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Shofar FTP Archive File: places//germany/press/reuters.082693


Archive/File: fascism reuters.082693
Last-modified: 1993/09/13

Date: Thu,  26 Aug 93 23:46 +0300
To: Ken McVay 

                         (c) Reuters News Service.
              May be reproduced in hard copy only with credit to
                            Reuters News Service.


Thursday 26-Aug-93 01:03 PM

GERMANY CONCERNED AT RISING POLITICAL VIOLENCE By Rolf Soderlind


    BONN (Reuter) - The German government said Thursday that
prosecutors and police must be given more powers to crack down
on spiralling neo-Nazi and left-wing violence.
    ``The roots of the violence must be dealt with,'' Interior
Minister Manfred Kanther said in expressing concern at rising
extremist outbursts which killed 25 people last year.
    He called for more surveillance powers for police, looser
rules on preventive detention and faster court handling of cases
involving political violence.
    Hostels for foreigners seeking asylum have been a favorite
target of rightist and neo-Nazi gangs, according to a report on
internal security in 1992 that Kanther released Thursday.
    Foreign workers, handicapped people, the homeless and Jewish
memorials -- 63 last year -- have also been attacked in
incidents that tarnished [GERMANY]'s image abroad.
    But Kanther said far-left violence, including attacks by
anarchists on neo-Nazis, was also increasing and the number of
organised leftists rose by 2,000 to 28,000 last year.
    Kanther, presenting the internal security agency's annual
report, told reporters that the number of known right-wing
extremists rose by 3,000 to 42,700, including 6,400 militants.
    Those figures excluded the reformed PDS, the ex-East German
communists, on the left and the Republicans party on the right.
    There were 2,584 acts of violence by mostly young right-wing
extremists last year, up 74 percent from 1991, and 90 percent of
them were aimed against foreigners.
    Seventeen people died in the rightist attacks, one in
leftist violence and another seven in clashes between foreign
political extremists living in Germany.
    More than a thousand rightist attacks were reported in the
first six months this year, including the arson deaths of five
Turks in Solingen in May, Kanther said.
    The government banned four neo-Nazi groups last year, but
the number of right-wing extremist or neo-Nazi organizations
still rose by six to 82.
 REUTER


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