NORWAY:
Nazi violence hits Norway's "deep south"

Kristiansand has suffered several violent racist incidents since the Nazi bonehead group, Bootboys, has turned its attention to the southern Norwegian city. The increase in the group's activities there follows the incarceration of several of its leading members in Oslo.

Serious assaults and clashes with young immigrants have occurred in the centre of Kristiansand in the past few months. One of Bergen's leading Nazis, the convicted criminal Mikkel Vetvik, has moved there and a former Swedish National Socialist Front member, Fredrik William Ulf Strand, has also been seen in the city.

The most recent violence occurred on New Year's Eve, when a young Ethiopian was battered senseless by a bunch of Nazi hooligans in an unprovoked assault. Vetvik and his sidekick, Kim Hugo Hansen, together with two young thugs from nearby Lillesand have been charged with this attack.

The local newspaper has been providing excellent reports on the Nazi mayhem. In contrast, the Kristiansand police have been refusing to comment on what they know about the local Nazi scene and have even attacked the press for writing about the violence.

It is only four months since the local authorities in Kristiansand, together with the state-financed Exit Project, loudly trumpeted the claim that they had managed to wipe out the city's Nazi scene. According to the Exit Project, there were "only six" Nazis left in Kristiansand.

The truth, however, is different. While social workers and local police have been busy congratulating themselves, one of the largest Nazi scenes in Norway has mushroomed right under their noses. At first, Nazi activity was concentrated around Vigrid, which claims to be the Norwegian branch of William Pierce's National Alliance. But last September a faction of Vigrid broke away to form a local Bootboys group.

Following the New Year's Eve attack, Kristiansand politicians have been forced to recognise that the city has a serious Nazi problem. Mette Gundersen, of the

Labour Party, has proposed a ten-point plan to combat "-the nazis, which includes a ban on Nazi uniforms in schools, a public meeting with local police and politicians, cinema advertisements proclaiming Kristiansand an anti-racist zone, a cathedral concert against racism and banning Nazis from pubs in the city.

Hopefully, Kristiansand's population will now stand up to Nazi violence and show that the whole community - and not just politicians such as Gundersen - is willing to protect its minorities.