Hungarian nazis’ racist violence

This video is called HUNGARIAN NEO-NAZI JOBBIK VIGILANTE TERRORISM AGAINST ROMA IN GYONGYOSPATA.

By Markus Salzmann:

Right-wing pogroms against Roma in Hungary

5 September 2012

Violent attacks against the Roma minority in Hungary are continuing unabated. It is increasingly clear that the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Victor Orban, which works closely together with the neo-fascist Jobbik party, is deliberately provoking such attacks in order to divert attention away from the country’s huge economic and social problems.

On August 20 members of the paramilitary “Hungarian Guard” marched against Roma families in the city of Cegled, southeast of the capital, Budapest. More than 400 mostly uniformed guardsmen and their supporters marched through the Roma settlement on the outskirts of the city of 40,000 inhabitants. They shouted slogans such as “dirty gypsies, we will kill you.” Right-wing radio stations and Internet portals issued appeals for the fascists to come to Cegled in order to participate in the action.

The media reported eyewitness accounts of the intimidation of the town’s residents. It is also alleged that shots were fired. All this took place in front of the police, who were on the spot and permitted the fascists to carry out acts of intimidation before forcing them to withdraw.

Journalists from the HVG weekly magazine reported that at a nearby farm several hundred right-wing extremists welcomed a parliamentary deputy from the extreme-right Jobbik party who expressed his support for the fascist mobilisation. The “Hungarian Guard” is regarded as the paramilitary arm of Jobbik and has repeatedly mobilized against Roma. In early August around a thousand fascists marched through the village Devecser in western Hungary.

Against this backdrop many Roma have concluded they have no future in Hungary. In the course of the last six months about 1,000 Hungarian Roma have asked for political asylum in Canada alone.

The immediate trigger cited for this latest witch-hunt of Roma is the murder of police psychologist Kata Bandy in July. An unemployed Roma was arrested in connection with the murder. He lived in extremely precarious conditions, had been previously convicted for theft and had spent several years in prison. Media outlets close to the government immediately denounced the suspect as a “Gypsy murderer”. Calls were raised for “a final solution to the Gypsy question”, thereby deliberately inciting violence against Roma.

The Roma activist Jeno Setet summed up the mood of the Roma: “The murder of Kata Bandy is terrible, but more terrible is the fact that we have been declared collectively guilty and the state institutions do nothing to protect us, citizens of this country.”

In a press release the parents of Kata Bandy expressly appealed to the media and political circles to refrain from “using the name of our daughter as a pretext for incitement, hatred or the reintroduction of the death penalty”—but to no avail.

Both Jobbik and the ruling Fidesz party are using the murder of Bandy to agitate for the introduction of the death penalty. Jobbik, which won the 2010 elections with 17 percent of the vote, has organised a major campaign for the death penalty. Jobbik leader Gabor Vona justified the demand for the death penalty with completely bogus claims that 90 percent of all murderers are “Gypsies”, while 100 percent of all victims are Hungarian.

A number of politicians from the ruling Fidesz party have also called for the introduction of the death penalty, which would be in contravention of the Hungarian Constitution and EU law. The issue is now to be discussed by the Fidesz faction in early September.

Attacks upon and intimidation of Roma have been taking place for several years in Hungary. In 2008-2009 a number of Hungarian Roma were injured and six killed, including an infant, in a series of murderous pogroms. In each case the murders took place after marches by the Hungarian Guard through Roma settlements. The trial of four members of the Guard suspected of involvement in the murders has been going on for over a year.

In a more recent case, last year fascist groups terrorized the Roma living in the village of Gyöngyöspata over a period of months.

The ruling Fidesz is increasingly relying on the country’s extreme right. Prime Minister Orban has declared that the anti-Roma campaigns are unacceptable, but with the next breath insists that the Roma are obliged to integrate.

Following a motion from Jobbik, the Hungarian parliament recently amended the country’s Criminal Code, to make any slander of the “Holy Crown” and state symbols such as the anthem, the national flag and the coat of arms punishable by one year in prison. Fidesz has a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

The increase in right-wing violence, tolerated and/or supported by the governing party, is a response to the deepening economic and social crisis in Hungary. The country is in a recession and experiencing rising inflation. In July, the inflation rate stood at 5.8 percent, well above analysts’ expectations. The main cause of the high inflation is a dramatic rise in food prices.

Living conditions for the majority of Hungarians are increasingly intolerable due to the drastic cuts imposed by the Orban government and the high inflation. According to data from the Hungarian National Bank at the end of June, 16.3 percent of all loans held by households were considered “non-performing”, which means that the debtors were at least 90 days in arrears with at least one payment. A year ago this figure stood at 11 percent.

