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German neo-Nazi group banned

Updated: 13/Jul/2006 13:51

Gerald Asamoah

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BERLIN (EJP)--- A German neo-Nazi group that circulated posters and flyers insulting African-born national footballer Gerald Asamoah just weeks before the World Cup has been officially banned.

Interior Minister for the state of Brandenburg Joerg Schoenbohm slapped a ban on the extreme right-wing "Protective Union of Germany" at the beginning of the month following raids on a number of homes and buildings occupied by its members.

Some 250 police officers stormed 13 residences in Brandenburg and one in the city of Halle, confiscating an extensive cache of right-wing propaganda material, a professional printing machine and a number of weapons. Officials said much of the propaganda was almost identical to that distributed by the Nazis.

Interior Minister Schoenbohm said the group was especially nasty as it shared "a particular affinity with National Socialism".

The ban on the group and the closure of its website comes at the end of the football tournament and after posters printed by the extremists were ordered to be taken out of circulation by the Berlin County Court following legal complaints by the German Football Association.

The posters had attacked one of the country’s most popular players, Gerald Asamoah, who was born in Ghana but is a German citizen, with its slogan "No, Gerald, You are not Germany" – a pun on a government-backed campaign "You are Germany" aimed at evoking national pride in the run up to the tournament. The insult was also repeated across Germany on the internet.

Senior state prosecutor Gerd Schnittcher said investigations against nine members of the Union were underway on charges of incitement of the people and affront. These included investigations against former regional party leader of the right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD) Mario Schulz.

Schnittcher said Schulz, who is still involved in politics as an independent representative, had rented a number of the items confiscated during searches of the properties.

The Protective Union of Germany, formally known as the "Movement for a New Order" had been operating for two years after splitting from the NPD because the party was not "racist enough".

And it is not the first neo-Nazi group to be banned by Brandenburg officials. Since 1995 a number of organisations have been outlawed, including three so-called "fellowships" or "kameradschaft".

Yet despite attempts to crack down on such groups, the small state has been in and out of the headlines for racially motivated attacks by skinheads, including setting fire to Turkish-run small businesses and a vicious attack earlier this year on a German of Ethiopian descent that left him with life-threatening injuries.

But Schoenbohm said they would continue to fight the extremists. "This ban is a further sign of the fight against organised right-wing extremism and shows that we are a country that is open to the world. There is no place in our country for neo-Nazi propaganda and racism," he said.