GERMANY: Mob attacks Indians in east German town

A crowd of about fifty people attacks eight Indians at a town fair in east Germany. Police rescued the group of Indians after they sought refuge inside a pizzeria. A mob shouting racial insults attacked eight Indians at a town fair in east Germany, chased them into a pizzeria where they hid until they were rescued by police, officials said on Monday (August 20). Around 70 police officers were required to disperse the mob of 50 people, which gathered after revellers shouted abuse and threw bottles at the Indians during the town fair in Muegeln, east of Leipzig, on Saturday (August 18) night. One local resident who witnessed the attack said he saw when the trouble started, "I saw someone get slashed in the calf and another person get injured in the neck. That is not necessary, that must no happen," he said. Kulvia Singh was one of those attacked. Singh, with a bruised left eye, spoke to journalists on Sunday (August 19) about his horrific experience. "They would have killed us if we didn't hide in the pizzeria," Singh told reporters. "It was very dangerous, I fell over. He hit my eye, my head... my thigh. It all hurts." Singh added, pointing to a bruise on his cheek. All of the Indians, who were traders and asylum seekers, were injured, a police official said. Hans-Georg Wieck, head of the German-Indian society, says the incident should prompt the community to look deep into why it happened and urged for better integration. At a news conference on Tuesday (August 21), Germany's Minister for Development of the East condemned the violence, called it "intolerable." Eastern Germany has seen intermittent racist attacks on foreigners since German reunification in 1990. In 2006, crimes committed by neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists reached their highest level since 1990.

ITN Source | August 22, 2007

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