The main reasons given by the Hungarian National Bank for the increase of “bad loans” were high unemployment and the declining disposable income of most debtors. This income has fallen due to rising taxes, the impact of the country’s flat tax on low-income earners and increasing inflation. If the forint continues to fall further against the euro, the situation will continue to worsen.

Discrimination of Roma in Europe intensifies: here.

Hungarian anti-Semite turns out to be Jewish

This video is called The Truth About Jobbik – Neo-fascist danger in Hungary.

From National Public Radio in the USA:

Leader Of Anti-Semitic Party In Hungary Discovers He’s Jewish

by Eyder Peralta

August 14, 2012

There’s a story out of Hungary that has received quite a bit of play from the religious press but hadn’t quite risen to the mainstream until the AP ran a piece about it today.

It’s quite dramatic with an incredible plot twist: One of the leaders of Hungary‘s Jobbik Party, which the Anti-Defamation League says is one of the few political parties in Europe to overtly campaign with anti-Semitic materials, has discovered that he is himself a Jew.

As the AP says, Csanad Szegedi had in the past railed about the “Jewishness” of the political class. According to the ADL, his party’s presidential candidate referred to Israeli Jews as “lice-infested, dirty murderers.”

For Szegedi all of this came to a screeching halt, when in 2010 a prisoner confronted him with evidence that he had Jewish roots. According to the AP, Szegedi tried to bribe the prisoner to keep him quiet, but rumors and innuendo reached a fever pitch by late last year and in June, Szegedi conceded that his mother was a Jew. According to Jewish law, that makes Szegedi Jewish, too.

Not only that, but Szegedi’s grandmother survived Auschwitz and his grandfather survived labor camps. The AP adds:

“Under pressure, Szegedi resigned last month from all party positions and gave up his Jobbik membership. That wasn’t good enough for the party: Last week it asked him to give up his seat in the European Parliament as well. …

“Szegedi came to prominence in 2007 as a founding member of the Hungarian Guard, a group whose black uniforms and striped flags recalled the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party which briefly governed Hungary at the end of World War II and killed thousands of Jews. In all, 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the Holocaust, most of them after being sent in trains to death camps like Auschwitz. The Hungarian Guard was banned by the courts in 2009.

“By then, Szegedi had already joined the Jobbik Party, which was launched in 2003 to become the country’s biggest far-right political force. He soon became one of its most vocal and visible members, and a pillar of the party leadership. Since 2009, he has served in the European Parliament in Brussels as one of the party’s three EU lawmakers, a position he says he wants to keep.”

‘Czech Breivik’ arrested

This video says about itself:

BREIVIK tribute, Hungary – Magyar Sziget festival

Reporter infiltrates international Nazi festival in remote Hungarian village.

BNP (British National Party) – Chris Hurst hailing with crowd while Saga sings Breivik (Norwegian mass murderer)’s favorite song Tomorrow belongs to me – Skrewdriver.

From the BBC:

18 August 2012 Last updated at 12:28 GMT

Czech ‘Breivik imitator‘ arrested in Ostrava

A man suspected of planning attacks similar to those carried out in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik has been arrested in the Czech Republic, according to police.

Police said an assault rifle, explosives, ammunition and police clothing were found in his apartment.

The 29-year-old old man was detained in the eastern city of Ostrava a week ago.

Breivik, dressed as a police officer, shot dead 69 people on an island after setting off a bomb in Oslo last year.

The BBC’s Rob Cameron in Prague says police in Ostrava were alerted to the suspect because he used the name of Breivik in email correspondence.

Police searched the apartment on 10 August, but have only now disclosed details of what was found.

Our correspondent says police raided the property after being tipped off that he was planning to detonate a large explosive device crafted from an aircraft bomb.

The man was carrying a remote controlled detonator when he was arrested, he says.

At a news conference, police said they did not know the suspect’s intended target, but said the explosives, weapons and ammunition were all functional.

On 22 July 2011, Breivik, a right-wing militant, killed eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo before gunning down another 69 in a youth camp on the island of Utoeya.

Judges are set to decide next week whether he is sane or insane, and therefore whether he will be given a long prison sentence or be sent to a secure psychiatric ward.

Anti-Roma racism in Hungary on film

This video from Hungary is called Film Trailer: Csak a szél / Just the Wind.

By Richard Phillips in Australia:

Sydney Film Festival—Part 3: Some naturalistic and mostly credible depictions

10 August 2012

This is the third in a series of articles on the recent Sydney Film Festival. See parts 1 and 2.

