June 22

Berlin to ban neo-Nazi demonstrations


German Interior Minister Otto Schily is drafting legislation to
outlaw neo-Nazi demonstrations, a move welcomed by opposition
conservatives but criticised by civil liberties advocates.

A spokeswoman for the minister said Tuesday the reduction of the
rightists' constitutional freedom of assembly was designed to protect the
general public and had been suggested by most of the 16 state interior
ministers.

Analysts said Berlin was especially worried that neo-Nazis would picket
the Holocaust Memorial to be opened next May in the heart of Berlin.
Germany was deeply embarrassed when neo-Nazis held a procession in 2000
through the Brandenburg Gate in the capital.

On Tuesday, the online edition of Der Spiegel quoted the draft as banning
assemblies that "glorify Naziism

or totalitarianism, terrorist organisations and domestic or foreign crime
in such a way as to endanger the public peace".

The bill would also allow bans on rallies "in places that specifically
commemorate the victims of organized inhumanity" and that "approve, deny
or trivialize this inhumane treatment".

Holocaust deniers resent the concentration-camp memorials dotted all over
Germany and have defaced the prison buildings and the cemeteries as well
as demonstrating outside.

The states are also fed up with the huge cost of deploying thousands of
riot police to prevent brawls every time that a tiny neo-Nazi group
announces a demonstration and militant leftists picket it, according to
analysts.

A spokesman for the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), which rules
the southern state of Bavaria, welcomed the Schily moved, which he said
met a long-standing CSU demand and remained in harmony with constitutional
rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

But Volker Beck, the Greens parliamentary whip, said: "You can't tailor
rights to demonstrate according to whether you like their demonstrators'
ideas or not."

(source: Expatica)