World

Suspected Racist Murder Shakes Norway

January 29, 2001 / 1:17 PM EST / AP

The suspected racial murder of a black teen-ager had Norway embroiled in an anguished debate Monday over whether to ban neo-Nazi groups.

"Other countries have experienced similar things. We have not," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said. "So what appears to be a racially motivated killing is a turning point for us that we will do everything we can to fight."

Benjamin Hermansen, 15, was stabbed to death near his home in Holmlia, an Oslo neighborhood, late Friday. Five suspects -- three men in their 20s and two 17-year-old girls who were linked to a neo-Nazi group -- were arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder. A sixth suspect was being sought Monday.

All the suspects had criminal records, ranging from attempted murder to vandalism, and were linked to the neo-Nazi group Boot Boys. The apartment where they were arrested was filled with Nazi paraphernalia, police said.

Hermansen's late father was from Ghana and his mother is Norwegian. The teen-ager was a popular figure in his neighborhood and spoke out against racism, including in a television appearance last year in which he spoke of being attacked by neo-Nazi youths in Denmark.

"Everything suggests...that Benjamin Hermansen was killed because he had a different skin color than most Norwegians," Stoltenberg said.

The slaying stunned this Scandinavian country of 4.5 million and remained the top news story Monday.

Minister of Culture Ellen Horn said the government should consider a total ban on neo-Nazi groups, a suggestion immediately endorsed by Norway's most powerful labor union.

However, other top politicians and some experts warned against hastily taking such a step because of concerns about violating free expression.

There is a small number of neo-Nazis in Norway. But the nation, with relatively few non-European immigrants, had been spared racial violence suffered in Germany, neighboring Sweden and elsewhere in Europe.

Leading anti-racism groups were split. The Anti-Racist Center said a total ban could make the groups attractive to some thrill-seeking youth. Another group, SOS Racism, supported a ban, saying Nazi symbols stand for nothing but violence and hate.

Police said Monday that charges were raised from murder to first-degree murder or being an accessory. Police also were seeking a court order to hold the suspects, who deny involvement, for four weeks pending a possible indictment and trial. If convicted, they could face 21 years in prison.

The controversy over the slaying came as a two-day conference on fighting intolerance began Monday in Sweden.

Concerned about rising racism within its borders, Sweden issued a sharp call to politicians, researchers and human rights activists from around the world Monday to come up with specific ideas to fight the spread of intolerance.

"Just a few generations after the liberation of Auschwitz, we see an alarming rise in right-wing extreists in Europe," Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said, referring to the World War II concentration camp in Poland where 1.5 million people were killed. "There is no room for hesitation. It is time for action and cooperation."

Persson spoke after an international conference opened with a short film detailing the rise of a neo-Nazi movement in Sweden that broadcast recent images of marching youths wearing black face masks and waving swastikas.

The prime minister stressed that anti-immigrant sentiment and other forms of intolerance were gaining ground across the continent as racist groups and populist political parties used unemployment and poverty to spread fear of foreigners.

"Living in poverty, feeling powerless and excluded makes people look for scapegoats," he said. "We must be prepared to confront the despair, because if we don't other forces will."

Organizers of the two-day forum hoped to study hostility toward religious and ethnic minorities, immigrants and homosexuals and develop proposals about how to fight hate, focusing on education, legislation, local community initiatives and the media.

U.N. Human Rights Commission Mary Robinson warned that a decline in Europe's birthrate and an increase in elderly means that the continent needs more immigrants.

"Europe has no option but to embrace diversity," she told more than 400 participants from some 50 countries.