GERMANY: German police are breathing a sigh of relief after the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) announced yesterday it was dropping plans to march during the World Cup.
It was one headache less as World Cup fever hit Berlin yesterday evening, with Ronan Keating and Simple Minds headlining a party of half a million people at the Brandenburg Gate.
The NPD had planned to march in Leipzig and Frankfurt after Iran's matches against Leipzig and Portugal in a show of solidarity with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who denies the Holocaust and who has called for Israel to be wiped from the map.
German police and officials had feared the NPD - an extremist party with 6,000 members - would hijack the attention of the world's media, sending pictures of skinheads around the world.
Yesterday party leaders said they had changed their minds because they had "no interest in endangering the already strained security situation in Germany with additional demonstrations".
Security is the number one issue in Germany ahead of Friday's World Cup kick-off in Munich. The German media have run huge reports about the plans of Polish and English fans to run riot in Frankfurt and Dortmund, while Berliners were appalled two weeks ago when a drunken teenager ran amok in the city centre, stabbing over 30 passersby.
Yesterday German police criticised media "hype" of the security threat, saying they have no clear warnings of planned hooliganism or terrorist strikes.
"At the moment, there is no reason for us to raise a red flag for any of the 48 group matches," said Michael Endler, head of the German police unit monitoring hooliganism. "Endless rumours are circulating but we have no concrete evidence to suggest there will be trouble." An unprecedented 250,000 police officers and 7,000 soldiers will be on duty during the event, keeping rival gangs of fans away from each other at matches, street parties and beer gardens. They will be supported by over 500 police officers from the 32 participating nations who have the power to arrest and deport fans from their respective countries.
Uniformed police officers and plainclothes officers have begun patrolling host city streets, airports, train stations and even waterways, while 17 AWACS surveillance planes began to patrol German airspace yesterday.
German authorities have suspended the Schengen agreement to increase border security, and yesterday border police announced they had detained a known group of British hooligans who had tried to enter Germany by a round-about route through the Czech Republic.
Around 3,500 known British hooligans have been banned from leaving Britain during the World Cup, although the passports of 180 others were not revoked in time. Some 300 known German hooligans have had their match tickets confiscated, and another 1,900 have been visited by police at home or at their workplace. The 200 German hooligans classified by police as the most violent have been ordered to report regularly to their local police station.
"There's no such thing as 100 per cent security, but we have done everything humanly possible," said German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
Despite the security measures, an umbrella organisation for 25 African associations issued a pamphlet yesterday warning "dark- skinned" fans to stay out of eastern Berlin and eastern Germany to avoid being targeted in racist attacks.
The Africa Council sent the pamphlet in five languages to international football organisations and news agencies, advising visitors to move in groups and to be alert while waiting at bus and tram stops. "The more people gathered at a crime scene, the less likely it is that someone will intervene," the pamphlet reads. "That sounds illogical but it's very likely that everyone thinks someone else will do something. Many are prepared to help when someone else takes the first step."
The pamphlet follows a controversial warning by Uwe-Karsten Heye, a former government spokesman, that non-Caucasian visitors should avoid small towns in Brandenburg because they "wouldn't get out alive".
His remarks provoked a stormy discussion ahead of the World Cup, under the slogan "A Time to Make Friends".
"The vast majority of people in our country are friendly towards foreigners," said Chancellor Merkel at the weekend.