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Blue/black repression in Austria

The removal of basic democratic rights, the smear campaigns and threats; this is the new Blue/Black Austria.

With the increasing number of protests against the FPOE/OEVP- government, the state is using its weapons against the opposition, people are imprisoned,and the FPOE retaliates with threats. The critical(?) media and the foreign press overlooked facts until now. On one hand the police arrested specific commited activists from the radical left, on the other they did not stop the official opposition. In addition and virtually unnoticed, the FPOE threatened the cultural society and the press that they can be too critical. Individuals from across the spectrum of society could see the threats, confrontations and rassicist attacks taking place.

Branch of the police tests the Civil War!

On the 4th February, the day the new government was sworn in, the Viennese police, mainly the special branch WEGA, attacked a peaceful demonstration. Until now such action had not been believed. This brought about the massing of thousands of demonstrators against the government, the second republic had not seen such unrest in its existance. After its short time of occupancy the FPOE lead MPs believed the WEGA had not acted in an unprovoced way. At a rally infront of a prison for foreigners later in the afternoon, it was the same scene of violence, this was to ulitmately escalate outside the FPOE headquaters. After a long standoff the police resorted to watercannons and mercilessly beat the demonstrators sitting peacefully on the floor, dozens were injured. Also the police beat demonstrators indiscriminately on demonstrations in the citycentre. The year long police de-esclatioin that had been eperienced was therefore totaly destroyed.

The police conciously provoke part of the resistance to make them criminals and thus discredit the opposition to the government. These strategies did not stop.

The noisy, but peaceful demonstrations the next day didn't give the police enough ground to attack, therefore another step was taken by the police and they identified and attacked specific indivdiduals. On the 6th February a demonstrtion of over 10,000 people descended on the ORF headquaters. There, civilservants,tried to take cameras from the documentation teams. Later a demonstrator was forced into a police car and had her hand bag taken away containing anti-government leaflets. After a lot of protesting and under the supervision of a PRO-7 camera crew the handbag was given back by the policeman who had stolen it, the leaflets were never returned by the police.

At the international demonstration on the 19th February the controling of the radical left reached new limits. Identity cards were taken from people's hands and the people then photographed by WEGA with a polaroid camera. At Westbahnhof a group from PDS Tuebingen were abused by the police, their mobile phones were destroyed and their shoes taken away (News 23 February). Such an attack is against everybody.

Later an autonomous group were seperated from the demonstration by a police cordon without provocation. This is the beginning of the abolition of the right to demonstrate for unpopular groups. Also on the evening of the same day, in the citycentre, a serious witchhunt for demonstrators was organised, even more people were beaten, their shoelaces cut and people were threatened (there are statements from witnesses). It was on this evening that people wearing certain clothes, specific hairstyles, or singing radical left songs were not able to go into the citycentre safely. Demonstrators from abroad also said that such behaviour had not been heard of or believed possible and that a lot of people are afraid not being "Standard European". The Viennese police need only two weeks to re-write these standards.

Deliberately arresting unpopular people and the intervention in the established rights of the political parties.

A totally new thinking lies behind the criminalistion of every socially commited person.

In the light of the Opernball demonstration, on the 2nd March, the police began a mad rush to prevent the construction of an "Autonomous Block" that supposedly enjoyed the support of German Autonomous groups, who were supposed to attack the Opernball. Noisy protests on this evening were everywhere and combined to make the peaceful and colourful "Anti-fascist carnival" that the government was supposed to laugh at.