Among the more interesting features screened at the Sydney Film Festival were Just the Wind, by Hungarian filmmaker Benedek Fliegauf, this year’s Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner The Angels’ Share, by British director Ken Loach and his long-term screenwriting partner Paul Laverty, and Captive by Philippine director Brillante Mendoza. While all these filmmakers clearly and compassionately identify with the oppressed layers portrayed in their work, their ability to take this concern to deeper artistic insights was problematic.

Benedek Fliegauf’s Just the Wind is an unsettling exposure of the poverty and racism confronting the Roma minority in Hungary. Running for only 87 minutes, the movie is a fictionalised account of one of a series of targeted attacks on Roma families during 2008-2009.

Just the Wind

With the collapse of the Hungarian economy and government austerity measures, crimes—petty or otherwise—and every other social ill were blamed on the Roma and a lynch-mob atmosphere was whipped up against the community, which only constitutes about 5 percent of the Hungarian population. Homes were fire-bombed and Roma men, women and children shot and killed by extreme-right terror groups operating with the tacit support of the police and state authorities.

Just the Wind is filmed in documentary style with hand-held camera, natural lighting, sparse dialogue and non-professional actors. It chronicles 24-hours in the life of one Roma family—Mari (Katalin Toldi), a single mother, her invalided father, Anna (Gyöngyi Lendvai) and Rio (Lajos Sarkany), her two school-age children. The family is part of a small poverty-stricken Roma community living on the forested outskirts of a Hungarian town.

Poverty dominates every moment of their lives. Mari works two low-paying cleaning jobs, including one at her daughter’s school, to try and make ends while hoping that her husband, who has emigrated to Canada, will send for the family.

Mari leaves for work in the early hours, with her children more or less left to their own devices, and returns after dark. Anti-Roma slurs and institutionalised racism confront them at every turn—whether at school or in the work place. The entire community, in fact, is under threat following the recent murder of a neighbouring family.

Ugly incidents build throughout the film. Anna witnesses a rape at school but is too afraid to report it to the authorities, probably because she has been subjected to the same brutality. Eleven-year-old Rio does not go to school, plays video games, and spends time in a secret hideout he has fashioned in the nearby forest. He hopes it will protect him in the event of any violent attacks.

Rio later overhears two Hungarian policemen examining what remains of the home of the murdered neighbouring Roma family. One of the cops tells his partner that this family were “hard-working” and should not have been killed. “They are shooting the wrong families. I could show them who to shoot,” he declares.

The film’s climax occurs at night, after Mari has returned home and they are preparing to sleep. There is some rustling outside their rudimentary home but they reassure each other that it is “Just the wind.”

Fliegauf is measured in his approach and does not idealise the Roma family or sensationalise the tragic story. While the film’s closing credits provide some limited factual details on the anti-Roma attacks there are no references to the role played by Hungarian governments—past and present—and the mass media who are politically responsible for extreme-right militia thugs‘ attacks on the Roma.

Despite this, Just the Wind is a compassionate work and hopefully will encourage audiences—especially outside Europe, where there is virtually no reportage on the Roma—to investigate these issues more deeply. (See: “Wave of violence against Roma in Hungary”)

Terrorist Breivik no lone wolf

This is a video called Norway mass killer Anders Breivik gives far right salute as he arrives in court.

From Socialist Worker weekly in Britain:

Tue 7 August 2012

Pedlars of Hate: new report shows Breivik was no lone wolf

Hassan Mahamdallie reviews a new pamphlet looking at the rise of the far right across Europe

Judges at the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, the fascist who murdered 77 people in Norway last year, are deliberating whether he is criminally insane.

The Norwegian authorities, along with establishment politicians and press across Europe, have already decided that Breivik was a “lone wolf”.

This angle has allowed mainstream politicians to continue the xenophobic, anti-multicultural, anti-Roma and anti-Muslim speeches and policies that fed into and affirmed Breivik’s worldview.

That is a point Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) makes in her latest invaluable publication Pedlars of Hate: The Violent Impact of the European Far Right.

Pedlars of Hate shows that Breivik’s murders can’t be seen as being the act of a “mad” or “evil” individual. Instead they should be seen in the context of the growth of far right groupings and parties.

The pamphlet records over 100 cases of far right terror across West and East Europe from the beginning of 2010 until April 2012.

These range from websites publishing lists of targets, to small groups involved in stockpiling weapons for a “race war”. Individuals’ attacks on mosques, mass street movements and electoral parties are also included.

