Welcome to a new edition of evil:austria!

The last weeks have been marked by a political farce around the arrest of the No-Border-Tour after the Genova protests, therefore there is a more detailed article in this issue of our newsletter.

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

Enjoy reading the newsletter!

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[1] Rewards for turning in drug dealers
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[2] Anti-semitic impertinences
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[3] No place for immigrants
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[4] The 'absolutely normal' story of a refugee
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[5] Genova and the political farce
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[6] The Foreign Secretary and her problems with data protection
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[7] FPOe and the NS aera (1)
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[8] FPOe and the NS aera (2)
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[9] Homophobic Austria
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[10] Homophobic Church
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[11] Moelzer once again being sent to Coventry by Haider
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[12] Black/Blue Aggro in Vienna
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[13] Wymyn intend to sue Mr Wymyn's Minister
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[14] The daft one in the classroom
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[1] Rewards for turning in drug dealers
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Gerhard Koefer, SPOe(!) mayor of the town of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, initiated the action: Each person providing info about a drug dealer shall receive ATS 5,000 as a reward. This will be put into practice all over Carinthia now. Although experts as well as Carinthian SPOe chairperson Ambrozy, and even Carinthian police (Pittino from Klagenfurt Federal Police fears 'mutual accusations' among the Carinthian population) are against this action, Koefer remains stubborn. Koefer explains, "the organised drug scene all over Carinthia must get in motion." He claimed to have managed to convince companies from all over Austria to pay into a funds and therefore payments could be made from now on.

It does not come as a surprise that FPOe Styria meanwhile took up this idea....

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[2] Anti-semitic impertinences
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FPOe general secretary Sichrovsky once again came up with verbal attacks against the president of the Israelitic Community, Ariel Muzicant: in an interview, he described Muzicant as a "non-Arian Rumpelstiltskin". Further samples: "The Muzicant family has no place in Austria. I'm not prepared to have my family's national tradition denied by an immigrant who left the great Holy Land", "Muzicant poses a problem for the lives of the Vienna Jews". Already last year, Sichrovsky said, Muzicant was an "intelligent idiot", who was "incredibly avaricious" und would be "incredibly rich" soon. He further said, Muzicant was a "tragic figure", "like all professional Jews".

Muzicant has sued Sichrovsky in the past for his statements, but Sichrovsky enjoys immunity as an MP of the European Parliament. The European Parliament has renounced lifting Sichrovsky's immunity.

This time, there was also a protest against Sichrovsky's anti-semitic attacks by Rabbi Chaim Eisenberg, who up to now did not want to get engaged in this matter: "This is scandalous", "This proves that also a Jew is able to give anti-semitic statements", "this fits into the xenophobe clichee of FPOe".

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[3] No place for immigrants
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The government has spoken: the quotas for immigrant will be lowered to 8,280 persons for 2002 (8,518 in 2001). Of this figure, 5,490 permits will be provided for family reuniting measures - while at the moment, already 11,626 persons are waiting to enter Austria under these regulations.

Further 2,400 permits will be reserved for so-called "key personnel", mainly to be hired by IT companies. A prerequisite for being subsumed under the category of 'key personnel' is a special training sought for on the Austrian job market; applicants must also earn a wage of at least EURO 2,000.

There is also a new quota for immigrants with no special training: Zero.

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[4] The 'absolutely normal' story of a refugee
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On March 20, 1999, Nigerian citizen Okpara Johnson asked for political asylum in Austria which was turned down as usual. In June 1999, Johnson got arrested under the racist motivated 'Operation Spring' allegedly raiding drug dealers, and was sentenced to 2 years in prison in a more than dubious trial. Most persons sentenced in this trial were only convicted because of the evidence of just one person who was allowed to remain anonymous. Johnson has held up his being innocent in many letters written from prison. All of his further appeals for asylum were consequently turned down, even though he would face another term in prison in Nigeria after deportation for being a convicted drug dealer. After his release from prison, Johnson was arrested several times by he police. On August 3rd, Johnson - meanwhile aged 19 years - could not stand the pressure any longer and put and end to his life by jumping out of a window during an interrogation at a juvenile court of justice.

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[5] Genova and the political farce
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After the Genova protests, the NoBorder No Nation Peoples' Theatre Caravan with 25 persons - among them 16 holding an Austrian passport - were arrested, too. Some days later, Austrian Foreign Secretary Benita Ferrero- Waldner in a press conference showed no intention of doing something for the arrested persons. Instead she emphasized her confidence in the Italian legal system, and added that - hinting at the group's street theatre performance - nobody should be surprised to get arrested if they use toy pistols for a hold-up in a bank. She furthermore said that some of the arrested person were 'known to the police'.

Just a few days later - after other governments had massively supported 'their' arrested persons and after pressure by media etc. upon the Foreign Secretary grew harder -, she made a quick turn and then intervened - at least superficially - in favour of the arrested persons. Accompanying this quick turn, she also accused the Home Office to have presented wrong data, which was immediately denied by the Home Office and caused (short-termed) unease between both Offices. A further cause of embarrassment for Ferrero- Waldner is the fact that she should not have passed on the data received.

It is a fact that the arrested persons apparently stayed in prison due to incriminating information given by Austrian authorities which were in no way based on facts. So for example the info passed on claimed the arrested persons belonged to the Black Bloc (although afterwards no official could be found to have given this info); quite incidentially, the info forwarded did not say the arrested persons are actors/actresses.

Although the 25 persons of the NoBorder Tour have been set free meanwhile, they still need financial support to cover legal costs etc.; charges against them (e.g. 'terrorist association' - with a possible max. of 15 years in prison) have not been dropped.

