Belgian racist murderer sentenced to life in prison

Murder fuelled by racism

It has come full circle and one can say justice has been done; however, the fallout from this event is generating some interesting commentary that leaves one a bit worried.

In May 2006, an 18-year old man with a privileged upbringing with a nominally extreme right heritage went on a shooting spree with the view of targeting people of a foreign background. [Are you Belgian Suspect – May 2006]

In the process, he shot and killed a Malian nanny, then killed the 2-year old ward who happened to be a white girl when the obviously distressed girl started to cry, he then when on to shoot a Turkish lady who survived the ordeal.

This madness was curtailed when the man got shot in the stomach by a police marksman but that was beginning of a soul-searching analysis of the effect of intolerant anti-immigration rhetoric and populism used to obtain political advantage in Belgium.

Father tries to fool us

The father of Mr. Hans Van Themsche technically disowned his son by saying the boy is sick in some way, but he cannot be exculpated for bringing up his boy in an atmosphere of right-wing and Flemish nationalist tendencies.

At one time he was once a member of the proscribed Vlaams Blok (Flemish Block), the influence of such a community cannot have been benign even though he did say at the trial of his son that they never tolerated racism or right-wing extremism at home nor did he espouse the ideas of the movement itself.

This is an interesting development, because in my write-up last year, the information I gathered showed that his father was a founding member of Vlaams Blok; that would have made him a mover of the ideas of that party – the party reincarnated as Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest Party) and his aunt is a representative of that party in the Flemish parliament, it would be difficult for these people to feign ignorance of their influence on the young man.

Revelations at the trial

During trial of the young man, the Belgian woman of Turkish heritage and birth – Songul Koç – wondered why she was shot and it appears she is still severely traumatised by the event, one can only wish a recovery that allows her to get on with her life.

A witness to the shooting observed and said of the murderer, “He stood there for a moment to make sure he had hit her, he smiled and was clearly pleased with what he had done. Then he calmly walked on.”

In the light of the cold-blooded evil, we hear man eventually tried to apologise in what Ms Koç believes was a mechanical act, not one done from the heart in any sincerity.

Justice for the dead

And so on Wednesday, a jury found the man guilty of all counts of two murders and one of attempted murder saying he was motivated by racism and he was sentenced to life in prison making him the first Belgian to be convicted on a charge of racially motivated murder.

This is fine, but then the Former president of the Appeal Court has waded into this case and asked that the young man be given a second chance. Edwin Van Fraechem believes in the light of a double murder and attempted murder, the opportunity to return to society should be considered saying – “And we need to take this into account. We must not forget that Van Themsche is only 19. We should at least try to re-educate him.”

At a time like this, our thoughts should be with the people who suffered loss, but such crass insensitivity can only be expected when people are trying to peddle influence to subvert the course of justice for a person of privilege.

The precedent of tolerable murder

The judge goes on to recommend a tenure is a state educational facility which he believes offers a more severe regime than a prison which should not last more than 10 years, because he believes the murders were not racially motivated.

If this is not a case of twisting the facts to achieve a dishonest end, I am not sure what is, the report notes that in the 52 cases the judge presided over, he never pronounced a verdict for internment in a state educational home.

Indeed the judge is learned and versed in precedent; this might be advocating the establishment of the institutionalisation of tolerable murder as the question of racially motivated murder can never be countenanced or be of import even if the suspect clearly confesses that his acts were racially motivated.

One should resist the urge to play the race card and turn the tables to consider what would have happened if the hues of the persons involved were switched.

But one is of the mind of trawling through all the cases of this judge to see how he has upheld Belgian law in his deliberation, though one hopes this is just an unfortunate lapse in judgement.

Meanwhile, justice seems to have been done, lock those gates, I know where to put the keys.

Pygmies in a zoo in Tintin's Congo

Congo on my mind

One event this week only makes us look at history, then see ourselves today and almost laugh at ourselves on matters too serious to be trivialised.

Now, I remember a few years ago when suffering unwarranted as if there can be warranted racial abuse; the man said he knew everything about blacks so I could not talk back at him; he being Belgian, I had to say - I am not from Belgian Congo (Once Belgian Congo and Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo) - Congo is not the black race.

But Congo (Congo-Brazzaville and the old Belgian Congo are read as the same here - referred to as The Congo) is back in the news for the wrong reasons today, we all remember the Adventures of Tintin, the memories of leafing through the "suffering sour tomatoes" swearing of Captain Haddock or the very "interesting" Thompson and Thomson detectives, well, cut to the chase.

Tintin in the Congo

Tintin in the Congo was published between 1930 and 1931, it was the second in the series of Tintin adventures where the opinion was it was racist and colonialist, portraying black people as monkeys and imbeciles.

The Centre for Racial Equality (CRE) made issue of what Hergé then later claimed "was only portraying the naïve views of the time", fair enough; as CRE asked for this particular comic to be removed from high street shops around Britain after a human-rights lawyer (David Enright) who saw it in the children's section of a Borders bookshop whilst shopping with his African wife and their kids complained.

What you need is controversy to boost the sales of an old Politically Incorrect book which should be read in its historical context and has no lien of contemporary life as we know it.

At least this should be the sensible view to take as you rush to the book store to get your copy - it is harmless commentary and comical entertainment, if not educational.

Pygmies in the Congo Zoo

The end of the story? Well, not really, travel to Congo for the Festival of Pan-African Music and see Tintin in the Congo come alive as it jumps off the pages, in something that could be only too surreal - Members of the pygmy community who arguably are the first inhabitants of Central Africa were invited to perform at the festival and then housed in a zoo.

Yes, fellow human-beings, members of the black race and citizens of the Republic of Congo who just happen to be of a shorter stature were housed in familiar surroundings similar to their forest dwellings - as the government statement says.

They were put in tents in a ZOO where as usual, people who appear to be different can be viewed as curiosities and this time photographed by tourists and visitors to the zoo.

What is so unfortunate about this matter is the fact that pygmies are not treated with any dignity by their fellow countrymen and this needs to be addressed from a national and international perspective even though prejudices die hard, there should be education that highlights the humanity of these famous people and legislation that imposes stiff penalties on the discrimination and denigration of the tribe.

Intolerable impressions

Beyond this is the impressionable situation presented to children who read about imbecile blacks in comics or see pygmies in the zoo, I do not know what to make of this, but this 76-year old comic is not as benign as it seems and it is probably best off the shelves.

Even though the comic juxtaposes smart white men with "dumb" black people, the underlying current is man's injustice and emasculation of other men be it between races or within the same race.

Basically, regardless of the historical context or setting of anything that portrays prejudice, we cannot allow the liberal/conservative divide to give oxygen to the prejudice, because what might be the past in one society might as well be contemporaneous in other societies and we have the responsibility to ensure that no part of the human race is treated with any less humanity than ourselves.