Crusade launched against racism

German politicians, celebrities and civil rights activists will start a national campaign against xenophobia next month in an attempt to stamp out the right-wing violence that has cost four lives in the past eight weeks. Announcing the initiative in Dusseldorf, where a bomb attack injured nine immigrants last month, the government spokesman, Mr Uwe-Karsten Heye, said the group hoped to inspire Germans to refuse to tolerate racists.

"We want to encourage people to do something against xenophobia and anti-Semitism," he said.

The campaign, provisionally called "Show your Face", has the support of Germany's Jewish community as well as a number of television celebrities and public figures such as Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's wife, Doris.

Mr Schroder will make the battle against right-wing violence the main theme of a tour of eastern states when he returns from holiday later this month.

The initiative was announced amid growing disquiet over the failure to apprehend skinhead gangs who terrorise many eastern German cities, targeting the homeless, the disabled, left-wingers, gays and single mothers as well as foreigners and Jews. The Interior Ministry admitted yesterday that, although police investigated 760 right-wing attacks during the first half of this year and questioned 838 suspects, only 31 have been charged.

The Interior Minister, Mr Otto Schily, is considering using border police, who are usually deployed against violent protesters, to tackle the right-wing menace. Police representatives want a national database of violent rightwingers and some eastern politicians have called for tougher action against neo-Nazi Internet sites.

Mr Wolfgang Clement, prime minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, yesterday became the latest politician to support the banning of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). Although it makes little impact in elections, the NPD has attracted support from thousands of right-wing skinheads, mostly in the east.

"If the party calls for breaches of the law and the conditions for a ban are fulfilled, then it must be banned," Mr Clement said.

A ban would have to be approved by Germany's constitutional court, which sets a high hurdle for such moves.