March 25


GERMANY:

Neo-Nazi music files spark German raids

In Berlin, German police raided the homes of more than 300 people
Wednesday whom they suspect of posting neo-Nazi music files on the
Internet for others to download, the Federal Crime Office said in a
statement.

Police said the nationwide raids followed investigations into 342 people
who had posted songs by skinhead bands on the Internet. The songs
contained lyrics inciting racial hatred, the crime agency said.

Police said they would carry out 333 raids by the end of Wednesday at the
homes of people who posted songs on a music sharing Web site.

"Inciting racial hatred is more than just a petty crime," said Federal
Crime Office President Joerg Ziercke. "Skinhead music groups create an
enemy image and help propagate extreme right ideas."

Inciting racial hatred, displaying Nazi emblems like the swastika and
performing the stiff-armed Hitler salute used under Adolf Hitler are
crimes punishable by imprisonment in Germany, the country which carried
out the Holocaust.

The Federal Crime Office started clamping down on Internet trading of music
inciting neo-Nazis to hate and attack Jews and foreigners in 2001.

The songs convey Nazi ideology and contain lyrics such as these from the
group Tonstoerung (Sound Interruption):

"Sharpen your long knives on the pavements; delve them into Jewish
bodies."

More than 100 people have been killed in racist violence in Germany since
unification in 1990. Most of the attacks are random and involve skinheads
picking on foreigners in the street.

Property has also been attacked. Swastikas have been daubed on Jewish
gravestones, bricks thrown at Turkish kebab shops and firebombs hurled at
asylum hostels. Most synagogues have 24-hour police guards.

German police raided homes of more than 300 people on Wednesday whom they
suspect them of sharing neo-Nazi music files on the Internet.

(source: Reuters)