<nettime> evil:austria 0600

[florian schneider <fls@kein.org>]

From: Rosa Antifa Wien <raw@swi.priv.at>


Welcome to the first number of evil:austria!

This is our new monthly newsletter, that will inform about the actual 
situation in Austria and the consequences of the new government. We 
have decided to work out this newsletter, because we realized that 
the knowledge about the real situation in Austria, especially abroad, 
is very limited. The government has reached its target, that with the 
discussion about the "sanctions" of the European Union the daily 
madness in this country has vanished from the agenda of the 
international public. We want to avoid that it comes to a 
"normalization" of the right/right-extreme Austrian government. We 
also do this for egoistic reasons, because the international 
monitoring prevents that things are getting even worse at least for 
the moment. Therefore, it is very important to spread this newsletter 
as far as possible, so that as many people as possible are informed 
about the situation in Austria. Thus: distribute, distribute, 
distribute! Feel free to use this material for other publications, 
but please, send us a mail if you do so.
In addition, we try to send this newsletter in various languages, and 
we would appreciate it if some people could help us with the 
translations. If you want to support this project and know other 
languages than German, English or Spanish, please let us know!
So far, this is long enough for an introduction. Just one more thing: 
please send critics and remarks to:

raw@swi.priv.at

Enjoy the newsletter!


;begin contents <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


************************************
- 1 - Haider's ideas of "sanctions"
************************************
- 2 - "Hump? Dump? Lump?"
***********************************************************
- 3 - The Austrian way of coming to terms with the past (1)
***********************************************************
- 4 - The Austrian way of coming to terms with the past (2)
***********************************************************
- 5 - The Austrian way of coming to terms with the past (3)
***********************************************************
- 6 - Law and Order
*******************************
- 7 - Over and out for the SEK?
*******************************
- 8 - Justice in Austria (1)
****************************
- 9 - Justice in Austria (2)
****************************************************************
- 10 - About handcuffs and children (with two different results)
****************************************************************
- 11 - Demolition of critical media (1)
***************************************
- 12 - Demolition of critical media (2)
***************************************
- 13 - Demolition of critical media (3)
****************************************
- 14 - No freedom of opinion in Austria!
************************************************
- 15 - Creative methods of money acquisition (1)
************************************************
- 16 - Creative methods of money acquisition (2)
************************************************
- 17 - Creative methods of money acquisition (3)
************************************************
- 18 - Bank robber survives official act
*******************************************
- 19 - The new government stimulates baking
*******************************************


;end contents <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


***********************************
- 1 - Haider's ideas of "sanctions"
***********************************

During the opening ceremony of an official building in Carinthia, 
Joerg Haider demanded the prosecution of politicians, who "are acting 
against Austria". In particular, he aimed at the leader of the Social 
Democratic Party, Gusenbauer, and the EU-Parliamentarian Voggenhuber 
a member of the Green Party. Haider refers to paragraph 248 of the 
Austrian law: "(1) Persons who spitefully insult or bring to contempt 
the Republic of Austria or one of its Federal States in a way, that 
the act becomes known to the broader public, will be punished by 
imprisonment for up to 1 year".

Apart from the fact that this paragraph is scandalous, it's horrible 
to use it against the opposition. In our opinion (and we are not the 
only ones), just the demand to imprison opposition leaders shows the 
wish for an authoritarian regime and it shows once more, what Joerg 
Haider is. Such paragraphs were also used against the opposition 
under Mussolini and Franco.

Joerg Haider is not alone with such ideas! Consider the statements of 
other party members: the Secretary of the Austrian Freedom Party 
(FPOe), Theresia Zierler, meant this idea is "worth to think about". 
For the Austrian Freedom Party's Minister of Justice, (and Haider's 
lawyer and right students' association companion) Dieter Boehmdorfer, 
it is "worth to pursue" this idea. The Federal Chancellor of the 
Austrian People's Party (OeVP), Wolfgang Schuessel, speaks about a 
"summer topic". Referring to the freedom of opinion, from Schuessel's 
point of view Haider can pursue such ideas.

*************************
- 2 - "Hump? Dump? Lump?"
*************************

At the party convention of the Viennese section of the Austrian 
Freedom Party (FPOe), Hilmar Kabas was elected as chairman of this 
section (Kabas is the person, who posted "stop the foreign 
infiltration" in Vienna during the last election campaign and 
therefore a cake was smashed into his face a while ago).