In Britain we are more aware of the rise in anti-Muslim racism. In central and eastern Europe it is Roma and Gypsy populations who are principal victims of far right terror.

The situation in Hungary is instructive. The far right Jobbik party harks back to a Nazi era founded on the extermination of Jewish and Roma peoples. It is Hungary’s third largest party.

In classic fascist manner it is also building a paramilitary force. In an extraordinary episode in March 2011 its “Civic Guard” occupied a small village 50 miles from Budapest for two months.

Floodlights

They were “marching every morning… singing war songs, bellowing abuse and shining floodlights into the windows of Roma families at night.

“They were soon joined by members of various hate groups… armed with axes, whips and accompanied by snarling bulldogs… hammering on doors and calling the inhabitants ‘dirty fucking Gypsies’.”

They tried to force Roma children out of the village schools. For two months they were allowed to do this. The only people prosecuted were Roma men who fought back.

Some on the extreme right have built electoral forces, such as the Front National in France and the People’s Party in Denmark. They have been matched outside parliament by “looser, less hierarchical and more conspiratorial” grassroots networks.

They feed on the widespread notion of “reverse racism”—that the “majority” is being held hostage or under threat from a “minority”, whether it be Muslims in Western Europe or Roma in the East.

This falsehood underpins the racist rhetoric of mainstream politicians against multicultural society and provides the far right with a sense of “grievance” that they can exploit.

Pedlars of Hate documents how far right threats and violence increasingly go beyond their specific racist target as they seek to bend society to their will. As we know from Britain that includes attacks on LGBT people, feminists, the left, anti-fascists and trade unionists.

What lessons should we draw from this? We need to be vigilant, organised and active against the far right, in our home countries and abroad.

We have to be uncompromisingly against the politics of scapegoating, defend those under attack and strive always for the greatest unity. The challenge of the far right, in Britain and abroad, as Liz Fekete’s publication warns us, is not going away anytime soon.

Pedlars of Hate: The Violent Impact of the European Far Right can be downloaded from the Institute for Race Relations website or purchased as a hard copy for £15.

The Intouchables, directed by French filmmakers Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, is a predictable but touching comedy about the relationship between an upper class Frenchman and his Muslim Senegalese caretaker. Based on a true story, the movie is clearly intended to counteract the racist and anti-immigrant policies increasingly being promoted by the French ruling elite and ultra-right political elements in particular: here.

Hungarian nazi criminal tracked down

This video is called Reporter confronts Hungarian Nazi Sandor Kepiro.

By Markus Salzmann:

Nazi war criminal Laszlo Csatary arrested in Budapest

23 July 2012

The Budapest state attorney has placed Hungarian war criminal Laszlo Csatary under house arrest. The 97-year-old is accused of being involved in the murder of 16,000 Hungarian Jews during the Second World War. In 1948, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Czechoslovakia.

The Hungarian authorities only pursued Csatary after reporters from the British tabloid the Sun tracked him down and published photos of him. He was living in his apartment in a posh district of Budapest.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) in Jerusalem has been pursuing Csatary for decades. As SWC director Efraim Zuroff reported, the Hungarian justice system had evidence in 2006 that Csatary was in Budapest. For two years, the authorities had been aware of his address but had done nothing.

Csatary was high on the SWC wanted list. As chief of police in 1944 in Kassa—now the Slovak town of Kosice—he is accused of being responsible for the deportation of nearly 15,700 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, and to have acted with sadistic brutality. As early as 1941, he is said to have deported 300 Jews from the Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi. The area was conquered by the German Wehrmacht (army), and shortly afterwards the Nazis perpetrated a massacre of 23,600 Jews there.

After he was sentenced to death in 1948, Csatary fled to Canada, where he lived with a new identity until his expulsion in 1997. After his return to Hungary, he was able to disappear without hindrance.

Csatary, who is said to be in good physical and mental condition, was questioned last Wednesday for the first time by the prosecutor’s office in Budapest. Following a report by the Hungarian news agency MTI, the authorities then sought an arrest warrant.

According to media reports, when questioned, the 97-year-old rejected all charges against him on the grounds that he had at that time “only been following orders” and “doing his duty” as chief of police.

The fact that Csatary could live undisturbed for years in Hungary raises doubts whether he will ever stand trial and face conviction. “I’m not sure that the discovery will have legal consequences under this conservative government,” Serge Klarsfeld, the “Nazi hunter,” told the news agency AFP.

The Hungarian government of the right-wing Citizens Federation (Fidesz) under Victor Orban is currently reviving fascist and authoritarian traditions.

