Anti-Racism Rally in Germany Turns Into Angry Melee

Rock-throwing Turks and hooded German anarchists clashed with riot police Saturday at an anti-racism rally in Solingen meant to mourn five Turks killed in a far-right arson attack a week earlier.

In other suspected neo-Nazi violence, a Turkish woman and her five children escaped when fire gutted their home in Hattingen, near Solingen, and an empty Turkish restaurant in Konstanz on the Swiss border was burned down.

The federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe placed three more skinheads under formal arrest as suspects in the Solingen attack. One 16-year-old has been in custody for a week.

In addition to the 15,000 marchers in Solingen, about 28,000 people took part in peaceful anti-racism rallies in Augsburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kiel, Munich and Nuremberg. German radio reported scattered scuffles after a demonstration in Bremen.

The fighting in Solingen, involving rival left-wing and nationalist Turks as well as German anarchists, flared up halfway through a rally against racism, violence and hatred of foreigners held on a large car lot.

The rally later resumed its program of songs and speeches before a 10,000-strong crowd, which had converged on the city center in a star pattern with banners saying, “Foreigners are human beings, not game to be hunted.”

In the Hattingen attack, five incendiary devices were placed in a Turkish family’s apartment shortly after midnight while the father was working a night shift at a nearby steel mill.

The mother, 32, and children, aged from 3 to 16, were awakened by the fire and fled, police said.

The Koblenz fire broke out around dawn. The Turkish owners, who lived on the first floor, were away on holiday.