German officials slam anti-migrant feelings
berlin — Shocked German officials on Sunday condemned two “disgusting” incidents involving anti-migrant mobs in the ex-communist east of the country, including a crowd cheering a blaze at a planned refugee shelter.
A group of 20-30 apparently drunken onlookers applauded as fire took hold in a former hotel being converted into home for asylum seekers, in a suspected arson attack in the town of Bautzen in Saxony state overnight.
Some members of the group also tried to impede the work of firefighters dispatched to the scene, police said. A police spokesman said that the group showed “unabashed delight” at the blaze and made “disparaging comments” about the efforts to contain it.
No one was hurt. The events came two nights after about 100 angry people in the Saxony town of Clausnitz tried to block the arrival of a bus carrying about 20 asylum seekers to a new shelter.
The scenes, captured on video, show the mob angrily shouting “We are the people”, borrowing the pro-democracy slogan from the peaceful revolution that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The images show police officers dragging terrified refugees out of the coach, including a teenage boy reportedly from Lebanon.
“Racists are pathetic lawbreakers, a disgrace for our country. Shame on you!” deputy foreign minister Michael Roth wrote on Twitter. “Those who shamelessly applaud when houses burn and scare refugees to death are displaying disgusting and revolting behaviour,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas tweeted. —