Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Far-right suspects planned chaos, political murders in Belgium

It's the big story of the moment.

A total of 12 suspects are still being remanded in custody in a large-scale police investigation into planned attacks from the extreme-right in Belgium.

Ten of the initial 17 suspects were refused bail on Friday and police arrested another two suspects on Friday, both of whom were remanded in custody on Saturday.

The suspects were arrested on allegations they formed a neo-Nazi group which was planning to carry out violent attacks in Belgium to destabilise the nation.

The group of skinheads around the main suspect, Thomas B., a Belgian soldier from Buggenhout, was planning to plunge Belgium into chaos, by murdering various politicians.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wandering Woman, you must understand that extreme right is strong all around Europe. Not that you can agree with their believes, but ignoring them won't help a bit. If you go over to the US you see that many of the issues expressed by the extrem right group, building fence to stop immigration, are there being implemented. Here in Flanders, extreme right is well organized -better then in many other countries in Europe- and it has the advantage of the langue barrier. It is eating of two hands and mixed together it could be deathly. Maybe the solution to stop people from going extreme right is to find a way to make a less extreme right party with which most would be satisfied. But of course this is a hard debate and certainly in Belgium where one part votes left and the other right.

Di Mackey said...

Thanks manic ... I do understand and yet I don't. Racism is more obvious here in Europe than I ever experienced anywhere ... it shocks me sometimes.

I have to be peeled off the ceiling when I read that a sinister person like De Winter can influence such large percentages of the population to vote for his party.

I know it's everywhere in Europe and yes, that other countries somehow disguise their neo-nazi tendencies as something else ... my anger comes from the fact that it always leads to bad things in every country it's practiced in and that Belgium is SO MUCH better than this.

Look at your peace-keeping efforts, your rescue teams that go into disaster zones, your attempts to help immigrants integrate ... there are a million good things and yet ... this neo-nazi ascendency is terrifying to me.

My Grandad was one of the soldiers who helped liberate Europe in WWI ... how would I explain what he would see here today? 'Well Grandad ... you see it's like this.'

Anonymous said...

I know, it's hard. All we can do is try and listen to some of the people voting for the extreme right groups and help them understand what is going on. Now, sometimes, I think, that these people don't get why people are immigrating or why we need immigrants. They turn to the ewtreme right groups coz they give -mostly easy- answers.

Immigrants aren't bad, who could ever say that you are bad. You're an immigrant and you're doing everything to help this country get back on track. Immigrants aren't bad, it are politicians who screw up.

Di Mackey said...

You wise old thing manic :)

I guess I know it's up to the other politicians. And yes, you're right, the neo nazis do give easy answers to people who don't understand. I guess some time with them in power and we'll all see why they shouldn't hold office but what a difficult lesson to learn ... and what will Antwerpen be like afterwards ... sigh

Anonymous said...

I'm not wise nor old, I'm just a Belgian bloke wanting to go to New Zealdn and hear the waves making traffic sounds. I wonder if they hunk there horn too?

Di Mackey said...

Honking the horn in New Zealand is only done in extreme moments of outrage ... we're a quiet people.

Okay, young and wise manic :)

As for you getting yourself to New Zealand, I'm sure you'll do.