The Germ of Hate Spreads in Russia

The terror attack on Moscow's main airport last week has fuelled the flames of xenophobia in Russia. The Kremlin isn't intervening to halt the trend that could cause deep rifts in the country's multiethnic society.

The wreckage at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport had hardly been removed before a young man in St. Petersburg had incorporated the attack into his election campaign.

Andrey Kuznetsov, a computer engineer with neatly parted brown hair, is campaigning for a seat in the regional parliament as a representative of the extreme right-wing party Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI). Kuznetsov wants to see guest workers that have come to St. Petersburg from Central Asia and the Caucasus expelled or at least required "to live in certain neighborhoods, so that they can be monitored more easily."

On Tuesday, the day after the suicide bombing at Domodedovo Airport, which has been traced to groups in the Caucasus, DPNI supporters protested in St. Petersburg's Kupchino neighborhood. One of the party's activists had been stabbed and wounded by an Azerbaijani.

"The war in the Caucasus has arrived in our cities," says Kuznetsov. "We send them money, and they send us terrorists." President Dmitry Medvedev's strategy of trying to pacify the region with billions in investment is a "bad joke," says Kuznetsov. "The experiences in Germany and France show that Muslims do not assimilate. We have to keep them out."

On the Brink of Disintegration?

The right-wing extremists' demands are also meeting with approval among ordinary citizens. A radical form of Islam is gaining the upper hand in the Caucasus. More than 40 percent of Russians favor the secession of the region. The number of attacks there has doubled within a year, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians have fled to Russia. The wars the Kremlin waged in Chechnya and Georgia were in vain, and today the majority of Russians no longer want Chechens, Dagestanis, Ingush and Balkars as fellow citizens.

Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, terrorism is challenging not only Moscow's control of the Caucasus but also Russia's future as a multiethnic society. The country is home to more than 100 nationalities. Muslims make up 20 million of a population of 141 million, and seven million guest workers contribute to prosperity in Russia. In surveys, however, 36 percent of Moscow residents say that they feel "hatred" toward Chechens.

The writer Victor Erofeyev believes that "extreme nationalism is the germ that could lead to the country's disintegration." The nationalist-communist weekly newspaper Zavtra even sees a civil war on the horizon.

Last year, 37 people were reportedly killed in racist acts of violence against non-Russians. In October, the mayor of the town of Khotkovo near Moscow announced a "self-cleansing" campaign. Ironically, it was on the Day of National Unity that right-wing extremists set fire to a dormitory for foreigners and businesses fired all non-Slavic employees. In December, a radical mob staged a protest in front of the Kremlin, complete with Hitler salutes, and hunted down Muscovites with southern features -- all because a Russian football fan had been stabbed by people from the Caucasus. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the grave of the victim and threatened to tighten immigration rules.

Playing with Xenophobia

A few days after Putin's appearance, the Moscow police chief announced that he intended "to examine whether liberal and democratic principles are truly compatible with the interests of the public." He wants to reintroduce the strict Soviet-era registration system, which significantly limited unrestricted movement around the country.

However, betting on the chauvinistic feelings of a deeply insecure nation has always been risky. In 2003, the Kremlin launched the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) Party, headed by the charismatic politician Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's current ambassador to NATO in Brussels. When Rodina promptly captured 9.2 percent of the vote, Kremlin planners dropped their support for the party because of its "xenophobia."

At the end of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin and the intelligence service created the LPDR, the party of nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, to lure away voters from the communists. Zhirinovsky has since become the vice-chairman of the Russian parliament. Four days before the airport bombing, Zhirinovsky was given several minutes of airtime on state-owned television to agitate against people from the Caucasus, calling them "those thieves and speculators who neither work nor learn anything." The ultranationalist his face beet-red, shouted into the microphone: "We shit on the Caucasus. We've been fed up with it for a long time."

Neither Medvedev nor Putin called Zhirinovsky to order.

Spiegel Online

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Law needed to tackle hate speech on Internet

Turkish civil society organizations are demanding a new law regulating hate crimes and hate speech, saying racism and xenophobia are spreading fast on the Internet.

At the beginning of this week, Ankara hosted a meeting of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a body within the Council of Europe (CoE). The meeting brought together national and international experts to discuss the implementation of the ECRI's recommendations to combat discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion or other characteristics, and one of the main topics was discrimination and racism on the Internet.

Turkey, like most countries of the world, is not free of crimes against minorities and disadvantaged groups. Among these, crimes motivated by a victim's background or identity are defined as hate crimes. The Turkish Penal Code (TCK), however, includes no such category, and civil society organizations are fighting to have it added.

Despite the lack of such a category in the TCK, Parliament ratified a bill this week that introduces new regulations for broadcasting. According to amendments to the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) law, broadcasts will not be allowed to instigate hate and broadcasts that discriminate on the basis of race, language, gender, class, sect or religion will not be allowed. However, regulations regarding the Internet are not included for the time being.

Yaman Akdeniz, an associate professor at Bilgi University's school of law, told Sunday's Zaman that Turkey has signed the Convention on Cybercrime but not the additional protocol “concerning the criminalization of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems.”

The additional protocol defines racist and xenophobic material as “any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as a pretext for any of these factors.”

Even a quick look at the social networking website Facebook is enough to show that there are many groups which spread hatred and even call for the mass killing of certain groups.

The additional protocol asks for its members “to adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish [hate crimes] as criminal offences under its domestic law,” but, as Akdeniz, pointed out, this is no easy task. Akdeniz said it is easy to spot criminal material such as child pornography that is posted on the Internet, but not so with hate speech because it includes written material also.

He added that websites such as YouTube and Facebook are trying to implement controls and monitoring mechanisms and that it is possible for users to report discriminatory or racist content, but it is very easy to repost banned material on the digital platform after simply changing the name and/or content just a little.

Akdeniz also underlined that there is a very fine line between hate speech and political discourse, another fact that makes the fight against hate speech and hate crimes very difficult.

In interview with Sunday's Zaman earlier this week, ECRI Chairman Nils Muiznieks said discrimination and hate speech on the Internet is a very important issue they are trying to tackle; however, the general recommendations for fighting hate speech, racism and discrimination are outdated and technologically inadequate.

He said the countries most successful in fighting racism and intolerance on the Internet are those with the best cooperation between NGOs, Internet service providers and authorities; however, the level of cooperation is not at desirable levels everywhere and the fine line between freedom of expression and discrimination is very important.

“You need groups that monitor discrimination on the Internet. You need service providers who are willing to listen and engage in dialogue. And you need authorities to step in and punish the bad guys. It is clear that our own tools used to cope with this are outdated. This is a very rapidly developing field. Until very recently MySpace and Google were not willing to talk to organizations such as the ECRI. But they are now beginning to change a little,” he said.

Öztürk Türkdoğan, chairman of the Human Rights Association (İHD) underlined that there is a serious gap between regulations on hate crimes and hate speech in general but also on the Internet and that the fine line between freedom of expression and hate speech should be drawn very carefully.

“The measure should be the decisions and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights [ECtHR], but the Internet should not be used as a platform for any form of violence,” he told Sunday's Zaman.

Akdeniz also pointed out that the difficulty of tackling the issue should not prevent civil society from fighting against it, saying that some measures can be taken.

“In order to combat hate speech and discrimination, banning entire websites or networks is not the right solution. This is only pretending that some measures have been taken. Closing platforms should not be considered a solution. Racism and discrimination on the Internet is very much related to the level of racism and discrimination within society. To tackle it, we must raise awareness, though this is no easy task. Fighting racism is similar to fighting terrorism, and both need careful handling and a delicate approach,” he said.

Today's Zaman

Thanks to Anon for the heads-up

Bradford braced for arrival of the EDL

Nine years ago it was the National Front marching. Today it will be supporters of the English Defence League peddling a slightly different brand of xenophobia. But whatever name they go by, many residents of Bradford fear the outcome could be the same.

Faisal Nawaz Khan has good reason to remember the last time the far right sought to parade through his home city. He was just 15 when rioting erupted in the Manningham area of the city on the night of 7 July 2001.

In what was the latest pulse of violence to hit the North of England that summer, youths threw stones at police, a pub was burnt and a luxury car dealership was attacked. David Blunkett, who was Home Secretary, had stopped the NF demonstration planned for earlier that day – just as Theresa May has acceded to police requests to do the same with the English Defence League (EDL) this time. Yet trouble still flared and today it will be left to the police to keep the "static" gatherings of many hundreds of EDL supporters and their opponents from Unite Against Fascism under control.

Despite the ban on marching, the planned protests have already succeeded in rekindling unwanted memories in an area still rebuilding itself after riots in both 2001 and 1995. Mr Khan was convicted of throwing a stone at the height of the last disturbances and was sentenced to five years in prison – one of 200 people jailed from the community for a total of 604 years. Then a promising student today he hoses down cars for a living in the shadow of the burnt-out Upper Globe pub which remains derelict after being torched during that long night of violence.

"They put all the blame on us as if we were the culprits and wanted to burn these buildings down," he says. His friend agrees. "The fascists and racists came here 10 years ago to tear down the town and why have they been given permission to do that again?" said the older man who did not wish to be named. Rumours have already been swirling around, they say. A story of an Asian woman being attacked by white youths is circulating, possibly started deliberately to stoke up tension, the men working at the car wash believe.

"It's already escalating," said the older man. Mr Khan believes young Asians will be reluctant to go into the city centre today where police will corral the two rival protests into separate areas out of sight of each other. "We have told our community to stay at home. But we have received anonymous letters through the letterbox saying they want us to go into town and get into trouble. I don't know who it is but they say go there and fight and defend yourselves. But it is Ramadan and we will be fasting."

