Dresden, Memory, and Skinheads

Over the weekend a major march in Dresden resulted in street violence. The Jungen Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland (JLO-- Youth National Association of East Germany) intended to use the annual anniversary of the Angl0-American bombing of Dresden as an opportunity to draw attention to their cause. The JLO has been commemorating the 1945 firebombing of the East German city for the past 12 years. They seek to re-frame the historical debate around German guilt for the destruction of WWII. These young neo-Nazis emphasize the suffering Germans experienced during the war.

Over 10,000 counter-protesters showed up to confront approximately 5000 neo-Nazis and formed a human chain around the "brown hordes". Despite the presence of 5000 policemen, violence erupted between neo-Nazis and the "Linksautonomen"--we would refer to them as anarchists here. Ultimately, the Nazis couldn't march.

The image above, from Spiegel Online (Getty Images), shows anti-fascist demonstrators in action behind the police blockade.

Serbian Nationalists and Karadzic

It's no surprise that Serbian nationalists believe that the Hague ICTY is incapable of providing Radovan Karadic with a fair trial. That said, the trial is going forward. One of the most recent developments concerns Karadzic's attempt to sack his court-appointed attorney. Karadzic is doing everything in his power to delay the trial, and continues to insist that he is innocent on all 11 counts of war crimes. His most infamous act was to oversee the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica. Karadzic continues to argue that war war was avoidable and that Alija Izetbegovic as well as foreign (German) interference was largely responsible for the outbreak of war. Also, there's no denying that the origins of the conflict are difficult to unravel. Still, this trial is not ultimately about establishing blame for the outbreak of the war. Karadzic needs to stand trial for specific war crimes.

NPR: Ethnic Minorities in Europe

NPRs going to run a three-part series this week investigating the place of ethnic minorities in Europe. Sylvia Poggioli begins today in Germany . German national identity has always emphasized ethnic rather than political unity.

Serbia and Russia: Slavic Brothers Always

Here's an interesting story from NPR. The Russians want to put a gas pipeline through Serbia. Apparently, many Serbians "welcome" Gazprom's bid to own a controlling interest in Serbian state gas and oil. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Serbs and Russians have cultivated "pan-Slavic" nationalism. More recently, the Russians supported Serbia during the Yugoslav war and during the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999.
There's no doubt that this move will serve to strengthen Russia's geo-political position in Europe even as it strengthens Serbia's legitimacy in the Balkans. In recent years, both the Russians and Serbians have felt that Americans and Western Europeans have misused and misunderstood them. There's little doubt that such feelings will drive them to work more closely with one another.

"Balkan Troubles"

In Monday's Wall Street Journal Europe, Morton Abramowitz and Daniel Serwer remind us that the Balkans have not vanished. Ethnic tensions, they argue, still threaten to degenerate into violence. The "wounds of war are still raw", they write, and the European Union and the United States are too concerned about the threat of intensified nationalism to understand that they need to display "stiffer resolve", particularly in Bosnia.

Radovan Karadzic faces Two Counts of Genocide

On July 18, 2008, Serbian security forces arrested Radovan Karadzic, who had successfully evaded capture for over a decade since the end of the war in Bosnia in 1995. Karadzic, a Serbian ultra-nationalist, is now imprisoned in the Hague and will go on trial for--among other charges--two counts of genocide. He is best known for commanding Bosnian Serb forces, orchestrating the siege of Sarajevo and ordering the Srebrenica massacre (1995). Just today, United Nations war crimes judges in the Hague [ICTY] rejected a request from Stojan Zupljanin to combine his own trial with that of Karadzic. Karadzic himself continues to claim that United States officials offered him immunity in 1996, a claim that former peace envoy Richard Holbrooke denies. UN judges have ignored Karadzic's claims, asserting that they are "invalid under international law".

The following is an AP report on the arrest and extradition of Karadzic to the Netherlands in July:



Compare the first account to the story as Al Jazeera covered it:

Don't forget the Balkans.

Radio Free Europe reminds us that the Balkans remain a source of instability. The western (and certainly American) media is obsessed with Barack Obama's move to Washington DC and the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Important stories, to be sure, but it seems that nobody remembers the anti-American riots in February following Kossovo's declaration of independence. The RFE story is pretty optimistic, suggesting that independence and an election repesent a "break from the ethnically driven politics of the past, and a step toward greater integration with the West."

More Right-Wing Extremism in Germany

Spiegel Online reports that neo-Nazis are now threatening the mayor of Mecklenburg, and he's under police protection. Rechtsextremen have posted threats on a well-known right-wing website, comparing him to a "Christmas goose" that should be "sacrificed". In all liklihood, the threat stems from a conflict between Mayor Gossel and the IPD (Interim Party of Germany), a small right-wing organziation subject to surveillance. The IPD belongs to the "Reichs-ideological part of the right-extreme scene" and it's goals are "somewhat obscure". Much like American right-wing groups, the IPD appears to possess a combination of racist, anti-immigrant, anti-liberal and anti-federal beliefs.

"The Brown Swamp"

Two weeks ago a neo-Nazi stabbed the chief of police of Passau. Today, the "Frankfurter Rundschau" reports that right-wing crime has increased by appoximately 30% in the past year. It's difficult to determine how strong neo-Nazism is in Germany. During the 90s it was stronger in the former East German states, and there was a series of high-profile attacks on Auslaender (foreigners)--particularly on those who fled to Germany to benefit from its liberal asylum laws. A related story concerns a neo-Nazi rally on Christmas Eve in Aachen.

Of course, about 500 counter-demonstators greeted the Nazis with jeers and curses. Juergen Linden, the mayor of Aachen said that "the provocation of this brown riff-raff fills us with loathing and disgust."

photo of Skinhead from Spiegel, on his neck: "Everything for Germany" and the tactical symbol for the 7th SS "Volunteer" division.