Minister of Justice Heiko Maas has said he believes the New Year Eve sexual assaults against women in Cologne were “coordinated and prepared” ahead of time. He also accused xenophobic groups of using the crimes to stir up hatred.
Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas was the latest high-profile politician to speak out about the string of sexual assaults in Cologne on Sunday.
In an interview with the popular “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper, Maas voiced his suspicions that the crimes which have the whole country reeling were not the result of an opportunistic mob mentality but a well-thought-out, planned attack on the city’s women.
“No one can tell me that it wasn’t coordinated and prepared,” the minister said. “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 fellows to join them in the square between the Cologne train station and the Cathedral, where the now hundreds of incidents of molestation and pick-pocketing took place.
Maas was careful to echo his colleagues, however, when it came to warning the public against placing blame on the country’s immigrants, saying “to assume from somebody’s origin whether or not they are delinquent is quite reckless.” The minister added that it is “complete nonsense” to take these crimes as evidence that foreigners cannot be integrated into German society.
Maas lashes out at PEGIDA, AfD
In the interview, Maas also accused the far-right populists of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, along with the organizers of the xenophobic PEGIDA marches, of using Cologne for propaganda purposes.
“There is the only way they can explain how shamelessly they operate their sweeping campaign against foreigners,” Maas said, referring to Saturday’s PEGIDA demonstration at the Cologne train station, which was itself met with a flashmob of counter-protesters condemning racism and sexism.
All that being said, Maas added that “cultural background justifies or excuses nothing. There is no acceptable explanation [for the assaults]. For us, men and women have equal rights in all matters. Everyone who lives here must accept that.”
In the coming days, Maas’ Social Democrats (SPD) are expected to join coalition partners, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s (CDU) in presenting new laws to the Bundestag that would expedite the deportation of asylum seekers and migrants who commit crimes.
The administration has received a hefty amount of criticism for ill-preparedness when dealing with the open-door policy it has adopted towards Europe’s migrant crisis.
…German Federal Police to coordinate efforts against mass sexual assault
German federal police plan to take systematic action to combat group sexual attacks like those in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, a paper says. They say such a phenomenon was unprecedented in Germany till now.
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.
“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 BKA as saying that it took “the events of New Year’s Eve and the associated public uncertainty very seriously.”
Although police forces in the German states are under the administration of each respective state, the BKA is tasked with coordinating cooperation among them when necessary.
‘Familiar phenomenon in Arab countries’
The news comes in the wake of a series of sexual assaults and robberies targeting women carried out on New Year’s Eve in Germany by groups of men who were described by witnesses as being of North African or Arab origin. Most of the attacks occurred in the western city of Cologne, where there have been almost 400 complaints to police, but similar incidents were also reported in Stuttgart in the south and Hamburg in the North.
The BKA told “Welt am Sonntag” it was aware that such public sexual harassment of women by groups of young men was a familiar phenomenon in some Arab countries, but that incidents such as those in Cologne were unprecedented in Germany up to now.
It said, however, that pickpockets in Germany were often known to rob their victims after distracting them by jostling them under the pretext of asking them to join in a celebration.
This tactic was also frequently employed by young North African men, mostly acting in small groups, according to the BKA.
New fuel to migration debate
The New Year’s Eve assaults in Cologne have fuelled an already heated debate on migration policy. Several suspects have been identified by police as asylum seekers, providing grist to the mill of those who believe that Germany’s security is endangered by the current influx of refugees to the country.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the Sunday edition of “Bild” newspaper that he believes the New Year’s Eve attacks were planned in advance, and called for an urgent investigation to find out “how such repulsive acts could occur.”
-DW.COM
