E/CN.4/2000/16 page 12 commission established to consider the question of blood donations by the Ethiopians, as promised by the Israeli Government following allegations of racial discrimination against the Falasha (see the communication dated 2 February 1996 in E/CN.4/1997/71, paras. 120-126). The Special Rapporteur is also waiting for the South African Government to send him the results of the investigation into the xenophobic acts of which a Mozambican and two Senegalese appear to have been the victims near Pretoria on 3 September 1998 (see E/CN.4/1999/15, paras. 102-105). A. Germany 37. It has been reported that Sinti and Roma minorities are being specially registered in the databases and records of the Bavarian police as “Roma/Sinti type”, “gypsy type” or the old Nazi term “Landfahrer” (“vagrant”). The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma has been informed of the report of the Bavarian Data Protection Commissioner of 16 December 1998 which states that Sinti and Roma are being registered generally on special police files without reason or legal basis by their personal details and even the number plates of their cars and further data. The police justify this storage as supposedly “vorbeugende Verbrechenbekämpfung” (“preventive crime combat”) and explain that Sinti and Roma “could be a public danger”. Government reply 38. Executive and legislative responsibility for the police in Germany does not lie with the Federal Government but with the governments of the Länder (provinces). The only exceptions are the Federal Border Police (Bundesgrenzschutz) and the Federal Criminal Investigation Agency (Bundeskriminalamt). Thus, practices of registration in the databases and the records of the police fall under the responsibility of the Länder. Within the areas of responsibility of the Federal Government terms such as “Roma/Sinti type”, “gypsy type” or “vagrant” are not used as categories in the INPOL data-processing system. 39. Computerized registration was also the subject of a question in the Bundestag put forward by Alliance 90/The Greens (“Criticism of racist classification” in police records). In its answer, dated 19 December 1996, (Bundestag Printed Materials 13/6623) the Federal Government stated that “... doing away with such classifications altogether does not come into consideration because of their indispensable nature for police work ...” and that “... the collection of such auxiliary characteristics for police use only is not contrary to article 3 (3), first sentence, of the Basic Law ...”. Additional reply by the government of the Land of Bavaria 40. With reference to the issue addressed in the communication from the Special Rapporteur, the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior has provided the following information: 41. “The Bavarian police do not keep records of all members of the Sinti and Roma ethnic groups. Only in individual cases are such persons registered as ethnic ‘Sinti and Roma’ as part of the personal details noted during police questioning, when such a record is necessary for criminal-tactical reasons and the information is provided on a voluntary basis, and types (type Sinti/Roma) as part of a physical description recorded either on the basis of information provided