(Paul Ciniraj, SVM News)
Saxony (Germany), SVM News, August 20, 2007: Eight Indians were attacked and chased by a raging mob of about 50 Germans during the annual Old Town Festival of. Mügeln in the eastern German state of Saxony over the weekend.
Fourteen people were injured, including four assailants and two police officers at the incident in the early hours of Sunday. The trigger for the violence was a brawl on the dance floor in a party tent shortly right after midnight of Saturday, police said.
One of the victims, Kulvir Singh, 39, said that he was hit with a bottle in the tent and that one of his eyes was injured. Others were attacked with flying glass and beaten including his friend Singh Gorvinda, adding that, without help from police, they might have been beaten to death. In the beginning the situation got so out of control that even police "could not do anything against the mob," Singh said.
Saxony state police chief Bernd Merbitz told DPA that a "xenophobic motive" could have been a factor in the violence.
"The Indians sought shelter in a pizza parlor run by an Indian, but some of the Germans kicked in the doors of the building and beat them up badly. One Indian man remained hospitalized Monday," said Ilka Peter, a spokeswoman for police in nearby Leipzig. "Two of the attackers, aged 21 and 23, were arrested but later released. The police have set up a 15 member task force to investigate the incident and track down those responsible for the violence. People arrested could face charges of assault, causing malicious damage and breach of peace," she continued.
"We were told that some people were shouting 'foreigners get out,' but we don't know if those slurs came from the onlookers or the attackers," Peter added that 70 police officers were needed to bring the situation under control.
Ilka Peter also said that the police were told before the fair that right-wing extremists were planning an attack on a youth center in Muegeln, but the club was not targeted.
According the reports, town's population stood by and watched the incident. The restaurant owner's car was also seriously damaged. The Indian men are mostly merchants who sell goods at open markets in the region.
Muegeln mayor Gotthard Deuse said on MDR television that the incident may have had a racist motivation. However, he contended that "if this was a far-right incident, then the assailants did not come from Muegeln."
Saxony state Premier Georg Milbradt, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, visited the town on Monday evening for a first-hand look at the situation.
Muegeln, which has a population of around 5,000, is situated between Leipzig and Dresden, in the previous East Germany. Saxony is one of the states formerly part of communist East Germany, which have seen disproportionate rates of violence against foreigners since German reunification in 1990.
Several cities within this area have had problems at football games during the last year with supporters heaping racial abuse on black football players. Some incidents saw the spectators make the noise of baboons when black players went onto the pitch.
Attacks on foreigners are far from unusual in eastern German states such as Saxony, where there are concerns that far-right groups are gaining in strength and taking on institutional roles in some places. The far-right, neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) holds several seats in Saxony's state assembly, having won over 9 percent of the vote in the 2004 state election.
Local citizens' groups claimed there was "a strategy of silence" among the authorities when it came to rightwing tendencies in the state and appealed to the State Government to stress the dangers emanating from rightwing extremism.
The mob's attack on Indians in Mügeln has created a national outrage. During the past decades migrant labour and an influx of refugees has brought a mixture of people from different races and religious beliefs. It has threatened the safety and job security of the inhabitants of the home countries.
Saxony state Premier Georg Milbradt, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, visited the town on Monday evening for a first-hand look at the situation.
News at SVM site (with pictures):
http://salemvoice.org/news227.html
Saxony (Germany), SVM News, August 20, 2007: Eight Indians were attacked and chased by a raging mob of about 50 Germans during the annual Old Town Festival of. Mügeln in the eastern German state of Saxony over the weekend.
Fourteen people were injured, including four assailants and two police officers at the incident in the early hours of Sunday. The trigger for the violence was a brawl on the dance floor in a party tent shortly right after midnight of Saturday, police said.
One of the victims, Kulvir Singh, 39, said that he was hit with a bottle in the tent and that one of his eyes was injured. Others were attacked with flying glass and beaten including his friend Singh Gorvinda, adding that, without help from police, they might have been beaten to death. In the beginning the situation got so out of control that even police "could not do anything against the mob," Singh said.
Saxony state police chief Bernd Merbitz told DPA that a "xenophobic motive" could have been a factor in the violence.
"The Indians sought shelter in a pizza parlor run by an Indian, but some of the Germans kicked in the doors of the building and beat them up badly. One Indian man remained hospitalized Monday," said Ilka Peter, a spokeswoman for police in nearby Leipzig. "Two of the attackers, aged 21 and 23, were arrested but later released. The police have set up a 15 member task force to investigate the incident and track down those responsible for the violence. People arrested could face charges of assault, causing malicious damage and breach of peace," she continued.
"We were told that some people were shouting 'foreigners get out,' but we don't know if those slurs came from the onlookers or the attackers," Peter added that 70 police officers were needed to bring the situation under control.
Ilka Peter also said that the police were told before the fair that right-wing extremists were planning an attack on a youth center in Muegeln, but the club was not targeted.
According the reports, town's population stood by and watched the incident. The restaurant owner's car was also seriously damaged. The Indian men are mostly merchants who sell goods at open markets in the region.
Muegeln mayor Gotthard Deuse said on MDR television that the incident may have had a racist motivation. However, he contended that "if this was a far-right incident, then the assailants did not come from Muegeln."
Saxony state Premier Georg Milbradt, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, visited the town on Monday evening for a first-hand look at the situation.
Muegeln, which has a population of around 5,000, is situated between Leipzig and Dresden, in the previous East Germany. Saxony is one of the states formerly part of communist East Germany, which have seen disproportionate rates of violence against foreigners since German reunification in 1990.
Several cities within this area have had problems at football games during the last year with supporters heaping racial abuse on black football players. Some incidents saw the spectators make the noise of baboons when black players went onto the pitch.
Attacks on foreigners are far from unusual in eastern German states such as Saxony, where there are concerns that far-right groups are gaining in strength and taking on institutional roles in some places. The far-right, neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) holds several seats in Saxony's state assembly, having won over 9 percent of the vote in the 2004 state election.
Local citizens' groups claimed there was "a strategy of silence" among the authorities when it came to rightwing tendencies in the state and appealed to the State Government to stress the dangers emanating from rightwing extremism.
The mob's attack on Indians in Mügeln has created a national outrage. During the past decades migrant labour and an influx of refugees has brought a mixture of people from different races and religious beliefs. It has threatened the safety and job security of the inhabitants of the home countries.
Saxony state Premier Georg Milbradt, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, visited the town on Monday evening for a first-hand look at the situation.
News at SVM site (with pictures):
http://salemvoice.org/news227.html
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