(The following is a collection of documents from the International Solidarity Group in Berlin which is the solidarity committee for 7 antifascists who are on trial in Berlin. Our group, Arm The Spirit, has produced both a pamphlet and an on-line file to help build solidarity here in Canada and in the rest of North America with the imprisoned antifascists. We will post updates on a regular basis as well as adding them to both the on-line file and the paper version. For paper copies write to our P.O. Box at the end of the file. * Arm The Spirit - November 1, 1994 *)
1) Press Release - September 20, 1994
"Kaindl Trial" Opens In Berlin
Today, Tuesday, September 20, proceedings in the so-called "Kaindl Trial" against seven Berlin anti-fascists were begun. Outside the court, 300 friends and supporters rallied in support of the accused.
Fifteen plainclothes police, partly known from the Berlin neighborhood Kreuzberg, tried to push through the visitors to the trial standing in a line. The exaggerated security precautions were designed to intimidate the friends and supporters of the accused. The entrance controls were especially extreme: Each visitor had to take off his/her shoes and have his/her clothes rummaged through. Even things like pens and paper were confiscated.
The seats for members of the press were filled with a large number of journalists, and the international trial observers were seated together with the press.
It was wonderful to see the prisoners once again, some of whom had been held in prison for 10 months already. Mehmet, whose birthday was today, was greeted with a rendition of "Happy Birthday", and the others were welcomed with shouts and applause. The mood amongst the defendants was very relaxed, and they talked and laughed with one another.
The first day of proceedings was marked by several interruptions and delays. During breaks, it was possible to exchange a few words with the defendants, who in turn supplied the audience with cigarettes, since tobacco and cigarettes were confiscated by security at the entrance to the courtroom.
The trial itself did not get past the point of introductions, since the proceedings had to be broken off because Erkan was not fit to be on trial. Erkan appears to be in a psychologically desolate state, and he appears to be under the heavy influence of psychiatric drugs.
We said goodbye with a long applause and we shouted slogans like "Power durch die Mauer!" ("Power through the walls!") and we promised that "We will be back!".
The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, September 27, at 9:00am in Room 500. We would like lots of people to show up early! Please coordinate your visits to the trial by contacting the Trial Office at Tel.: +49-30-694-9354.
Stop the Murder Trial! Support the Berlin 7!
For more information contact:
Prozessbuero c/o
International Solidarity Group
Dieffenbachstrasse 33
D-10967 Berlin
Germany
Telephone/Fax: ++49-30-694 93 54 or Fax: ++49-30-786 99 84
E-mail: PROZESSBUERO@LINK-B36.berlinet.in-berlin.de
(Leave messages or call on Monday from 2-8 p.m.)
2) Write To The Prisoners!
1st Envelope:
Staatsanwlatschaft Berli
z.Hd. StA Nielsen
Az: 1 Kap js 679/92
Turmstr. 91
10548 Berlin
Germany
2nd Envelope (within the 1st envelope):
Abidin Ersalan, Buch-Nr.: 5455/93
UHA Moabit, Alt Moabit 12a
10559 Berlin
Mehmet Ramme, Buch Nr.: 5436/93
UHA Moabit, Alt Moabit 12a
10559 Berlin
Fatma Balamir, Buch-Nr.: 950/93/8
JVA fuer Frauen
Friedrich-Olbricht-Damm 17
13627 Berlin
Erkan Sonmez
c/o Karl-Bonhoeffer Nervenklinik
Oranienburger Str. 285
13437 Berlin
Bazdin Yoldas
Jugendstrafanstalt Plotzensee
Friedrich-Olbricht-Damm 40
13627 Berlin
(We do not have addresses for Carlo and Seyho. Write to the International Solidarity Group in Berlin or e-mail them.)