The constitution adopted under Fidesz enshrines God, Christianity and pride in the thousand-year history of Hungary as legally binding standards. The text refers to the “historical” heritage of Hungary and, according to Orban, has ended the period in which “the Hungarians [were] systematically suppressed”. The content of the new constitution has links to the fascist dictatorship of Miklos Horthy in the 1930s and 1940s. The term “republic” has disappeared from the name of the country.

Under Horthy, the Hungarian authorities deported more than 400,000 Jews to Auschwitz or had them murdered. Today, under the influence of Orban and the far-right party Jobbik, a veritable Horthy cult has developed. In mid-May, a statue of Horthy was set up in Kereki in southwest Hungary—the first to be erected since the end of the dictatorship in 1945. In Debrecen, a commemorative plaque to Horthy was recently unveiled, and in the town of Gyömrö, southeast of Budapest, a park now bears his name. Further Horthy statues are to be erected in various cities, including Budapest.

In addition to representatives of Jobbik, which draws on the tradition of the Nazi Arrow Cross, and the Catholic Church, Fidesz politicians are also regularly present at inauguration festivities. Orban claims that this is solely the doing of the local municipalities, which are often run by right-wing Fidesz and Jobbik politicians. “Why does Fidesz stand alongside the Arrow Cross—how far have things come with us?” commented political scientist Zoltan Somogyi on this development.

In addition to Horthy, other Nazi figures are also being reinstated. At the behest of the Hungarian parliament, writer Jozsef Nyiro, who died in 1953 and was once sought for war crimes, has been reburied in Transylvania with a state funeral. Nyiro was a cultural ideologist under Horthy. After the takeover of the fascist Arrow Cross in October 1944, he was a member of the Hungarian National Assembly and fled from the Red Army to Austria. Under the protection of Franco, he was finally able to settle down in Madrid.

Orban is pursuing his right-wing course against the backdrop of massive attacks on the living standards of broad sections of society. The austerity measures adopted by his right-wing government must, sooner or later, trigger protests and social conflicts. Orban wants to prevent this through the revival of fascist traditions and the fomenting of nationalism.

In this political climate, a serious case against Laszlo Csatary is hardly likely.

97-Year-Old Hungarian National Accused of Nazi-Era War Crimes: here.

Radical nationalist Jobbik would be happy to cooperate with ruling Fidesz in order to get rid of the Socialists, Jobbik leader Gabor Vona told an event organised by the Transylvanian Hungarian Youth organisation in Borzont on Saturday: here.

The alleged war criminal, Charles Zentai, has won his legal battle to stay in Australia, with the High Court today blocking his extradition to Hungary: here.

Hungarian nazi pseudo-science

This music video is called Der Fuehrer’s Face – Spike Jones & His City Slickers.

This video abouit Hungary is called Fascist Nazis in Europe, the Jobbik.

From World Science:

“Racial purity” DNA testing slammed as perversion, but halting practice might not be easy

June 18, 2012
Special to World Science

A Hun­gar­i­an pol­i­ti­cian has sparked out­rage af­ter re­port­ed­ly us­ing a DNA test to try to prove his sup­posed white ra­cial pu­r­ity.

But some sci­en­tists ac­knowl­edge that stop­ping such a prac­tice might not be easy, since DNA an­ces­try test­ing can al­so be done for legit­i­mate pu­rposes.

The Eu­ro­pe­an So­ci­e­ty of Hu­man Ge­net­ics is­sued a state­ment on June 14 con­demn­ing DNA “ra­cial pu­r­ity” tests as an “un­eth­i­cal per­ver­sion” of sci­ence, as well as sim­ply in­valid. The declara­t­ion fol­lowed rev­ela­t­ions that a Hun­gar­i­an ge­net­ics com­pa­ny, Na­gy Gén, had scanned 18 loca­t­ions in the ge­nome of a Hun­gar­i­an par­lia­men­tar­ian from the sharply right-wing Job­bik par­ty. The com­pa­ny looked for gene vari­ants char­ac­ter­is­tic of Gyp­sy and Jew­ish an­ces­try, and con­clud­ed that both could be ruled out.

The com­pany has since em­phat­i­cally dis­tanced it­self from what it calls in­ap­pro­priate use of its find­ings, and apol­ogized for any re­sulting “emo­tional harm.”

