BERLIN German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged on Monday to use the full force of the law to combat far-right extremism and said it would be a mistake to judge the country by the violent acts of a tiny minority.
Interrupting his holiday on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Schroeder spoke out amid outrage at home following a bomb attack last month that injured six Jews and a growing media focus on the issue of far-right extremism.
"Everybody can be sure that the German government at the state and federal level will pursue those engaged in anti-foreigner acts with the full force of the law," Schroeder told N24 Television.
"It needs the full strength of the police and the full strength of the justice system, but also help from those who follow the social reasons behind the skinhead movement." After a mystery bomb blast in Dusseldorf in July, which police have so far failed to link to the far right, a media outcry has led politicians to focus on a possible ban of the National Democratic Party (NPD), a key right-wing organization.
Attacks on foreigners have increased in the decade since German reunification, particularly in the economically depressed ex-communist East. There is little conclusive evidence, however, of a significant rise in racist crime or much proof that Germany has bigger problems with far-right violence than its neighbors.
A Blow to Germany's Image Schroeder expressed concern that the focus on the problem would harm Germany's image abroad.
"It would be fatal if those misguided skinheads would be seen as representative of Germany," Schroeder said.
As Schroeder spoke from abroad, his government spokesman on Monday outlined an initiative to crack down on the small hard core of German skinhead racists. The effort, provisionally called "show your face" is due to start work in September and aims to mobilize the masses against far-right thugs.
Government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said the new group would use celebrities to inspire ordinary Germans to refuse to tolerate racists, which Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says is essential to stamping out tacit approval of the problem.
"We want to encourage people to do something against xenophobia and anti-semitism," Heye told a news conference in Duesseldorf, where a grenade attack last month injured 10 immigrants, including six Jews, from the former Soviet Union.
Schroeder will make the battle against the far right a major theme when he tours eastern states later this month after his holiday, government sources said on Monday.
Hardly a day has gone by this summer without news of attacks on foreigners. Police in the Bavarian town of Bamberg defused an explosive device left outside a Jewish family home on Monday.
No one was hurt.
(Reuter)