All visitors have to pass through security check-points; their identity papers are being copied and the copies are being passed on to the judge. On the first day of the trial about 100 police were on duty outside the courthouse; inside the courtroom about 15 armed police guards were deployed. This latter measure was recalled by the judge after the defendants' lawyers filed a motion. Now, about 10 courtroom security guards are deployed in the front area of the courtroom and of course there still remains the unkown number of plainclothes police. Only 65 spectators are allowed into the courtroom. On the first day of the trial, only about 30 people had managed to get through all the security measures 1 1/2 hours after the official beginning of the trial. And police did everything to slow down the proceedings. Since then, the judge has ordered the front entrance to open at 7:30am (the court session starts at 9:00am) and the police harassment of the spectators is less obvious. The prisoners do not sit in glass cages - as was feared in the beginning - (the trial, however, takes place in the high-security wing of the courthouse), but they sit on benches in front of the glass cages in the front area of the courtroom, which is separated from the spectator area. During the first day of the trial the prisoners - who hadn't seen each other throughout their pre-trial detention time of 11 months - could meet during trial breaks in those glass cages in order to talk and smoke there. This possibility has been prohibited by the judge since the second day of trial. There is shouting between the prisoners and their relatives and friends during trial breaks.
Fatma, Mehmet, Abidin, Seyho, and Carlo have all made trial declarations, which you will receive, in part, with this package (the declarations of Seyho and Carlo have not been put into writing yet, and Mehmet's statement has not been translated into English yet, sorry, but it will follow soon).
It is essential that all prisoners have stated - Bazdin as well - that they want to relieve each other with their statements.
Fatma has stated that she will not make any statements related to the charges.
Abidin has stated that he did not participate in the action and therefore he cannot and will not make any statements in regard to the charges. At a later point he will put in an evidentiary motion in regard to the question where he was during that evening.
Erkan is barely able to follow the court proceedings and also states that he does not comprehend the legal proceedings. He continues to get medication and often seems to be absent-minded. His physician from the psychiatric hospital is present throughout the trial proceedings. There are a number of breaks during the proceedings due to his physical and mental condition. According to specialists, he can only be in court for a maximum of 6 hours per day.
Bazdin (the main points of his statements in front of the court): About his statements to the Secret Service after his arrest: During the interrogations on the day of his arrest the Secret Service showed him the written protocols of Erkan's statements and read parts of them to him. It was his impression that he was supposed to confirm Erkan's statements. He only made his statement to the Secret Service that Abidin participated in the action, because that was what was written in Erkan's statement. He could not remember that Abidin had participated in the action. He was questioned by two Secret Service agents, he then replied, the two agents took notes during his answers. Afterwards, the two agents formulated his statements and dictated them to a secretary. The written copies of those statements were then placed in front of him. He was not able to concentrate any longer, he only read the first few sentences and then signed everything (altogether there are about 100 pages of statements to the Secret Service and the state prosecutor by Bazdin). Furthermore, the agents read sentences to him and he was supposed to only say "yes" or "no" in regard to the truth of their content. He was interrogated from 9:00am until the evening. The Secret Service agents had told him that if he would make statements, they would intervene with the state prosecutor that he would be able to go home in the evening. According to him there existed three core issues which the Secret Service agents were interested in: Abidin and Mehmet as the so-called leaders, Antifasist Genclik as an organization, and contacts to Devrimci Sol and the PKK.
In his statements, Bazdin incriminates one of the antifascists who is now in illegality. He states that there was no joint plan for the action - this statement has been confirmed by Mehmet, Seyho, and Carlo as well. When confronted with a number of the same questions that he was given during the interrogation by the Secret Service, he does not remember the facts at all and also disclaims the answers that the Secret Service wrote down.
Mehmet: About the interrogation by the Secret Service: He was pressured to make statements, i.e. by the Secret Service agent making comparisons with interrogations in Turkey. He refused to make any statements and was not allowed to call his lawyer until the second day.
Seyho: About the situation in front of the Chinese restaurant: He and some other men were opposed to Fatma (and other women) coming with them and therefore Fatma was not present in the Chinese restaurant. His position was, either he goes along or Fatma does. He explains his position with Kurdish machismo.
Carlo: About the situation in front of the Chinese restaurant: There were a number of different groups that were present in front of the Chinese restaurant at different times, because the information had spread like wildfire among the scene in Kreuzberg. There was a great chaos about the question what to do - the ideas ranged from making a demonstration to throwing the Nazis out of the restaurant. He was only aware of two baseball bats as weapons.