There was practically no disturbances except those that the police started. Then came the possibilty to use a new police force; Sondereinsatzgruppe Kriminaldienst (SEK) (Special Attack Group Criminal Police): this force began, on the 1st February, its 6 month trial run. Their specific brief being "Observation and Access". It consists of 55 members who are voluntary and unpaid and sequestrated from various parts of the police force. What is the motivation behind giving yourself unpaid volutary work? That becomes a little clearer: This mixed group were masked on the demonstration and were undiscernable from each other. After the demonstration a woman was assailed by 2 masked men and forced in to a taxi, in front of witnesses. No one knew where they were taking her. There was another similar attempted kidnapping, when the "policemen" realised they had been observed they tried to arrest the winesses. The woman had been hidden in a remand prison and was, after over a week, later released on the condition that she didn't attend another demonstrarion until her case opened. This means the right to gather has been removed. She also had bruises upon her release. One hour after the woman had been successfully kidnapped, four people were removed from a taxi by masked police men with drawn weapons , two were arrested by uniformed police and charged with "resisting the authority of the state". They were taken to the police station in the 16th district where the founder of the SEK (Rabensteiner) is based. Even hours later the spokeswoman for the police knew nothing of the arrests. The SEK, a special group, operates outside the police. In the "Presse" ,on the 18th March, they stated "We were the masked men." The police maintain it was only because of an act of violence or provocation that these masked policemen acted. The need to introduce these "agent provocateur" was anticipated by the government. In the face of such methods one would believe that we are living in a military dictatorship. Both of those arrested sit in a remand prison, one charged with "resisting the authority of the state", the other faces the same charge but with "breach of the peace" too. Both are prudent enough not to engage the police in such a manner as to result in their arrest. It appears that proof is not required by the authorities. The arrest warrant from the 16th March included an extension of the time that these people could be held for. These tactics win time for the authorites to fabricate charges. Proof enough is in the fact that the public prosecutor, Risa Schumeister-Schmatral, is known to be from the Law and Order far right part of the the OEVP. The two prisoners were aware of the prosecutors participation (with massive criticism from her fellow party members - Standard, 17.3) in an FPOE style action against Leftwing groups, whom she believes have a terrorist network behind them, which she will expose in a case against the left. There is an incompatibility between political ambition and a public prosecutor's authority to deliver justice.

Standing behind these procedings is an attack on the politcal structure behind which a large part of the resistance gather. Both prisoners have distributed leaflets from the "Law Society" (who document arrests, attacks and seek to organise support for those arrested. These remain fundemental to the backing of the protest against the government and a thorn in the side of the prosecutor.) Fortunately the arrest of the two men was recorded by a camera crew from the Green Party. The pictures were shown on ZIB1 on ORF on the 6th March. On the 8th March the police stormed an office of the Green Party where "illegal" immigrants are informed about their rights.

The given reason was that they had an anonymous telephone call, and that they were searching for a black African who had weapons. Naturally they find neither a black man nor any weapons, the whole thing was seen as nothing but a lie, the police though managed to arrest some persons and put them in an immigration prison. On the 10th March a translator who had been at the meeting, told ZIB3 that he asked a policeman for his police number (in Austria this is an obligation for the police) he replied "If you start like this, we'll come every day!"

This attack has more dangeous aspects:

1) It seems rather obvious that this attack was a revenge for the arrests after the opernball demonstration. It can also be seen as an attempt to curb the amount of resistance to the government by political parties.

2) Political parties enjoy a constitution of given houserights (the searched building is the office of the Green Party for the 4th 5th and 6th districts of Vienna!) that the police authorities can't easily enter a building of a political party, especially on an anonymous telphone call. This is a dangerous occurence.

3) If it is possible that "illegal" people in an advice centre are arrested, every eventuality will be taken to grant asylum.

This FPOE/OEVP government points clearly that their mainifesto they outlined at the swearing in of the government is is not worth the paper it is printed on. This government exists as one party, the FPOE ,and they drink from the same cup as old nazis and a party like the OEVP will not distance itself from Austrian Fascism. Both only look to their roots and they are not able to govern longer. The knowledge that these parties are in charge of the security apparatus of Austria and that they threaten the rights of people, is not easy to accept. The protestors need more support.

Repression besides Police encroachment.

There are obviously many methods of silencing the opposition. Especially endangered are individuals who come out against the FPOE or the government. An example is the women's representative in Kaernten, after her crticism of Joerg Haider and his policies for women, without more ado she was relieved of her post. Also after mistakes in the subsidy of the women's advice centre, especially in relation to the unfinished women's centre Kosmos in Vienna, show how deeply the fear of women has reached in to the government. Both cases show repression and fear.

