>From the centre-left Frankfurter Rundschau http://www.fr-aktuell.de/english/401/t401002.htm NEO-NAZI PLAYS INNOCENT IN COURT Police looked on as German right-wingers attacked By Heike Kleffner Berlin - The trial of Alexander T. (last name withheld under German law) has begun at the district court in Luckenwalde. He is accused of being among a band of right-wing extremists belonging to the "Kameradschaft Germania" (Teutonic Comradeship) which assaulted a group of German and Polish punks. The Kameradschaft boasts a membership of 15 and is recognised as one of the leading groups of Berlin's far right scene. In court, members of the group like to play innocent. On the street, with strength of numbers, they are prone to acts of extreme violence. So it was on July 10, 1999. On that day long-established activists and right-wing skinheads from Berlin and Brandenburg set off for a day trip to Hamburg. Once there they were due to join a march of some 600 right-wingers organised by the neo-fascist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). The march was intended as a protest against the Wehrmacht Exhibition which explored the involvement of the regular German army in Second World War atrocities. On the return leg of the trip, the two minibusses stopped at the Stolpe motorway service station where the group came across eight German and Polish punks. What followed is currently under investigation by the Luckenwalde district court. A member of a Brandenburg state special unit formed specifically to counter the threat posed by right-wing extremists, the Mega, was called as a witness to the incident. "The left-wingers were sitting quite peacefully in front of their VW minibus," he recalled, " when suddenly the right-wingers got out of their vehicles, pulled masks over their faces and started throwing stones and bottles at the punks." The officer went on to describe how one of the Berlin group set about his victims with an iron bar. The judge presiding over the trial asked the poiceman why he and his colleague, who had been tailing the neo-nazi group, had not intervened. "It all happened so quickly and the attack was so violent that we couldn't intervene," replied the 36-year-old and his gaze fell to the floor. He said he had chosen instead to call for emergency reinforcements. This decision ensured the assailants had time to launch a second attack on the young left-wingers, who sought shelter from the hail of stones and bottles in their minibus. Twenty-eight-year-old Jan S. from Berlin showed the court the scar left on his face by a flying bottle which only narrowly missed his eye. The punks' bus suffered damage to the value of 1,500 dollars. Shortly after the incident, the 16 assailants were pulled over and arrested by police answering the call of their colleague at the service station. A search of their homes turned up propoganda material and offensive weapons. For over a year the office of the Schwerin public prosecutor has been investigating nine adult neo-Nazis and seven juveniles in connection with the crime. They are charged breaching the peace, grevious bodily harm and damage to property. However, the trial of Alexander T. from Luckenwalde is the first case to come before a court of law. "There are no other cases being prosecuted at this time," declared a spokesman for the office of the public prosecutor. Alexander T., conservatively dressed in corduroy trousers and a pullover, leant back before the court and claimed that although he had indeed driven with his friends to Hamburg, he had slept all the way back to Berlin. The trial continues next week with the cross-examination of T.'s "comrades". _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
