26 May 2006

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani senate committee has demanded a fresh autopsy on the remains of Amir Cheema whose alleged suicide while in German police custody is again being questioned, news reports said on Friday.

Cheema, 28, detained in Berlin for attempting to kill a newspaper editor, was found hanging from a window of his cell with his hands tied behind his back, Tariq Khosa, additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), told the Senate Committee on Human Rights in Islamabad, reported The News.

Khosa, who headed a two-member team that traveled to Germany to investigate Cheema's death after his family accused the Berlin police of

DPA

26 May 2006

BERLIN - Six foreigners were injured in a string of racially-motivated attacks in two German cities a fortnight before the start of the World Cup, police said Friday.

Three of the incidents took place in Berlin where 14 persons were detained after attacks directed at Turks, a Lebanese, an Indian and a man from the African state of Guinea.

The Turk was treated in hospital for cuts and bruises after being beaten up by four shaven-headed men who shouted racial abuse at him and three of his friends, police said.

All the attackers were detained. Police said two of them had previous convictions for violence.

In other incidents, a 33-year man from Guinea suffered minor

DPA

23 May 2006

BERLIN - Suspected neo-Nazis carried out an arson attack on an anti-racism centre in the German capital after daubing swastikas on its walls, police said Tuesday.

The extent of damage caused by blaze was unclear. The centre is located in eastern Berlin's Hellersdorf district, a grim eastern part of city marked by communist tower block buildings.

Nobody was injured in the fire, officials said.

The attack follows a report by Germany's domestic security agency on Monday showing a big increase in neo-Nazi crimes last year.

Last week a German-Kurdish city politician was badly beaten by suspected rightists in eastern Berlin.

In the nearby city of Potsdam, a

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ex-spokesman recently warned there were "no go areas" in eastern Germany for blacks.

The surge in neo-Nazi violence has raised concerns ahead of the football World Cup which is being hosted by Germany from June 9 to July 9. Millions of foreign visitors are expected to attend the World Cup games.

DPA
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Anti-racism day planned at World Cup

24 May 2006 FRANKFURT - FIFA plans to stage an anti-racism day during the World Cup to demonstrate its opposition to discrimination in any form, organizers said Wednesday. The action, coordinated with the tournament's organizing committee, will take place during the quarter-finals on June 30 and July 1. Other moves planned to combat racism include television ads and a huge round banner draped over the centre circle at each of the 12 World Cup stadiums. Bearing the World Cup motto "A Time to Make Friends," the World Cup logo "Germany 2006" and the slogan "Say No to Racism," the banners will be displayed at each of the 64 matches until shortly before kick-off. "The aim is to send a clear message to the world against racism, the organizing committee said. DPA ------------- Two suspects freed in 'race-hate' beating 24 May 2006 KARLSRUHE - Two German white men who had been suspected of nearly killing a man because he was black were freed this week, with sources saying the assault appeared to have been just an alcohol-driven, middle-of-the-night brawl. The victim, engineer and doctoral student Ermyas M., managed to record the attackers using racial insults just before they knocked him unconscious. After the recording was broadcast nationwide, federal prosecutors took charge of solving the "race-hate" crime. The prosecutors in Karlsruhe said magistrates had ruled that the evidence for serious offences was not strong. The suspects, aged 29 and 30, were arrested five weeks ago in Potsdam, on the outskirts of Berlin, and flown to a federal jail in Karlsruhe. The victim, who is an Ethiopian-born German national, is getting better after serious head injuries. Leaks by investigators suggested earlier that the victim had been drunk and aggressive before the 4 a.m. fight at a Potsdam tram stop. Sources said Tuesday investigators believe that he picked a fight with the whites on April 16, and broke his skull when his head fell on the hard pavement. It was not clear if the suspects would still have to face lesser charges. Evidence suggested the assailants used racial epithets and struck Ermyas M harder than they might have done with another white, but this was not enough to justify a sedition or race-hate indictment. On Monday, four youths were convicted of terrorizing and beating a 12-year-old boy in a small German town because he was black. The incidents prompted questions about whether blacks are safe in Germany, which next month hosts the World Cup football tournament. DPA ---------------- Racists jailed for attacking 12-year-old child 23 May 2006 SCHOENEBECK, GERMANY - A group of racist youths who dragged a 12-year-old boy off a public bus in Germany to terrorize and beat him for an hour because he was black were sent to jail Monday. The Ethiopian-born child, who had been living in an orphanage in eastern Germany, survived his January ordeal with concussion, a broken nose, and cuts and bruises all over his body. As the evidence of the attack was heard last week, a national debate began in Germany about whether some eastern towns had effectively become "no-go areas" for dark-skinned people because of the risk of attack by shaven-headed, neo-Nazi youths. The gang leader was given a 42-month sentence and his second-in- command 24 months at the end of a trial in the eastern town of Schoenebeck. Two other youths, both 16, received suspended sentences of 17 months each. "This boy suffered unspeakable pain from this senseless attack. His wounds may have healed, but the psychological effects remain," said judge Peggy Bos as she read the verdict. His lawyer said the boy remains traumatized and may have life-long nightmares. He refuses to return to the town. The gang, whose leader was 20, waylaid the boy while he was riding a bus to the town of Poemmelte where he lived. The court was told how he was kicked, punched, hit with a beer bottle, had a lighted cigarette pushed against his eyelid and was forced to lick jackboots. The court said the sole motive had been hatred of black people. The accused were convicted of causing dangerous bodily harm, placing a person under duress and false imprisonment. The deputy gang leader, 16, was told to reappear in court in six months for possible commutation of his 24-month sentence to a suspended one. DPA