What threats were issued hurt the FPOE in such an accustomed manner. The FPOE in Salzburg demanded to cancel subsidies for cultural offices, who support the demonstrations against the government. Joerg Haider stated in his Ash wednesday speech in Ried, once more that press criticism of the media was in question:"Of course the newspapers will carry on writing: "He has carried on issuing threats." He tells no lies (???). It is totally normal, when I feed a dog and it bites me, then I stop feeding the dog in case it bites me again." (APA) The comparatively critical media, with its biting dogs, remember the speeches by the previous FPOE Or how he, Joerg Haider, said so beautifully in 1994: "When I have something to say it will be kept in the editorial and in the future their will be fewer lies and more truth than now." The Upper Austrian news in February had one of their editorials discredited because it had written too critically of the government. The pressure grew on the journalist of ORF (because everything goes through Westenthaler from the FPOE), who were clearly against the FPOE.

People who are against this government often recieved annoymous threats.

Elfriede Jelnik received threatening letters, two were to her not to the public available private address. The Evangelical superintendant, Gertraud Knoll, who has always been a committed anti-racist, also at the big rally in Vienna on the 19th February, where she was a speaker, was subjecz to a dirty tricks campaign. Somone from the FPOE dominated "The Evangelical Christian Platform" and forced Knoll to back down, because she wouldn't listen to a word he said "this was to the disadvantage of the Evangelical Church." In the mean time she got threatening phone calls and annoymous letters saying such things as "It is a shame Hitler didn't gas you." (Standard 7 and 8 March) It is important to mention that the police had advised Mrs. Knoll, that finger prints and voice samples from her children should be taken in case of a kidnapping! Where are we living exactly?

The chairman of the Israeli cultural community, Ariel Muzicant, is not spared from the FPOE. Joerg Haider took him to court because he claimed that Haider was anti-semetic. In fact Haider allways tolerated anti-semetic statements of his followers in the FPOE.

We could write books on this subject (more about that in Profil No. 11/2000) therefore we call for actual quotes. The FP-Euro-M.P., Sichrovsky, has in the Slovenian newspaper "Delo" described Muzicant as an "intelligent idiot, gold digger and a professional Jew." All that Chancellor Schuessel could say was "The tone has, at the moment, increased to something too hysterical". Too hysterical? Since the election of the FPOE have the number of anti-semetic attacks increased dramitically. Many Jewish people are affraid. The coalition between Wolfgang Schuessel and the FPOE was a slap in the face for these people.

All this has happened in a few weeks.

The police's daily methods, the right-right coalition that has now become law were all planned by the last government. They had, for all in need of asylum, worked out who fitted the picture of the "black drug dealer". It came under the frame of the SP/VP "operation spring" to systematically persue people with a dark skin colour. With the ensuing "court cases", with anonymous witnesses, the defendants no chance for real defence.

Through the FPOE/OEVP-government will the extreme right wing experience power. For the shamefull attack on "illegal" people, on anti-fascists, but also for facists acting like mad men, anti-semetic attacks, for racist attacks (onthe 1st March a Nigerian in Innsbruck was attacked by Neo-nazis with a knife and badly injured.) is this government fully answerable.

The OEVP does not stand alone, but is as guilty as the FPOE! they have given the extreme right power through the coalition. All this because Wolfgang Schuessel wanted to be chancellor! People have been arrested, injured and many are affraid. This is the first step on the road to an authoratarian regime. Only through a strong opposition, without exception, will a suitable end be reached.

Oekologische Linke (Postfach 28, A-1153 Vienna, oekoli_wien@gmx.net)

Revolutionsbraeuhof (Hahngasse 15, A-1190, tel. 0043 1 /31076 93, rbh@inode.at)

Rosa Antifa Wien (c/o Rosa Lila Tip, Linke Wienzeile 102, A-1060 Wien, raw@swi.priv.at)