A/50/476 English Page 12 September 1994. On 18 November 1994, 16 persons were sentenced by the Echevins juvenile court, the court of original jurisdiction, to custodial penalties or to prison terms of up to one year and eight months. On 22 November 1994, the Landgericht (regional court) at Weiden, as the court of original jurisdiction, sentenced three defendants to custodial penalties of nine months or more for the arson attack perpetrated at Weiden on 21 September 1995. Some of the penalties imposed include the possibility of probation. In seven of the incidents mentioned it has been established that there was no xenophobic or racist motivation. The incident which occurred on 10 January 1994 at Halle also falls into this category. A 17-year-old handicapped girl in a wheelchair lodged a complaint that three skinheads had attacked her and carved a swastika into her cheek. In fact, the girl had invented the whole incident - as she later confessed - and had inflicted the wound herself. For this reason, the case against X was dropped on 18 January 1994. The incident and its motives were the subject of detailed reports in the German and international press. In almost half the cases, there is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis of xenophobic or racist aggression. In some of these cases, there is far more evidence to support the hypothesis of self-mutilation, slanderous complaints or faked break-ins. In several other cases, there is concrete evidence that they involved disputes between foreigners with no xenophobic or racist motive. Two Turkish nationals and a Greek national were charged with the murder of a Turkish national, Cetin Apohan, on 31 July 1994 in Cologne. The main proceedings in the regional court in Cologne - the assize court - are under way. On 1 February 1995, one of the accused was shot dead by the victim’s father during the hearing". 9/ 17. The Governments of Kuwait and Germany have expressed regret that no adversary procedure had been instituted making it possible to obtain the views of Governments on the racist or xenophobic incidents reported by non-governmental organizations or by certain Governments. The Special Rapporteur wishes to draw attention to the administrative and financial constraints (relatively short deadlines for the preparation and submission of reports to the Commission and to the General Assembly, consultations with Governments, administrative secretariat and translation of documents ...) which make such a procedure impracticable in the immediate future. None of the recommendations about the means required for the proper execution of the mandate have been followed up. For the time being, the Special Rapporteur is trying to the best of his ability to inform Governments of the cases submitted to him. B. Missions undertaken by the Special Rapporteur 1. Mission to the United States of America 18. On 5 February 1995, the Special Rapporteur submitted a report to the fiftyfirst session of the Commission on Human Rights on his mission to the United States of America from 9 to 22 October 1994. In his conclusions, he stated that social dysfunctions existed in that country stemming from residual racism and /...

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