Foreigners Hunted, Chased in Xenophobic German Attacks
BERLIN (Dispatches) -- Germany's top security official offered to send federal assistance to the eastern state of Saxony Tuesday following violence during a far-right protest in the city of Chemnitz that left at least six people injured.
Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned two days of far-right street violence which flared up after a Syrian and an Iraqi were accused of killing a German man on Sunday.
Some far-right protesters were accused of hunting foreigners in street mobs in the eastern city of Chemnitz, while others were seen with Nazi-linked banners and giving the outlawed straight-arm salute as demonstrations went into their second day.
"Such riotous assemblies, the hunting down of people who appear to be from different backgrounds or the attempt to spread hate in the streets, these have no place in our country,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said.
Marauding far-right mobs assaulted people they believed to be immigrants, according to reports by Agence France-Presse. The local police chief said one Syrian and one Afghan teenager were attacked in separate incidents, though neither was seriously hurt.
According to AFP, police said pyrotechnics and other objects hurled from both sides left several people requiring hospital treatment. Officers moved in with water cannon and urged the crowd to remain calm.
Seibert told reporters in Berlin that the violence had no place in Germany.
"People ganging up, chasing people who look different from them or who come from elsewhere ... is something we won’t tolerate,” he said. "This has no place in our cities and I can say for the German government that we condemn this in the sharpest possible manner.”
Hundreds of riot police worked to keep the noisy crowd of mostly men, who were chanting slogans against "criminal foreigners” and waving German national flags, apart from more than 1,000 anti-fascist counter-protesters.
The far-right demonstrators chanted: "We are the people”, as well as the Nazi-era term "luegenpresse” (lying press). They displayed placards that read "stop the refugee flood” and "defend Europe”, the latter adorned with an image of an automatic rifle.
Some carried banners or insignia of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and neo-Nazi NPD parties and other extremist groups, while a handful delivered the illegal right-handed Hitler salute, said police.
Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned two days of far-right street violence which flared up after a Syrian and an Iraqi were accused of killing a German man on Sunday.
Some far-right protesters were accused of hunting foreigners in street mobs in the eastern city of Chemnitz, while others were seen with Nazi-linked banners and giving the outlawed straight-arm salute as demonstrations went into their second day.
"Such riotous assemblies, the hunting down of people who appear to be from different backgrounds or the attempt to spread hate in the streets, these have no place in our country,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said.
Marauding far-right mobs assaulted people they believed to be immigrants, according to reports by Agence France-Presse. The local police chief said one Syrian and one Afghan teenager were attacked in separate incidents, though neither was seriously hurt.
According to AFP, police said pyrotechnics and other objects hurled from both sides left several people requiring hospital treatment. Officers moved in with water cannon and urged the crowd to remain calm.
Seibert told reporters in Berlin that the violence had no place in Germany.
"People ganging up, chasing people who look different from them or who come from elsewhere ... is something we won’t tolerate,” he said. "This has no place in our cities and I can say for the German government that we condemn this in the sharpest possible manner.”
Hundreds of riot police worked to keep the noisy crowd of mostly men, who were chanting slogans against "criminal foreigners” and waving German national flags, apart from more than 1,000 anti-fascist counter-protesters.
The far-right demonstrators chanted: "We are the people”, as well as the Nazi-era term "luegenpresse” (lying press). They displayed placards that read "stop the refugee flood” and "defend Europe”, the latter adorned with an image of an automatic rifle.
Some carried banners or insignia of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and neo-Nazi NPD parties and other extremist groups, while a handful delivered the illegal right-handed Hitler salute, said police.