Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Because he was half Iraqi... |
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| Saleema |
| 11/25/00 at 23:46:30 |
| West Germans shocked by denial over boy's lynching By Imre Karacs in Berlin 26 November 2000 The electronic visitors' book of Sebnitz, a picturesque town nestling among pine trees near the Czech border, is oozing hatred. "I want the Wall back," declares one correspondent. "And then the whole of East Germany should be carpet-bombed." "A Nazi town like Sebnitz must be burnt to the ground," chimes in another. They killed a six-year-old boy named Joseph. Not the whole town, only about 50 of its youths, with some 200 others impassively looking on. They beat Joseph because of his dark skin. They tortured him, poisoned him and tossed him into a swimming pool. But that is not what makes West Germans reach for their imaginary "Nuke the East" button. They are shocked by what happened next: nothing. Sebnitz closed ranks, the local police declared Joseph's lynching an accident, and prosecutors shelved the case. Only now, three years after the murder, have they been forced to admit, under the weight of damning evidence gathered by the victim's mother, that they lied. Never before has the connivance of the authorities in eastern Germany with neo-Nazi thugs been so clearly demonstrated. On 13 June 1997 Joseph Kantelberg-Abdulla went with his 12-year-old sister Diana to the outdoor swimming pool. This being an East German story, a genealogical detour is in order. Joseph's mother, Renate, is German, his father, Saad, an Iraqi refugee. Sebnitz is a town of 10,000. In such a small place, it must be assumed that the 50 skinheads who set upon Joseph knew of his mixed blood. First they taunted him and ripped off his towel. Then they started beating him. Somebody in the gang thrust a bottle under his lips, forcing him to drink what is believed to have contained a sedative. Residues of the drug ritalin were found in his body during the second post- mortem, conducted this year at the insistence of the family. They had to pay for the examination. The official one, after all, had concluded that death had been by drowning. But before Joseph was thrown into pool, the lads and lasses of Sebnitz applied electric shocks to his body, and then, amid cries of "let's chuck him in", they dropped Joseph in at the deep end. A few of the most boisterous ones jumped in and trampled him under the water, until Joseph stopped moving. His body was pulled out 10 minutes later. The attendants and adults lounging by the pool had seen or heard nothing, not even the shrieks of Joseph's sister. Diana's version of events tallied with that of only one witness, who had phoned Renate anonymously to tell her what had happened. The adults present, she added, had been too scared to intervene. Thus began Renate Kantelberg-Abdulla's quest for the truth. She interviewed 15 witnesses, barracked the authorities. But the Christian Democrat government in the regional capital, Dresden, was not interested in investigating neo-Nazi crimes. The chief prosecutor endorsed the verdict of accidental death. Joseph's parents then sent all the evidence they had gathered to a criminologist in Hanover. He produced the report that forced the chief prosecutor in Dresden to reopen the case. Last week, there were three arrests. Two men aged over 20 and a woman are suspected of murdering Joseph. The town of Sebnitz is appalled. The local priest and the mayor have gone on national television to explain that the overwhelming majority of residents are decent folk. Only 7 per cent of them voted for the neo-Nazis in the last elections. Some of the latter turned up outside Renate Kantelberg-Abdulla's house on Friday, shouting Nazi slogans and promising to "finish you off, with a knife in the guts". Police made no arrests. |
| Re: Because he was half Iraqi... |
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| Sara |
| 11/26/00 at 18:42:09 |
| OH, HELL NO!!!!):( |
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