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Racist attack leaves Black German in coma
By Jess Smee
Updated May 10, 2006 - 9:13:00 AM

BERLIN (IPS/GIN) - A brutal racist attack that left a Black German in a coma has raised new fears about right-wing extremism in Germany. Ermyas M., a 37-year-old engineer of Ethiopian descent, was attacked early on Easter morning while waiting at a tram stop in Potsdam in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. His assailants called him the N-word, attacked him with a bottle and beat him to the ground. The German citizen is married and has two small children.

With spurring headlines, political debate and protests by hundreds of Potsdam residents, the attack is a reminder of an unrelenting problem in Germany. Since reunification in 1990, more than 100 people have been killed in racist violence. Neo-Nazi groups routinely protest against foreigners.

In Potsdam, insecurity and anger prevail. Two men aged 29 and 30 have been arrested in the attack, but it is not clear if they have links to any right-wing extremist organization.

Anetta Kahane, chairperson of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in Berlin—an organization named after an Angolan man murdered in 1990 by skinheads in Brandenburg—says the assault in Potsdam is the tip of the iceberg. “For foreigners living in Germany this problem is permanent,” she told IPS. “After the latest attack, potential victims are more fearful, but there is also relief because all the discussions mean they are no longer so alone with their angst.”

Last December there were 818 registered right-wing extremist criminal acts in Germany, of which 57 were violent crimes, according to senior Left Party member Petra Pau. Meanwhile, in its last annual report, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said 10,000 right-wing extremists are now prepared to engage in violence in Germany. Racist violence intensified in Germany in the years following reunification in 1990. Among the worst incidents, an asylum-seekers’ hostel was firebombed in the eastern port of Rostock in 1992, prompting cheers from onlookers as the inhabitants tried to escape. A year later, five members of a Turkish family were killed after an arson attack on their home in Solingen, western Germany.

Millions are exposed to racist danger. About eight percent of the population holds a foreign passport, a total of 6.7 million people. Over the past few weeks, the political debate on social integration of immigrants has flared up, spurred by the high-profile court case of Turkish brothers accused of murdering their sister because she lived a “German” lifestyle. Numerous politicians have urged immigrants to do more to adjust to German society.

But, as the country reacts to the attack in Potsdam, it is increasingly clear that Germans have to become more tolerant too. A recent study by Bielefeld University suggests that xenophobia is rising. Its research showed that 61 percent of Germans think that there are “too many foreigners living in Germany,” up from 55 percent in 2002.

Ms. Kahane welcomed the media and political attention focused on this issue, but urged everyone to do more to counter racist violence. She said this was not just a political issue, and that ordinary Germans must wake up to the problem.

“In the west, people blame the east. In the east, people blame the west. Everyone’s talking about this latest tragic attack, but no one is questioning themselves, their own attitudes or taking responsibility,” she said. “It is time to take this problem seriously.”

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