game -- think like the media, get to the scene, and get on camera. And if success if measured by exposure, it is also how to win.
"I'll talk to anybody," Mr. Fromm said.
Financial Post
Garda issue warning over online racism (Ireland)
The Garda have warned people who set up pages inciting racism on online social networks that they are open to prosecution, and even people who join these sites could face charges.
Sgt David McInerney of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office said site hosts like Facebook were also “open to prosecution” if there was a valid complaint about racist online material.
“It is only a matter of time before a prosecution is brought,” he said.
Two anti-Traveller pages were recently pulled by Facebook following complaints from members of the public.
One of the sites had more than 8,000 members before it was closed down, while another site still in operation which promotes abuse against Travellers has more than 300 members.
The Irish Traveller Movement described the sites as “particularly vile” and “grossly offensive”, while Pavee Point and the Waterford Travellers Community Development Project have lodged formal complaints with the Garda.
Sgt McInerney encouraged people with complaints to continue to come forward. He described racist online activity as “very harmful” and “a very very serious form of crime. People don’t realise the harm it causes. Such sites can lead directly to racial abuse against minorities in the streets.”
Also condemning the sites, Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey said: “Social networking sites have a responsibility to ensure that the platforms they provide aren’t being abused.
“There is a constant need for vigilance in relation to racism. Racism should be confronted however and wherever it manifests itself.”
The Minister’s reconfigured department now has responsibility for the Government’s equality remit, formerly with the Department of Justice.
Irish Times
Sgt David McInerney of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office said site hosts like Facebook were also “open to prosecution” if there was a valid complaint about racist online material.
“It is only a matter of time before a prosecution is brought,” he said.
Two anti-Traveller pages were recently pulled by Facebook following complaints from members of the public.
One of the sites had more than 8,000 members before it was closed down, while another site still in operation which promotes abuse against Travellers has more than 300 members.
The Irish Traveller Movement described the sites as “particularly vile” and “grossly offensive”, while Pavee Point and the Waterford Travellers Community Development Project have lodged formal complaints with the Garda.
Sgt McInerney encouraged people with complaints to continue to come forward. He described racist online activity as “very harmful” and “a very very serious form of crime. People don’t realise the harm it causes. Such sites can lead directly to racial abuse against minorities in the streets.”
Also condemning the sites, Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey said: “Social networking sites have a responsibility to ensure that the platforms they provide aren’t being abused.
“There is a constant need for vigilance in relation to racism. Racism should be confronted however and wherever it manifests itself.”
The Minister’s reconfigured department now has responsibility for the Government’s equality remit, formerly with the Department of Justice.
Irish Times
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