When a party member gave him another cake to comfort him (this time 
not into his face), Kabas directed some words to the Austrian 
president Thomas Klestil (Klestil rejected Kabas as Minister of 
Defence because of his "foreign infiltration" adds). Kabas said, that 
Klestil has behaved himself like a riff-raff (in German: "Lump").

It was clear, that some reporters wanted to know, what Kabas meant. 
But Kabas finally lost his loose screw and said: "Regarding Klestil 
I've never said something like this ("Lump" = riff-raff ), maybe it 
was something like "Hump" (?), or "Dump" (??), I don't remember 
exactly." (Annotation: "Hump" and "Dump" do not exist in German; 
since this time linguists try to find out, what it could mean). We 
don't know it neither, the only thing we and other people were 
reminded of, was Humpty-Dumpty. The Department of Public Prosecution 
investigated, but Klestil refused the prosecution and said: "this 
statement is judging itself". Good luck to Kabas, he got away just 
like a stupid boy.

The Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe), disturbed by fake-homepages like 
www.fpo.at, reacted very fast this time and reserved the domains 
www.dump.at and www.lump.at. But www.hump.at was reserved by somebody 
else. It is worth looking at, from time to time.

***********************************************************
- 3 - The Austrian way of coming to terms with the past (1)
***********************************************************

In the course of "Operation Spring" a large-scale racist-motivated 
"drug raid" where more than 100 black people were arrested, also a 
young black man who claims to be a minor was seized.  Now he is 
supposed to be condemned because of drug-dealing but the question is, 
whether the juvenile court is responsible for him or not. Therefore a 
medical expert named Johann Szilvassy was consulted, who was supposed 
to evaluate the age of the young person. He did his job by measuring 
the width of the nose, the size of the testicles, the density of the 
pubic hair, the length of the head and last but not least the width 
of the mouth of the young man! This surveyor of human beings is well 
known: he was the co-creator of the "Hall of Races" in the Museum of 
Natural History in Vienna, which was closed 4 years ago, and he 
writes articles for the far right magazine "Aula".

He "stated", that the accused young black man is between 22 and 25 
years old which means the double degree of punishment. In his court 
statement, he added: "If the immigration continues, the fair-haired 
people will disappear within the next generations. The pigmentation 
will be darker". The defender asked if the expert opinion was 
"influenced ideologically" and protested against the "evidence".

After that, the senior public prosecutor, Eisenmenger, supported 
Szilvassy, so he was allowed to continue (meanwhile he retired 
voluntarily). Investigations showed - surprise, surprise! - that the 
senior public prosecutor feels comfortable in right-extreme groups: 
he is a member of the sabre fencing students´ association "Arminia". 
In 1997 he sent a "corps list" to Arminia-members concerning persons 
who "should always be kept in honorable remembrance", among them also 
Nazi war criminals. In 1980 he was engaged in a presidential election 
committee supporting Norbert Burger, the leader of the right-extreme 
NDP (National Democratic Party). For the state police the past of 
Eisenmenger doesn't seem to be a problem. Eisenmenger says that 
before he was appointed as senior public prosecutor he was "checked" 
by the state police.

***********************************************************
- 4 - The Austrian way of coming to terms with the past (2)
***********************************************************

June 4, 2000: In his inaugural speech the new chairman of the 
“Section Lower Austria" of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe), Ernst 
Windholz, shared “his ideas" with us. He referred to long-term 
functionaries, and honored them with the sentence "our honor means 
faith", which was the slogan of the "Waffen-SS" (armed corps of 
Hitler's SS). Afterwards he said in an interview, that he didn't know 
the context, as he "has nothing to do with the time between 1938 and 
1945".

***********************************************************
- 5 - The Austrian way of coming to terms with the past (3)
***********************************************************

The Austrian Freedom Party's member of the Senate of the Parliament, 
John Gudenus, gave an interview to the news magazine "Profil", in 
which he made clear how much the new government is interested in 
coming to terms with the Austrian crimes during the Holocaust. 
Regarding the compensations for people who were condemned to forced 
labor during the Nazi regime, he said: "The compensations are 
necessary for maintaining economical relationships, especially with 
the USA. Nothing else is meant. These compensations are nothing else 
than protective money that we have to pay. We are in a situation 
where we have to knuckle under the great powers. But the Austrian 
people have nothing to do with the events that happened in those 
days".

