racial attacks – praag.org

ANCYL calls off Hofmeyr protest

Following a dubious campaign to brand Steve Hofmeyr as a “racist” and prohibiting him from performing at the Afrikaans is Groot music concert at the Ned Geref Kerk in Moreleta Park, his enemies have retreated.

The ANC Youth League Greater Tshwane region has postponed its planned action after the city turned down its application to stage a protest at the venue, as the application was not submitted within the prescribed seven working days.

The youth league had called on Afrikaners to reject and isolate the popular musician, saying he was spreading “racism”.

Hofmeyr has been in the spotlight following a tweet that reminded some of a shared racial past: “Sorry to offend but in my books blacks were the architects of apartheid. Go figure.” The popular singer was then accused of being “racist” for stating the obvious.

Almost 60% of blacks voted for homelands during apartheid, before the ANC launched a terror campaign funded from Sweden and Britain to overthrow the government and marginalise whites.

Ironically there are currently two homeland leaders in the regime’s parliament representing homeland constituencies, but it seems that some would rather not have such matters out in the open, hence the attacks on Hofmeyr.

The youth league’s branch spokesperson Justin de Swardt, the only white member, meanwhile branded all Afrikaners as “racists”.

He said it would have been counter-productive to nation-building if there was a physical confrontation between ANC members and the “racists”, a synonym for Afrikaners, if the protest action was held unlawfully.

De Swardt continued his ignorant and malicious verbal attacks against Hofmeyr: “It is extremely abnormal for a public figure to be making statements such as those in the democratic era,” he said. “To say blacks were the architects of apartheid is not only ignorant but highly insensitive.”

Hofmeyr is performing at the concert series which ends this weekend before moving to Cape Town.

After the youth league signalled its intention to protest, the Rubenstein Group – residents of nearby Rubenstein Avenue – indicated it would challenge the matter in court should the application be approved.

The black youth league planned to molest 7 000 white people at the concert venue, to stop the “racists”, a sure formula for disaster.

Afrikaans is Groot spokesman Barnard Beukman welcomed the situation where patrons could attend the gigs in a relaxed atmosphere.

US body admits crime but farm murders are scrubbed

The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a US body created to promote security cooperation between American private sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State, rated in its “South Africa 2014 Crime and Safety Report” Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban as Critical crime threat posts.

According to the report crimes range from petty muggings to ATM scams to armed residential home invasions and robberies. These home invasion robberies are of particular concern as they are often violent in nature and can occur at any time.

What distinguishes crime in South Africa is the level of violence associated with personal and property crimes, as criminals do not hesitate to use lethal weapons, said the report, but it delves no deeper.

White farmers are the most vulnerable. According to Genocide Watch, in 19 short years more than 4,000 white farmers in South Africa have been murdered, which is 210 white farmers murdered per year by blacks in South Africa.

It is almost ten times higher than the already high murder rate of over 30 killings per year in the country.

Compared to black lynchings in America, it is actually a full-blown white genocide occuring in South Africa. From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States. Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black. The blacks lynched accounted for 72.7% of the people lynched.

Out of the 4,743 people lynched only 1,297 white people were lynched. That is only 27.3%. Many of the whites lynched were lynched for helping the black or being anti-lynching and even for domestic crimes.

So, over a span 86 years, 3,446 black people were lynched (many were lynched for actual crimes); that’s roughly 40 lynchings per year.

White farmers are killed and tortured only because they are white.

Since 1994 many more white farmers were maimed, tortured, raped and assaulted. It was established that more white farmers die per year in South Africa than soldiers did in Vietnam.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) indicates on its part in its 2012-13 crime statistics that the number of home invasions remains alarmingly high, with a total of 6,598 reported in Gauteng Province (which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria) alone.

From April 2013 to March 2014, the number of murders in the Province reached 3333, the number of robberies with aggravating circumstances totaled 42646, while burglaries at residential premises numbered 68139, according to SAPS.

South African authorities publish figures on the crimes committed in the country, but the do not publish figures on farm murders.

It is interesting to note that the scourge is scrubbed from websites like Wikipedia. Wikipedia rather quotes a shady organisation called Africa Check, funded by George Soros, claiming “whites are far less likely to be murdered than their black or coloured counterparts”.

Other falsehoods from American-funded sources are also inserted into the Wiki article, claiming that farm attacks are simply robberies gone wrong, and are not motivated by racial hatred.

The police seem unable to curb the rates in a noteworthy way nor to bring all culprits before courts.