The facts about the interrogation methods of the Secret Service, the non-existence of a joint plan of action, and the untrustworthiness of the two state witnesses (Erkan and Bazdin) have become relatively obvious at this point. It is important that there be international observers present during the questioning of the Secret Service agents and during the questioning of the Nazis. Supposedly the questioning of the Secret Service agents will start on October 23rd. The Nazis will probably come about two weeks later. Therefore we have an urgent request to you: If you know of any lawyers, reprsentatives of liberal organizations, etc., who want to observe the trial, please let us know.
On the first day of the trial, a big rally of 300 supporters of the prisoners took place in front of the courthouse. On the other side of the street, a group of five Nazis, among them a representative of the Republikaner Partei, were giving interviews to the press. A lawyer for the Nazis is present during the court proceedings as a side prosecutor representing Gabriele Hartung, former member of the executive board of the Deutsche Liga, who was also present during the Nazi meeting in the Chinese restaurant. So far, the lawyer has observed the trial porceedings silently; however, he has the right to question the prisoners, to file evidentiary motions, etc., and also to make a statement in the end. So far, there are no indications that the Nazis are able to follow through with their announcement of a big mobilization to the courthouse.
So far, the media reports - way into the liberal and bourgeois national newspapers - have been mostly objective. The role of the Secret Service is being pointed out and the trustworthiness of the two state witnesses (Erkan and Bazdin) is being questioned. The judge is being portrayed as liberal and open-minded by the media. The presence of international observers during the first day of the trial and their press conference has helped us a lot to legitimize our points of view for the bourgeois press.
So far, the repression can be pinned down to the existence of a court order to search the files of the supporters' donation bank account and that the account has been cancelled twice by two different banks. In light of the fact that on October 16th the general elections are taking place in Germany, there is a possibility that some politicians want to gain a bit more profile by making propaganda points, i.e. the Senator for the Interior in Berlin.
The charges against me are wrong. I was not in the Chinese restaurant "Jin Shan" in the early morning of April 4, 1992, not even near it. I didn't know about the action that took place there and didn't hear about what happend until the next morning. The statements of Erkan Sonmez and Bazdin Yoldas saying the opposite are wrong.
The only thing that is true is that I am an antifascist who worked with Antifasist Genclik. Since I have been in prison now for over ten months, I will at least say something about that organisation.
Antifasist Genclik is an association of Turkish and Kurdish youth and adults. We are an independent, (self-)determined, non-hierachical organisation of antifascist immigrants living in Berlin. Our goals are to organize, to address our interests, to succeed in the democratic and political aims we have in Germany.
For Antifasist Genclik - and as far as I know for the antifascist movement in general - the killing of Nazis has never and nowhere been proposed as a means in the antifascist struggle and has never been done before. For us, the antifascist struggle is no competition between the nazis and the antifascists: It's a long-term political, ideological, and social struggle for a broad antifascist movement, because only in that way willthe nazis become isolated in the society. We are neither adventurers nor violent, we are fighting for a society without violence, for a society in which nobody will be discriminated against or oppressed because of their colour, their gender, or their sexual orientation.
In the face of the growing racism and the reinforced fascist tendencies in this society, we are now of course forced to defend our life, our dignity, and our future. For the German society, the entrenchment and spread of racist ideas in it and its consequences are a main problem: For us immigrants this is about the question of survival!
Racist and fascist terror is primarily directed at us immigrants, but more and more it's also directed at Germans who don't fit in the "aryan view of the world". Also, more and more disabled, homeless, and homosexual people, democrats, humanists, and antifascists get terrorized. Immigrants are hunted in the streets, houses are set on fire, people get murdered. In the last for years years almost 100 people have been killed in racist and fascist attacks, thousands have been wounded, aside from the daily discrimination, humiliation, and assults on our dignity. A lot of us live in fear to walk the streets at night and wake up with nightmares.
In a situation like this it is just and legitimate to resist that racist and fascist terror. Considering the attacks on our dignity and our lives we immigrants don't want to stay waiting for the time when we are driven into the slaughter-house like sheeps without taking action against that. The murder of millions of people during Nazi-barbarity must not happen again.