In addition, to that he said about Ed Fagan, a lawyer of NS-terror 
victims, : "(...) he doesn't help to develop sympathies for people 
like him". (Annotation: Ed Fagan is a Jew.)

*******************
- 6 - Law and Order
*******************

In the night of May 3, the 26 year old Richard W. from Sierra Leone 
was found dead in a cell of a youth penal institution in Vienna. 
Richard W. was arrested on May 1 (exactly one year after Marcus 
Omofuma was killed during his deportation by the Austrian police) and 
according to eye-wittnesses he was beaten up by the police. The 
government imposed a news-stop. The official autopsy-report states 
that Richard W. died of drugs, but the report is full of 
contradictions.

In the next morning, just a few hours after the death of Richard W., 
the 40-year-old Lubinor B. from Slovakia was found dead, in a cell of 
a police commissionar department in Vienna.
This was kept secret for more than a week. According to the temporary 
autopsy-report, the man had a high concentration of Marihuana in his 
urine, they also mentioned traces of Methadone and antidepressants.

On May 19, 2000 a putative marihuana-dealer was shot by the police. 
Imre B. was unarmed and they did not find any drugs in his car, in 
which he was shot. The police stated that this shot was not by 
intention.

At their assumption of office, the FPOe-OeVP government promised a 
sharper drug policy and they are realising it now. Summary: 3 dead 
men in 3 weeks, following the FPOe pre-election slogan "No mercy for 
drug-dealers". It doesn't matter if they were dealers or not.

Because of these 3 dead men about 100 people tried to demonstrate 
against police violence, on May 20 in Vienna. From the beginning the 
police strategy was escalation. They had helmets, shields, and 
truncheons,  helicopters were observating the demonstration... The 
officer on duty said: "Today there will be a riot."
After the WEGA (Viennese special police squad with a lot of FPOe 
voters among them) arrived, they started to beat up the protesters. 
Twenty-four people were isolated, surrounding police men  were 
beating them up for several hours. The spectating crowd was pushed 
away from the police lines  and was also knocked up without any 
reason! At least 4 people were injured. Ambulances arrived already 
before the police riot started, and around the ambulances the blood 
of the hurt demonstraters could be seen. After 3.5 hours nearly all 
of the 24 people from the surrounded group were allowed to leave. One 
person was brought to prison for some hours.

Before this police attack there was an article in the most read 
Austrian newspaper - "Neue Kronenzeitung" (in this newspaper there 
are often articles about "Nigerian drug-dealers" and left-winged 
people). In this article one could read there would be riots from 
"extremely violent anarchists" at a mass demonstration on 20th of May 
(but no demonstration was announced for this day), which authorized 
the massive police attacks in advance.

The situation in Austria becomes tougher and great waves of 
repression against left wing people especially through articles from 
"Neue Kronenzeitung", become more and more reality. For coloured 
people and/or people with the "wrong" passport, the situation in 
Austria is dangerous and life-threatening since a long time!

Sad postscript: On May 17, a 5-year-old refugee from Afghanistan 
died. "Real Austrians", a doctor, a hotel-manager, the ambulance... 
continously refused any help until the child died. This incident 
became public one week later.

*******************************
- 7 - Over and out for the SEK?
*******************************

According to a report in the weekly Austrian news magazine "Profil" a 
"special group for criminal investigation department" (SEK) will be 
dissolved after a 6-month test period. "Profil" wrote, that they got 
this information from inner police circles. The short history of SEK 
has quite a record:

At the beginning of March 2000, masked policemen of the SEK arrested 
three people during the "Opernball"-demonstration. At the first 
attempted arrest, the policemen wanted to pull a young woman into a 
car. At the second hit, two persons were pulled out of a cab by two 
men who could not be identified as policemen and showed their guns 
instead of their identification badges. The two demonstraters were 
arrested in front of the very confused uniformed policemen. The whole 
situation was filmed and was shown at a press conference of the 
Austrian Green Party. Two days later the refugee and foreigner 
advice-office of the Green Party was target of a police offence. One 
of the founders of the SEK is working at the police-station that made 
the move. Both cases are examples for the authoritarian character, 
which is shown by police against oppositional groups.

