Welcome to the new edition of evil:austria!

No matter how cold it may be outside, politically it is even colder than that in Austria. Persecution of homosexuals, a continuing penetration of Austrian media with partisans of FPOe and OeVP, and the every-day racism are just some of the issues reported in this edition.

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] Fight against bil-lingual place name signs
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[2] Tourist put in detention for deportation
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[3] New paths of journalism
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[4] State-financed government TV
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[5] Term "man-hunter" seen as tolerable opinion
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[6] How to silence criticism of police
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[7] Charles Ofoedu 'allowed' to stay
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[8] Optical support for a Minister
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[9] Evil rhymes
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[10] No mercy for gay love
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[11] Central surveillance
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[12] The law on 'security' of information
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[1] Fight against bil-lingual place name signs
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A storm of indignation was the result of a verdict issued by Austrian Constitutional Court which says that bi-lingual place name signs must also be put up in towns with less than 25% inhabitants belonging to a 'minority group'. The court ruled that a mere 10% were sufficient for this. This new regulation is applicable in many towns in Carinthia, because this federal state has a strong Slovenian minority. But Joerg Haider, Carinthian Prime Minister and self-appointed alpine Robin Hood, will see to it that nothing will happen about putting the court's verdict into practice. And he can be certain of the support of his fellow country people: the old regulation in the 70ies has already been prevented by a mob with nationalist opinions. So his reactions are very sharp now: on the one hand he announced a plebiscite on the matter (which does not have a legal basis), on the other hand, he demands the dismissal of the president of the Constitutional Court and declares that the existing bi-lingual place name signs will be reduced.

When Austria was visited by the "three wise men" last year who wanted to check the situation after the inauguration of the FPOe/OeVP government, Haider boasted about a good relationship with the Slovenian "Volksgruppe". He presented a Potemkian village to the nations abroad and called this a 'Carinthian model'.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[2] Tourist put in detention for deportation
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A 62-year-old womyn tourist from Ukraina will remember her visit to Vienna for quite some time: her group was on their way to Italy, but a stop in Vienna turned out disastrous. During her stay in Vienna, she lost her handbag containing her passport and visa. Then she got controlled by police officers and, despite all explanations, taken into detention for deportation. Only after four days and after interventions by several NGOs the womyn was set free again. Legally, everything was indisputable.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[3] New paths of journalism
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Carinthian Prime Minister Joerg Haider likes to see himself on TV, and if media do not provide possibilities to present himself often enough, he does not hesitate to do an interview himself and offer it to TV stations. This happened in October, and the interview was offered to a local newsshow of state-owned TV station ORF. Haider had offered them to do an interview on his visit to New York, and the Carinthian ORF studio expressed an interest, but thought that the cost for the camera team were too high. Eager to help out and completely unselfishly fo course, Haider filmed the interview with the help of his assistants and offered the material to the TV station who promptly broadcasted the interview. Meanwhile, ORF editors' council has called this procedure 'inacceptable'. As far as this will go....

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[4] State-financed government TV
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Much was said by the governing parties about an allegedly planned 'de- politization' of state-owned TV station ORF, but nothing much has happened, which does not really come as a surprise. The new general director is Monika Lindner, a confidante of Lower Austrian Prime Minister Erwin Proell (OeVP). There were further presents for FPOe: the job of a information director will go to Walter Seledec who up to now is in charge of the noon newsshow. Here, Seledec managed to put in a 20-minute-report on an FPOe press conference. He also happens to be a general with the Austrian army and loves to buy arms at lowest prices. Seledec also produces propaganda films about FPOe and army under the disguise of 'documentaries' which regularly get shown during the main evening programme. The post of a radio director will also be given to a person of 'renown': Gerhard Draxler - the person who was responsible for the broadcast of the 'home-made' Haider interview...

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[5] Term "man-hunter" seen as tolerable opinion
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Last March, a court of justice ruled that journalist Karl Pfeifer was entitled to damages since a 'colleague' from rightwing extremist weekly paper "Zur Zeit" said he had started 'a man hunt' against political scientist Werner Pfeifenberger, 'which was meant to continue until the death of the hunted person'. Pfeifenberger had written rightwing extreme and revisionist articles which lead to investigations against him under the law banning Nazi activities. Before the beginning of the trial, Pfeifenberger commited suicide.

The verdict has now been ruled out by a higher court who said that the 'facts were correct' - Pfeifer reproached Pfeifenberger in an article of a use of 'Nazi rhetoric - and the term 'man hunt' therefore was an acceptable evaluation..