In that sense, immigrants, antiracist and antifascist organisations are trying to take responsibility. The antiracist and antifascist struggle is a necessity. We immigrants must not wait until we get attacked: We have to stop this developement at its very beginning. We must not just watch them spread their deadly fascist propaganda, joining to attack refugees or progressive centers. We don't want to be part of tomorrow's German body count, we don't want to be the Jews of tomorrow. This land is also our land, and it must not be led into a fascist disaster a second time.
Like the terror of the Nazis 50 years ago can't be put on the same level with the resistance against it, like the German war of conquest can't be equated with the liberation of Germany, also the inhuman racist terror of today is very different from the just struggle against the fascist murderer gangs.
The failures of the German state at this point are obvious. The nationalism and the "ideology of a Greater Germany" of the last 5 years are coming alongside with denying, tolerating, and supporting racism and neo-fascism. The whole state had been mobilized against the Red Army Fraction, but now facing the fascist provocations they only do pathetic proclamations that they want to tackle that problem. Today the German state is not worried about the victims of its racist politics but about its reputation abroad only. The state itself layed the foundation for what we can hear now: "Germany for the Germans only!", "Foreigners out!", "Stop the flood of refugees!". German politicians are adopting racist slogans. People that flee from political persecution and social distress get defamed as fake refugees, the special laws for foreigners get aggravated in shorter and shorter intervals. Although we immigrants have been living in Germany for 30 years and although we make up 10 percent of the population, we are excluded from basic civil rights like the right to vote, our language and culture is not accepted, and we are subjected to special laws. In this republic there are people with legal privileges - called Germans - and people that are legally discriminated against - called "Auslaender" (foreigners). And the only distinction between them is their ethnic origin.
Therefore, we immigrants have to take our destiny in our own hands and we have to fight for our political rights, for our human rights, and for our right to live. Together with all democratic Germans, we want to fight against racism, fascism, and nationalism. We don't want just to endure what happens and stay silent like our parents do.
To survive in this society, we immigrants and antifascists have to resist. Resistance means to oppose racist and fascist terror strongly and with determination. Resistance means not to wait untill the nazis attack us, but to prevent them from building up their infrastructures. It is right and necessary to prevent the fascists from marching in the streets. It is right and necessary to prevent them from spreading their propaganda of inhumanity. If we don't oppose the racist and fascist terror today, it may be too late tomorrow.
Therefore, I say: Resistance now! The struggle against racism and fascism is just and necessary! The Nazis should be sitting on the benches of the accused, but not antifascists!
Abidin Ersalan - September 20th, 1994
We are on trial here today charged with the "joint murder" of a fascist cadre, as well as being charged with six counts of first degree assault. According to the charges, our motive was "politically-motivated hatred". These charges are based on the confessions of a 16-year-old who has been in a psychiatric clinic for some time now. This fact alone proves that the only interest of the state prosecutor and the state authorities is to criminalize and scare us, active anti-fascists and immigrants, with threats of a severe penalty, thereby to set the standard for all those immigrants, refugees, and homeless people who are not satisfied in their role as victims.
We stand here before the court primarily as immigrants but also as anti-fascists, as well as people affected by the arson attacks, murders, and progroms carried out racist death-squads and neo-nazis, and yet we are the ones charged with "politically-motivated hatred".
We stand before a court that has allowed a woman to file a secondary charge in the case, claiming that she suffered "psychological damage", and this from a person who, through her activities in the fascist party Deutsche Liga, is jointly responsible for the deaths of more than 60 people (murdered), as well as thousands more attacks on refugees and immigrants. From a person whose propaganda, hateful writings, and inhumane politics have meant that we immigrants and refugees not only suffer "psychological damage", but that we must even fear for our lives.
We are charged by a justice system comprised solely of Germans, who are neither affected by racism nor threatened by the recent events and climate, and who in good German tradition turn things around in this country by trying to make a murderous band of nazis seem like poor victims, and with verdicts, as in the case of the Holocaust denier Deckert, legitimizes attacks, pogroms, and murders against us immigrants and refugees at the judicial level. We are entirely cut off from social conditions here.
