A/51/301 English Page 19 42. In the south of the United States of America, an unprecedented wave of arson of churches and parishes belonging to the African-American community is sowing fear of a resurgence of anti-Black racism in the country. In all, 34 churches have been destroyed, particularly in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina and the northern part of Oklahoma. Although two suspects belonging to the racist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan have been arrested, the arrest of a third suspect, an adolescent who allegedly set fire to a Black church in South Carolina, precludes the investigators from embracing the theory that these fires are part of a nationwide racist plot, as the leaders of the Black community claim. 43. Nevertheless, it may be noted that these incidents are taking place in a general climate of growing tension between American racial communities. 20/ Such tensions were expressed, in particular, at the time of the spectacular acquittal of the football player O. J. Simpson, accused of having killed his ex-wife, and the "Million Man March" organized on 16 October 1995 by the controversial Black leader Louis Farrakhan. Moreover, according to the Black minister Jesse Jackson, increased initiatives to eliminate affirmative action programmes established to facilitate access to education and employment by ethnic minorities, an extension of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, help to aggravate the tension. The Special Rapporteur had also recommended to the Government of the United States that it should once again update its affirmative action programmes with a view to remedying the negative impact of the health, housing, education and employment policies of the 1980s. 21/ Lastly, it should be noted that the United States Supreme Court recently handed down a decision which prohibits the division of voting districts along racial lines, at the risk of impeding the political representation of ethnic minorities. 44. Aware of the danger inherent in this wave of arson, President Clinton hastened to respond to the turmoil in the African-American community by announcing in his radio broadcast of 8 June 1996 his determination to find the authors of these crimes and expose their motives. A special investigation unit comprising a number of police squads was set up to hunt down the guilty parties. More than 200 federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are at work on the case. President Clinton also went to Greeleyville, a small, mostly Black town with a population of 500 inhabitants in South Carolina, in order to attend the inauguration of the new church built after the former one was destroyed by fire. C. Incitement to racial hatred through electronic and computer networks 45. The consequences of the development of information and communication technology are not all positive. A growing trend has been observed among racist organizations to use electronic mail or the Internet to spread racist or xenophobic propaganda. 22/ So-called discussion forums or sites from Europe and America for the dissemination of racist and xenophobic messages are multiplying on the Internet. Thus, a German extremist called Ernest Zuendel living in Toronto, Canada, publishes anti-Semitic literature under such explicit titles as "Auschwitz: myth and reality", "The holocaust: let’s hear both sides" or "Were there really 6 million deaths?". 23/ A Californian server, the Committee /...