I'm staying in a suburb town just north of frankfurt.. should i be worried?
World Cup fans warned of race attacks[/size]
By Bojan Pancevski in Berlin
(Filed: 30/04/2006)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/30/wberlin30.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/30/ixworld.htmlBlack visitors to the World Cup in Germany are being warned to stay clear of parts of the country where they could be at risk of racist attacks.
A "no-go" map, with a focus on the capital Berlin, will be posted on a website and printed in brochures for distribution to thousands of visitors of African and Asian origin.
The document was drawn up by the Africa Council, an umbrella organisation of African community groups and activists in Germany, following concern over an incident on Easter Sunday when a German of Ethiopian descent was beaten into a coma at a bus station in Potsdam.
Ermyas Mulugeta, 37, an engineer and father of two, suffered multiple skull fractures and brain trauma and is fighting for his life while being kept in an artificial coma at a local clinic.
The attack, believed to have been the work of far-Right extremists, has brought Germany's problems with racism into the spotlight and resulted in nationwide demonstrations, calling for politicians to take urgent action.
Moctar Kamara, 42, the Africa Council's president, said that "non-whites" were being targeted in particular parts of the country and that fans attending the World Cup in June needed to be warned.
He said: "Black people here are facing racist assaults ranging from verbal insults to murder. There are areas where non-whites are simply not safe, not even to use public transport.
"That is why we are warning the thousands of football fans who are coming to Germany without knowing what could happen if they go into the wrong areas. We will set up a website and distribute brochures with all the necessary information, including maps of the no-go areas and lists of pubs, clubs and other establishments that have a history of racist incidents.
"We feel it is a necessary measure for the safety not only of visitors from Africa, like the supporters of Tunisia, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast or Angola, but also for the many fans of various ethnic background who will travel from the UK and other countries. Local authorities have not supported us in any way, but we have received generous support from the African community in the UK."
Areas in Berlin that Mr Kamara believes are dangerous include the districts of Hellersdorf-Marzahn, Koepenick and Pankow, and the streets around the railway stations Ostkreuz and Lichtenberg. But he said the situation was much worse in regions of the former East Germany, especially in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, where far-Right and neo-Nazi ideology was on the rise, particularly among unemployed youths.
None of the England team's scheduled first-round fixtures will take place in areas highlighted on the council's map, but matches featuring teams from Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador and Tunisia will all be staged in Berlin.
The council's initiative has, however, provoked protests among local officials, who are upset at allegations that certain communities are more xenophobic than others. The council has not publicly named other cities apart from Berlin which it plans to highlight as dangerous. However, the Saxony city of Leipzig, which is hosting World Cup matches, is thought to be among them.
Anja Trojahn, a spokesman for the police in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, said: "There are xenophobic incidents, but they happen everywhere. I do not know why Mr Kamara picked our state as the worst example."
Frank Henkel, the interior affairs expert of the ruling Christian Democratic Union, deemed the no-go areas a "nonsense and causing panic", while a Berlin police spokesman said that there were "no no-go areas in Berlin".
Mr Kamara said politicians were trying to ignore the problem. "The majority of victims of racism are outside the statistics, as African people often do not dare to go to the police. Violent assaults motivated by racist hatred are therefore registered as 'normal' incidents."
To prove its claims, the council is planning a press conference, with witnesses and victims of racist assaults, at the end of this week.
According to the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the number of incidents linked to far-Right extremism rose from 12,000 in 2004 to 15,000 in 2005. The number of violent Right-wing extremists is estimated to be more than 10,000.
Yonas Endrias, the vice-president of the International Human Rights League, one of Germany's oldest human rights groups, said: "We fully support the initiative of the Africa Council. There are places in eastern Germany where black people are not safe if they go out after dark."
Stephan Eiermann, the spokesman for the German World Cup Committee in Frankfurt said: "We have heard about the no-go areas guide but have not seen it yet, therefore we cannot comment."