On May 19, a member of the SEK shot an unarmed Yugoslavian who was 
said to be a drug dealer - afterwards. The SEK man stated that the 
gun went off when the door of the victim´s car was opened. Even if 
this dubious version of the story is true, why would the policeman - 
against all police regulations - rest his finger on the safety-lock 
released trigger? After all, a gun that takes a power of 2.5 
kilograms to be fired will not go off by accident.

The fact that members of the SEK are violent and racist Rambos is 
supported by the circumstance that some of them were dismissed from 
the WEGA because of their brutal behaviour. (Notice: The WEGA - a 
special police force - is known for their ruthlessness). The Chief of 
the SEK, lieutenant Rabensteiner, is suspected of having committed a 
racist assault himself.
The SEK, entrusted with observation and intervention, is formed by 
members who work - as they say voluntarily, free of charge and any 
time they are needed. This self-description is quite alarming, and so 
far their activities prove it.

****************************
- 8 - Justice in Austria (1)
****************************

Justice in Austria is racist - old story! Nearly all black people 
arrested during "Operation Spring" have been found guilty and were 
sentenced to four to ten years. They were convicted before their 
trials even came to  court. The case of Michel K. is the best example 
for justice in Austria: Michel K. was sentenced to four years without 
any evidence against him, just upon the statement of a witness who 
was originally a suspect and arrived masked in court.

Now it's clear: Police can safe time and energy simply by arresting 
people who easily change their mind or take undercover agents into 
custody during the same operation, whereas otherwise they have 
troubles digging up evidence.

****************************
- 9 - Justice in Austria (2)
****************************

In July 1999, a man was verbally and physically violated and arrested 
by six policemen in St. Poelten. He was found guilty of an attempt to 
resist against the executive power. This man is black. He will 
probably be deported.

****************************************************************
- 10 - About handcuffs and children (with two different results)
****************************************************************

An interesting incident on May 17, 1999: A 33 year old mother with 
two children, all on bikes, was accused of crossing a street at a red 
traffic light. She was stopped by the police and after a long 
discussion the woman was handcuffed and arrested. Her children, six 
and ten years of age, were not allowed to accompany her - so the 
policeman just left them on the street.

The policeman was found guilty of abusing his power  by the Viennese 
law court and was fined to pay ATS 40.000, however, the independent 
Senate for Surveillance (UVS) declared the legitimacy of his action. 
The UVS was constituted due to international pressure and to rule 
independently in cases against the police. Though, this institution 
never proved to be independent so far. No wonder, considering the 
fact that quite a lot of the judges working for the UVS are former 
police lawyers, who will return to their original profession after 
their time at the UVS.

***************************************
- 11 - Demolition of critical media (1)
***************************************

Crtical media are almost non-existing in Austria. Since the Free 
Radio stations have supported the protest against the government, 
they are a thorn in the "Blue-Black"(FPOe-OeVP) side and so 
subventions are cut down. The money is gone - and there is no freedom 
of speech in this country...

***************************************
- 12 - Demolition of critical media (2)
***************************************

The right-wing opinion forming daily newspaper "Neue Kronenzeitung" 
is irritated, by the fact that independent people with their own 
video cameras are documenting abuses of police and started a virulent 
campaign against these persons. Again and again video material is 
spread that shows the scandalous methods of the police (e.g. 
operations by the SEK - "Special Operation Command"). This is the 
only way to make things public, because according to eyewitnesses, 
the ORF (state-controlled Austrian Broadcasting) is usually 
exercising self-censorship and stops filming as soon as the police 
starts to punch. We´ll see when people with video cameras will 
violently be hindered next time they try to document police methods. 
Anyhow, "Neue Kronenzeitung" is paving the way.

***************************************
- 13 - Demolition of critical media (3)
***************************************

The EU Ministers of Justice and of the Interior want to realize the 
surveillance of the whole internet, both surfing and mailing. Due to 
the resistence of some countries these laws could not pass. Probably, 
we do not have to mention that the Austrian "law and order" 
politicians are not against such laws. With the favorite phrase 
"erweiterte Gefahrenforschung" (something like "extended danger 
research", which gives police more power) the government can spy 
marvelously on the resistence movement against the black-blue 
government.

