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Neo-Nazi march broken up in Germany
(Sept. 1st 2001)
LEIPZIG, Germany (September 1, 2001 5:20 p.m. EDT) - Police stopped a march
by some 2,000 neo-Nazis in the eastern city of Leipzig on Saturday after
participants shouted banned slogans and counter-demonstrators threw bottles
and stones. Sixty-one people were arrested.
Counter-demonstrators set fire to makeshift barricades of garbage
containers,
and threw objects at both the neo-Nazis and police. Bank windows were
smashed
and a shop looted, police said.
A court had given permission for the march to go ahead on the condition
that certain far-right slogans were not used. There were 3,500 police
officers
to control the march.
Concern at a surge in neo-Nazi violence has spurred the German government
to pledge a crackdown on the far right and to call for ordinary Germans
to stand up for the victims.
The government and parliament have applied for a ban on the far-right
National
Democratic Party, which they blame for fueling the rise in hate crimes.
A member of that party organized Saturday's march in Leipzig on behalf of
an organization calling itself the "citizens' initiative for German
interests."
(Associated Press)
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