Welcome to the new edition of evil:austria!

It was a hilarious month for the rightwing extremist governing party FPOe: one state minister stepped down, Joerg Haider visited Iraq, and conflicts within the party - which means a lot of interesting reading material for this issue.

Once again, for newcomers, an explanation what this newsletter is about and why we produce it:

evil:austria is our monthly newsletter providing information about the situation in Austria (and regarding the consequences of FPOe/OeVP government). We decided to produce this newsletter since we realized that knowledge regarding the actual situation in Austria is not very widespread abroad. The government, after discussions about EU-"sanctions" against Austria were dropped, succeeded in removing the daily insanity from the attention of the international public. Meanwhile "sanctions" have been lifted, which almost all political groups here celebrated as a victory, and the "interest" taken in the development in Austria has decreased even more. The "normalisation" of the right-wing/right-extreme government continues, and therefore information about the aggravation of the situation in Austria is even more important. It is therefore highly desired that you spread this newsletter as widely as possible, so that as many people as possible get to know about the situation in Austria. So please spread, spread, spread this. Of course you may also use this material (also in excerpts) for magazines and papers, but we would be glad if you sent us a short mail in this case.

Any criticism and comments please send to (if possible, please write in German and English):

raw@raw.at

Have fun!

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[1] New and old agitation
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[2] Greetings to Neofascists
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[3] The Axis of anti-semitism
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[4] FPOe training their functionaries
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[5] And once again, a new minister
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[6] Antifascism in Salzburg
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[7] Repressed victims of National Socialism
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[8] Purposeful economizing
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[9] Rightwing extremist sentenced
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[10] Minority politics in Carinthia
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[11] Dispute about "Kronen-Zeitung"
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[12] No fine for cop mistreating inmate
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[13] Police pin-ups
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[14] Austrian detention practice against humyn rights
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[1] New and old agitation
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An annual highlight of the third kind are the speeches full of defamations Joerg Haider delivers regularly on Ash Wednesday:

During last year's event, Haider defamed the president of the Israelitic Community: "Herr Ariel Muzikant: I don't understand at all how someone with a name like Ariel can have so much dirty laundry hidden in his closet..." [note: a pun on the detergent brand 'Ariel', cf. evil:austria 0301].

These and further defamations against Muzikant resulted in 14 lawsuits altogether which have now been closed by five declarations of honour in which Haider explained that he "... did not realize the danger in certain hints and puns..." and declared to "take back the accusations against Dr. Muzikant with the expression of regret and an apology"

In this year's Ash Wednesday speech, Haider made clear that he did not really learn from this experience: The president of the Constitutional Court has recently presented a decision regarding bilingual place name signs (cf. evil:austria 1201) which Haider does not like, and he said about the court president: "If a person is called Adamovich, one should above all check whether he in fact holds valid documents of legal residence"

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[2] Greetings to Neofascists
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With much applause did the congress of Italian Neofascist Ms-FT welcome the greetings sent by Carinthian FPOe chairperson Martin Strutz: "In the name of FPOe and the Carinthian Prime Minister Joerg Haider, I am sending the best wishes for a constructive meeting."

Strutz also deplored that, due to various appointments, no delegate from FPOe was able to participate in the congress..

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[3] The Axis of anti-semitism
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Some - also international - commotion was caused by Joerg Haider's visit to Iraq. Haider met president Saddam Hussein and vice president Tarek Aziz to discuss "the present international situation and the conspiration of USA and Zionism against Iraq". According to state-owned Iraqi news agency INA, Haider expressed "the best wishes of the Austrian people and the Freedom Party as well as their solidarity with the people of Iraq and their wise leadership" to the president.

Officially, Haider's visit of course was declared "a private trip of humanitarian character" (as Vice-Chancellor Ms. Riess-Passer commented). Since permission for a direct flight had previously been denied by UN Sanction Committee three times and the export of humynitarian goods is subject to a further permit, Haider may face a fine of about EURO 140,000 or a term in prison of up to two years. Coalition partner OeVP was not very much amused about this visit, above all Foreign Sec Ms. Ferrero- Waldner who commented she was "totally surprised" by the visit.

