Left-Extremist Endeavours

Protests against the solemn-pledge
ceremonies of
the Federal Armed Forces
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Other violent actions by militant left-wing extremists with regard
to Kosovo were attempted arson attacks on a Federal Armed
Forces (Bundeswehr) exhibition in Berlin on 8 May and on the
Info-Box on Potsdamer Platz (Berlin) on 18 May as well as an
arson attack on the Tübingen local tax office in the night from 1
to 2 June.
In 1999, as in previous years, left-wing extremists directed "antimilitaristic"
actions against the public oath-taking ceremonies for
recruits, e.g. in Berlin on 20 July and in Stuttgart on 15 October.
The solemn-pledge ceremony in Berlin was accompanied by
noisy and non-peaceful protests; non-extremist organizations
ranging from revolutionary-Marxist groups to violence-inclined
associations had launched appeals for action. An appeal
disseminated on the Internet by an alliance called "Gelöbnix-
Bündnis" #) contained the following statement:
"With the solemn pledge, the soldiers thus sworn in promise
to fulfil their task as an element of a future intervention army.
With our protest, we oppose the self-adulation of future
murderers. A threat is posed by whoever stands to attention
when seeing a regimental standard, by whoever gets pious
feelings when hearing the national anthem."
The appeal ended with the request for "imaginative" disruption of
the oath-taking ceremonies.
During the closing rally, demonstrators used ’pea’ whistles,
drums and a public address system. Stones, bottles and beer
cans were thrown at police officers. Ten persons stormed the
assembly ground and tried to steal the flag of the military unit.
A press release disseminated on 20 July stated, inter alia, that -
despite massive security arrangements - the antimilitarists of the
"JungdemokratInnen/Junge Linke" ("Young Democrats/Young
Left") had managed to express their protest also within the
shielded premises. The perplexed guests and recruits had been
forced to take note of the fact that Berlin still was the capital of
conscientious objectors and antimilitarists. Also in future, there
would be no oath-taking ceremony in Berlin undisturbed by protests.
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