GERMANY: Mayor of an eastern Germany town says people in area not racist despite recent attack on eight Indians by mob

Local mayor Gottfired Deuse defended his town on Wednesday (August 22), saying it was not racist. He insisted that Muegeln is a foreigner-friendly town and invited everyone to live in Muegeln "because they will realise that there are no right-wings all over town. That is not the case in Muegeln." Eight Indians were attacked during a town fair in east Germany on Saturday (August 18). A mob shouting racial insults attacked the Indians then chased them into a pizzeria where they sought refuge until the police came. About 70 police officers were needed to restore order. In the town of Doebeln, some 20 kilometres away for Muegeln, two of the injured Indian in the attack were amongst a group of Indians which were working on a market stall. One of them had a bruise and on his left eye and stitches near his left cheek. Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack, calling it "extremely deplorable and shameful." A government spokesman on Wednesday said Merkel brought up the incident in Muegeln at a regular cabinet meeting and asked the ministry responsible for tackling xenophobia in Germany to give her a report on what measures were being taken to tackle the problem. India's foreign ministry has asked Germany to take action over the incident and prevent further attacks taking place. State prosecutors in Leipzig said on Wednesday they had begun investigating two men aged 21 and 23 on suspicion of breaching the peace. The two were briefly detained on Sunday. Prosecutors said police had spoken to numerous witnesses but had yet to obtain any concrete leads on suspects. Since German re-unification in 1990, racist violence has broken out sporadically in the poorer east of the country. Some politicians and industry leaders have warned the incident could put people off immigrating to Germany, which is suffering from a serious shortage of skilled labour. Wolfgang Tiefensee, the minister responsible for the eastern states, said after the attacks there was enough support for Nazi ideas in Germany for some people to fear for their lives. Last year crimes committed by neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists reached their highest level since 1990. In Muegeln's state of Saxony, the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) entered the regional parliament in 2004 after winning more than 9 percent of the vote in an election.

ITN Source | August 23, 2007

Tags:. .despite. .witnesses. .prevent. .mayor. .chased