In an extraordinary session of the state parliament on Monday, the lawmakers sought answers about how a crowd of men could assault women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. State Interior Minister Ralf Jäger laid the blame on the police.
On the night of December 31 into January 1, men in a crowd of about 1,000 assaulted mostly female victims near Cologne’s central train station. Eye-witnesses say the women were groped, insulted and became subject to robbery as well. Many of the aggressors were described as being of North-African or Arabic origin. More than 500 victims filed complaints with the police so far.
Presenting a report Monday to an extraordinary committee session of the Internal Affairs Committee of North Rhine-Westphalia’s state parliament, the Landtag, the state’s Interior Minister Ralf Jäger confirmed that the vast majority of suspects were migrants.
Police reported that there were currently 19 suspects. Ten of them are asylum applicants, nine of them had been identified as being in Germany illegally. Fourteen of the suspects are Moroccans.
Right-wing xenophobic groups have used the Cologne attacks to support their cause, saying there were too many refugees coming into Germany. Politicians have warned against this instrumentalization, but are also discussing stricter laws concerning, for example, the deportation of foreigners who commit crimes. Jäger said it was “wrong and dangerous” to stigmatize whole groups of foreigners as sexual predators.
Even Pope Francis has contributed to the debate. Though the pontiff didn’t refer to the events in Cologne directly, he encouraged Europe to keep accepting refugees who were fleeing war and destruction.
Jäger stressed that the investigation process was highly complex and that he didn’t want to give false hope to victims by promising quick identification and convictions of perpetrators.
Later, the interior minister refuted accusations that police were under pressure from state politicians not to reveal the nationality or asylum status of suspects because the refugee crisis was a touchy political subject. His office had told police to share all information with the public, Jäger insisted.
“There cannot be taboos with uncomfortable questions or politically explosive answers,” he said according to German news agency dpa.
Criticism of police
“The way that the Cologne police acted on the night of New Year’s Eve is just not acceptable,” news agency Reuters reported Jäger as saying on Monday. He went on to criticize the officers in charge for not calling in the “desperately needed reinforcements for the unexpected developments” even though additional manpower was offered.
German news magazine “Focus” reported that the Cologne police had asked for additional officers before December 31, but was denied by the central police office – which is under the control of Jäger.
Sharp criticism from the opposition
Opposition politicians called the events of New Year’s Eve “the epitome of state failure” in the committee meeting on Monday. They have previously criticized Jäger, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) sharply for the way he dealt with the situation.
Politicians from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) want to know why the interior minister didn’t correct police statements about what really happened in Cologne earlier. On New Year’s Day, local police had still reported that celebrations to ring in the New Year were peaceful.
“According to our information, Jäger was told about the events the night they happened,” Armin Laschet, head of the CDU in the Landtag, told dpa before the committee meeting.
So far, the only party calling for Jäger to step down is the Pirate Party. Laschet told German radio station WDR2 on Monday morning that he and his fellow conservatives didn’t like to push for politicians to vacate their posts after a crisis as a knee-jerk reaction. The only one who had to leave his job over the issue up until now has been Wolfgang Albers, president of the Cologne police, who was sent into early retirement by Jäger on Friday.
Jäger’s difficult tenure
The interior minister is no stranger to difficult situations that his department is responsible for. In the fall of 2014, the cases of asylum applicants who were abused in state-run refugee homes became public. Back then, Laschet and other opposition politicians called for Jäger’s resignation.
The excuse the police came up with back then is the same they are using now when asked why they didn’t take control of the situation on New Year’s Eve: no one could have foreseen events would spiral out of control that badly.
Opposition leader Laschet doesn’t want to allow Jäger to place all blame squarely with police leadership. Laschet told dpa that “sugarcoating and downplaying criminal acts” were fundamental flaws of the interior minister.
Cologne gangs attack foreigners – Police
A group of Pakistanis and a Syrian national have been attacked in the German city of Cologne. The assaults follow dozens of reports of sexual assault on New Year’s Eve, mostly by men of North African or Arab origin.
According to police in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a group of about 20 people attacked six Pakistanis on Sunday evening, near Cologne’s central train station. Two of the victims were reportedly taken to hospital.
Shortly after the first attack, a similar incident unfolded when a 39-year-old Syrian national was assaulted by a group of five people. Police said they were investigating grievous bodily harm, but could not confirm whether either of the attacks was racially motivated. It was also not initially clear whether the two were linked.
‘Human hunt’
Cologne tabloid “Express” reported on Monday that a group of “bikers, hooligans and bouncers” had used Facebook to plan a “human hunt” to “clean up” Cologne’s city center. Early on Monday, a police spokesperson was unable to confirm the reports.
On Sunday afternoon, police had received tipoffs about “groups,” which were “specifically looking for provocation,” police said. Officers were deployed in the city center and Cologne’s “Altstadt” quarter in large numbers. As the result of several identity checks, four people were briefly detained, reported a police spokesman. Whether they were among the attackers is yet to be determined. Two people also faced criminal charges.
Refugee policy in the spotlight
Police said on Sunday that they had now received 516 reports of mass sexual assaults and thefts at Cologne’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. Witnesses at then city’s main train station and cathedral described women being groped, as well as subjected to lewd insults and robbery. In one instance, a rape was reported.
Most of the culprits were said to have been of a North African or Middle Eastern appearance. The reports have fueled criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy on refugees and migrants, with some 1.1 million new asylum seekers registered in the last year alone.
Cologne New Year’s Eve complaints rise sharply
Police say more than 500 complaints have now been filed in connection with the New Year’s Eve attacks, with about 40 percent involving sexual offences. Germany’s justice minister said the violence appeared orchestrated.
The number of cases reported to police after a night of mass sexual assaults and thefts rose to 516 on Sunday, sharply up from a previous 379.
Police said 19 named suspects were under investigation, adding that a 19-year-old Moroccan man had already been arrested on suspicion of theft of a mobile phone.
Witnesses at Cologne’s main train station and cathedral on Saturday described women being groped as well as subjected to lewd insults and robbery. In one instance, a rape was reported.
Most of the culprits were said to have been of a North African or Middle Eastern appearance. The reports have fueled criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy on refugees and migrants, with some 1.1 million new asylum seekers registered in the last year alone.
The wave of crime on New Year’s Eve was mirrored in the northern city of Hamburg, where 108 cases were filed. Offenses were also recorded in other cities, but on a much smaller scale.
‘A specific date picked’
The scope and synchronicity of the attacks led German Justice Minister Heiko Maas to speculate that the sexual assaults and robberies were planned and organized in advance.
“No one can tell me that it wasn’t coordinated and prepared,” the minister told the popular German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag. “My suspicion is that this specific date was picked, and a certain number of people expected. This would again add another dimension [to the crimes].”
The newspaper provided details from official police reports citing the use of social networks by some North African migrant communities to encourage their peers to join them in the square between the Cologne train station and the cathedral, where the now hundreds of alleged incidents of molestation and pick-pocketing took place.
Need to process data
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) told the Sunday newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” that it would collate information from across Germany on attacks like those in Cologne to gain an overview of the situation, which would then serve as a basis for coordinated action.
Police identify 31 in Cologne violence
“For this, we will gather the facts on similar incidents from all the German states to provide an exact picture of the situation,” the BKA said, saying this had been agreed with police chiefs in the various German states.
This information would then allow the systematic implementation of measures to combat the problem of sexual assaults on women carried out by groups, according to the BKA.
The paper cited the BKA as saying that it took “the events of New Year’s Eve and the associated public uncertainty very seriously.”
-DW.COM