His friend Asif Khan, 25, said: "This is causing flashbacks for everyone. We don't want a repeat of what happened. They should ban them from coming here all together."

Opposition to the EDL has been well organised since news of the planned march broke. In Bradford city centre, Maya Perry, 35, was gathering signatures for a group called We Are Bradford. It is planning a multicultural celebration as the EDL gather at the newly created urban park – an area of land on the edge of a giant hole in the city centre which is to become a huge retail complex. She was doing brisk trade gathering signatures from passers-by putting their names to a statement denouncing the EDL as Islamophobic, adding to the 10,000 already gathered demanding the march be stopped.

Having grown up in Bradford but now living in London, she too recalls the effects of previous riots but believes people need to stand up and be counted. "We know that when there hasn't been any opposition such as in Stoke the far right can rampage through the town centre, attacking Asians and destroying businesses. They say they are against Islam but in Dudley they attacked a Hindu temple. They are violent racist thugs," she said.

For Bradford's traders, today promises to be one of lost business. Ayaz Muhammad, 33, who sells luggage in Kirkgate market, said he was planning to be there though others would not be opening their stalls. "No one wants trouble. The elder at the mosque has been giving us a lecture for the last two weeks not to go into the town centre. He has been warning us that it is like a fire. The dry sticks can ignite even the green wood. They fear everyone could get caught up if a few get involved," he said.

At the Oastler shopping centre Keith Taplin, 54, was manning his butcher stall which has been run by the family since before the War. The Union Flags on display were there to mark a recent sausage promotion and he said his customer base included as many Asian shoppers as white. "This is going to cause a lot of trouble. There are two or three different groups and that is going to cause a problem no doubt whatsoever," he said. Despite the planned presence of an extra 30 security guards at the market customers were getting their shopping in early. "We have seen a lot of our Saturday regulars already this week. Everybody is keeping out of the way. And who can blame them?"

Independent

BNP manifesto seeks more than votes

Nick Griffin's manifesto reveals a party keen to turn voters into supporters of a racially 'pure' Britain, 'bound together by blood'

What does the BNP manifesto tell us about the party?

Nick Griffin's manifesto feigns engagement with widespread popular concerns over the economy, public sector cuts and war, while ignoring others, like climate change – which is presented as a myth. Above all, it seeks to profit from the current high profile of the immigration debate.

The party wants to make immigrants, and in particular Muslims, the scapegoats for everything – falling living and educational standards, rising crime, terrorist activities, even traffic congestion. This allows the BNP to address real issues such as poverty and social decay, without identifying any of their causes, like disparities of wealth and income. Its targets are not those who make huge profits from social inequality, but those who suffer from it most.

The party has won a degree of legitimacy thanks to the acceptance by mainstream politicians that there is indeed an immigration "problem". But this is not enough for the BNP. It is not like UKIP – happy to whip up xenophobia for electoral purposes. The BNP seeks more than an electorate, it wants to turn voters into supporters – committed, hardline, racist authoritarians. This involves winning "soft" racists to a more ideological identification with the party's core beliefs, centred on notions of racial purity.

The BNP manifesto therefore claims being British "is to belong to a special chain of unique people who have the natural law right to remain a majority in their ancestral homeland". It presents "white British" people as a community of destiny, "bound together by blood", whose "ability to create and sustain social and political structures … is an expression of innate genetic nature". Sound familiar?

The extent of social engineering that would be required to realise this biological fantasy is downplayed in the manifesto. Opposition to mixed-race relationships, for example, is implicit but not stated, presumably for legal reasons. Instead the party vows simply to abolish multiculturalism.

Having identified the primary "cause" of society's problems, the BNP proposes "straightforward" solutions: a halt to immigration and asylum, the introduction of a voluntary repatriation scheme, the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Discrimination against ethnic minorities would be enshrined in housing, immigration and education policies. Like Pétain's Vichy regime, a BNP government would introduce retrospective legislation to review all citizenship granted over the past 13 years.

BNP authoritarianism is social – the reintroduction of capital punishment for murder and drug dealing, the establishment of a penal colony in South Georgia for repeat offenders – but it is also political – the criminalisation of journalists who "knowingly" publish "falsehoods", the sacking of "politically correct" senior police officers, prison sentences for political "intimidation".

This manifesto asserts the supremacy of one "dominant ethnic, cultural and political group". The BNP is attempting to create deep social divisions by scapegoating those who do not belong to this group. The party's economic outlook, meanwhile, champions small businesses and the nation state against "international profit" and "a rootless, amorphous globalist philosophy". Once in power, the party would use repression against opponents.

These are features of a political current that has existed before. It has a name. The BNP has simply adapted its legacy to contemporary conditions. Its name is fascism. Those who dispute this should take a closer look at the BNP manifesto.

Comment is free

The enduring legacy of Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson says Australia is no longer a land of opportunity

Ironically, the Australian anti-migrant campaigner is moving to the UK – but back in her homeland, things are less amusing

Since losing her seat in national parliament, Pauline Hanson has been an unlikely source of entertainment for Australians. There was her TV appearance on Dancing with the Stars, the Aussie version of Strictly Come Dancing, and last year raunchy pictures, supposedly taken of her more than three decades ago, were widely circulated in the Australian press (they turned out to be fake). But nothing tops the latest turn in the Hanson saga: she is moving to Britain.

"It's pretty much goodbye forever," Hanson said earlier this week. "Sadly, the land of opportunity is no more applicable (sic)."

The episode drips with delicious irony. Those familiar with recent Australian political history need no reminder of Hanson's record. As a newly elected independent MP in 1996, Hanson declared in her maiden parliamentary speech that Australia was "being swamped by Asians". She founded the One Nation Party on the platform of bringing net migration to Australia to zero and abolishing multiculturalism in favour of "assimilation". Now, Australia's most prominent crusader against immigration is about to become an immigrant herself; a self-declared patriot is abandoning her country.

How Hanson will be received in the UK is anyone's guess. But it is likely that she will have a bit of a shock when she steps off her long flight at Heathrow. This is, of course, the further irony. You suspect Hanson imagines she will be moving to the Britannia of yesteryear rather than the pluralistic Britain of today. A former fish and chip shop owner, she would be horrified to learn that chicken tikka masala is Britain's unofficial national dish. No doubt TV producers are already knocking on her agent's door to film a documentary about Pauline's adventures in the mother country.

If there are places where Hanson might fit in, they are perhaps the musty meeting rooms of the BNP. The group's angry white nativism and xenophobia are at one with the views once peddled by her One Nation party.

Yet there are significant differences between One Nation and the BNP. Unlike the BNP, One Nation was ultimately a political failure. It survived only a few years before it was deregistered; Hanson herself lost her Queensland parliamentary seat in 1998 and made three further failed bids for office. And while One Nation was accused of racism by its critics, its rank-and-file weren't populated by the kind of paramilitary thugs who surround Nick Griffin.

Even so, there is much in Hansonism that far-rightwing groups such as the BNP might aspire to emulate. Although Hanson left behind no political party organisation, her impact has been profound. She reshaped Australian political culture, many would say for worse. Tapping into white cultural anxiety, Hanson unleashed a nasty chauvinism that reprised an Anglo-Celtic race patriotism.

Her politics were in some ways a vanguard for the reactionary cultural politics of John Howard. It is no accident that Hanson's uncompromising stance on asylum seekers quickly became Howard government policy, as in the case of "temporary protection visas" for refugees.

By offering subtle approving nods to Hanson's rhetoric, Howard built a core working-class and lower-middle-class constituency for his Liberal party in formerly Labour electorates in outer metropolitan suburbs. This was the so-called dog whistle tactic, which allowed racialised appeals to become part of mainstream Australian politics. At the same time, Hanson's politics confounded a progressive left that failed to hear the grievances of the culturally disaffected.

When in 1997 Hanson launched One Nation by draping herself in the national flag, most Australians cringed. Eight years later, when the Cronulla race riot took place in Sydney, most striking was the use of the Australian flag as a symbol of exclusion. Today, on Australian roads, motorists fly the national flag from the roofs of their cars. A growing number of white Australians now tattoo their sunburnt flesh with the southern cross as a symbol of "Aussie pride".

These aren't expressions of benign patriotism or civic virtue, but they do express the legacy of Pauline Hanson. Australia is now a country where national symbols divide as much as they unite citizens.

Guardian

Antiracists and far-right battle in Moscow

A simmering confrontation between far-right youths and ant-racist activists has erupted into Moscow's streets after the fatal shooting of an anti-racist activist known as the Bonebreaker

The violence stems from deep animus between two aggressive camps with starkly different visions of Russia's future - neo-Nazi skinheads who rank in the tens of thousands and militant anti-racist groups that call themselves Antifa, short for anti-fascist.

Former punk rocker Ivan Khutorskoi, 26, provided security for meetings of antifascists. He also was known for organizing underground bare-knuckle boxing matches among them, and taking part in violent attacks on ultranationalists. Khutorskoi was gunned down in his apartment building on the city's outskirts Monday night. A day later, dozens of masked men pelted the headquarters of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia with stones, trash and steel rods, Young Russia's leader said.

Kremlin critics say Russia's leadership created Young Russia and similar youth organizations to keep its political opponents in check and provide support, and sometimes muscle, on the streets. Anti-racist groups claim they have close ties with the ultranationalists they call fascists or Nazis.

