Back to school for young Austrian fascists

The adolescent radicals were accused of shouting xenophobic remarks, singing Nazi songs, wearing badges of the notorious SS military corps and "propagating the fascist body of thought." The first series of classes worked out well, said Public Prosecutor Siegfried Sittenhaler recently in Linz, capital of Upper Austria state. The idea of sending extreme rightwing delinquents back to school is unique in Austria. At least five further convicts are expected to follow this first group.

The project leader, political science expert Irene Dyk, assigned an older student to each of the youths to serve as a tutor or mentor. Dyk hopes this "tandem model" will be better received by the radicals than seminars delivered by more elderly lecturers. "After all, they didn't listen first time around," she explained, "We are having a little game of democracy." The classes were spread over four evenings and included discussions on the lessons of history as well as on tolerance and democracy. The programme was rounded off by a meeting with Austrian members of parliament. "The aim is to alter the behaviour of these adolescents," said Sittenhaler. "The idea is to put these young people back on track ... We want to get them away from this obsession with violence and a fascist way of thinking." Entry to the new preventive scheme was restricted to delinquents who had no record of violent crime. "These are peripheral figures who run with the pack. They are by no means the ringleaders," said Sittenhaler. Austrian legal authorities came up with the project to avoid making "martyrs" of young offenders through sentences which would only serve to reinforce their antisocial convictions. The "students" are required to pay the 2,500-schilling (164- dollar) tutorial fee themselves. If they stay out of trouble for two years, charges against them are dropped.

(dpa)