Neo-Nazis march through Berlin

Police are prepared for any violence from marchers

BERLIN, Germany -- Nearly 2,000 extreme right-wing supporters have marched through central Berlin in protest against the German government's moves outlaw the far-right National Democratic Party.

Flanked by 4,000 police who separated the extremists from hundreds of anti-fascists chanting "Nazis out," the NPD members, including leader Udo Voigt, marched through the city to a rally.

"Germany cannot ban you!" read a poster at the front of the marchers.

Both groups were peaceful although police detained one marcher for giving the outlawed stiff-armed "Hitler salute."

Parliament president Wolfgang Thierse spoke to a small crowd at a counter-demonstration near the rally, where protesters chanted "Fight fascism everywhere" and "protect the synagogues, not the NPD."

AUDIO CNN's Chris Burns: "Many of the police are in riot gear" 37 seconds 402kb AIFF or 206kb WAV

"We are gathered here for a terrible reason -- the NPD is using Berlin again for a march of their brown (Nazi) movement," Thierse said.

The rally was the NPD's fifth this year in Berlin. Unlike past rallies, they were not allowed to march in front of the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of the country's unification and well-known landmark.

The local court that allowed the march to go ahead also banned the carrying of drums and Nazi flags.

Earlier this week, the party had dropped plans to march through Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate and agreed to use an alternate protest route.

There was international outrage last January when about 500 NDP supporters marched through the gate, once used as a backdrop for processions by Nazi soldiers.

Ending high-profile far-right rallies is one of the government's aims as it asks Germany's highest court to consider whether the party can be outlawed.

Interior Minister Otto Schily has claimed there is increasing evidence that the party is a danger to German democracy, fomenting neo-Nazi ideology and racism blamed for brutal attacks on minorities that have left at least three dead this year.

Internal security officials met two days ago to discuss proposals to ban neo-Nazi groups from holding marches in sensitive locations, such as by Holocaust memorials or Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

Organisers agreed to avoid the Brandenburg Gate

But while officials hope such a move would prevent repeats of violent encounters between marchers and counter-demonstrators, they acknowledged it could infringe a fundamental right of assembly enshrined in the German constitution.

"The right of assembly... was hard fought for in German history over the past two centuries," said Fritz Behrens, Social Democrat interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

"Any limits must thus be considered very carefully," added Behrens, chairman of a two-day conference of counterparts from Germany's 16 regions.

Germans were chillingly reminded of their past last January as hundreds of young neo-Nazis marched through the Brandenburg Gate for the first time since World War Two to protest a planned monument honouring Jews murdered by the Third Reich.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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November 9, 2000

German Federal Government

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