Nobody was hurt in the attack late Tuesday on the office of Young Russia. But its message, delivered first with projectiles and then over the Internet, seemed clear.

"If no one but us tries to stop Nazis and those who provide cover for them, we will act by all means necessary," blogger Anarcho Punk wrote Wednesday. Other anti-racist bloggers said the attack was retaliation for what they claimed were the group's links to Russian neo-Nazis. They "dedicated" the assault to their leader, Khutorskoi, an outsized figure and a role model among antifascists, who say he had survived three previous assassination attempts. He was shot twice in the back of the head near the door to his apartment on Moscow's eastern outskirts, police said.
Khutorskoi sometimes provided security at press conferences of Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer hated by ultranationalists but not at the one last January after which Markelov and a journalist were fatally shot on the street.

Antifa groups have been rapidly adding to their ranks in Russia in recent years, said Galina Kozhevnikova, the director of Sova, a respected independent hate-crime watchdog monitoring group. She said their ideology attracts leftist-minded youth and people concerned about persistent hate crimes and xenophobia in today's Russia.

"The army of ultranationalists is definitely bigger, as the movement is much older," Kozhevnikova said.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups like Young Russia are also a significant force. Experts believe their emergence was a Kremlin response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where youth groups played a key role in street protests that ushered a pro-Western presidential candidate to power. Young Russia is known for street rallies and pranks against anti-Kremlin politicians. The group has also been involved in attacks on anti-government protesters and opposition youth activists.

Young Russia's leader, Maxim Mishchenko, said about 80 masked men attacked the office in central Moscow. A 22-year old attacker was seized by Young Russia activists and handed over to police, he said.

Anti-fascist bloggers claimed Mishchenko, a Russian parliament member with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, has close ties with Russky Obraz, a radical ultranationalist group that antiracists claim was behind Khutorskoi's killing. Mishchenko denied the allegations, calling them "an absolute lie."

A spokesman for Russky Obraz, Yevgeny Valayev, told The Associated Press that the group had "no Kremlin-appointed supervisors" but had cooperated with Mishchenko on several initiatives, including an extreme nationalist march in Moscow early this month.

Guardian

Man guilty of stabbing 'veil martyr' to death in court

Russian-German who hated all foreigners jailed for killing muslim woman

It started with a seemingly trivial argument about a swing in a children's playground, but soon spiralled into one of the most shocking racist murders Germany has witnessed since its reunification. Eleven months later, Marwa el-Sherbini, a beautiful and well-educated Egyptian woman expecting her second child, was brutally stabbed to death with a 12-inch knife in front of judges in open court in the east German city of Dresden.

Her husband, tried to protect her and was attacked for his pains. He was left clinging to his 31-year-old Muslim wife in a pool of her blood on the courtroom floor, as their three-year-old son looked on. As he mouthed "She's dying, She's dying", Mrs Sherbini bled to death. Security guards had failed to intervene in time.

The case, which aroused scant interest in Germany at the time, provoked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Mrs Sherbini was dubbed the "veil martyr". Yesterday her killer, a 28-year-old German of Russian extraction, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Alexander Wiens stood motionless in the Dresden court only a few doors away from the courtroom where he carried out the murder. This time security has been exceptionally high, with 200 police officers standing guard.

His face covered with a hood and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, the defendant was convicted of murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. Judges said that, because of the severity of Wiens's crime, he would not be eligible for parole after 15 years. An unemployed member of Russia's German-speaking minority, Wiens is one of thousands of Russian Germans who have moved to Germany since reunification. Many, whose forebears migrated to Russia in the 18th century, have failed to integrate into German society and are treated as outsiders.

Elwy Okaz, Mrs Sherbini's Egyptian husband, who is a geneticist, was in court to hear the verdict, still using crutches as a result of the injuries he sustained. He gave the court a tearful account of how badly their son, now aged four, missed his mother.

The court yesterday accepted the prosecution's argument that Wiens was driven by "an unbridled hatred of foreigners". The presiding judge, Birgit Wiegand, said Wiens, who, listed his activities as "drinking, smoking and gambling", had moved to Germany in 2003. She said he had described life in the country as "multicultural shit" and blamed foreigners for taking away German jobs. "He despised Muslims. In his eyes they were all Islamic fanatics," she said. "He wanted to be a perfect German."

The events that led to the tragic and brutal murder of Mrs Sherbini, a pharmacist who was working at Dresden University, began on a sunny Thursday afternoon in August last year when she strolled into a children's playground. She was wearing jeans, a white blouse and the only indication that she was Muslim was a small headscarf. With her was her son, Mustafa.

The toddler wanted a go on one of the two swings in the playground, but they were both occupied. Wiens sat on one, smoking a cigarette. Mrs Sherbini asked him in German whether he would mind getting off because her son wanted a turn. His immediate response was a torrent of insults. "You are an Islamist and a terrorist who has no business in Germany," he said, adding that she was no better than a "whore" and that her son too would grow up to be a "terrorist".

The mother was shocked and felt horribly insulted. A bystander who had witnessed the incident called the police. Mrs Sherbini was persuaded to file an official complaint against Wiens. Three months later, he was found guilty by a Dresden district court and ordered to pay a €330 (£298) fine.

Wiens refused and wrote a letter to the court which concluded: "I feel humiliated and unfairly treated by the German justice system." He appealed and the case was again referred to Dresden' district court. The following month the fine imposed on him was increased to €780. Wiens again refused to pay and launched another appeal which was heard by the city's regional court on 1 July this year.

Judge Tom Maciejewski, who was in charge of proceedings that day, has been too distraught to work ever since. He choked on his words and had to interrupt his testimony frequently when he was called as a witness at Wiens' subsequent murder trial. On the day of the killing he had assumed the case was regarding a minor offence that could be dealt with in minutes. Security was correspondingly lax.

"I registered the fact that Wiens had a bag on his lap and I heard the zip-fastener being pulled open," he said. "Then I saw him leap up and attack her with his fists. It was like a machine gun. I ran to him and tried to grab him ... and then I saw that he had this knife in his right hand."

The judge ran out of the court and tried to find help. When he walked back in, Mrs Sherbini's husband, who had by then also been knifed, was saying, "She's dying". At that moment an armed security guard ran into the courtroom and, assuming Mrs Sherbini's husband was the attacker, promptly shot him in the leg. By that time Mrs Sherbini was dead.

The shocking courtroom murder was hardly reported in Germany. The case was treated as a domestic argument that had run out of control and as a failure of court security proceedings. In the Muslim world however, it was treated as an example of German Islamophobia and provoked protests in several Arab countries.

Despite complaints that Chancellor Angela Merkel's government had failed adequately to condemn the murder at the time, Egypt's ambassador to Germany, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, welcomed yesterday's verdict."I think that getting the maximum possible sentence says a lot," he said. "I think it enables the family to feel that justice has been done."

Maria Böhmer, the German government official responsible for immigrant affairs, said the verdict sent a clear signal. "The message is: there is no place for xenophobia in our country," she said.

Independent

The BNP's rise is a fantasy created by anti-democrats

The real cause of our anxieties is not the potential of the far right. It's the emergence of people power

Never underestimate how fast fear can swell in Britain. Sophisticated politicians and commentators analyse the "moral panics" of the masses about immigration and crime while remaining unaware of their own irrational prejudices. For in its nervous moments, polite society is just as panicky as the most hysterical tabloid reader. The veil of good manners slips and it describes its fellow citizens as tattooed and shaven-headed brutes who, given the right circumstances, would vote for the modern equivalent of the Nazi party.

The conditions ought to be right this summer. Indeed, I cannot imagine better conditions for a neo-fascist advance. Britain is coming to the end of the longest wave of immigration in her history. I argued when it was at its height that we could take a modest pride in the absence of rioting mobs and burning crosses, but I had to temper my patriotic sentiments with the admission that mass immigration came while the economy was booming and the public was more interested in shopping than taking to the streets. At the risk of stating the obvious, the boom is over. Unemployment is rising and anger at foreigners taking British jobs is rising with it.

To make matters worse - or better from the point of view of extremists - this parliament has disgraced itself. Its frauds turned Westminster into a tax haven and the House of Commons fees office into a cash machine that kept on giving. The electorate has gone from its normal state of surly acquiescence into a righteous fury.

Even before the scandal broke, no less an authority than the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that Britain needed to heed the lessons of Nazi Germany and accept "a very high risk of financial stringency leading to political extremes - anger finding its expression in xenophobia. The fact that the BNP can win a seat in Sevenoaks is a straw in the wind and we have to watch the horizon very, very carefully for the tempest that might be behind that".

I would mock him for imagining the leaders of the British National party crying: "Today Sevenoaks! Tomorrow the world!" But then it is just the kind of thing the leaders of the BNP would say and, in any case, the archbishop is hardly a lone voice. The combination of economic and political crises has led many politicians and journalists to predict sweeping BNP advances - five, six maybe seven European seats.

The party was hiding its roots in European fascism, they argued, and putting on respectable suits and friendly smiles to calm the electorate. It looked set to prosper.

I accept that it is foolish to call an election before a vote has been cast, and low turnouts can produce freak results, but the evidence that the BNP is surfing popular outrage is hard to find. On Thursday, the voters of Salford's Irwell Riverside ward ought to have given the far right an easy victory. If Salford is no longer Friedrich Engels's classic slum of "dirt and poverty", most of the ward's white, working-class voters still live in run-down terraces. Hazel Blears, Salford's Labour MP, did not share their struggles. She claimed for three different properties in one year, along with assorted televisions, beds, mattresses, curtains, pots, pans and overnight stays at one of London's chicest hotels.

