Racism Report 2003 - Zara

Page 8 Cases: Public Space Racism Report 200367891011R. reported to ZARA an incident on the 43 tram in Vienna: two black-skinned young men were sittingMs.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitnext to each other on seats in the tram. Suddenly a man was standing behind them and said very loudly so that allthe other passengers could hear, ‚Have you got your applications for asylum with you? Where are your applicationsfor asylum? I‘m going to call the police right now!‘ The man pulled out his mobile phone and said, ‚I need a few policein the 43 tram, there are two Niggers who poison our children. They‘ve gotta go.‘ As the two young men wanted toget off the tram, the man said into his telephone, ‚Now they want to get off. Yes, I‘ll follow them. I‘ll watch out thatthey don‘t get away.‘ The man followed them. Ms. R. did not know what had happened before or what happenedafterwards but was shocked at the way the man behaved with the two young men.O. came to ZARA for advice with her friend Mr. M. At the Donauinselfest in June 2003 Mr. M., who isMs.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-ArbeitEgyptian, was attacked by skinheads, beaten and his T-shirt was torn. He was bleeding from the mouth. Two policemencame along but they neither took details of the incident nor arrested the aggressors nor helped Mr. M. Finallya third police officer assisted Mr. M. and he made a report about the other police officers. In September 2003 thepublic prosecutor‘s office abandoned proceedings. The ZARA counsellor informed Mr. M. about the possibility ofdemanding a preliminary investigation of the policemen through the district criminal court. If Mr. M. lost the case hewould have to pay the costs himself. Mr. M. did not want to take the financial risk and therefore did nothing moreabout this incident.R. is Greek and a voluntary worker with ZARA. She reported: ‚Today I was subjected to a racist attackMs.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeit(only verbal). That is the first time since I have lived here in Vienna!‘ Ms. R. described sitting on a bench at a tram stopbeside a girl when an elderly woman ‚very impolitely and aggressively‘ assailed the child because she did not offer herseat. Ms. R. rebuked the woman: ‚Could you please be more polite? You can‘t behave like that.‘ The woman‘s answerwas: ‚First learn German and then speak to me... Foreigner! Go back to wherever it is! Foreigner!!!!‘ Ms. R. explainedher feelings about this experience: ‚She used the word foreigner as an insult. Very aggressively and very loudly. Allthe other people who were there supported me but I was nevertheless very shocked.‘K. reported an incident in the Vienna No. 9 tram: a group of shaven-headed young men began openMs.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitracist abuse against two ‚foreign-looking‘ young men who got onto the tram (they should go back to where theycame from etc.). Nobody in the tram reacted. At the next tram stop the driver turned around and told the two youngmen - not the aggressors - to get off the tram immediately. An elderly passenger became involved and asked whathe meant by that and why? The driver reacted very coldly and said that the two had been stirring things up andtherefore had to get off the tram. The young men got off the tram and the skinheads remained. The customer servicedepartment of the Wiener Linien replied to ZARA‘s letter of complaint as follows: ‚(...) We are, of course, in no wayprepared to tolerate impolite or discriminatory behaviour of our staff towards our passengers. We therefore naturallyinvestigate every indication of such inappropriate behaviour and if need be take appropriate measures to persuadethe members of staff to change their views and prevent a repetition of such incidents.However, in this case this was not possible due to inexact information. Nevertheless we would like to express ourregret that the two foreign-looking young men were unjustifiably told to get off the tram. However, we are especiallysorry that we do not have the details of the young men who were directly affected by the misconduct of the staffmember since we would, of course, like to apologise to them.Therefore, in this special case we would like to direct our apology to your organisation on their behalf and alsoask you to express our regret to your client that she was forced to witness such an unpleasant incident. With bestregards, WIENER LINIEN GmbH & Co KG‘ZARA passed the answer on to our client but she was not satisfied because she thought that the details were exactenough in all respects. The ZARA counsellor explained that it is essential to have the carriage number of the tramfor a precise identification of the driver. At the client‘s request Wiener Linien were asked to advise all drivers to reactand act differently in such situations.S. was cycling with his three children in Vienna on 10 November 2002. Due to the traffic they stop-Mr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitped in front of the locale ‚Harle King‘ at Ludwig-Koeßler-Platz 4 and were then subjected to racist abuse by a man:‚Niggers go home, shit Niggers.‘ Mr. S. remained calm and protected his children. The man then snatched Mr. S.‘sbicycle away from him and lashed out with it hitting Mr. S. on the shin. Two elderly ladies saw the incident and areavailable as witnesses. Mr. S. entrusted his lawyer with the case and reported the incident. Proceedings are still inprogress. Mr. S. only had the incident documented with ZARA several months later (in 2003).A. contacted ZARA because he felt humiliated by his classmates at a school in Wels and urgently askedMr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-ArbeitZARA for help: ‚I‘m humiliated at school because I‘m the only real foreigner in my class. I‘m good at school, I don‘tknow what I should do or whether I should tell my parents. Should I keep going to school? Pupils threaten me and