Welcome to a new edition of evil:austria!

A Nazi rally and the political incidents including the involvement of FPOe in this scene take up quite some room in this edition. A verdict has been turned out in the process against the police officers who killed Marcus Omofuma during his deportation. This and other issues make up the brown essence which created the latest issue of evil:austria.

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] A Neo-Nazi rally and its defenders
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[2] Study by Wiesenthal Centre
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[3] Mayday 2000 Graz
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[4] With racism against drugs
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[5] Marcus Omufuma is dead
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[6] Parliamentary 'snooping'
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[7] Embassy cleared
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[8] Minister of (In-)Justice gets rid of juvenile court
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[9] Tourists not wanted?
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[10] Asylum applicant to be deported despite pregnancy
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[11] Fighting against the Benes Decrees
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[12] Top ranking university
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[13] Late revocation
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[14] Civilian service privatized
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[1] A Neo-Nazi rally and its defenders
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On April 13, about 100-150 Neo-Nazis participated in the first public Neo- Nazi rally in Vienna for many years. Their aim was a public protest against the so-called "Wehrmachts-Exhibition" which does away with the myth of a "clean" Wehrmacht not participating in war crimes, and therefore is viewed (not only) by Neo-Nazi circles with rage. It was good to see that about 5,000 antifascists came to prevent the Nazi rally. Unfortunately, this plan was prevented by a massive police presence. So e.g. police were bashing the antifa march just at a point in time when the Nazis left the place of their rally - through a back door -, so the Nazis were able to march through the city centre shouting "Sieg Heil" with nothing happening. It presented a slight inconvenience for the police that this was documented on video tape. In a first statement, an officer in charge answered a question as to why the Neo-Nazis were allowed to march unhindered, saying that this "was the wish of the organizers". Later on, police leadership contended that a tactical mistake happened so that the Neo-Nazis were allowed to leave in small groups and that it was not expected they would re-group later on, so that there were no officers left to accompany them. However, a video tape shows clearly that this is nothing but a blatant lie: film material shows Neo-Nazis leaving the scene of the rally together and, while still in view of the police force present, begin shouting "Sieg Heil".

The Neo-Nazi rally took place on "Heldenplatz" [Heroes' Square] - exactly the place where Adolf Hitler did his speech to the Austrian population after the invasion of Austria in 1938. Among the people participating in the rally was FPOe candidate Mathias Konschill. Small wonder, then, that the governing coalition had nothing much to say in the way of critizing the Nazi rally during the following days. Instead, the antifa protests are being used for musings about a ban against masks, and there are also plans to ban political manifestations at "Heldenplatz" altogether.

In any case, the very same scene which already organized the April 13 rally - a coalition of overtly Neo-Nazi circles and the national and fraternity oriented surroundings of FPOe - already plans the next rally. On May 8, the anniversary of Hitler-Germany's capitulation, they intend to commemorate the "total defeat" and the German victims of World War II - again at "Heldenplatz". Main speaker will be FPOe MP Wolfgang Jung. Prior to this rally, there will be a discussion event "Self-esteem instead of self-hatred - A new way to cope with contemporary history" which is organized by the FPOe Students' Organisation. Among the speakers there will be FPOe lawyer Ewald Stadler and German rightwing extremist Claus Nordbruch who meanwhile lives in South Africa and has "no fear of contact" regarding the Neo-Nazi environment, as he overtly contended in an interview with the meanwhile banned German division of the Nazi bonehead organisation Blood & Honour.

(sources: own investigation, http://www.doew.at)

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[2] Study by Wiesenthal Centre
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This year's study by Jerusalem Wiesenthal Centre about the worldwide tracking and prosecution of Nazi war criminals shows that Austria still is the country with the highest number of potential suspects and the lowest probability of legal prosecution.

The files from former Communist regimes in Eastern Europe since March 2001 offer new possibilities of finding war criminals in Germany and Austria. Compared to other countries, Austria did not make the least progress in the legal prosecution of war criminals.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[3] Mayday 2000 Graz
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The political situation in the town of Graz is a catastrophe anyway. But it is this group in particular who is being held for anything bad - i.e. critical. The number of legal actions against activists from "Mayday 2000 Graz" is long and most of these cases are pretty absurd (the respective reasons for initiating legal actions as well as the resulting verdicts). Only in April, a court decided that shouting "Stoiber is a racist" in an election rally organized by OeVP (under the presence of Stoiber who is the Christian Democratic/Christian Social candidate for the next German elections) is a violation of decency. This comment was said to have disturbed the "moral feelings of OeVP sympathizers"....