After journalists worked out that she had managed to avoid capital gains tax after selling one home she had done up at public expense, she waved a cheque for £13,000 on television and announced she would send it to HM Revenue. Her gesture would have been less tactless if the idea of ever being in a position to write a cheque for £13,000 were not beyond the dreams of many of her constituents. Yet Blears stood at the count in Salford and saw Labour hold the seat. Its support was down, but despite the recession and the scandals, the BNP stayed stuck in third place, its share of the vote up a mere 3.8% on last year.

The anti-fascist campaigners, who gather around Searchlight magazine, were not surprised. They say that internal BNP documents show it to be a feeble organisation, running out of money and credible candidates. They do not think its strategy of dressing thugs in suits is working and nor do I. Not the least of the BNP's problems is that Nick Griffin was caught on camera at a meeting with the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke explaining how he would seek to con the public by using warm words - freedom, security, identity, democracy.

"Perhaps one day, once by being rather more subtle we've got ourselves in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, the British people might change their mind and say, 'Yes, every last one must go.' But if you offer that as your sole aim to start with, you're gonna get absolutely nowhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity."

Griffin has fooled the occasional journalist, but the regular convictions of BNP members for racial assaults, drug dealing and sex crimes leave most people in no doubt that the new BNP is no different from the old BNP: an alliance of criminals with criminal policies. If it fails to break through even in these propitious circumstances, however, it will still have revealed a latent prejudice in the British elite.

Alongside honourable concerns lurks a suspicion of popular power. Listen carefully whenever proposals are discussed to improve local democracy by, say, electing chief constables and police authorities. Eventually, an authoritative voice will tell you that the British cannot be trusted with more power because they may let the BNP take over the police forces. Similarly with reforms to the national voting system. Once again, we are told that a fairer election system cannot be contemplated because it will let the BNP out of its cage.

The best reason for hoping that it is trounced is not that a vile party will have gone down to a deserved defeat, but because it will make it harder for the opponents of reform to argue that their fellow citizens are nasty children whose betters cannot allow them to run their own affairs.

Comment is free

Don't play BNP's game, warns peer

Government told it must defend foreign workers

Politicians must start defending foreign workers to prevent extremist parties gaining sway during the recession, Britain's new European commissioner says today, in what will be seen as a veiled warning to the British government not to whip up nationalist sentiment.

Lady Ashton, who was until last autumn leader of the Lords under Gordon Brown, acknowledged in an interview with the Observer that there was a risk of significant advances in this spring's European elections for extremists in the present economic climate. She said mainstream politicians must be careful not to fan the flames: "In any kind of economic downturn, it is incumbent on us all to be putting across exactly the same message about the value and importance of having... diversity in communities; about the value and benefit of people from different countries coming and creating wealth.

"There are reasons we have to support that and not to get trapped into what the extremists would like, which would be to take their simplistic approach and fit it into a very complicated situation. So I hope that people will just reject as nonsense the idea that the solution lies in some kind of xenophobic attitude to people who live, work, study or travel in our country, because they bring the economy far more than they take out. The extremists have always relied on economic downturns ... as a way of recruiting people to what can be seen as a simple message, but actually is just hatred."

Her intervention comes amid warnings that the British National party could snatch a seat in the European parliament in June's elections, when Labour MEPs are privately predicting losses of up to three or four seats as voters respond angrily to job losses. The BNP took a council seat in Swanley, Kent, last week from Labour in a shock victory, suggesting it has begun to penetrate the southern English counties. It could profit in June both from a collapsing Labour vote in working-class areas hit by unemployment and the implosion of the hard-right Ukip, which took 16% of the vote at the last EU election.

Brown has been accused of fanning tensions by talking of "British jobs for British workers", a slogan promptly adopted by the BNP, despite the UK's obligation as an EU member to allow EU citizens free access to Britain to work.

The home secretary is expected to announce next week a reduction in permits for non-EU citizens to work in the UK. Brown's approach has caused private distaste in Brussels, but Ashton insisted it had been taken out of context and her former boss had been misunderstood. But in a warning to leaders tempted to pull up the drawbridge in a bid to protect jobs, she said Britain had traditionally benefited from bringing in workers to fill skill shortages, from Caribbean immigrants in the 1950s to Polish plumbers in the last decade.

Governing parties across Europe are braced for a backlash in June because of the economic crisis, and Labour MPs are concerned that in the UK the campaign for the local and European elections - being overseen by Harriet Harman, the deputy leader - needs a tougher strategy to combat attempts by the BNP to capitalise on the new nationalistic sentiment.

Yesterday the former cabinet minister Peter Hain warned that rising unemployment was a "heaven-made" scenario for extremists.

Observer

Putin's worst nightmare

Right-wing demonstrators give the Nazi salute during a rally
against immigration Day, in Moscow. December 12, 2008.

Their mission is to cleanse Russia of its ethnic "occupiers", with an anti-immigrant stance supported by half the population. And since 2004 their most extreme members have murdered more than 350 people.

It was 9.10pm and Karen Abramian was returning home to his flat in southwest Moscow. Abramian had been visiting his parents in a nearby tower block. His journey back took five minutes - past a series of grey high-rise buildings soaring into Moscow's packed skyline and a children's playground, and up a modest flight of steps. As he punched in the entrance code, two young men, one wearing a baseball cap and one a bandana, approached him from behind. And then they stabbed him. They stabbed him again - methodically slashing his head, neck, back and stomach. Abramian pleaded with his attackers. "Don't do this. Please take my money," he begged them. His assailants - two slight, boyish, almost nerdish figures - ignored him, stabbing him 56 times. At this moment, Abramian's wife Marta peered out of their ninth-floor apartment window and spotted two boys beating a dark shape lying on the ground. The couple's 14-year-old son Georgy, who had been playing nearby, found his father in the entrance, bleeding profusely. Georgy took off his T-shirt (it was April, still winter in Russia, and bitterly cold), wrapped it around his father and ran upstairs. Abramian was conscious when Georgy came back with a blanket and pillow. Georgy wrapped his father in it and they waited in the gloom for an ambulance. Abramian told his son simply: "They were skinheads." Four hours later, in the early hours of 17 April 2007, Abramian was dead. Doctors had been unable to stem the colossal loss of blood.

The names of Abramian's killers are Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, both 17. Their motive for murdering Abramian, the 46-year-old boss of a Moscow insurance company, was ideological. As they saw it, Abramian's violent death was part of a national liberation movement - an ambitious, quasi-mystical struggle to get rid of Russia's foreigners, in which they played the role of hero-warriors. The boys had picked Abramian because he was an ethnic Armenian. But his murder was an act of random racist violence: Ryno and Skachevsky spotted him on the street and decided impulsively to kill him. They were apprehended by a neighbour who witnessed the attack and ran after them. They insouciantly escaped on the number 26 tram, but the neighbour, a former investigator, flagged down a passing police Lada and gave chase. Police officers halted the tram and arrested both boys. Ryno and Skachevsky had turned their blood-soaked overcoats inside out; their victim, however, had managed to grab one of them by the arm, leaving behind a bloody print. They made no attempt to disguise their crime; on the contrary, they were proud of it. In their rucksack, detectives discovered 10in knives. In custody, investigators asked Ryno and Skachevsky whether they had committed other murders. To their surprise, the teenagers said they had. In a period of nine months, from August 2006 to April 2007, when they stabbed Abramian, they had killed 20 people and attacked at least 12 others, who had survived. Initially, the police were highly sceptical, assuming that the boys were delusional. Gradually, however, investigators began to confirm Ryno and Skachevsky's fantastic claims. Prosecutors established that the diminutive pair had indeed killed 20 people.

Ryno and Skachevsky are among the worst mass murderers in Russia's modern history. Three hours before Abramian's murder the pair stabbed to death Kyril Sadikov, a Tajik. They ate some food, then set off in search of their next victim. The 45-page court indictment against them shows a disturbing pattern, with the skinheads lying in wait next to different suburban metro stations and stabbing their victims 15 to 60 times. The victims had one thing in common: they weren't Slavs. Most were guest workers toiling in Moscow's building industry or as cleaners in the capital's communal courtyards and urban parks. Nobody knows how many low-wage gastarbeiter are currently resident in Moscow, a teeming metropolis of 12 million people - estimates range from 200,000 to 2 million. Typically, Ryno and Skachevsky's targets had fled poverty and the impoverished former Soviet republics of Central Asia - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Others were from China. A few were "of Caucasian appearance", as the charge sheet puts it, from Russia's troubled southern provinces of Chechnya or Dagestan.

Like all warriors involved in a holy war, as they perceived it, the boys sometimes made mistakes: several of their dark-skinned victims were actually ethnic Russians. One murder sticks out. On 9 April 2007, it was the turn of S Azimov, an Uzbek student. The skinheads ambushed Azimov outside his flat in Moscow's northwest suburb of Voikovskaya. Azimov lived on Zoe and Alexander Kosmodimiyansky Street - named after two Soviet partisans. Moscow's British school is a short walk away, down a busy boulevard; middle-class parents in orange Range Rovers whizz past. Voikovskaya is a blandly anonymous suburb, the kind of place where nothing really happens. The skinheads stabbed Azimov 56 times. As he lay on the ground, his life ebbing away, they cut off his left ear.