There were roughly 128 000 commercial farmers in South Africa in 1980. Today there are only 40000 commercial farmers left. White farmers are mostly Afrikaners.

This is the second attempt by Anglo-Americans at a “final solution” against Afrikaners.

In early March 1901 Lord Kitchener decided to break the stalemate that the extremely costly war had settled into in South Africa. It was costing the British taxpayer 2,5 million pounds a month.

He decided to herd Afrikaner women and children into concentration camps to rid the country of the “problem”. Most of them perished in the camps.

Racial attacks rise in crisis-hit Greece

Omar Diallo’s head is still swollen after a recent assault on the streets of Athens which left him with several stitches.

Having fled his troubled homeland of Guinea, the 28-year-old is no stranger to violence, but the virulent racism he says he has experienced in crisis-hit Greece has come as a shock.

In the Athens neighbourhood where he lives — an area full of empty, graffiti-covered shops with “for rent” and “for sale” signs on the windows. “There are zones where we no longer have the right to go, or where we can only go in groups.”

He was on his own when he was assaulted. The attack was swift and silent, unaccompanied by racist taunts or demands.

“Four people got hold of me on the street, one of them hit me with some object on the head. I fell down and they hit me. When they finished, they left.”

Omar fled his west African home after a September 2009 stadium massacre during an opposition rally. His father was among the 157 killed, while he was thrown in jail.

After being released he decided to leave his country where he said he feared for his life.

But just a few years after coming to Athens in search of a better future, he found himself lying in the street, blood dripping from his head, until police officers found him and took him to the hospital.

His story is not unique.

“I saw a young Pakistani being beaten right in front of me, by two giants, who ran through the whole bus to get to him and then kicked him violently out on the street. I did not interfere because I was scared,” a mortified retired Frenchman, who has been living in Athens for a year, told AFP.

A watchdog recording racial violence counted 154 victims in 2012, 107 of whom were assaulted in Athens. In at least eight cases, victims or witnesses said they recognised people associated with neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.

Omar, who used to study international relations in Conakry, feels that racial attacks have surged since conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras came to power in June 2012.

That is when Golden Dawn was elected into parliament for the first time, winning 18 seats out of an overall 300.

“They felt politically fortified,” Omar said.

Racist attacks ‘almost every day’

According to the report on racial violence, only 24 of the victims made a formal complaint to the police in 2012.

“In my understanding, they (perpetrators) try not to kill, but to make visible injuries, so as to spread the fear to the communities,” said Doctor Nikitas Kanakis, secretary general of the Greek branch of the non-governmental group Doctors of the World.

Kanakis has long tried to highlight the problem, and victims of racial attacks often turn to him instead of going to a hospital.

He has brought attention to several attacks such as the case of a 14-year-old Afghan boy, whose face was slashed by a broken bottle in an Athens neighbourhood dominated by neo-Nazis.

“Almost every day in various parts of the country, particularly in Athens, racist attacks occur,” said Giorgos Tsabropoulos, head of the UNHCR’s Athens office.

The government’s response to the problem has been ambiguous.

It has condemned Golden Dawn’s attacks as unacceptable, and Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias recently told the BBC that “Golden Dawn… is clearly a neo-Nazi party.”

He said a special police unit had been created to deal with racist crimes and “that the people who act unlawfully should end up in prison.”

But in the same interview he said “creating new legislation won’t help” , despite being under pressure from the Council of Europe to do so.

Dendias said the rise of Golden Dawn and its xenophobic and racist doctrine was linked to a surge in undocumented migrants arriving in Greece, which he said were “are a huge burden to our society.”

Dendias has appealed to the EU for financial aid to deal with the increasing number of migrants.

The premier recently made a big show of his meeting with Greek star basketball player of Nigerian origin Giannis Adetokunbo, who was drafted into the NBA, to counter accusations of racism.

Eva Cosse from Human Rights Watch admits that there has been some progress, notably the appointment of a special prosecutor in Athens, but “there is still a lot of work to do.”

“They need to assure that every migrant and asylum seeker, even undocumented, has the right to access the judicial system,” she told AFP.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Greece has warned US citizens travelling to Greece to be wary of “a rise in unprovoked harassment and violent attacks against persons who, because of their complexion, are perceived as foreign migrants.”

“US citizens most at risk are those of African, Asian, Hispanic or Middle Eastern descent in Athens and other major cities,” the statement on the embassy’s website, first posted last November, reads. – SAPA/AFP