EU: Racist murders
01 January 1993
As racist violence spreads across Europe, November witnessed an unprecedented wave of deaths. In Germany the violence continued unabated as at least six people died.
Two Turkish women, Bahide Arslan and Ayse Yilmaz, and a 10 year-old girl, Yeliz Arslan, died in a petrol bomb attack on two houses in Molln, near Lubeck on the former East-West German border. Nine other people were also injured, including an 82 year old woman and a 9 month old child.
Following the attack an anonymous phone caller claimed responsibility for the attack, finishing his message with the words "Heil Hitler". Two members of a local neo-nazi group, Lars Christianson and Michael Peters, were later arrested and admitted carrying out the firebombing. They are being questioned about several other attacks on asylums across the country.
In Cologne, a few days after the killings, a security guard shot dead a 24 year-old Turk who had been refused entry to a discotheque. The killer is now on the run from the police.
The day before the Molln murders, political activist, Silvio Meyer, was stabbed to death and a friend was wounded, by skinheads, in the Berlin underground. In west Germany two skinheads were arrested for the murder of a man they took to be Jewish earlier in the month; he was beaten and his body set ablaze before being dumped over the Dutch border.
As a result of the attacks the German government has banned two of the more street-active fascist groups, the Nationalistische Front (NF) and the Deutsche Alternative (DA), at the beginning of December. The DA, which was formed in May 1989 and is led by Frank Huebner, was involved in fire-bomb attacks on asylum seekers earlier in the year.
It is believed that almost 20 people have been killed by neo- nazis in Germany this year. According to the German parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Alfred Biehle, at least three of the killings involved off-duty members of the German army. They were said to have occurred during fascist raids in the cities of Flensburg, Hanover and Magdeburg; soldiers were also said to have been involved in firebomb attacks on hostels for asylum seekers.
In Madrid, Spain, two racist murders took place within 48 hours during November. In the first, a 33-year old black woman from the Dominican Republic, Lucrecia Perez, was shot dead following a gun attack on a building that was squatted by immigrants in the Aravacia area. The attack, which involved four hooded men, also left a 55-year old man wounded. It took place following a campaign of intimidation against the immigrants which, they claimed, was co-ordinated by the local civil guard.
The second killing, which took place in the Majadahona suburb on the following day, was of a 25 year-old Moroccan, Hassan al- Yahahaqui. He died in hospital after being attacked and beaten by a gang of neo-nazi skinheads.
A week after the two murders 5,000 fascists marched through central Madrid waving swastika flags and giving Nazi salutes, on the anniversary of Franco's death. At the rally afterwards National Front leader, Blas Pinar, addressed the crowd telling them "there is no outbreak of racism in Spain. A Moroccan man was treated in hospital after being attacked during the rally.
European 19.11.92. 3.12.92; Independent 16-17.11.92, 24.11.92, 1.12.92, 11.12.92; see Campaign Against Racism and Fascism [CARF] January-February 1993 issue with special investigation of racist and fascist murders across Europe.