Alexander Verkhovsky describes Ryno and Skachevsky's killing spree as "very unusual". Verkhovsky is an eloquent, English-speaking Russian with shoulder-length black hair and a 70s-style suede jacket. He is an expert on xenophobic violence and the director of Sova, a Moscow information centre that logs hate crime. We meet in a Moscow café a few days before Ryno and Skachevsky's five-month trial for murder is due to end. Just round the corner, around 300 neo-Nazi activists are holding a rally beneath a statue of the Russian playwright Alexandr Griboyedov. (Griboyedov is a sort of early skinhead martyr. The author of the verse comedy Woe from Wit, he was stabbed to death in 1829 by a Persian mob.) The skinheads wave black, yellow and white flags; a few clamber on the statue and launch Hitler salutes, shouting: "Russia for Russians".

I later discover that most Russian skinheads revere the Führer, believing that his only mistake was to attack Russia. The average age here is about 15 or 16; the style is baseball caps, Burberry scarves and Lonsdale - the uniform of the British far-right. One skinhead even has a Union Flag jacket. There are several girls. The skinheads adhere to two ultra-nationalist groups - the Movement Against Illegal Immigration and the Slavic Union. A stall shows a photo of 15-year-old Anna Beshnova - a pretty, blonde Russian schoolgirl raped and then murdered in October 2008 by an Uzbek city maintenance worker.

Her death has ignited racial tensions across the city's already flammable lower-middle-class suburbs and inspired several revenge attacks.

According to Verkhovsky, the phenomenon of racist violence in Russia isn't new. What makes Ryno and Skachevsky's case remarkable, he says, is the prolific scale of their murder spree. The fact that the police solved their crimes has nothing to do with their investigative skills, he says, but is down to the teenagers confessing: "This isn't an example of good investigation."

Xenophobic prejudice is widespread in Russia, Verkhovsky says. "More than 50% support the idea that ethnic Russians should have privileges over other ethnic groups," he says. "More than 50% believe that ethnic minorities should be limited or even expelled from their region." Under communism there was prejudice towards non-Slavs as well as Jews, despite the poly-ethnic nature of Soviet life. In the 1990s, when many ethnic Russians returned from newly independent republics like Uzbekistan, prejudice continued. But it is over the past eight years that racism has grown to astonishing levels, Verkhovsky says. Russia's second war in Chechnya and the 1999 apartment block bombings, which killed almost 300 people in four Russian cities, created this new xenophobia. The Kremlin blamed the bombings on terrorist Chechens; others suspect they were the work of the FSB, the former KGB. Either way, racism in Russia is now ubiquitous. According to Sova, 96 people were murdered in 2008 in racist or neo-Nazi attacks, with another 419 beaten or wounded. (The number of deaths was 50 in 2004, 47 in 2005, 64 in 2006 and 86 in 2007.) Last month, another 12 people were murdered. Sova's research suggests that xenophobic prejudice has become mainstream, acceptable. And while most Russians don't support radical ideas in practice, there are around 2,000-3,000 young skinheads prepared to attack and kill migrants, he estimates. Russia's law enforcement agencies, tasked with the job of catching these boy killers, share the prejudices of Russia's general population. Typically, police officers ignore race attacks, or classify them with the lesser charge of hooliganism. Verkhovsky says: "Enforcement is very weak. These young skinheads don't feel fear of the police, since the risk of getting caught is small."

The bloody evidence appears to confirm his grim thesis. A few days before our meeting, an unknown group, the Militant Organisation of Russian Nationalists, sends out a chilling email. The group says it has murdered a 20-year-old Tajik, stabbing him six times as he walked home from his job at a food warehouse. They cut off his head, dumping it in a bin outside a council office in western Moscow. The victim's body was discovered near the village of Zhabkino, a few kilometres outside the capital. The email includes an attachment. It is a photograph of the young man's head lying on a giant wooden chopping block. The group says the murder is a protest against authority for its failure to deal with immigration or - as the killers put it - to rid Russia of its Caucasian and Central Asian "occupiers". Unless government officials deport "the blacks" their heads would "fly off" next, it warns. The beheading is reminiscent of another gruesome neo-Nazi attack that surfaced last year on the internet via far-right websites. The video - entitled "The execution of a Tajik and a Dagestani" - shows two men kneeling in an autumnal Russian forest, bound and gagged under a Nazi flag. Masked men saw the head off one man and shoot the other. Russian investigators initially dismissed the video as a hoax. Later, however, it emerged it was genuine. A man recognised the Dagestani victim as his missing brother; he had vanished in Moscow several months earlier. During the same week in December 2008, unknown assailants in the southern city of Volgograd casually knifed a black American teenager. Stanley Robinson, 18, from Providence, Rhode Island, had been in Russia on a school exchange. The attack left him critically injured and he was flown out of Russia to Finland for emergency surgery. Back in south Moscow, suspected skinheads stabbed an 18-year-old Kazakh student, Yerlan Aitymov, as he waited for a bus near Kaluzhskaya metro station. Yerlan died on the way to hospital.

Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky do not fit the profile of classicserial killers. There isn't much in their upbringing to suggest they will turn into flamboyant teenage murderers. Ryno grew up in the southern Urals city of Yekaterinburg. His parents divorced when he was young; his father is from Russia's Far Eastern province of Chukotka. (Ironically, Ryno's own features are slightly non-Slavic.) At school Ryno showed an aptitude for drawing; classmates describe him as a quiet, introverted pupil who struggled to make friends. His lawyers claim he fell under the sway of racist ideas after a Chechen schoolmate beat him up. In 2006 Ryno moved to Moscow, where he enrolled in Moscow's arts institute and studied icon painting. (Several of Ryno's icons hang in the church in Yekaterinburg, built on the spot where the Bolsheviks shot Russia's last tsar and his family.) In Moscow, Ryno shaved off his hair. He met Skachevsky via an ultra-nationalist website, www.format18.ru (the numbers 18, of course, correspond to Adolf Hitler's alphabetic initials). The forum is popular with teenage skinheads who use it to swap videos of their racist attacks.

Skachevsky grew up in Moscow. The son of a deputy headmistress, he was a gifted student. Like Ryno, Skachevsky hates "blacks" - claiming that several of his friends perished in the 1999 Moscow apartment block bombings. "I live in the house opposite Guryanova Street, and the block which the Chechens blew up," he told friends. At the time of the murders Skachevsky was a student at Moscow's college for physical education. Together, the pair formed a gang of around a dozen like-minded skinheaded killers. They are a geeky-looking bunch - the tallest is a girl, Svetlana Avvakumova, 22, who videoed one of the gang's brutal attacks on a Chinese youth. Several wear glasses. Police got round to arresting Avvakumova in February 2008.

The trial of the Ryno/Skachevsky gang began last July at Moscow's city court. Outside court, I meet Avvakumova's mother, Yelena, who has turned up hoping to catch a glimpse of her imprisoned daughter. Yelena is baffled at her daughter's involvement, denying that Svetlana has anything to do with skinheads. After her arrest, however, detectives showed her the video, which faithfully records how the gang mercilessly kick and knife a Chinese boy as he lies on the ground. The boy is crying. Avvakumova downloaded the film on her home computer alongside snaps taken on the monastery-lake island of Valaam during a holiday in Russia's picturesque north.

"Svetlana was always an innocent," Yelena says. "As a girl she was a bit of a tomboy. She liked football and used to watch Spartak Moscow FC." Intriguingly, Yelena has a strong sense of where her daughter has gone wrong. Skinheads are something of a paradox in Russia, a country that sacrificed 25 million people in the fight against Nazi Germany and the ideas of racial supremacy. "My father was a tank commander during the war. He was severely injured during the battle for Königsberg; it left him disabled. He personally fought fascism. Svetlana understands perfectly what fascism is. We still have her grandfather's medals." According to Yelena, attitudes changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "My generation was a Soviet one. We were internationalist. We have Armenian relatives. My brother even married a Japanese woman. The problem is with this new generation. They don't understand the difference between nationalism and patriotism. They confuse the two."

Dmitry Dyomushkin is wearing a Ben Sherman T-shirt; he's ordered a plate of kebab and a bowl of borsch - beetroot soup. He speaks Russian with a slight impediment, and lights a cigarette after every mouthful. Dyomushkin is the leader of the Slavic Union, Russia's most radical ultra-nationalist organisation. Aged 30, he is a veteran of Russia's far-right scene. We meet in a pub in Marino, a sprawling dormitory suburb in southern Moscow, full of tower blocks and at the end of Moscow's light-green Metro line.

Both Ryno and Skachevsky were members of the Slavic Union. (In Russian the organisation is called the Slaviyansky Sayuz, the SS.) "I didn't know them personally," Dyomushkin says. "They were young guys sitting in the corner of the meetings. They were quiet, mouse-like." His organisation has 1,500 members across Russia, though experts suggest the number of far-right activists is around 50,000. The SS fights against illegal immigration and for the rights of Russians in Russia. Dyomushkin says he has been disappointed by the radical actions of many of his members - more than 100 of them have been arrested and several are now serving life sentences for murder. (One of the group's leaders, Nikola Korolev, was jailed for blowing up Cherkizovsky market in Moscow in August 2006, killing 14 people and wounding 49 with a bomb left outside a Vietnamese café.) "These tactics were wrong," Dyomushkin asserts.