It is also not quite clear who has paid for the trip and for the transport of humynitarian aid, and who the eight passengers aboard the plane to Baghdad actually were. In this context, the name Abdul M. Jebara keeps showing up. Jebara was sentenced to a term in prison for smuggling of arms and attempted blackmail in Germany, but was released from prison early, and then moved house to St. Veit/Glan in Carinthia in 1990. He also managed to obtain a permit for permanent residency and a trade permit very quickly. It was Prime Minister Haider who was responsible for issueing both permits.

Jebara is said to have close contacts to the rightwing extremist scene and to the Iraqi secret service. Via "S.O.S. Iraq", Jebara organized solidarity with the Iraqi regime in Germany and Austria, relying chiefly on persons and organizations belonging to the rightwing extremist scene. According to the Ministry of the Interior, Carinthia has been ordered twice to initiate a lawsuit to achieve a ban of residency which up to now has been ignored.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[4] FPOe training their functionaries
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Once more there was a public row within FPOe, although high up this time. Immediately after the Vienna Opera Ball, FPOe chairperson Peter Westenthaler did not make public appearances for several days. His party boss and Vice Chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer flew to the USA, to give some Olympic support since she is also Minister of Sports. Joerg Haider flew down to Iraq. Other high-ranking party functionaries were speculating about Westenthaler's intentions to step down so that Westenthaler at last returned and made a public appearance, coming forward with very undiplomatic and thinly veiled attacks against Haider and Riess-Passer. So eventually all persons involved felt offended, and Haider once again announced his "irrevocable" resolve to retreat from federal functions in FPOe. Now Riess-Passer was forced to cut short her visit of the Olympic Games, and given the political commotion about Haider's visit to Iraq, this must have been an easy decision.

One immediate reason for this row lasting for several days apparently was Westenthaler's course in appointing new persons to high-ranking jobs in Austrian state-owned TV station ORF. His public announcements about persons favoured by him after all do not befit a political party which has been opposed against party-affiliation and favouring personal friends when appointing new persons to important TV jobs.

It took only some days until this affair was over and done with: Westenthaler remains in office; Haider will "of course" still be available for advice and support. Just one Minister had to go... And coalition partner OeVP? OeVP's functionaries manage to keep silent in a way that deserves a world championship. After all, this is all an affair just within FPOe, isn't it.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[5] And once again, a new minister
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It did not come as a huge surprise when Minister of Infrastructure Ms Monika Forstinger (FPOe) stepped down, since she was viewed as a candidate for getting fired right from the start (Forstinger followed Michael Schmid in office by the end of the year 2000 - cf evil:austria 1200). Her very apparent incompetence, matched with a few strange spleens - e.g. her decree on appropriate clothing of her employees - soon made her a target of ridicule with the media. To cover this up, she spent a lot of money: She coughed up EURO 1 million during her time in office to pay for external counceling companies to give advice regarding organisation and media support.

Following her is Mathias Reichold, another confidant of Joerg Haider. He used to be Vice Prime Minister in Carinthia, but retreated to private life about one year ago. His return marks the fourth change in personnel by FPOe in just 2 years of the present governing coalition.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[6] Antifascism in Salzburg
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Salzburg plans to put up an antifascist memorial at the square in front of the main station. Meanwhile, five projects have made it to the final decision process, and one of these will be chosen and probably put up as early as this year. The city council gave EURO 145,000 for this project - a decision which was supported by all political parties represented in the city council with the exception of FPOe. FPOe Vice Mayor Siegfried Mitterdorfer believes the memorial to be the "result of a politically neurotic compulsive act".

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[7] Repressed victims of National Socialism
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It is not widely known that many victims of National-Socialist court martials in Austria have not been rehabilitated up until today. According to the legal situation, every victim must apply to have the respective aspects of their cases checked, something which only started to happen by the mid-90ies. The Austrian state only two and a half years ago managed to produce a parliamentary decision - which of course FPOe voted against - to support a research project with EURO 218,000.

The project now presented an interim report which reflects the fates of 2,300 victims. Only 56 of them were still alive, and only 6 of these were prepared to talk about their fate. The main reason for this is their being afraid of social contempt, as deserters from the ranks of German Wehrmacht are still viewed as 'traitors'. Therefore, many of these person even keep quiet about their past within their own families.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[8] Purposeful economizing
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The foreign memorial serivce in Montreal almost had to be closed down [ed. note: this service is an alternative to compulsory military service]. To cut down cost, Home Sec Ernst Strasser (OeVP) decided to cancel the three respective jobs in the Holocaust Museum in Montreal.