We live in a country:
That is our reality. We are confronted with violent politics and with a violence on the streets which knows no boundaries. For us, immigrants, refugees, and other minorities, it is necessary and a matter of survival that we organize ourselves.
In a climate of increasing violence from the right-wing, the lack of civil rights for minorities, alienation, discrimination, and threats on our lives, the initiative Antifasist Genclik (Anti-Fascist Youth) was founded. This group was founded by people of different ages, and I was active in this group. Antifasist Genclik is an open, legal initiative which neither has a hierarchical structure nor are any certain people leaders in the group. The main purpose behind our anti-fascist work was to start long-term political work with immigrants, anti-fascist initiatives, and all humanitarian and democratic individuals so as to work together to protect and advance our social and political interests. By means of directed political work, Antifasist Genclik sought to tackle the problems faced by immigrants living here, as well as our parents, families, and children, and to organize broad public awareness so as to push through our demands for dual citizenship, voting rights for immigrants, and laws against discrimination and exclusion. To do this, we organized events and demonstrations and we published a magazine. In addition to events and demonstrations, we felt it was important and necessary that we not stay hidden any longer when nazis march through the streets or organize events to spread their hateful politics, but rather we decided to go to these events together and to disrupt them. We learned soon enough that only a united opposition in the early stages can prevent fascist organizing and attacks from spreading. We see ourselves as part of the anti-fascist movement in Germany. Neither the anti-fascist movement in Germany nor the independent initiative Antifasist Genclik have ever propagated the goal of consciously killing neo-nazis. The death of any person is never the goal nor the approved result of anti-fascist actions.
Fatma Balamir Nr. 950/93/8 JVA Frauen Friederich-Ollbricht-Damm 17 13627 Berlin Germany
I came to Germany from Turkey in 1979. My mother had already been in Germany for 9 years, because she couldn't find a job in Turkey and she didn't know how she could get by. She was one of the cheap laborers which the Germans brought in from Turkey. She has always worked here in Germany. She was good for the dirtiest kinds of labor. But she was always excluded from German society. Even today. She only knows her own language. Her own culture, however, is far away. Today, she is sick from working too much, as are many people from my country.
I stayed on my own in Turkey until I came here. I went to school in Berlin, but I couldn't finish. Then I worked for 15 years in restaurants. I only got low-paying jobs, because I didn't have a diploma. About 10 years ago, I began to be interested in the situation of Turks here in Germany. I came to the conclusion that we have all the duties required of people here, but none of the rights enjoyed by them. Our status was always uncertain. We had to beg and stand in long lines to have our residency permits and work permits extended. The immigration police made it clear that we were not welcome here. If we even got just the slightest bit into debt, then we had to fear that our work permits would be revoked or that we would be sent out of the country.
Politicians speak about foreigners as if they were a plague on the nation. Almost every day on the radion and television we hear about a "flood of asylum-seekers" and how the country is becoming "too foreign". People are offered premiums if they will go back to where they came from. The politicians try to think up plans of how to get rid of us as quickly as possible. Many people did go back to Turkey, only to discover that now they felt strange there, too.
Many people acted towards us according to the ways the politicians spoke. Whereas people used to generally ignore us, now we are confronted with aversion, rejection, and disgust. On the streets, on the train, in bars, in government offices, we are treated like second- or third-class people. We are treated as inconveniences. We are often shown open hatred. Even before 1989, people used to insult and harass foreigners. There were racist attacks. But the authorities and the media tried to play down all of this.
In 1989, after the Wall came down, the situation of foreigners in Germany became much worse. The attacks grew in number and intensity. Their results were more serious. Racism and the hatred of foreigners became more open and were even spread in the media. I remember the things some Germans said after the attacks on foreigners in Hoyerswerda. Normal citizens supported the attackers and were happy to see violence against refugees. And that was not an isolated incident. Even in Berlin we experienced more and more hatred against Turks and anyone that looked foreign. Hitler's birthday and the anniversay of the death of Hitler's deputy are openly commemmorated here.