Dyomushkin is at his most plausible when he talks about the threat the Slavic Union now poses to Vladimir Putin. Over the past eight years Putin has squeezed out virtually all independent political activity in Russia. There are now only two opposition movements left, Dyomushkin argues - the far-right and the democratic liberals. Dyomushkin is scornful of the liberals - "many of whom are Jews" - but agrees they share anti-Kremlin ideas. But while the democrats are weak, divided and marginalised, the nationalists enjoy much broader support - including that of elements deep inside Russia's powerful bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies. (Both Ryno and Skachevsky had links with a former far-right deputy in Russia's Duma, or parliament. Officially they were working as his parliamentary researchers.) Dyomushkin describes Putin's Russia as a "police state", which has retained the worst aspects of the Soviet Union while getting rid of the good bits. "It may seem a paradox, but our movement is now fighting for freedom. It is the nationalists who are fighting for freedom of speech and assembly. Nothing else has the strength to do this. Everyone else is frightened," he says.

In November 2008, police and federal security agents broke up the Slavic Union's annual "Russian March", arresting 1,000 people, including Dyomushkin. He was released after several hours in custody, however, and eventually fined a paltry 1,000 roubles (£23). Russia's authorities are clearly rattled by the rise of the far-right, whose political appeal is likely to grow as the country slithers into economic crisis. As living standards tumble it is immigrants who will get the blame. There is no prospect of a pro-western Orange Revolution in Russia. But the possibility of a far-right revolt against Putin is real and growing. The skinheads - a pimply, adolescent army of lower-middle-class racists - pose a serious threat to the Kremlin's otherwise
vice-like grip on power.

In December 2008, Ryno and Skachevsky were sentenced to 10 years in jail, the maximum sentence for a juvenile. Five other members of their gang were jailed for between six and 20 years. The jury acquitted Avvakumova and one other male gang member. During the trial the skinheads showed no remorse, giggling frequently and even laughing at the families of their victims. Ryno made a final speech to the jury. In a rambling address, he explained that he committed the murders for the "tsar, country, and monarchy". Later he revealed that after prison he intends to embark on a new career. He wants to be a politician.

Marta Abramian shows off a photo of her husband, taken a month before his murder. As well as their son Georgy, the couple have two strikingly pretty dark-haired daughters, Meline and Karine, now 20 and 21. The photos show Karen dancing with his girls at a party; other snaps show the family relaxing on holiday in Egypt, next to a camel; there are black and white photos of Karen's happy boyhood in Baku, Azerbaijan. The couple met and courted in Baku, but in the late 80s they moved to Moscow when war erupted between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Karen studied at Moscow University and then joined an insurance firm, rising to become its general director. He wrote poems and composed songs. "He was a wonderful father, a wonderful son and wonderful husband," Marta says. "I never thought this could happen to my husband. We considered ourselves real citizens of Russia. We work here. We pay taxes. This is our country."

We meet in the apartment of Karen's parents, Asya, 75, and Georgy, 76. They sit together on the sofa holding their son's framed photo; his murder outrages them still. After an hour punctuated by phone calls from the court - the skinheads' trial is just ending - Marta takes us to the spot where Karen was murdered. Next to the entrance, she has planted a small fir tree; she and the kids still live upstairs on the ninth floor. "It's so we can remember Daddy," she says. "It's very difficult without him. There is just an empty shape. Nothing can fill the emptiness.".

Observer

Germany sees rise in far-right attacks

Three hundred people recently demonstrated against far-right violence in Passau

The German government is to devise a strategy for curbing the surge of neo-Nazism as far-right offences have increased 30 per cent in 2008

The increase was announced following the attack on the chief of police in the town of Passau in Bavaria, who was stabbed in front of his home by a suspected neo-Nazi.

According to the German Ministry of Interior, the first ten months of 2008 saw up to 12,000 incidents perpetrated by far-Right offenders, including violent attacks, which is a 30 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2007. It is believed the actual numbers are much higher, as many race hate offences are not registered as such.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, condemned the development, calling for more civil courage and saying that the far-Right offences were an attack on all Germans.

But Mrs Merkel is facing pressure from politicians across the spectrum for a ban of the National Democratic Party or NPD, the largest of the country's legally registered far-Right political groups that has often been accused of neo-Nazi links.

Previous attempts to ban the NPD were rejected as unconstitutional by the country's highest court, but an increasing number of politicians are considering another attempt in 2009 due to the drastic increase of far-Right related crimes. MPs have called for a special "democracy summit" to devise a strategy for fighting the rise of neo-Nazism.

In a separate development, an academic study found that over 20 per cent of all Germans are prejudiced against foreigners, while in the impoverished areas of former East Germany one in three citizens are xenophobic.

Telegraph

Putting the boot in on friendship

I felt a bit sorry for the UK Independence party last week, which is a new experience for me. It was put in the humiliating position of having to respond to a British National party overture suggesting that Ukip and the BNP co-operate at the next European election.

This is the political equivalent of being at some do stuck talking to a bigoted drunk with halitosis, who keeps scratching his arse and sniffing and then says: 'I can tell we're very much alike. I know where you're coming from, you know where I'm coming from... let's be friends.'

Not all compliments, it turns out, are worth having.

Ukip struggles to present itself as a respectable political force with a civilised agenda, rather than a bunch of grouchy extremists who haven't quite got the courage of their convictions. It has to fight hard to dismiss suggestions from the political mainstream or, as Ukip would probably call it, the left, that they're basically a little bit envious, a little bit hatey, a little bit weird. The main parties imply that there's definitely at least the suspicion of racism about them, even if it only manifests itself as limp, stand-offish xenophobia most of the time.

Ukip can reject these insinuations as exactly what the main parties are bound to say about a legitimate potential competitor from the right wing. But this argument falls down when the BNP pitches in and effectively says: 'Oh yeah, we always assumed you were basically a bunch of racists as well. Not that we mind, obviously.' When Labour, the Lib Dems, the Tories and the BNP are all agreed on something, then we'd better hope that they're right or we're going to need a new political system.

Because the BNP is clearly worried that the presence of Ukip risks splitting the arsehole vote - a vote that Ukip may not court like the BNP does, but would certainly take if it was offered. The trouble with the kind of dog-whistle politics that Ukip practises is that, every so often, it's going to cause a dog to publicly hump its leg.

The metaphorical dog in this instance is former British tennis star Buster Mottram, a man who has dabbled in politics before. He flirted with the National Front - again this is a metaphor, as to do this literally would be to run all sorts of grisly risks - tried to become a Conservative MP a few times and then joined Ukip.

And so things stood until a few days ago when Mottram turned up uninvited to a meeting of the Ukip national executive. I imagine them sitting at a huge conference table in front of a map of the world with every country except Britain crossed out. He proposed the BNP-Ukip pact and then, according to the Ukip website, 'had to be escorted out by uniformed police officers', presumably because he'd eaten all the biscuits. (Incidentally, talking of the Ukip website, I was disappointed that the link 'Ukip shop' just takes you back to the home page. I was hoping to order a Ukip English-Polish phrase book, a Ukip spaghetti server and a Ukip pen-with-a-lady-on-it-that-when-you-tip-it-the-lady-goes-nude.)

The awkward position Ukip has been put in by this public offer of undermining friendship from an embarrassing source should be familiar to us all. John McCain would recognise it as the feeling he got when Dick Cheney put the final nail in the coffin of his campaign by saying he supported it. Only the Democrats wanted to publicise that, as Cheney has used the vice-presidency to transform himself into one of the few things on Earth that a cat wouldn't piss on.

I remember it from school when a boy in my year who was being bullied - I won't disclose his real name but let's call him Buster Mottram - tried to make friends with me. Buster Mottram was not a bad child and he didn't have horrible opinions (unlike Buster Mottram) but he was social death.

I was not particularly popular, although I got by, but I was bitterly aware that my faltering prestige could not take the weight of Buster Mottram's disastrous unpopularity (I mean the boy from my school, not Buster Mottram - I hope I haven't made this confusing). The friendship of the captain of the rugby team himself, which wasn't me, you may be surprised to learn, could barely have restored Buster Mottram's reputation. He would only drag me down with him and the next thing I knew we'd both be being rolled up in a rug and stuck on top of the lockers. His friendship I could do without.

I'm aware that this story hardly makes me seem like a hero. You're probably thinking that, if my politics were different and I'd been in the Ukip meeting, I would've just sat quietly by and let Buster Mottram have his way with the custard creams (I'm talking about the former world number 15, not my contemporary from school). And there are much better reasons for shrugging off a BNP offer of friendship than merely that it's the runt of the political litter. But both stories share the same bitter taste of unwanted goodwill.

The fact that some people's endorsement is of limited value must be occurring to the supermarket chain Iceland at the moment. It emerged last week that it has arranged for Kerry Katona, who does its adverts, to have medical tests to see if she's an alcoholic. No one said whether it wants to check whether she is or she isn't, but maybe she's become a bit too 'no frills' even for Iceland's brand. It booked an accessible 'girl next door' type and has ended up with a bankrupt who loses weight by surgery. It may soon come to feel that it would be better off with Buster Mottram (either one).

Comment is free

Romanian actress battles racism in Italy

Emigrant heads 'charm offensive' to counter anti-Romanian feeling

As Italy struggles to contain a rising tide of xenophobia and racism, the largest and most despised minority in the country has acquired a glamorous standard-bearer. Like 1.2 million other residents of Italy, Ramona Badescu is an immigrant from Romania. The willowy actress and singer from Bucharest moved to Italy after the fall of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 and is the closest thing Italy possesses to a Romanian household name.

Now Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, has made her his counsellor for the Romanian community's integration. "I hope to become a bridge between the Romanians and the mayor," she said. "Romanians here have many problems connected to work: more Romanians die at work sites than any other nationality." Her first policy idea is to set up a free phone service in both languages to help Romanian migrants find information, residence permits and other practical information.

But some Italians have greeted the appointment with derision. "What does this bird know about what the Romanians in Italy get up to?" was one web comment. "She's one of the privileged, she knows nothing about reality..."

