Neo-Nazi Vandals French Muslim Cemetery

Date Posted: Tuesday, June 15, 2004

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STRASBOURG, France - The French government launched a new push to end ethnic intolerance on Monday after vandals painted neo-Nazi symbols on Muslim gravestones in a Strasbourg cemetery.

President Jacques Chirac promised the vandals would be punished hard. Neo-Nazi graffiti has appeared more frequently in France's Alsace region in recent weeks, an official declared.

"All these acts of hate, all these attacks, all these brutalities are contrary to our values, our principles," Chirac said in a statement. "They will be fought with utmost resolution."

Several dozen graves in Strasbourg's Meinau cemetery had swastikas and neo-Nazi codes such as "HH" and "88" -- both stand for "Heil Hitler" -- written on them overnight on Sunday and some gravestones were toppled, said an official of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith.

... continued: www.masnet.org . . .