Fascist attack on anti-racist festival

Single Incident Alert DateNovember 5, 2010 Country: Cyprus Address: Larnaca General Type: Racist violence Racism and discrimination phenomena: Extremism - organised Racist Violence
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants
Victims Data
Victims Nationality/Ethnic Origin N/A
Victims Gender N/A
Victims Age N/A
Victims Number 13
Fatalities - deaths N/A
Perpetrators Data
Perpetrators Nationality/Ethnic Origin Cypriot
Perpetrator Gender N/A
Perpetrator Age N/A
Perpetrators Number N/A
Extremist/Organised Group Violence Yes

In  light of a march announced by three anti-immigrant far right groups to be held in Larnaca on 05.11.2010 under the slogans “Against illegal immigration”, “Against colonization”, “Against the islamisation of our homeland”, calling for the “Immediate deportation of all illegal immigrants” and for “Abolishing the provocative state grants and other super-privileges of the so called refugees”, the immigrant support group KISA organizing its annual multicultural ‘Rainbow Festival’ for the first time in Larnaca on the same date, so as to send anti-racist messages against the far right activities.
Both events had received official permission from the Cypriot police. All participating organisations and groups in the festival agreed that they would not be provocative and asked the police, before and during the event, to keep the Neo-Nazi demonstrators at an appropriate distance in order to avoid conflict. The Neo-Nazi demonstrators marched through the festival, threatening, assaulting and throwing chairs at the Rainbow Festival participants. A total of 13 people were hospitalised. Further away from the main venue, two Turkish Cypriots musicians who performed at the festival were hit with baseball bats and one was stabbed in the chest. The police did not intervene to protect the festival but opened the way for the Neo-Nazis to march through it.

Sources:

KISA, http://www.kisa.org.cy/EN/activities/cultural_events/659.html

Joint press release ENAR-PICUM http://www.kisa.org.cy/_metacanvas/attach_handler8397.pdf?attach_id=396&content_type=application/pdf&filename=PICUM_ENAR_Joint statement on Cyprus EN.pdf