"It's scandalous to give this job to a 'lady' who has no qualifications for the job..." wrote another ."Another nobody who has failed in showbiz and throws herself into politics," sneered a third. "It makes me sick!"

Ms Badescu, who has a degree in commerce and economics, insists she is the right person for the job. "I'm an emigrant and emigration is never a happy act. It's full of problems: you leave your family behind. You are hoping and dreaming of a better life, but when you arrive it's very different from what you imagined."

Italy's attitude to immigrants was turned upside down last year after an admiral's wife was murdered. A Romanian gypsy was quickly blamed and, amid a media witch-hunt, politicians demanded the mass expulsion without trial of undesirable foreigners. Romanians were the scapegoat of choice: Walter Veltroni, Mr Alemanno's left-wing predecessor, said Italy had become "unlivable" since January 2007, when Romania entered the European Union.

With a growing number of crimes blamed on Romanians, Italians began to fear and suspect these hidden strangers in their midst. Clinching the prejudice was the belief that romeni (Romanians) and rom (Roma, gypsies) were one and the same. It has become an urban legend that all Roma are Romanians and vice-versa.

"The Romanians and the Roma are two completely different peoples," Ms Badescu points out. "The crime reports have created this prejudice against an entire people. Now there are Romanians in Italy who are scared to speak their own language."

Independent

Number of attacks on ethnic minorities soar

Numbers of attacks on people because of their race or religion are soaring, according to Government figures.

The Ministry of Justice will this week disclose that 41,000 such offences were committed in 2005-06, a rise of 12 per cent on the previous year. The statistics confirm anecdotal evidence from immigrant groups that ethnic minorities have been increasingly targeted in recent years, with the Muslim community under particular pressure since the September 11 attacks six years ago.

The figures will show black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people and are much more likely to be caught up in the criminal justice system.

There are stark differences in the ethnic backgrounds of crime victims, with the figures set to disclose that 10 per cent of murder victims are black, well above the proportion of black people in the population (2 per cent). Some 7 per cent of victims are Asian and 4 per cent from other ethnic minorities.

One in three black murder victims was shot, compared with one in 10 Asians and one in 20 whites.

Keith Jarrett, president of the National Black Police Association, last week argued that the ethnic minority communities wanted more people to be stopped and searched to reduce the number of shootings on Britain's streets.

Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, in London, said: "The increase could be tied in with the rise of far-right groups and some of the rhetoric around the war on terror. The police may also, in their attempts to reach out to ethnic minority groups, be recording more incidents."

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "These statistics show the fear of crime remains even though black people are already seven times more likely to be stopped and searched. Over the past 10 years there has been a significant change of attitude in the criminal justice system. This in part may account for the increasing reports of violence."

Home Office figures earlier this year showed Asians were twice as likely to be killed in stabbing or "bottling" incidents than a decade ago. The statistics, disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, disclosed that the number killed "by sharp instruments" had risen from 4.5 per cent in 1997 to 8.5 per cent, with a surge in such murders after 11 September 2001. The proportion of black people stabbed to death rose from 7.5 per cent to 11.8 per cent.

The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia has documented rises in attacks on Muslims, including violent assault, verbal abuse and damage to property, since 11 September 2001.

Attacks were carried out on Muslims and mosques in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Bradford shortly after the bungled terror attacks in London's West End on 29 June and at Glasgow airport the next day.

An Indian sailor collapsed and died after being set upon by a gang of young people in Fawley, Hampshire, on 20 October. Ten teenagers were arrested following the assault.

Last week a teenager suffered a serious head injury in a racially motivated assault in Warrington.

Police are also treating an attack on four Germans in Saltney, north Wales, as fuelled by racial prejudice.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice would not comment on the figures until they were officially published.

Independent

Far-right given election boost by Greek fires

Concerns are mounting that the political fallout from devastating wildfires in Greece could open the door to far-right extremists in elections to be held a week on Sunday. Public anger at the response to the fires is fuelling discontent within the country's two main political parties and pushing many voters into the arms of fringe groups who could enter parliament for the first time.

Among those seeing a significant bounce in opinion polls is the extreme-right Orthodox Rally (Laos) party who are expected to break the 3 per cent threshold needed to gain seats at the 16 September elections.

"These fires have seen the popularity of the smaller parties rise," said Dimitris Sotiropoulos, a senior analyst at the regional think-tank Eliamep. "This is as a result of the incapability of the state to prevent the fires, then to deal with them and finally to resolve the situation."

Greece is set for one of its tightest elections in recent memory with as many as 20 per cent of voters undecided and a legal blackout on opinion polling in the closing fortnight of the campaign. The final surveys before the blackout gave Laos 4 per cent of the projected vote, narrowly ahead of the left-wing Syriza party. The two main parties, conservative New Democracy and socialist Pasok, both polled less than 40 per cent, with neither claiming a substantial advantage. The uncertainty has raised the prospect of a coalition government, which could hand a key role to a minority party able to gain even a few parliamentary seats.

The far right has traditionally struggled to get an electoral foothold in a country that has suffered under a military dictatorship as recently as the 1970s. But Laos with its mix of xenophobia, nationalism and Orthodox Christianity, may have struck a chord with a country shocked both by the scale of the destruction and the torpid response of mainstream parties.

In the past fortnight, Greece has been plunged into a state of emergency as the worst wildfires for a century decimated forests and farmland, consumed villages and killed more than 60 people. Several smaller fires were still burning yesterday when the first rain fell in after a scorching summer of record-breaking temperatures.

The ruling conservatives have been roundly condemned for their lethargic response to the crisis but Pasok, their perennial opponents, do not appear to be attracting disgruntled voters either.

In a bid to avoid accusations of profiting from the fires, both parties suspended campaigning during the crisis but that has afforded precious breathing space to the fringe parties who have festooned Athens with aggressive election posters.

Taking centre stage in the battle of the minnows has been the Laos party leader George Karatzaferis who is to be seen all over the city wielding a boxing glove and calling for all Greece to become "one fist".

The country has been gripped by conspiracy theories and Mr Karatzaferis' aggressive and simplistic campaign featuring a scantily-clad bleach blonde nightclub performer, Effi Sarri, singing a party anthem about Christ and country has gained unexpected traction. The increasingly rattled government has sought to deflect critics by placing the blame for the wildfires on arsonists but it has done little to help its own cause by making confusing statements about "asymmetrical terrorist threats" and an "organised plan" to destabilise the country.

Independent

Merkel under pressure to ban neo-Nazi party

Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming under mounting pressure to ban Germany's main neo-Nazi party following a brutal attack on eight Indian traders who were chased and beaten by a mob screaming racist abuse.

A leader of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) was charged with inciting racial hatred yesterday after he proposed Adolf Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hours after Udo Voigt made the remarks in a speech in Jena marking the 20th anniversary of Hess's death last Saturday night, the Indian men were chased through the nearby town of Mügeln.

Kurt Beck, the leader of Ms Merkel's Social Democrat coalition partners, said that in light of the attacks he was preparing a new legal initiative aimed at outlawing the NPD. But Ms Merkel said she remained sceptical about such a move.

"I found the previous experience we had with this highly disagreeable," she said. "I definitely don't want a repeat of last time." An effort to ban the NPD failed in 2003 when judges at the country's highest court rejected the government's case after it emerged that some of the testimony was from government informants within the party.

The calls for a ban on Germany's largest neo-Nazi party - which has won parliamentary seats in two eastern states in recent regional elections - were the latest response to last weekend's disturbing outbreak of xenophobic violence.

Local people in the small town in the east German state of Saxony were enjoying the final hours of an annual street party on Saturday night when a drunken mob of 50 youths rampaged through a market and started harassing eight Indian stall holders who were selling textiles.

Shouting, "Get out of Germany" and chanting the far right slogan "Long live the national resistance" the gang chased the terrified Indians, who took refuge in a pizzeria and tried to barricade themselves in with the restaurant's tables. However, the mob smashed their way into the building, kicking and punching the Indians and attacking them with bottles. More than 70 heavily armed riot police rescued them. Gurminder Singh, one of the injured men, appeared on German television with a six-inch long head wound.

Amal, one of the main anti-Nazi groups in the region, said there had been 137 neo-Nazi attacks on individuals in Saxony during the first half of 2007, but believes the unofficial figure is much higher.

A recent survey conducted by the Forsa research group showed that every second east German youth between the age of 14 and 25 believed that National Socialism had " good sides".

The NPD won seats in Saxony in the state's last elections, and also captured seats in Ms Merkel's home state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania last year, when violent crimes by far-right extremists reached their highest level since the country's reunification in 1990. Rising far-right violence prompted Ms Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schröder to launch an attempt to ban the NPD in 2003, but the result was a legal fiasco. A ban was rejected by Germany's Karlsruhe constitutional court after it established that most of the evidence against the far-right party was inadmissible as it had been collected by government intelligence agents who had infiltrated the organisation.

Independent

Jewish leader sounds alarm after racist attack

· Brutal assault on Indians sparks call to curb far-right
· East German xenophobia 'scaring off foreign firms'

A leading member of Germany's Jewish community has accused the government of failing to control rightwing extremism following an attack on a group of Indian men in an eastern town. Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council of Jews said that until a nationwide action plan was launched to tackle the problem, attacks on minorities would only get worse.

