Fifth Ad in NY Times

From: koreenb@aol.com (Koreen B)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Germany 2
Date: 25 Feb 1995 18:48:17 -0500

The following is a reprint of an ad placed by the International Association of Scientologists in the NY Times and Washington Post regarding civil rights violations in Germany. It is fifth in a series.

Preserve That Freedom

On June 6, representatives from many nations celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion at Normandy.

D-Day was a decisive step toward liberation of Europe and the end of the Third Reich. But for many, real liberation did not come until the spring of 1945 when the advancing Allied armies reached the heart of Europe and discovered the unspeakable -- concentration camps where millions had been exterminated.

Witnesses to the atrocities vowed "Never Again." Germany was partitioned into East and West. And to ensure its dark legacy would never repeat, a constitution was written for Germany to guarantee religious freedom and human rights for all its citizens.

Today, Germany is reunited, but it has not yet risen superior to its ignoble past. Neo-Nazi extremism is again on the rise, and members of minority religions and ethnic groups are again victims of discrimination and persecution -- including firebombings, beatings, knifings and other violence.

Despite the attempts of the German government to convince the world that teenage skinheads are the sole perpetrators of violence, investigations by human rights groups have uncovered brutal treatment of minorities by Germany authorities.

A typical incident reported by Amnesty International concerned a Sri Lankan who was stopped by two plainclothes police officers while cycling to work. They accused him of stealing the bicycle, which he denied, producing the receipt showing he had purchased it honestly. The officers reacted by handcuffing him so violently that they fractured his wrist. They told him that "foreigners" like him committed acts of theft, arrested him and took him to a police station, where they isolated him in a cell. Only after it became plain that no charge could be laid against him was he released.

Such incidents reflect growing intolerance by Germans of non-Germans and minorities.

According to a recent opinion poll conducted for the American Jewish Committee, 22% of Germans would "prefer not" to have Jews living in their neighborhood, while 47% feel the same way about Arabs, 39% about Poles and 36% about Turks.

The government is at best ineffectual in dealing with the upsurge in violence, at worst itself discriminatory.

For example:

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, according to a spokesman, would not even visit the Turkish victims of a firebombing because his schedule was too full for "condolence tourism."
Members of the Church of Scientology have been physically attacked, fired from their jobs, excluded from political participation and their properties have been damaged. The instances are too numerous to recount here.
The Rosicrucians, persecuted and destroyed by the Nazis, are today attacked in a booklet published by Germany's ruling political party.
Official statistics published in May confirm that anti-Semitism has been rising steadily since 1992 leading to, most recently, the firebombing of a synagogue in Luebeck.

Jens Mueller, a well known German artist and publisher, charges the German government with "complicity" in the violence. He wrote, "Yes, the government has organized several anti-fascist rallies... but the sceptic in me notes that these rallies didn't occur until after 1800 violent attacks on foreigners in 1992, which resulted in terribly embarrassing international headlines for Germany, which in turn moved a number of foreign business concerns -- including notable American banks -- to cancel plans to invest in Germany."

It is especially ironic, therefore, that Germany has launched an international campaign to lobby for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Germany's ambassadors have been ordered to convince the world of their country's eligibility to police the world.

Yet Germany is still gripped by the same hatreds that obliged the world to police Germany.

In view of the ample evidence since unification that fascism is on the rise again, condoned and encouraged by the German government, we ask your help in preventing history from repeating itself.

Bigotry and hatred can only exist when honest men refuse to act in the face of evil. By making your voice heard, you can help stop the hatred.

Write to President Bill Clinton. Urge him to take strong and effective steps to end hatred and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities in Germany.

President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Send copies of your letter to:

John Shattuck
Assistant Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dr. Helmut Kohl
Federal Chancellor
Adenaurallee 139-141
53113 Bonn, Germany

Dr. Klaus Kinkel
Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
Adenauerallee 99-103
53113 Bonn, Germany.

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