“This is a gross dis­tor­tion of the val­ues of ge­net­ic test­ing, which is in­tend­ed to be used to di­ag­nose dis­ease rath­er than to claim ra­cial pu­r­ity,” said Jo­erg Schmidtke, pres­ident of the Eu­ro­pe­an So­ci­e­ty, in its state­ment. “In ad­di­tion, the test proves noth­ing; it is im­pos­si­ble to de­duce some­one’s ori­gins from test­ing so few places in the ge­nome. I am sure that clin­i­cal ge­net­icists world­wide will join me in con­demn­ing this scan­dalous abuse of a tech­nol­o­gy that was de­vel­oped to help the sick, rath­er than to pro­mote ha­tred.” …

An­drew Read, a mem­ber of the board of the Eu­ro­pe­an So­ci­e­ty, said one dis­tin­guish­ing and ob­jec­tion­a­ble fea­ture of the re­cent test in Hun­ga­ry was its use to ex­clude, rath­er than in­clude, par­tic­u­lar an­ces­tral con­nec­tions.

“I think there’s a dif­fer­ence be­tween tak­ing a test to in­clude or ex­clude an­ces­try,” said Read, of the Uni­vers­ity of Man­ches­ter, U.K. In fact, he added, to­tally ex­clud­ing a rela­t­ion­ship to any hu­man group is im­pos­si­ble, as eve­ry­one ul­ti­mately de­scends from a com­mon root. Read al­so agreed with the idea that even the at­tempt to ex­clude a cer­tain an­ces­try is a warn­ing sign of sin­is­ter mo­tives, as some­one choos­ing to be tested in such a way is im­plic­itly com­mu­ni­cat­ing that some an­ces­tral con­nec­tions are un­de­sir­a­ble.

Not all sci­en­tists were will­ing to dis­cuss how one might dis­tin­guish a rac­ist who is us­ing DNA tests for di­vi­sive pu­rposes, from some­one who gets tested out of an in­no­cent in­ter­est in his or her an­ces­try. Nor did scient­ists clear­ly ad­dress how to deal with some­one who might under­take a DNA test for one stated pur­pose, then try to put the re­sults to another, less “kum­ba­ya” use.

Schmidtke, the Eu­ro­pe­an So­ci­e­ty pres­ident, sidestepped such ques­tions when they were posed to him in an e­mail. “Noth­ing is wrong with us­ing ge­net­ic in­forma­t­ion to un­der­stand one’s own an­ces­try,” wrote Schmidtke, of Han­no­ver Med­i­cal School in Germany. “What we are con­demn­ing is a mis­use of such in­forma­t­ion in a socio-political con­text.” He left it at that.

…

Béla Melegh, president of the Hungarian So­ciety of Human Gene­tics, said the organi­zation is asking the Hung­arian gov­ern­ment to pro­se­cute Na­gy Gén, the test­ing com­pany, under a 2008 law on gene­tics.

Hungary says probing Nazi war criminal ‘raises problems’: here.

Hungarian state homophobia

This video about Hungary says about itself:

Fascism in Hungary- Hungarian Guard- Magyar Garda

Magyar Gárda Hagyományőrző és Kulturális Egyesület (English: Hungarian Guard Association for Protection of Traditions and Culture) nationalist, paramilitary movement in Hungary. It was founded through an “oath of loyalty to Hungary” by its members in Buda Castle, Budapest, in August 2007.. They are backed by and developed out of the right-wing party, Jobbik.

By Jake Blumgart, Truthout in the USA:

Homophobia on the Rise in Eastern Europe as Rightist Extremism Intensifies

Friday, 29 June 2012 00:00

On July 2008, Michael Simmons marched in the tenth annual Budapest gay pride parade, just as he had in previous years. Established in 1998, Hungary’s pride parade is one of the longest established in Central and Eastern Europe, and for the first nine years of its existence it was marked by the festivities – transvestites dancing in flatbed trucks, loud music, colorful floats – familiar to inhabitants of most Western European and American cities. Back then, the conservative and skinhead counter protesters were a joke.

That changed in 2007 when large groups of right-wing thugs attacked the marchers with vegetables, rotten eggs, rocks and bottles. Some people who left the parade were beaten. The police response was inadequate, as they were unprepared for the sudden violence. In 2008, Simmons experienced the same thing, “well-organized and well-orchestrated attacks” by crowds of counter protesters.

“It was four hours of sustained attack and it never let up; there was never a breathing period,” said Simmons, a lifelong human rights activist, who took part in the civil rights movement in the American South and has worked extensively in Eastern Europe since the late 1980s. “Their [faces were so full of] hate. And their children were there. It reminded me of those pictures you see of lynchings, where young men are holding their girlfriends’ hands.”

