-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Austria found guilty of ill-treatment of Immigration detainees Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 14:46:10 +0000 From: John O <[log in to unmask]> To: Recipient List Suppressed:; Rampant racism against Immigration detainees by Austrian police exposed Black detainees kicked, beaten and punched, says Amnesty Kate Connolly in Vienna: Saturday March 25, 2000 Austrian police have been accused of seriously flouting human rights, abusing their powers and using brutal language and behaviour in their treatment of foreigners, in a report released by Amnesty International in Vienna yesterday. The damning account said a strong inbuilt racism existed within the police force. Amnesty Austria members called on the government to establish race education programmes from primary school level "so that children learn a human rights conscience from a young age". The report, based on the recommendations of the UN committee against torture, detailed eyewitness accounts and medical reports of detainees being kicked, punched, beaten with truncheons and sprayed with pepper. "Austria is not a torture state, but nevertheless a state that has certainly fallen far short of European Union human rights recommendations," said the general secretary of Amnesty International Austria, Heinz Patzelt. The report was published on the same day as a 31-year-old police officer appeared before a Vienna court charged with grevious bodily harm over the beating of a young black African man. The policeman is alleged to have hit the 18-year-old around the genitals with a baseball bat before arresting him in September last year on suspicion of drugs possession. The judge adjourned the trial indefinitely, for more evidence. The Amnesty report said detainees were often denied access to lawyers, doctors or friends, and foreigners, particularly black Africans, had been beaten unconscious for not showing police their papers. The allegations could hardly have come at a worse time for Austria, which has been isolated on the international stage for almost two months since the anti-immigration far-right Freedom party entered the government in a coalition with the conservatives. A spokesman for the interior ministry said it had already begun to look into the Amnesty charges. "All the allegations will be examined, to see if any judicial and disciplinary measures should be taken," he said. The focal point of Amnesty's allegations is the case of Marcus Omofuma, a Nigerian asylum seeker, 25, who died while being deported from Vienna to Sofia in May last year. He was bound and gagged "like a mummy stuck to the seat" by the three officers who accompanied him, and arrived unconscious in Sofia where doctors pronounced him dead. No charges were brought. "Investigations into police ill-treatment have been slow, lacking in thoroughness and often inconclusive," said Mr Patzelt. Often, when complaints were made, the police brought counter-charges and more often than not won. Illegal raids on asylum homes were also being regularly reported, he said, citing an incident which occurred after the report was completed, in January this year, when police raided the home of black Africans in Traiskirchen. "One hundred and forty police stormed the home looking for drugs but nothing was found," he said. "They then carried out painful anal searches, simply because there was some suspicion that there might be drugs there. All you need is a black face to be considered suspicious." The report covers incidents that happened before the current government was sworn in. But human rights organisations fear that the rise of the far right has given expression to passive racism in Austria. In what is being seen as a timely move, the EU has chosen to base its new racism monitoring centre in Vienna. "It wasn't placed here because Austria is seen as being racist," insisted EU spokesman John Kellock, "but if it steps out of line, we'll haul them over the coals." The Freedom party and People's party are the only government parties in the EU not to have signed up to the EU's charter against racism because their policies contravene some of the clauses. Fears that intolerance is on the rise in Austria increased this week when the head of the evangelical church, Bishop Gertraud Knoll, said she was going into hiding with her three children because she could no longer stand the violent and sexually abusive letters delivered to her home in Burgenland. Bishop Knoll, 41, has been a staunch critic of the Freedom party and its racist politics for years. Kate Connolly: Electronic Guardian Saturday 25 march 2000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Amnesty International Press Release 24 March 2000 Austria: Incidents of police brutality against Immigration detainees continue The Austrian authorities continue to ignore serious incidents of police brutality and have failed to end the ill-treatment of detainees, Amnesty International said in a report launched in Vienna today ( Austria before the UN Committee against Torture: allegations of police ill-treatment. AI Index: EUR 13/001/00). Supported by eyewitness reports and medical evidence, detainees have reported being repeatedly kicked, punched, kneed, beaten with truncheons and sprayed with pepper after restraint. The victims are mostly non-white foreign or Austrian nationals and in many cases police are alleged to have used racist language. In May last year, a 25-year-old Nigerian asylum-seeker, Marcus Omofuma, was deported by three police officers from Vienna airport. On the aeroplane, he was allegedly gagged and bound 'like a mummy stuck to the seat' with adhesive tape. He did not survive the journey. In November 1998, Dr C, a black Austrian citizen, was stopped by police after reversing his car into a one-way street and was asked "Why are you driving the wrong way, Nigger?" The police officers reportedly pushed Dr C into a bush of thorns, beat him unconscious, handcuffed him and continued to beat him after he regained consciousness. Dr C's wife claims one of the police officers shouted to his colleague; "Make him lame until he can no longer walk". After being arrested, Dr C was so badly beaten, he was taken to hospital where he spent 11 days recovering. "Investigations into police ill-treatment have been slow, lacking in thoroughness and often inconclusive. In the 1998 - 1999 period very few perpetrators of human rights violations were brought to justice. To add insult to injury, counter-charges such as resisting arrest, physical assault or defamation were often brought against detainees who lodged complaints of ill- treatment against police officers," Amnesty International said. Police officers entered a Chinese restaurant in July 1998 and demanded identity papers from employees. The cook, a Chinese national, was reportedly dragged out of the kitchen, beaten and put into a headlock for not producing his papers. One of the waitresses, He Xiuzhen, tried to intervene and was pinned to the ground and hit on the breast. In self-defence she tried to attack the police officer with her shoe but he allegedly beat her with her other shoe. Another waitress involved in the incident, He Xiuqin, later lodged a complaint as did the police officers who complained of physical assault and resisting arrest, as a result of which the three detainees received suspended prison sentences. In November last year the UN Committee against Torture reviewed Austria's Second Periodic Report to the Committee describing the measures it had taken to implement its obligations under the Convention against Torture. The Committee recommended that police be held to account for violations of human rights and they receive a clear message that abuse of power will not be tolerated. Amnesty International believes that perpetrators of human rights violations are likely to become all the more confident when they are not held to account before the law. The organization is renewing its calls on the new Austrian government to seriously address the abuse of police powers by promptly and thoroughly investigating all incidents of ill-treatment, address racism in the police force, send a clear message to police that ill-treatment is unacceptable, and punish the perpetrators. "The image of a brutal and sometimes racist police force is an ugly one. The Austrian government faces major embarassment in Europe and abroad if it allows rogue police officers to beat people up and get away with it," Amnesty International warned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------