His remarks followed a brutal attack on eight Indians in the town of Mügeln, near Leipzig, at the weekend. During a town festival the men were chased through the streets by around 50 young Germans, who hurled abuse at them, including the taunt "foreigners out". All of the men were beaten up, one of them seriously. "Yesterday it was coloured people, today it's foreigners, tomorrow it'll be homosexuals and lesbians and maybe Jews," Mr Kramer told the German daily newspaper Taz.

Prior to the Mügeln incident, police had been braced for trouble in certain east German towns as rightwing extremists commemorated the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.

Mr Kramer said that parts of former communist eastern Germany were "no-go" areas, which people who looked foreign should be warned against visiting. He accused the government of "delivering the same sentiments" every time there was an attack, but failing to produce results with its anti-extremist strategy. "This isn't hysteria," he said. "This is the bitter truth."

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, condemned the attacks and pledged to put the issue high on the agenda at a strategy meeting of her grand coalition taking place today and tomorrow. "It is not acceptable for people in German cities to be chased through the streets and beaten," she said through her spokesman, Thomas Steg.

There is increasing evidence to suggest that the frequency of far-right attacks is having a detrimental effect on the ability of parts of eastern Germany to attract foreign investment and tourism. "These no-go areas - so-called foreigner-free zones - really exist and non-Aryans know why they don't go there," an expert on rightwing extremism, Anetta Kahane, said. "The fact is that many American or Asian firms that have a mix of employees don't come to east Germany."

The Mügeln incident came almost exactly 15 years after a far-right attack on a home for asylum seekers near Rostock, in which 120 people narrowly escaped death. That attack led to a political outcry and closer monitoring of far-right activities.

Yesterday prosecutors said they were investigating two men from Mügeln, aged 21 and 23, for being behind the recent attack and were looking at charging them for breaching the peace. The town's mayor, Gotthard Deuse, drew criticism after insisting that those who assaulted the Indians were not locals and that the area did not have a far-right problem.

Guardian

Attack on hate-crime expert linked to neo-Nazi activist trial (Russia)

New information is bolstering claims that a recent attack in St. Petersburg against one of Russia's leading hate-crimes experts was aimed at coercing her to change her testimony in a high-profile trial. Valentina Uzunova, 59, who frequently testifies as an expert witness in cases relating to hate crimes and xenophobic activity, was attacked on June 19 by a masked woman at roughly 6 p.m. as she was leaving the family home of a colleague who was murdered three years ago. According to a report in the St. Petersburg Times, Uzunova's assailant repeatedly struck her on the head before stealing several court documents relating to the trial of Vladislav Nikolsky, at which Uzunova was set to testify the following day. Nikolsky is charged with distributing extremist literature and forming a nationalist organization. Testimony from human rights workers like Uzunova is often the key factor in securing convictions under Russia's hate crimes statutes. Using violence to dissuade them from testifying could have a chilling effect on an integral barrier against anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi violence in Russia. Most cases of anti-Semitic violence are not prosecuted under the stringent statutes for which stricter penalties are mandated, but rather are treated as "hooliganism." By most expert accounts, incidents of anti-Semitic and racially motivated violence have continued to rise steadily in recent years. In May, at the fifth round of Russia-EU Human Rights Consultations in Berlin, the Moscow-based nonprofit SOVA Center presented bleak data on the matter. The center monitors hate crimes and advocates for stronger legislation and awareness of xenophobia in Russia.

According to SOVA, Russia experienced a 30 percent increase in attacks this winter over the preceding year. Between January and April, 172 attacks occurred, resulting in 23 fatalities. "Over the reviewed period we have observed an increase of racist and neo-Nazi violence which, unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies have not been able to stem, especially in the main centers of violence, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg," according to the report. Uzunova, of the group For a Russia Without Racism, was attacked following a visit to the family of Nikolai Girenko on the third anniversary of his slaying. Girenko, an expert on ethnic minorities, was shot to death through his apartment door. As in many cases involving activists, no one has been charged in his murder. Alexander Vinnikov, a senior official at the St. Petersburg Union of Scientists and a co-worker of Uzunova's, told the St. Petersburg Times the Nikolsky investigation was nearing completion. "Uzunova had enough evidence in her hands for the judge to convict Nikolsky during the next hearing," Vinnikov said. The attack on Uzunova has angered the human rights community over a perceived lack of police protection. Uzunova had requested police protection after receiving repeated threats, including a recent anonymous nighttime call in which the caller threatened to kill Uzunova and her family if she did not help to clear a defendant now facing extremism charges in court.

Police rejected her request, citing a lack of credible evidence. They found the public telephone from which the call was made, but could not establish the caller's identity. For her colleagues and religious officials in the city, though, there is no question that the attack was coordinated by extremists. Yuri Tabak, an expert on anti-Semitic and xenophobic literature at the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, spoke with JTA about what he views as a recent sharp increase in violent activity. Tabak, who does not testify in open court, believes that while the police would like to do more to protect activists, they are hampered by a lack of resources. "The level of xenophobic attacks and xenophobia is rising very quickly and definitively," he said. "Our police are not so efficient and they don't want to do much. It's not because exactly they don't want to do anything, but they have no resources, not enough money or qualified people to do it." Menachem Mendel Pevzner, the chief Chabad rabbi in St. Petersburg, insisted during a conversation with JTA that the attack was related to Uzunova's work. "The fact that certain people are not happy with the work these people were doing is quite obvious," Pevzner said. "The fact that it's hurting people is also obvious." The climate of violence in St. Petersburg, the rabbi said, was much calmer now than during the lawlessness directly following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But, he added, while the police have the best of intentions, they often don't take issues of anti-Semitic and interethnic violence as seriously as they should. "Although they're trying to do the best they can," Pevzner said, "they're not accepting that they have to be more on top of the situation."

Human-rights activists as well those in so-called "anti-fascist" organizations in Russia frequently are the targets of violence, as in the case of Timur Kacharava, a student activist murdered by skinheads in St. Petersburg in 2005. In most cases the authorities turn a blind eye. "It does not help that only human rights groups are aware of the issues; ordinary people do not get the picture at all," said Natalya Yevdokimova, an adviser to Sergei Mironov, the chairman of the Council of Federation, the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly - the parliament of the Russian Federation. "The circumstances of and around these crimes, which are often classified as robberies, hooliganism or homicide, remain obscure to them."

ICARE

EU adopts measure outlawing Holocaust denial

The European Union approved legislation Thursday that would make denying the Holocaust punishable by jail sentences, but would also give countries across the 27-member bloc the option of not enforcing the law if such a prohibition did not exist in their own laws.

The draft law, which EU diplomats called a minimalist compromise, gained approval after six years of emotional negotiations, during which countries with vastly different legal cultures struggled to reconcile the protection of freedom of speech with protection of their citizens from racism and hate crimes.

The legislation calls for jail terms of as much as three years for "intentional conduct" that incites violence or hatred against a person's "race, color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin." The same punishment would apply to those who incite violence by "denying or grossly trivializing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."

EU officials said that the law was notable for what it omitted.

Fearing that the legislation could be hijacked by groups trying to right historical wrongs, a majority of EU countries rejected a demand by the formerly communist Baltic countries that the law criminalize the denial of atrocities committed by Stalin during Soviet times. As a political gesture, however, Franco Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner, said the EU would organize public hearings on the "horrible crimes" of the Stalin era in the coming months.

The scope of the law also does not cover other historical events, like the massacre of Armenians during the First World War by Ottoman Turks, which Armenians call a genocide. Instead, the legislation recognized only genocides that fall under the statutes of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, like the mass killing of Jews during World War II and the massacre in Rwanda in 1994.

There will be no Europe-wide ban on the use of Nazi symbols, one of the original intentions of the law's drafters, which gained force two years ago after the release of photographs of Prince Harry of Britain wearing a swastika armband at a costume party.

EU officials involved in the drafting of the law, which needed unanimous approval, said consensus had been achieved by allowing national laws to take precedence. Britain, Sweden and Denmark, which have particularly libertarian traditions, pressed for wording that would avoid criminalizing debates about the Holocaust and would ensure that films and plays about the Holocaust, like Roberto Benigni's award-winning "Life is Beautiful" and Mel Brooks's musical "The Producers," were not censored.

The legislation also states that individual countries' constitutional protections of freedom of speech would be upheld, meaning, for example, that publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark, where freedom of speech is enshrined in the Constitution, is permitted under the law.

Denmark and Britain also pressed successfully for a provision to ensure that attacks on religions are covered only when they are of a xenophobic or racist nature.

Anti-racism groups said the law had been watered down to the point of rendering it toothless. Michael Privot, spokesman for the European Network Against Racism, said, for example, that a person publishing a pamphlet denying the Holocaust could do so with impunity in Britain, while still facing prosecution in France. "We have ended up with a lowest common denominator law," he said.

Laws against denying the Holocaust exist in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and in many cases the national legislation goes much further than the new EU rules. In a recent high-profile case, the British historian David Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria for challenging the Holocaust before being released in December.

Two years ago, Luxembourg tried to use its EU presidency to push through Europe-wide anti-racism legislation, but it was blocked by the center-right government then in power in Italy on the grounds that it threatened freedom of speech. The proposed law was considered too politically difficult to pass until it was taken up by Germany, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, which has called it a historical obligation and a moral imperative.

Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner, said it was inevitable that the bill be diluted, given the need to reconcile so many different political and legal cultures. But he added: "We still think it is useful and sends a strong political signal that there is no safe haven in Europe for racism, anti-Semitism or Islam-phobia."

But Muslim leaders accused the EU of having double standards, arguing that it protects established Christian religions and outlaws anti-Semitism while doing nothing to defend Muslims against defamation.

International Herald Tribune