The latest legal action against a Mayday activist was initiated by a Social Democratic police trade unionist. Reason: the activist is a co- signer of a letter to the editor of an Austrian paper on the actions of some police officers of Taurus Special Unit against protesters at the election rally mentioned above. The charge is brought forward in order to achieve the revocation of two sentences of a Letter to the Editor; the amount in dispute has been set at EURO 5,000. Mayday 2000 Graz is in need of also international support.

Their account is:
Sparbuch Nr.: 32 226 185. BLZ: 38 000.
Account: MayDay2000 Graz

(source: http://mayday.widerstand.org)

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[4] With racism against drugs
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In Graz, FPOe and several local papers lead an "Anti-Drug Campaign" for several months. An FPOe website shows a black wolf with the slogan "drug dealers are murderers" which intends to support the racist image of black persons as drug dealers. Now FPOe has even initiated a 'citizens' watch' which means to bring an end to the alleged intensive drug dealing in front of schools.

Higher officials of Graz police have spoken out against an exaggerated fear of drug abuse in the city and have announced that they are not prepared to cooperate with the newly founded group. The local branch of Social Democrats gathered 10,000 signatures against this organization and instead demand an increase of police officers. The Greens, however, plan a parliamentary inquiry of the private participation of a high ranking candidate of police trade union AUF (affiliated to FPOe) in the aforementioned organization.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[5] Marcus Omufuma is dead
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The three police officers responsible for his death will remain free even after the legal procedures now finished. The officers had tied up Marcus Omofuma, gagged him, and sealed his mouth with tape during the deportation (cf. evil:austria 0302). According to the court's sentence they have been found guilty of 'manslaughter through culpable negligence in dangerous circumstances' and received 8 months on probation each. The original charges of 'torturing a prisoner with consequent death' has been dropped.

In its verdict, the court saw Marcus Omofuma suffocation as a fact, but evaluated the argumentational positions of the defence lawyers (e.g. Harald Ofner, legal spokesperson of FPOe in parliament) as extenuating circumstances: The three officers were not the only culprits, since sealing a deportee's mouth with tape used to be tolerated by authorities (e.g. the Ministery of the Interior). Furthermore, Marcus Omofuma had a part in his own murder: If he had not died, he should have faced legal charges because of 'resistance against police officers'...

(source: http://www.no-racism.net/racismkills)

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[6] Parliamentary 'snooping'
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After SPOe had misused the state's unemplyoment agency resp. the labour
market service (AMS), an investigating committee was installed by the Parliament, originally with the purpose of investigating possible illegal procedures of Euroteam company which is close to SPOe and originally was founded to administrate unemployed persons. After some time, OeVP had the idea to extend investigations in order to include a meanwhile closed institution to support long-time unemployed persons. Therefore, about 250 organisations and companies have to make an appearance in parliament and present e.g. lists of their membership and financial planning.

Furthermore, there is another FPOe 'expert' in the committee: Martin Wobek is a fraternity member, author in rightwing extreme papers like "Aula" and "Eckhardbote" and has also edited an 'investigative' book on the Austrian left ("Molotov muesli"). It is very simple in this country to do an anti- antifa job.

(sources: http://www.tatblatt.net / http://derstandard.at)

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[7] Embassy cleared
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The Embassy of Concerned Citizens, at times starting point of the weekly Thursday demonstrations against the government, has been in existence since February 9, 2000 and has been operating all day long; this is necessary because the location was squatted. 'Hofburg' and 'Heldenplatz' are in the immediate vicinity of the location and therefore a special police station is responsible, headed by OeVP Minister Bartenstein, a member of a nationalist fraternity. The police unit responsible raided the location for the first time on April 4, 2002 with the assistance of a private security service. Due to very eager reconstruction measures, four more raids were necessary until April 26. Police officers were present during all incidents, but did not act.

Since April 26, the Embassy has remained unraided. And it will stay in any case!

(sources: http://www.ballhausplatz.at http://botschaft.cjb.net)

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[8] Minister of (In-)Justice gets rid of juvenile court
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Even if prisons are an intolerable institution, up to now we had a relatively liberal institution in Austria: the juvenile court. It was founded in 1928 with the task of not just punishing juvenile delinquents but effect prevention. Special legal procedures, special detainment conditions, and more education and social assistance conributed to lowering the relapse quote of juveniles for some crimes to a mere 16%.

The far more restrictive laws applying to adult delinquents result in a relapse quote of up to 88%. The relatively small rate with juveniles is primarily due to not mixing adult and juvenile delinquents.