****************************************
- 14 - No freedom of opinion in Austria!
****************************************

The political scientist Anton Pelinka was convicted of "vile gossip" 
against the former chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) 
Joerg Haider. The reason for the sentence is a statement on 1st of 
May 1999 for the Italian Broadcasting Company RAI:

"During his whole career Haider again and again made statements that 
play down the National Socialism. Once he called extermination camps 
"Straflager" ("Straflager" in German is usually the term for camps 
where people are obligated to forced labor, which has nothing to do 
with mass extermination). All together Haider is responsible for 
making  certain national-socialist principals and statements fit for 
good society."

The conviction against Anton Pelinka shows the lack of freedom of 
opinion in Austria, and that all people critizising Haider must be 
afraid to open their mouths. A lively detail: The private complaint 
against Pelinka was presented by Haider's lawyer, Dieter Boehmdorfer, 
who meanwhile is the so called "independent" Minister of Justice of 
Austria!

************************************************
- 15 - Creative methods of money acquisition (1)
************************************************

When the governor of Carinthia, Joerg Haider, goes on a trip 
interesting things happen. However, he does not want everything to 
become public. So it was just an accident that we know that Haider 
met the Libyen "Revolution Leader" Muammar al-Gaddafi during his 
journey in May. First this journey was denied, later it was presented 
as a "private trip" (Haider is a close friend of Gaddafi's son). 
Anyway, the visit was not that private because Haider was accompanied 
not only by his henchmen Gerald Mikscha, but also by the bosses of 
two Carinthian banks and one industrialist. It's uncertain, if this 
alliance will help Haider to resolve the financial problems of 
Austria. Anyway, he could have received some good advice (or maybe 
more). When he returned he gave 2.5 million liters of gasoline to an 
owner of a Carinthean discount gas station and the generally 
critizised high petrol prices dropped. Very strange, isn´t it?

May be it's easier to explain what they could have been discussing 
privately, since they have one important thing in common: both are 
not allowed to enter Israel...

************************************************
- 16 - Creative methods of money acquisition (2)
************************************************

The "Bundeswertpapieraufsicht" (Federal Surveillance of Deposites) 
demanded the suspension of the parliamentary privilege of the Second 
President of the Federal Parliament, T. Prinzhorn. He was the top 
candidate of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) at the last elections 
for the Austrian Federal Parliament. Due to an interview with 
Reuters, Prinzhorn is accused of systematically circulating false 
rumors about the sale of the brickwork "Wienerberger" and 
manipulating the stock market.

************************************************
- 17 - Creative methods of money acquisition (3)
************************************************

On Monday, 29th of May, the police of Linz (the capital of the 
federal state of Upper Austria) shot a bank robber in the usual way. 
The robber, armed with a fake pistol was hit by 7 of the 15  bullets. 
After the identification of the corpse, the Austrian Freedom Party 
(FPOe), well known for unorthodox methods of money acquisition 
(Rosenstingl!Prinzhorn!Haider!Meischberger!), was the topic of the 
day once again. The dead man was nobody minor than Alexander Jost, 
husband of the Styrian FPOe politician and the party´s hope for the 
future, Magda Jost-Bleckmann, who is well known for continous far 
right statements. Of course FPOe minister Schmid argued that everyone 
has to show humanity, in spite of political differences, because 
after all Mrs. Bleckmann was pregnant. It would be interesting how 
far humanity would go, if the dead had been the husband of a 
politician of the Social Democratic Party.
Alexander Jost, heavily indebted, stated in his tax declaration, that 
he was financed by women  - a creative tax trick and a slap in the 
face of his wife. She would have got rid of him anyway, because 
according to a friend he planned to flee to the Maledives. But thanks 
to the busy police of Linz, these activities were brought to an end.

****************************************
- 18 - Bank robber survives official act
****************************************

By the way, the police of Linz is so busy, that they nip even 
simulated bank robberies in the bud. During  a shooting of the 
criminal TV-series "Tatort" a (real) policewoman stopped an actor 
with a weapon with released safety-catch. The actor, who was scared 
to death, immediately dropped his toy pistol...

*******************************************
- 19 - The new government stimulates baking
*******************************************

The chairman of the Austrian People's Party (OeVP), Andreas Khol, 
finally has something besides racism and sexism in common with the 
chairman of the Viennese Freedom Party (FPOe), Hilmar Kabas: a cake 
in his face. It was thrown at him during a  cabaret show by a 
visitors thanking him for his policy.
Poor cake.

********
EPILOGUE
********

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CU

NO PEACE WITH AUSTRIA!!!

Rosa Antifa Vienna (RAW)



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