E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.2 page 3 at the Federal Foreign Office; and Ambassador Graf von Bassewitz, the head of the Directorate for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office. He also met a number of members of the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) and Commissioners for Foreigners, whose names appear in the programme of the visit (annex I). 7. The Special Rapporteur also had an exchange of views with Mr. Rüdiger Wolfrum, an expert on the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and with Mr. Wilhelm Heitmeyer and Mr. Roland Eckert. 8. He also had working sessions with representatives of non-governmental organizations, and with leading religious figures invited with the assistance of the German United Nations Association and the German Committee of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 9. While in Bremen and Stuttgart the Special Rapporteur visited asylum-seekers' homes and hostels. In Hamburg and Berlin, visits to the St. Georg Multicultural Community Centre, the “Multi Kulti” studios at radio SFB4 where programmes for foreign communities are put together, the Werkstatt der Kulturen (culture workshop) and the House of the World's Cultures, showed him what was being done in a variety of areas to promote multiculturalism and rapprochement between Germans and foreigners. 10. During his visit the Special Rapporteur was assisted by an official from the Legislation and Prevention of Discrimination Branch of the Centre for Human Rights and two interpreters assigned to the mission by the Conference Services Division of the United Nations Office at Geneva. 11. The detailed mission programme, including the names of everyone he interviewed is annexed to this report. I. ORIGINS OF XENOPHOBIA AND RIGHTIST EXTREMISM AND RELATED INCIDENTS 12. A number of official explanations have been put forward for the outbreak of xenophobic violence. The main ones appear to be the economic and social upheaval in the east of the country following reunification; the massive influx of asylum-seekers; and the aggressiveness of extreme rightist organizations. A. Reunification and disarray in the former German Democratic Republic 13. One consequence of German reunification was to expose the inhabitants of the east of the country to things of which they had previously been ignorant, and to engender disarray in the face of economic and social change and growing unemployment. Having long been inward-looking, the inhabitants of eastern Germany perceived foreigners as competing for jobs and jeopardizing any improvement in their economic and social situation. These fears were then exploited by extreme rightist organizations and neo-Nazi cells, which directed the frustrations of a proportion of the region's unemployed youth, lacking a social identity or prospects for the future, towards foreigners.