A/50/476 English Page 11 Special Rapporteur to be an important step taken by the United Nations in combating a problem of universal dimensions. The Federal Republic of Germany has always tried to cooperate closely with the Special Rapporteur to enable him to fulfil his mandate. It has made extensive information available to him and on 18 October 1994 invited him to visit Germany. The Federal Government finds it regrettable that the Special Rapporteur - as in the case of his report to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session (A/49/677, annex) - mentions in his report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session (E/CN.4/1995/78) xenophobic incidents alleged to have occurred in Germany without giving the federal Government an opportunity to explain its position before the report went to press. The report submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session contains six full pages of unverified information relating to 37 incidents which occurred in Germany and which are described as racist or xenophobic. The source of this information was Turkish non-governmental organizations. In Germany, the public authorities have risen to the challenge of right-wing extremism and xenophobia. All the federal bodies are doing everything possible to eradicate these phenomena. The police and the judiciary, in particular, are sparing no effort to prevent acts of violence and prosecute the perpetrators of such acts with all the means available to a State based on the rule of law. Acts carried out with right-wing extremist or xenophobic motives are dealt with under an accelerated procedure so that the perpetrators can be sentenced as quickly as possible. At the current stage of the investigations, no more than about one fifth of the specific cases mentioned in the report submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session can be considered acts motivated by xenophobia or racism. In the great majority of cases, no xenophobic or racist motive can be found. Moreover, in many cases the incidents did not take place as described in the report. In so far as the investigating bodies were aware of the events mentioned in the report, the police and the prosecutors initiated proceedings and the courts imposed severe penalties on persons found guilty of such acts. With regard to the arson attack perpetrated on 25 March 1994 against the synagogue in Lübeck, four persons were charged and, since 2 May 1994, have been in pre-trial detention for the attempted murder of five persons and for grave arson. The main proceedings are under way at present. In the case of the disturbances which took place on 12 May 1994 at Magdeburg, 11 criminal prosecutions have been initiated since then and 30 German nationals have been charged. Severe penalties of imprisonment have already been imposed. The perpetrators of the arson attack at Bielefeld on 20 April 1994 were convicted on 27 October 1994 and given severe custodial sentences under the criminal law applicable to minors, in some cases involving imprisonment for several years. Last year criminal charges were brought against the alleged perpetrators of the incidents which occurred at Brandenburg on 14 August and 21 September 1994. In the legal proceedings against the skinheads responsible for desecrating the memorial at Buchenwald on 23 July 1994, charges had already been brought in August and /...