‘
Frau
Merkel invited me’
Chancellor’s
refugee policy under strain after Cologne sex attacks.
By MATTHEW
KARNITSCHNIG 1/7/16, 11:03 PM CET
BERLIN — Public
fury over the sexual assault of dozens of women in Cologne on New
Year’s Eve exploded into a political crisis for Angela Merkel
following reports Thursday that asylum seekers were among the
attackers.
Outrage over the
attacks, including two alleged rapes, has been building all week but
reached fever pitch after a police report describing the events
revealed that asylum seekers were among the perpetrators. Authorities
said previously they had no indication those behind the assaults were
refugees, describing the suspects as “North African.”
“During identity
checks, the vast majority could only provide their asylum-seeker
registration papers,” an excerpt of the report published by Die
Welt said. The paper quoted an officer who claimed the majority of
the roughly 80 individuals checked were of Syrian origin. The head of
federal police union confirmed in an interview with German television
late Thursday that refugees were involved.
The revelations are
a setback for the German leader. Merkel succeeded in restoring a
degree of confidence in her controversial migration policies in
December by presenting a strategy aimed at stemming the flow of
refugees and devoting more resources to integrating the more than 1
million who arrived in 2015.
The Cologne attacks,
coupled with fresh evidence that the influx of new arrivals has not
slowed, has put her back on the defensive.
Losing the center
The biggest danger
to Merkel isn’t from the far-right, which will use the attacks to
hammer its anti-immigration message, but from the center. Throughout
the refugee crisis, Merkel has retained the solid backing of centrist
voters. The assaults, which have inflamed passions even among
moderates, could change that.
“Women
who are on the street at 1 a.m. or 1:30 a.m. are considered whores
and German women are generally considered open game” — Social
Democrat Heinz Buschkowski
For many Germans,
the events in Cologne have confirmed suspicions that men from the
Middle East do not respect the independence and freedom that Western
women enjoy.
“They have a
completely different view of women than we do here,” Heinz
Buschkowski, a prominent Social Democrat and expert on Germany’s
Muslim population, told German radio Thursday. “Women who are on
the street at 1 a.m. or 1:30 a.m. are considered whores and German
women are generally considered fair game.”
Such views, which
evoke old stereotypes of dark-skinned men out to prey on white women,
have mainly been shared behind closed doors in recent months as
Germans embraced the Willkommenskultur. The Cologne attacks have
brought the concerns into the open.
On Wednesday,
Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière was asked at a news conference
whether he was “concerned about the view of women among migrants.”
De Maizière dodged
the question, saying it was essential that the refugees “recognize
our system of values,” including the equality between men and
women.
The minster, who
oversees the federal police but not local forces, was caught
off-guard by the attacks. He criticized the local police for not
doing more to respond.
Over the past few
days, a parade of senior government officials has called for stricter
measures to deal with such violence, including deporting the
perpetrators.
“We need to look
at whether we have done everything that is necessary in terms of
necessitating departures in order to send a clear signal to those who
aren’t willing to follow our laws,” Merkel said Thursday.
Yet the demands for
quick deportations appear unrealistic. German law makes it difficult
to deport criminal asylum seekers, especially if they could face
retribution in their home countries. Regarding the Cologne attacks,
several police officials said it would likely be impossible to
positively identify those responsible due to the large number of
people at the scene.
With such a large
population of refugees, many of whom are young men, authorities warn
that further assaults are inevitable.
Earlier this week
the mayor of Cologne, herself the victim of a brutal stabbing attack
last year over her support of refugees, urged women to maintain an
“arm’s length distance” from men in crowds. She was widely
ridiculed for the suggestion.
“What
has shocked many in the country is the location of the attacks.
Cologne is considered one of the most open and liberal cities in
Germany.”
On Thursday, German
authorities disclosed details of another alleged rape on New Year’s
Eve involving Syrian refugees. Two teenage girls, aged 14 and 15,
told police they were repeatedly raped by a group of four Syrians in
the south of the country.
Such cases could
lead to further violence against refugees. Earlier this week unknown
assailants fired shots into a shelter near Frankfurt, injuring one
refugee. Arsonists attacked hundreds of shelters last year.
The German public,
meanwhile, is getting nervous. Nearly 40 percent of German women plan
to avoid large public gatherings, according to a poll released
Thursday by public broadcaster ARD.
Attack on liberal
heartland
What has shocked
many in the country is the location of the attacks. Cologne is
considered one of the most open and liberal cities in Germany. Its
annual carnival celebrations, which get under way in just a few
weeks, draw thousands of revelers to the city.
That the mass
attacks could have occurred in front of the city’s main landmark —
its nearly seven-century-old gothic cathedral — is unthinkable to
many.
Cologne’s “way
of life is in danger,” the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine
warned on its front page Thursday.
The police report on
the Cologne attacks, which was written by a senior official at the
scene, describes a chaotic situation in which the officers found
themselves outnumbered by “several thousand men.” Police were
largely powerless to protect the women, who were forced to navigate
an “obstacle course through a mass of severely drunk men that is
beyond description.”
Though the police
questioned dozens of suspects, they made only a handful of arrests,
none of which were connected to the sexual assaults. Witnesses
reported that some of the assailants shouted “f**k the police”
and spat at officers.
In the report, one
suspect is quoted as saying: “I’m Syrian, you have to treat me
nicely. Frau Merkel invited me.”
Cologne
police chief forced out
Government
confirms asylum seekers are among those suspected of New Year
assaults.
By JANOSCH DELCKER
1/8/16, 6:56 PM CET
BERLIN — Asylum
seekers were among those suspected of involvement in mass sexual
assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the German government said
Friday, as the fallout from the attacks resulted in the local police
chief being forced to resign.
A spokesperson for
the interior ministry said the federal police had identified 31
suspects, including nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians
and four Syrians. Of the 31 alleged attackers, 18 were said to be
asylum seekers. Three of the 31 have been charged with sexual
assault.
Friday’s
announcement was the first official confirmation that asylum seekers
were involved, following leaked police reports in German media.
According to local broadcaster WDR, the local Cologne police force
took down the names of 71 suspects on New Year’s Eve, of which the
majority “could only identify themselves with their registration
receipt issued by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees,
which identified them as asylum seekers.”
Policing in Germany
is split between the federal police — who in this case were
responsible for law enforcement inside Cologne’s main train station
and just outside its doors — and the state police. The Cologne
local force forms part of the state police.
Friday’s statement
only deals with the area covered by the federal police.
The state police
have recorded 170 complaints of crimes, 117 of which involve sexual
assault. There were two allegations of rape.
Security stand guard
as supporters of Pro NRW, a right-wing, populist group carry out a
protest following the New Year's Eve sex attacks
Police at all levels
have come in for criticism for their handling of the attacks. On
Friday evening, Wolfgang Albers, 60, the chief of the Cologne local
force, was forced to take early retirement.
Senior police
officials allegedly withheld information about the nationalities of
the suspects out of fear that releasing such information would have
been “politically delicate,” according to a report by local
newspaper Kölner Stadtanzeiger.
A leaked report by
the federal police, written on January 4, whose authenticity has been
confirmed by the German government, describes the failure of the
police to control the situation, saying they were “not able to
control all events, infringements, criminal offenses, etc., there
were just too many happening at the same time.”
“Over the course
of the operation, numerous crying and shocked women/girls came up to
the officers and told them about sexual assaults by several male
migrants/groups of migrants,” the report said adding
“identification [of attackers] was not possible.”
Authors:
Janosch Delcker
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