We non-Germans, immigrants and refugees, were the ones who were buried under the collapsing Wall. The state and the politicians did nothing to protect us. Quite the contrary. The police looked away when violence was committed against foreigners. We began to have the impression that the police approved of violence against foreigners and refugees. This impression, that the police are on the side of the violent Germans, has since been proven true, not only in Hamburg, Berlin, and Magdeburg. Complaints filed by us are not even looked into. If a trial involving violence against foreigners ever even takes place, the accused usually just get off or just get a light sentence. In Ravensburg, a judge in February 1992 based his mild sentencing of a skinhead who had stabbed an Angloan man to death by saying: "We had to assume that the victim's skin color played a considerable role in the deed." The state court in Paderborn acquitted three right-wing extremists who had shouted "We don't want any refugee swine here!" outside a home for refugees. The court's decision stated the men, by means of their slogans, were just giving verbal expression to an opinion held by many Germans, namely that too many foreigners live in Germany. Trials against foreigners, however, usually end with long jail terms and then deportation.
The politicians did everything they could to stir up emotions against non-Germans. Not a single day went by without a new hate campaign from the politicians of all the major parties against refugees and foreigners.
Klaus Landowsky, CDU fraction chair, Berlin legislature: "It is unacceptable, that one segment of the foreigners can beg, cheat, and even stab their way through the streets, get arrested, and then, just because they say the word 'asylum', sit back and live off the German taxpayers."
Prof. Heckelmann, Berlin senator for the interior: "The justified outrage against the unfortunate events in Rostock must not be allowed to lead to a new discussion about Germans hating foreigners, while the real problem, namely the continuing and uncontrolled flood of foreigners on their way to the misuse of our asylum system, remains unsolved."
Nicolaus Jung, CDU mayor of Lebach in Saarland: "The city will not allow gypsies to dance in Lebach."
Manfred Ritter, CSU state attorney in Ansbach, Bavaria: "Comparisons to a swarm of locusts, which leaves behind a desert wherever it travels, are not exaggerated. There can only be one solution, namely closing off Europe to immigration from the developing countries."
Alfred Dregger, former head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary fraction: "Foreigners are guests, not citizens, and consequently not fellow citizens."
Steffen Reiche, SPD chairman, Brandenburg: "Great floods of refugees from the East could bring an end to European culture. They could be more dangerous to Europe than the Red Army in the days of the Cold War."
Basilius Streithofen, Dominican priest and former advisor to the chancellor: "Jews and Poles are the biggest exploiters of German taxpayers."
Not only the Republikaner, but also the christian democratic CDU fuelled their election campaign with hate tirades against foreigners. The most notorious example is from the election campaign in 1991. The CDU general secretary at that time, Ruehe, declared the so-called asylum question to be the number one election theme. He sent a paper to all CDU functionaries in September 1991, in which he called on all state and local politicians to make asylum politics an important theme. He provided ready-made arguments and sample press statements and pieces of legislation, one of which read "our community can no longer accept any more asylum-seekers". The result was more attacks against us, arson and murder. Huenxe, Rostock, Moelln, Solingen, these are the names of the places where the most serious attacks and murders took place.
It's no surprise then that one of the persons accused in the Moelln attack said: "Foreigners? For me, they are third-class people. But I make a distinction between foreigners and asylum-seekers. Asylum-seekers should go back to where they came from. As for foreigners, I don't have anything against them working here with us. But if they no longer have a job, then they should leave Germany immediately. Otherwise they take homes away from us Germans. I don't have a job, because no one wants me, and I think that's because foreigners are stealing our jobs by working for lower wages. That's why I can't tolerate foreigners, and especially not asylum-seekers. I am proud to be a German."
In Huenxe, there was a clear connection between the CDU election campaign and right-wing violence. Three days after the local council adopted a CDU proposal drafted during the election campaign ("our community can no longer accept any more asylum-seekers"), skinheads firebombed a home for refugees and two Lebanese girls were seriously wounded. The politicans don't react to such attacks with compassion, aid, or protection for the victims. Usually, as with interior minister Seiters, they speak about the "difficult task" which the police have, and they complain about how Germany's image abroad is damaged. That image affects Germany's export potential. The things that worries the chancellor and his ministers are not the lives of Turkish people, but rather economic interests. They demanded that the "asylum problem" be solved.