This will change now. The OeVP/FPOe government intends to be more strict: Lifelong sentences for dealers, full legal responsibility from the age of 18, more repression and less therapy. And as "Standard" reported on April 22, Minister of (In-)Justice Boehmdorfer went to Iran on an 'educational holiday'. During his stay in Iran, he plans to discuss further cooperation with the heads of Iran's legal system, especially in the field of juvenile delinquency....

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[9] Tourists not wanted?
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Five young tourists from Poland were happy to pass the Austrian border without any delay due to border controls. But just the lack of a stamp acquired when crossing the border was the reason the five persons were taken into detention for deportation by Vienna police during a routine check of documents. The juvenile tourists were made to get completely undressed and were humiliated in various ways for the next four days before they were deported to Poland.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[10] Asylum applicant to be deported despite pregnancy
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A 19-year-old womyn from Armenia has been taken into detention for deportation, together with her husband, her mother-in-law, and her brother. The family came to Austria on April 6, 2002 in order to ask for asylum. Police in Gmuend immediately placed them in detention, combined with a ban on re-entry valid for 5 years. Despite the womyn is four months pregnant, she must remain in detention. An intervention by the Service to Prevent Deportation (SSD) has proved unsuccessful up to now. The womyn and her husband are kept separated and are only able to see each other during consultations with SSD. According to the legal situation, pregnancy will not prevent detention for deportation, quite contrary to prison terms. It is, however, in the discretion of the respective authorities whether a pregnant womyn is taken into detention for deportation or not.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[11] Fighting against the Benes Decrees
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On April 14, Vienna FPOe had their party convention. Hilmar Kabas again got voted into the office as chairperson and immediately brought up the favourite issue of FPOe and revanchists/revisionist alike: the so-called 'Benes Decrees'. The issue was taken up especially since the last weeks (and the petition for a referendum against the nuclear power plant in Czech Temelin - cf. evil:austria 0102) revealed that a large part of the Austrian population agrees with anti-Slavonik campaigns which as a side effect - in addition to the immanent denial of the holocaust - will question the results of World War II.

This time FPOe used a comment by the EU Commissioner on Eastern extention,
Herr Verheugen, who said in Prague that the Benes Decrees will play no role during the negotiations of Czechia to join EU, and installed the issue permanently in the political discourse in Austria. Hilmar Kabas commented on Sunday: "Verheugen above all of those promoting Europe must be kicked out". Local FPOe head Peter Westenthaler added, Verheugen was a coward. The aims of the political right in Austria are evident. They mean to destabilize Czechia, revive nationalist categories, and to prevent Eastern states from joining the EU. After all, what do the Slavic peoples want in a European institution?

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[12] Top ranking university
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Minister of Education Gehrer (OeVP) has presented a draft for a new university law (the original text may be found at: http://www.weltklasse- uni.at). Using the slogan of "autonomy", it instead plans to rob the universities' little remainder of autonomy and enable an influence by political parties. A university commission will in future lay out central guidelines, with three of the five members of this commission being appointed by the goverment. This will get rid of the most important democratic bodies and also prevent students from having a say in these bodies. Universities are meant to become places for an elite and to become efficient according to management criteria - creating an elite again instead of universities being open.

This law also includes: "Austria first!" - Austrians will in future be accepted with preference, new criteria will be set for foreign applicants. This means a restricted entry based on racism. Which is of course a prerequisite for achieving a top rank!

(sources: http://www.oeh.univie.ac.at und http://www.oeh.ac.at)

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[13] Late revocation
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Two and a half years ago, Joerg Haider did an interview with two journalists of Vienna paper "Falter". Shortly afterwards, Haider denied ever having done this interview in a broadcast by state channel ORF. Now, the journalists won legal procedures, and Joerg Haider had to revocate his claim publicly in a main newsshow. As an aside: FPOe led a campaign with Joerg Haider with the slogan: "He did not tell you any lies".....

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[14] Civilian service privatized
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Neo-liberal economic dogmas are top issues in Austria. Now even the administration of the state-imposed forced civilian service (provided you don't like to be drafted to the army) got privatized. The lucky ones in this case are Austrian Red Cross which already in the past received the highest number of civilian servants (together with an amount of EURO 450 per person). Austrian Red Cross will have a free choice of personnel now at the cost of other institutions working with civilian servants... Another aspect is that most of these institutions do not observe the rights of civilian servants, with Red Cross being no exception from this rule.

(sources: http://www.zivildienst.at und http://derstandard.at)

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EPILOGUE
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NO PEACE WITH AUSTRIA!!!