Although police protection for the marchers improved after the first couple of years, the general situation of Hungary’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has worsened. The extreme right-wing party Jobbik, which is often associated with such hateful attacks, has grown rapidly. (They even have a paramilitary wing.) In 2007, Jobbik could be dismissed as a fringe group with no parliamentary representation. Today, Jobbik is the nation’s third-largest political party, with 47 of 386 seats in the Hungarian Parliament.

The nationalist conservative Fidesz Party, which controls two-thirds of the parliamentary seats and has been widely condemned for authoritarian tendencies, is less overtly discriminatory. But before Fidesz’s 2010 electoral sweep, LGBT rights in Hungary were rapidly progressing. Today, the new Constitution that Fidesz wrote and implemented unilaterally stipulates that marriage must be between a man and a woman. For the last two years, the Fidesz-controlled city government of Budapest has tried to ban the Pride March, citing traffic concerns and the presence of small children on the city streets. In both cases, the ban was challenged by LGBT groups and overturned by the courts.

“We are working in a context of rising extremism, which not only targets the LGBTQ community, but also the Roma and Jewish community,” said Dorottya Karsay, one of the organizers of Budapest Pride. “We’ve seen a number of hate crimes, hate attacks in recent weeks, both in Budapest and in the countryside…. Extremism has been on the rise in the region for the last few years; it definitely has something to do with the crisis.”

More than 60 per cent of Scottish people agree that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people face prejudice – and it’s time MSPs tackled it, campaigners said today: here.

Britain: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people often hide their sexuality or gender identity in sports, research by the Equality Network found today: here.

This weekend sees London play host to the third ever WorldPride event – a global celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture: here.

Related articles

• Europe and the Resurgent Politics of Ethnic Scapegoating (theatlantic.com)
• The “true” Hungarian (ailsackay.com)
• On the Queen’s Lack of Pro-Gay Speech (towleroad.com)
• Clubs asked to tackle homophobia (bbc.co.uk)
• Hungary to Amend Constitution as EU Monitors Backsliding – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Hungarians in massive rally to keep freedoms (wnd.com)

Stop European bird crime

This video is called Birds at Birdlife Malta’s Reserves.

From BirdLife:

European BirdLife Partners take action against European bird crime

Thu, Jun 14, 2012

Across Europe, birds suffer from a wide range of persecution: illegal poisoning, shooting, trapping, and the theft of chicks for the bird trade are common practices. Recently, five European countries were confronted with cases of illegal killing. The common, even if illegal, practice of using poison baits to eradicate carnivores and rodents causes huge damage to wildlife as well as to livestock and crops. In some cases it can explain the decline of specific bird populations in Europe. Moreover, the poisons used are usually unnecessarily strong and often illegal.

The BirdLife Partners in Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, France and Malta have taken different types of measures to halt illegal killing of bird practices and to limit their damages on biodiversity.

In Hungary, illegal killing of birds threatens rare majestic birds

Over the last decade in Hungary, more than a thousand protected birds have been poisoned including White-tailed Eagles, Saker Falcons, and Common Buzzards. More birds have been, and are still, the victims of other illegal practices such as trapping or shooting.

MME (BirdLife in Hungary) has just begun the coordination of a new Life+ project (co-financed by the EU) in cooperation with eight other organisations, aimed at supporting the slow growth of the Eastern Imperial Eagle population in Hungary, and more widely, at finding solutions to control illegal hunting of birds.

In Greece and Cyprus, poisoned bait targeting wild animals is killing rare birds

In Greece and Cyprus, poisoned baits against carnivores are a very common practice. However, it causes huge damageable to wildlife and especially birds. For example, it has been a key factor in the Griffon Vulture population decline in Cyprus, now on the brink of local extinction.

Since the beginning of the year, in Greece, several Griffon Vultures, Golden Eagles, Common Buzzards and European Vultures, were found poisoned because people targeting wolves, bears and other carnivores had put out dead horses, foxes and dogs laced with Carbofuran, a very toxic insecticide that is illegal in most of the European countries.

Both organisations strongly advocate for their governments and the EU to take effective measures.

Read HOS (BirdLife in Greece) and other environmental NGOs’ letter to Commissioner Potočnik here.

Also, they are active on the ground. For example, BirdLife Cyprus together with three partners in Cyprus and Greece will implement the “Cross Border Cooperation Programme Greece-Cyprus” (co-funded by the European Commission and Greek national funds), launched in 2011, with the ambition of restoring the Griffon Vulture population in Cyprus.

BirdLife Cyprus has also just published a new report on winter trapping s highlighting the 2.8 million birds illegally trapped in the country in 2011. See here.

