EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN - Institute of Race Relations

assailants and charged them with assault and battery. (BergensTidende 26.10.98)Convicted murderer organises neo-nazi networkfrom prison cellThe prison postal address at Trondheim country jail of a manfound guilty of murder and setting fire to three churches waslisted as the contact address of the neo-nazi group NorskHdensk Front on its internet homepage. Varg Vikernes (aliasCount Grishnak) is further accused by the newspaperDagsavisen of receiving mail for the Norsk Hedensk Front viathe prison’s address. Included on the neo-nazi homepage werecalls to abort pregnancies of women not from the ‘pure race’ andput to death the sick and the elderly. There was the usual abuseagainst black people and homosexuals. (Nettavisen 28.7.98)Landmark discrimination prosecution fails ascases of discrimination growThere is mounting evidence of increasing discrimination againstethnic minorities. But one of the first prosecutions under a lawintroduced in 1970 against discrimination in the provision ofservices has failed.Jury acquits agency boss who would not let to ‘non-Norwegians’Article 349a of the penal code states that ‘nobody has the rightto deny a person a product or a service because of religion, race,skin colour, national or ethnic origin’.But when the policebrought a landmark prosecution against the owner of an agencythat would not let to non-Norwegian tenants, the jury ignoredthe judges summing up and ruled in the company’s favour.Police inspector Roger Andersen said that ‘the case has a greatprincipal at stake. Therefore we are appealing.’ If the ruling isallowed to stand, it would give a clear signal to others who wishto deny services to immigrants.Professional immigrants discriminated against inemploymentDiscrimination effects even those who are well-qualified.Employers with vacancies are increasingly advertising abroad,despite the fact that immigrants in Norway possess all the necessarytechnical skills. For instance:★ Rogaland, a large engineering company, has applied to theState Employment Service for work permits for twentyengineers from outside the European Economic Area. KurdBjonnes at the government employment office at Madlawonders why such applications are necessary given thatthere are so many unemployed civil engineers of foreign originon its books. ‘If there any other explanation but skincolour?’ he asks.★ Eduardo Alfaro, a petroleum engineer from Chile who haslived in Norway for ten years, was so sick of applying forjobs that he never got that he changed his name to EdvardAndraessen and was immediately called up for four jobinterviews. He has been employed for two years by an oilcompany, but his name on the company’s phone list is stillhis Norwegian pseudonym.★ Ali Amir Saeed and Imran Shahid, both seeking jobs as marketingexecutives, applied for 200 jobs but were only calledfor interviews ten times. After they read about Ali AmirSaeed’s experiences in the newspaper, three companies contactedhim and offered him a job interview.(Nettavisen, NTB 17.7.98, Stavanger Aftenblad 17.7.98)POLANDRacism and fascismCatholic anti-Semitism criticised as committeeformed to defend the Papal CrossAny reconciliation between Jewish and Catholic groups seemsto have been dashed by the simmering row over the Papal Crossat Auschwitz. This, together with a decision by the Pope tocanonise a Jewish-born nun who converted to Catholicism andwas murdered at Auschwitz, has re-opened questions about thenature of Catholic anti-Semitism. Further claims against theCatholic church were made when Jewish groups expressed dismayat the Vatican’s statement of regret that Catholics had notdone more to oppose the Holocaust. The statement downplayedany link between the Nazis’ anti-Semitism and the centuries ofChristian persecution which proceeded it and defended PopePius XII, whose silence during the war is the subject of greatcontroversy.Auschwitz and the Papal Cross: the backgroundThe government has been forced to intervene and take legalcontrol of a field in the site of Auschwitz where Catholicactivists have been planting crosses. While right-wing Catholicshave pledged to defend the crosses, which they say were put upto mark the execution of 152 Poles by German soldiers duringthe war, international Jewish groups have warned the governmentthat the crosses contravene an international UNESCOagreement, signed by Poland, which forbids the use of politicalreligious or ideological symbols at Auschwitz. An estimated 1.5million died at Auschwitz and Birkenau, nearly all Jewish. ButCatholic victims were believed to number around 75,000.In 1979, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Polandand the towering cross used during the papal mass at Zakoponewas later transported by a Carmelite order of nuns to its presentsite outside the perimeter of Auschwitz. The nuns’ actions were,even then, the subject of great controversy as they were attempting(unsuccessfully) to prevent their eviction from the area.Jewish groups have long expressed their belief that the PapalCross should go too. So when the government conceded toJewish demands, the present right-wing Catholic campaign waslaunched.Cardinal sees cross as symbol of Polish sufferingThe Committee for the Defence of the Cross, supported byLech Walesa, and Poland’s primate, Cardinal Josef Glemp, waslaunched. Glemp warned that the cross stood for Polish nationalsuffering everywhere ‘be it in the Gdansk shipyard, Warsawor Auschwitz’. Responding to a request from the Israeli governmentfor the removal of the cross, Glemp declared ‘this land isPolish and attempts by others to impose their will is seen asimpinging on the sovereignty of the country.’ An extremistCatholic known for his anti-Semitic views, held a 42 hungerstrikeunder the cross. It was after he ended his protest that followerserected another fifty crosses on the site.34IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 29 • MARCH 1999