We saw our lives in danger, our worth as human beings threatened. We recognized that the German state would not protect us. More and more of us decided to take the matter of protection into our own hands. We came together and formed antifa groups. I decided to work with Turkish youth groups to get them to stop fighting amongst themselves and to unite and work together to stop right-wing racist attacks. I concerned myself with the fact that we had to organize our own protection.
We didn't start this. The others declared war on us. This war, which we don't want, was forced upon us by others. We are not the attackers. We have a right to resist and we have a right to live here without being insulted and without being attacked and having our health threatened.
We did resist. If nothing else, we made it safe to live in our neighborhoods in Wedding, Schoeneberg, and Kreuzberg. In Kreuzberg, I can walk down Oranienstrasse with my wife without having to continually look behind me and be ready to flee at any moment. I can't do that in Marzahn and Hellersdorf. This security for foreigners was not achieved by the police. The foreigners had to do it themselves. In Kreuzberg, there is practically no racist violence against foreigners.
On the night of April 4, 1992, we wanted to insure that things remained safe in Kreuzberg. That's why we went to the Chinese restaurant. We wanted to drive away the Republikaner and the other fascists. We didn't want to let the Republikaner spread their hatred among us and insult and attack us. That's why we wanted to drive them away. We didn't want to kill anybody.
The people that should be on trial are those that are responsible for racist violence against immigrants and refugees and other minorities.
Not only skinheads and organized neo-nazis should be put on trial, but also those people in the German state and in politics who, by their words and deeds in Germany, have threatened our lives and trampled our dignity beneath their feet.
Mehmet Ramme
Nr. 5436-3
UHA Moabit
Alt-Moabit 12a
10559 Berlin
Germany
The murder charges in the Berlin trial concerning the death of neo-nazi leader Gerhard Kaindl are based on confessions which cannot be introduced in court. A health specialist concluded after a psychiatric examination that 19-year-old Erkan S. suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was therefore not in a position to understand the significance of his statements to police. During the afternoon session of the seventh day of proceedings, the court decided that these confessions could not be used in the case.
The fact that police made extensive use of Erkan's confessions, which were obtained in a highly dubious manner, in order to force confessions from Bazdin Y., the state prosecutor will now have serious difficulties in pressing forward the charges. Notes from the interrogation sessions of both defendants are in large portions composed of statements from police officers which tend rather to indicate the wishes of the investigators rather than the actual statements of the accused.
Although there is already talk of the charges being reduced to "manslaughter" and the notion of "joint premeditation" has essentially been refuted by statements from the accused, presiding judge Eschenhagen nonetheless rejected a motion to ease the prison conditions of Abidin E. who was not involved in the attack on Kaindl. This decision met with disagreement and anger from trial observers.
"Do you know what I'd like to do with you, you red bastard!"
At the beginning of the day's proceedings, Carlo B. reported mistreatment at the hands of prison staff in Moabit detention centre on Saturday, October 15. After a verbal dispute during dinner, a guard slammed Carlo's cell door into his head. Carlo was knocked unconscious and his right eye was swollen and bruised. A fellow prisoner later reported a statement made by the violent guard: "Nine of them attacked one of us (meaning Kaindl), I'd sure like to do that to him." The following day, the guard came to Carlo and "apologized" and told him to keep quiet about what had happened. Carlo was then denied medical treatment for two days.
Supporters are asked to fax letters of protest to the Moabit detention centre to Mr. Fixsun at ++49 30 397 505.
The trial will continue on Tuesday, October 25.
On Tuesday, October 25, Abidin E. was ordered released from preventive custody by the presiding judge in the so-called "Kaindl Trial". The judge felt there was enough evidence to support Abidin's claim that he was not involved in the attack in the Chinese restaurant. And then on Thursday, October 27, the same conclusion was made regarding Fatma. Since it now looks like the murder charges in the case will now all be reduced to assault charges, the court ruled that there was no need to hold Fatma and Abidin - who were not at the scene of the attack on Kaindl - in preventive custody.
The trial will resume on Tuesday, November 1.
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