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[6] How to silence criticism of police
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Buelent Oeztoplu, president of youth, culture, and integration organization 'Echo' has until recently been a member of a commission of the humyn rights advisory council ( a state institution whose members have the right to observe and criticize official duties of the police, even without prior announcement).

On September 12, 2001, Oeztoplu was arrested due to an international warrant issued by German authorities and put into detention for three weeks. He was completely isolated during the first five days. It eventually turned out that the reason given for the warrant was attempted manslaughter of a police officer in the German town of Mannheim in 1984. Oeztoplu had come to the aid of three Turkish immigrants who were attacked by Germans. Buelent was shot and fled into the next police station, together with the other three immigrants involved. As it turned out, the Germans involved happened to be undercover police officers, which led to the immigrants' being sentenced to terms in prison. The consequence for Oeztoplu was an inofficial ban of entry (through a sort of 'dormant' warrant against him).

Only in August 2001, a Mannheim court issued an international warrant, obviously upon receiving 'special information' from Austrian authorities, as the judges quite frankly declared during a trial started by Buelent Oeztoplu's attempt to enter Germany.

The humyn rights advisory council suspended Oeztoplu - and only after considerable pressure added an option to accept him again after the accusations have been investigated completely. Which means that the procedure has served its purpose.....

(source: http://www.echo.non.at)

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[7] Charles Ofoedu 'allowed' to stay
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After Nigerian-born author Charles Ofoedu was arrested contrary to legal regulations by foreigners' police last month and put into detention awaiting deportation (cf evil:austria 1101), the Supreme Court VfGh managed to produce a decision ruling that his appeal against the deadline of December 1st issued by foreigners' police will postpone the detention. Charles Ofoedu theoretically now is safe from deportation until the same court decides upon the lawfulness of the foreigners' police decision to ban Ofoedu from further residence in Austria.

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

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[8] Optical support for a Minister
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The Alpbach Talks on Technology are quite an important meeting for Austria. One of the speakers making an appearance during the last meeting was Minister of Infrastructure Monika Forstinger (FPOe). Her speech was prepared with the assistance of two companies and supported visually by video and animation. The price paid to make the Minister look good was quite impressive, too: It cost a whopping great EURO 40,000 to produce an appropriate camouflage for the always surprising incompetence of Frau Forstinger only for the period of time her speech lasted.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[9] Evil rhymes
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Austrian "Kronen Zeitung" tries to humour its readers with rhymes written by a certain "Wolf Martin". His poems persistently contain racist, anti- semitic, and sexist allusions. One of these poems about the producers of 'Augustine' magazine produced by homeless persons described these persons as 'as annoying as lice and bugs' and this was even more than the Austrian Press Council is prepared to tolerate. The Council said this was a clear breach of the code of honour of the Austrian press and the author had violated his journalist duties. There will, however, not be any further consequences, because who will engage in a brawl with that Austrian daily paper with by far the highest humber of copies published?

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[10] No mercy for gay love
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In the case of a 36-year-old man who ast month was sentenced to five months in prison for sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old (cf. evil:austria 1101), President Klestil now has turned down an appeal for clemency. In a letter to the man's lawyer, the Presidential Office wrote that the appeal for clemency served to take the according | 209 'its efficiency' and 'therefore intervenes with the rights of the parliament' and 'thus violates the constitutional principles of democratic forming of the state's will and of separation of powers'.

The Supreme Court meanwhile turned down the appeal of an Innsbruck court saying that | 209 was unconstitutional since the contrary had been ruled already in 1989. The Supreme Court did not rule out the possibility of examining this paragraph again under different aspects and with a differently worded appeal. The government already in July advised the court to turn down this appeal. Chancellor Schuessel repeated several times that he will insist on keeping this paragraph without any changes.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[11] Central surveillance
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The controversial Central Registrar (ZMR) will take up full work from March 1, 2002 on. This will create the largest electronic registrar in Austria which e.g. will store data of the places of residence of all Austrians. These data will be available online.

(source: http://derstandard.at)

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[12] The law on 'security' of information
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The governing parties OeVP and FPOe have voted for the new law on security of information. This law will provide regulations for all Austrian federal employees with access to documents rated 'confidential' to be checked routinely by state police in future. Asked whether this would not mean too much expense and work, an employee of the Foreign Ministry said that half of the employees were checked already anyway, and that state police had advised they would check the other half within one day. The issue of data protection was not even as much as touched in this discussion.

(Source: http://derstandard.at)

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EPILOGUE
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NO PEACE WITH AUSTRIA!!!