The French fashion of ‘chemical treatment campaigns’ endangers birds

Despite the alarm sounded by LPO (BirdLife in France) about the damage they cause to wildlife in the French region of Auvergne, ten new French regions have asked the French Ministry of Agriculture to implement, in their territories, chemical treatment campaigns targeting rodents like the vole and wild carnivores such as foxes, ferrets and … weasels.

However, since November 2011, 44 raptors (28 of which were Red Kites) have been discovered dead by poisoning in Auvergne, indirect victims of the treatment campaign targeting wild animals.

Red Kite is the species hit most by this in the country (58% of birds). The French population of this species is the second largest in Europe. Consequently, France has a responsibility in its conservation at a European level.

Moreover, the “treatment substances” commonly used are strong toxins like bromadiolone but also forbidden substances such as anticoagulants or pesticides like Lindane.

LPO is activelly advocating for the French government to stop the treatment campaigns and to implement measures ensuring the protection of Red Kite.

In Malta, hunting of endangered birds during the migratory season remains an issue

In Malta, carcasses of protected birds, including gulls, Ospreys, Western Marsh-harriers, Common Kestrels, Common Swifts and European Bee-eaters, can be discovered throurough the island. Illegal hunting of birds is a tradition in the country that seems difficult to end.

BirdLife Malta has been leading a campaign for several years against illegal hunting and trapping activities. Actions include the coordination of two annual conservation camps: Spring Watch in April and Raptor Camp in September. Spring Watch 2012 has just ended: More than 50 volunteers from across Europe joined Maltese conservationists on the ground to record data on migratory species from Africa passing through Malta on their way to Europe, and to report illegal hunting incidents to the police.

This year’s spring hunting season BirdLife Malta recorded more than 730 hunting illegalities (751 in 2011), including hunters targeting protected species, exceeding quotas, hunting outside legal hours and not wearing the legally required armbands.

BirdLife Malta is actively advocating for the Maltese government to take action against these uncountable illegal practices in the country, and on the other hand, to put an end to the hunting derogation existing in the country, decreed illegal by the EU and that dangerously threatens the wildlife.

BirdLife in Hungary (MME), in Greece (HOS), Cyprus, France (LPO) and Malta hope that their action will permit the recovery of threatened species populations that are suffering from uncontrolled illegal killing in their countries, and also, that it will contribute to the halt of illegal hunting in Europe.

For more information please contact Elodie Cantaloube, Media and Communication Assistant at BirdLife Europe.

European governments heading for biodiversity disaster: here.

Britain: Ex-police officer pleads guilty to stealing wild bird eggs: here.

Saudi Arabian dictatorial Pentagon allies: no women Olympians

This video says about itself:

Amnesty International accused Saudi government of torture and arbitrary arrest.

From the Daily Mail in England:

Olympic chiefs face fury after Saudi Arabia set to become only team to send no women to Games

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 19:40 GMT, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 03:57 GMT, 26 May 2012

Saudi Arabia look likely to be the only nation competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games without a single female among their team.

Having discussed the issue in Quebec yesterday, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) talks resulted in them not imposing any sanctions on the Middle Easterners.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, under pressure from human rights and sports groups to force Saudi Arabia to have female athletes as part of its London delegation, refused to consider the possibility of sanctions against the Gulf state or allow Saudi women to compete under a neutral flag.

‘We are continuing to discuss with them, and their athletes are training and we hope that they will qualify in due time for the Games,’ Rogge said.

‘There is absolutely no reason to consider the participation of Saudi women under an IOC flag,’ he added.

Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said: ‘Saudi Arabia is the last hold-out denying women and girls the ability to take part in sports.

‘The Saudi government’s position should trigger serious scrutiny by the Olympic family. The dismal and unequal conditions for women and girls who seek to practice sports in Saudi Arabia need to change now.’

The London Games were set to be the first where every nation included a woman in their delegation, but the Saudis seem set to successfully resist such calls.

Earlier this year, Saudi Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal refused to endorse female participation in the English capital.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia fielded all-male teams, but this year the former two have confirmed they [sic] female athletes will represent their countries.

Meanwhile the IOC ethics commission is wrestling with a scandal swirling around Pal Schmitt, the former Hungarian president and IOC member accused of plagiarism.

Schmitt, a double Olympic gold medal-winning fencer who ran for the IOC presidency in 2001, could face sanctions after he was stripped of his sports doctorate by Budapest’s Semmelweis University for copying sections of his thesis without proper acknowledgement.

UPDATE: Saudi Arabia caves in over female athletes: here.