To be able to continue with the project, the Montreal Jewish Community now agreed to finance two of these jobs from March 1st, 2002. Andreas Maislinger, founder of the Austrian Memorial Service, criticizes that there is only little interest in the project despite its positive international receipt, so that there are continuing difficulties about its finances.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[9] Rightwing extremist sentenced
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Extremist publisher Walter Ochsenberger was sentenced to 2 years in prison, with 16 months on a 3 years' probation, for denying the holocaust. Ochsenberger, who has already received several such sentences before, says he will not write about this subject anymore. After having served his last term in prison, he tried to escape difficulties resulting from the contents of articles published by him using the addition: "We ... believe in the holocaust... to avoid a term of several years in prison"

(source: http://www.doew.at)

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[10] Minority politics in Carinthia
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Representatives of ethnic groups in Carinthia decided to complain officially with Home Sec Ernst Strasser (OeVP) because of the referendum planned by FPOe about the bilingual place name signs which has been rated illegal by Constitutional lawyers (cf. evil:austria 1201). The Ministry meanwhile has declared they are incompetent and recommended to approach the Carinthian government and the Constitutional Court.

Carinthian Vice Prime Minister and FPOe chairperson Martin Strutz told the representatives he was "not bothered" by the complaint and that he did "not take serious" the ethnic bodies.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[11] Dispute about "Kronen-Zeitung"
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An open dispute emerged about the political orientation of Austrias biggest daily newspaper "Kronen-Zeitung" between the editor Hand Dichand and the majority owner Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ [a huge German daily paper]). WAZ sees the political independence of the paper endangered by its propaganda for the FPOe referendum against Czech nucelar power plant Temelin (cf evil:austria 0102).

But Dichand is not prepared to tolerate others mingling with this far- right view of the world, and so Kronen-Zeitung publishes a new series of articles about the Benes decress, titled "?Nemcum smret!? - Death to the Germans!". The series is welcomed very much by the right-wing Sudeten German Organisation. To keep things the way they are, Dichand, aged 81, intends to secure the job as an editor for his son Christoph to follow him.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[12] No fine for cop mistreating inmate
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A prison guard officer got off scot-free despite having been proved mistreatment of an inmate. On May 21st, 2001, officers had intervened in a row between inmates and did so in a very emphatic way: one of the inmates was injured by batons and fists and suffered various injuries, among them head injuries.

During the lawsuit against the officer, the court decided against a sentence because this, as the court ruled, was just a "minor excess".

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[13] Police pin-ups
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It is nothing strikingly new to have various professional groups produce calendars with nude photos. In the town of Graz, several police officers of the Mobile Task Force had their photos taken which led to some commotion. They were phtographed in macho poses with their guns, handcuffs, and batons, and afterwards these photos were added by a photo montage of femyle models.

The calendars have been stopped from selling due to a lawsuit, and the Home Sec plans disciplinatory steps against the officers. This, not surprisingly, is met by resistance from Styrian FPOe chairperson Lafer, who is also chairperson of the Styrian Freedom Party's Police Trade Union. He commented that "such quick and hard reactions" were more apt against dealers of illegal drugs instead of low-ranking police officers. He experiences support from higher up: Vice Chancellor Riess-Passer said that actions against these officers was an "over-reaction" and "pure harassment".

(source: http://www.orf.at)

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[14] Austrian detention practice against humyn rights
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Lawyer Richard Soyer received a positive decision from the European Court of Justice for Human Rights in Strasbourg. The lawsuit was about the regulations providing legal council for a person put in detention awaiting trial only after 2 or 3 days. In cases in which the danger of covering up by the defendant is assumed, contacts to legal advisors are only allowed in the presence of officers.

The Ministry of (In)Justice will check this decision in connection with a planned legal reform. According to Soyer, the draft already in discussion again is wanting: the draft plans to allow contacts to legal advisors without officers being present only after a period of 2 weeks.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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EPILOGUE
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NO PEACE WITH AUSTRIA!!!