If you want to donate money for the Peoples' Theatre Caravan:

Donations to the Peoples' Theatre Caravan should be sent to:

account no.: 786 538 43
BLZ: 60.000 (PSK)
purpose: "noborder"

in Germany:
account no: 885 367 435
BLZ: 360 100 43 Postbank Essen
Empfaenger
receiving person: A. Wolf
purpose: "Genua"

More info about the events regarding the arrests of the Peoples' Theatre Caravan can be found at: http://www.no-racism.net/nobordertour

Please also do not forget that there are still many person in prison after the protests in Genova who also need support.

More info and account no.s for donations can also be found at the various sites at: http://www.indymedia.org

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[6] The Foreign Secretary and her problems with data protection
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Austrian Foreign Secretary Ferrero-Waldner, the one with the permanent grin, has proven severe problems with data protection in publishing police data about members of the Peoples' Theatre Caravan. Now she also forwarded the secret telephone number of Home Secretary Strasser to the EU spokesperson of the Greens, Voggenhuber, who in turn rang up the Home Secretary during the night in order to receive further info about the police data passed on to the Italian authorities. The Home Secretary was outraged that his secret phone number had been passed on and told Voggenhuber: "Just forget this phone number."

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[7] FPOe and the NS aera (1)
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A part of the facade of a house in the town of Klosterneuburg (some kilometres from Vienna) are the last remains of a former synagogue which was damaged in 1938 and then taken down in 1991. In December 2000, the city council - with 12 of 13 votes - decided to place a board at that facade to commemorate the synagogue and the 280 Jewish citizens of the town who were deported by the Nazis. This is a cause for outrage for the 13th member of the council who, of course, happens to be a member of FPOe.

FPOe in this town has been trying for months now to prevent the board from being put up. They are criticizing that commemorating the synagogue meant an overemphasis on the Jewish victims of the Nazis. Josef Pitschko, spokesperson of the FPOe faction in the city council, also claims that only 13 of 17 persons living in that house were in favour of that board, which according to him were too few to be in accordance with a 'healthy feeling for justice' [Translator's note: this happens to be the very phrase used and coined by the Nazis to push through all kinds of laws, including the racist Nuremberg laws, and illegal treatment of persons]. One member of the city council belonging to a citizens' initiative now proposes to mount the board at a parking lot close to the street, but still the FPOe faction is trying to prevent this.

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[8] FPOe and the NS aera (2)
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Just in time to prevent the media 'summer hole' from getting even bigger, there was another tunnel accident in Austria. A debate about infrastructural politics was raised, and Joerg Haider felt it apt to join in. He duly sees "the Socialists" - he is talking about the Social Democrat SPOe here - as culprits for the present 'tunnel misery', and in order to make them receive the due punishment, Haider suggested they all should be "sent to dig tunnels".

Haider apparently is trying to get close to his hystorical ideals here: In Carinthia, many prisoners of concentration camps were killed building the Loibl tunnel.

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[9] Homophobic Austria
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Amnesty International adopted him as "the first conscentious prisoner in Austria": a 37-year-old Vienna computer expert was sent into detention awaiting trial for 2 weeks. This was because someone anonymously informed police about his relationship to a 15-year-old student. Basis for actions against the man is paragraph 209 which says that 'homosexual sexual offences with persons under the age of 18" will be punished with prison - this applies to male persons only, as Austrian lawmakers apparently couldn't and can't think of lesbians. The age of consent for heterosexual relationships, by the way, is 14 years.

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[10] Homophobic Church
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Salzburg bishop Andreas Laun added 'new scientific insights' to his reactionary world view. In an interview, he said that homosexuals had a life expectancy of 20 to 30 years less than others due to a higher possibility of catching veneral diseases. This was connected with "AIDS, hepatitis, and other homosexuals' diseases". He further said this was not just his personal opinion, but a "question of facts and science and being objective". Laun sees a special logic consequence: "this causes a responsibility for state and lawmakers to take this into account, also by an enforced protection of youths."

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[11] Moelzer once again being sent to Coventry by Haider
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After differences regarding cultural politics in Carinthia, Haider did not renew the contract of his cultural advisor Andreas Moelzer - who also is editor of the rightwing extreme weekly paper "Zur Zeit". Moelzer repeatedly criticized Haider's fixation on a culture of events, which of course must be viewed critical by a person whose cultural concepts lie firmly with "Blut und Boden". Still Moelzer does not need to worry about his future job situation: he is also a columnist for Austria's biggest daily paper "Kronenzeitung".

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[12] Black/Blue Aggro in Vienna
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On August 2, passengers in the city centre of Vienna called the police: Two drunken persons were getting out of control and were damaging cars. Some witnesses and the police are now accusing them to have damaged three parked cars. The two accused: One MP of OeVP and an FPOe member of the city council in a town in Lower Austria.

The following official actions by police are said to have been quite turbulent: the two men - 'rowdies' according to the police report - had identified themselves to the officers with their political functions and threatened them with "corresponding consequences".

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[13] Wymyn intend to sue Mr Wymyn's Minister
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Since Mr Wymyn's Minister Haupt has got into office, financial support for many wymyn's projects was cancelled or cut. Now the well-known wymyn's service house Kassandra is endangered. If the Ministry are cancelling financial support for Kassandra, they are planning to sue Mr Wymyn's Minister.

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[14] The daft one in the classroom
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At the EU summit in Nice in last December, EU members decided to present national programmes to fight poverty until June 2001. Now a first evaluation of the Austrian plan by the EU commission is available, and it was rated as the worst one of all EU members: the plan does not mention but few clear aims, it introduces only few new measures for those groups unable to find jobs due to their problems, the special problem of female poverty is not mentioned at all. The plan does not provide any analysis or discussion of reasons and future risk factors of poverty and social exclusion.

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EPILOGUE
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NO PEACE WITH AUSTRIA!!!