Anglican Church must confront all aspects of its past: leader

MSN – AFP, 9 July 2020

The leader of the worldwide Anglican communion on Thursday called on followers to acknowledge all aspects of the Church of England's past, both good and bad, as his new number two was sworn in with little of the usual high ceremony.

Stephen Cottrell has been sworn in as the 98th Archbishop of York.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said followers had to confront the church's troubling historical "baggage" as they looked to make a better future.

The Church of England's highest-ranking cleric was speaking in a virtual ceremony to mark the formal election of Stephen Cottrell as the 98th Archbishop of York.

The Church of England, established in 1534 after king Henry VIII's split from Roman Catholicism, last month apologised for its links to slavery, calling it a "source of shame".

The apology came against a backdrop of anti-racism protests in Britain and across the world, sparked by the death during the police arrest of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in the United States.

Welby said the Church's past included both "saints and slave traders".

"Living as Christians requires us to live not only in fellowship with Christians around the world but also with the Church throughout time," he said.

"With the Church of England, we know that some of those bring baggage. We find saints and slave traders, the proud and prelatical, with the humble servant of the people.

"They are part of us, of our inheritance, to be reformed, to be repented of, to be imitated."

Churches across Britain have been shut since late March because of the coronavirus outbreak, forcing services to be held online.

Restrictions are gradually being eased, but remain in place for large church services.

Open doors

Measures to halt the close-contact spread of the virus have forced the postponement of Cottrell's enthronement but one aspect was retained in the ceremony.

After receiving his archbishop's crozier, he ceremonially banged three times on the west door of York Minster, the northern English city's imposing Gothic cathedral.

The doors were then opened to symbolise the Church being open to all.

The 61-year-old takes over from Britain's first black archbishop John Sentamu who fled Idi Amin's Uganda and became a leading voice against racial injustice.

Cottrell, who was previously Bishop of Chelmsford in southeast England, has previously promised to use his new role to help soothe divisions following years of political turmoil over Britain's departure from the European Union.

He has also said he hoped to "address the discrepancies of wealth and opportunity", including working with government to rejuvenate northern England.

He said he was daunted but excited about taking up the position, which dates back to Saint Paulinus in the year 627.

And he called for the lessons of the coronavirus outbreak to be learned, "to build a better world, a fairer world, a more just world... where status and privilege don't count so much, where everybody has an equal opportunity".

"We want this (pandemic) to end but we don't want to be back to normal," he added.

Commonwealth should 'acknowledge' past wrongs, says Prince Harry

Yahoo – AFP, July 6, 2020

Harry, Duke of Sussex, seen here in conversation with Formula 1 champion Lewis
 Hamilton, had already spoken out last week against institutional racism (AFP
 Photo/PETER NICHOLLS)

London (AFP) - Prince Harry has urged the Commonwealth, which his grandmother heads, to acknowledge its uncomfortable colonial past, in video extracts published on Monday.

The 35-year-old royal and his wife, Meghan, joined a video conference call with leaders organised by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust (QCT) from their base in the United States.

The sessions were set up in response to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, during a US police arrest.

Harry last week outlined his personal commitment to tackling institutional racism, saying it had "no place" in society but was still too widespread.

On the July 1 call, posted on the QCT website, he said: "When you look across the Commonwealth, there is no way that we can move forward unless we acknowledge the past.

"So many people have done such an incredible job of acknowledging the past and trying to right those wrongs but I think we all acknowledge there is so much more still to do.

"It's not going to be easy and in some cases it's not going to be comfortable, but it needs to be done, because, guess what, everybody benefits."

Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth, a non-political organisation of 54 countries, most of which have links to the British Empire.

It comprises 2.4 billion people -- a quarter of the world's population -- of which 60 percent are aged under 30.

The QCT was set up to give younger people from member nations a platform to share ideas and insights.

The chief executive of the QCT, Nicola Brentnall, has said the body is studying how the Commonwealth's colonial past and its legacy should shape its future.

Harry and Meghan stepped down from frontline royal duties this year and have set up a non-profit organisation focusing on the promoting of mental health, education and well-being.

Meghan, a mixed-race US former actress, has previously talked about her own personal experience of racism and unconscious bias.

Former army officer Harry has also complained about the "racial undertones" of media coverage of his wife.

The couple are president and vice-president respectively of the QCT.

UK historian quits Cambridge over slavery claim

Yahoo – AFP, Dmitry ZAKS, July 5, 2020

David Starkey (R) seen here in 2007 with Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales,
has resigned from his position at Cambridge University (AFP Photo/IAN JONES)

London (AFP) - A British royal historian who said slavery was not genocide has quit his honorary position at Cambridge University and been dropped by his publisher HarperCollins.

The comments from Professor David Starkey came during a period of soul searching in Britain over its colonial past.

The Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum after the death of George Floyd in US police custody in May saw the statue of a major slave trader dumped in an English harbour as protests hit cities across the UK.

Starkey is an expert on Britain's Tudor period -- a time in the 1500s when the slave trade was growing as European colonies across the Caribbean and the Americas expanded.

He said in a June 30 online interview with the right-wing UK commentator Darren Grimes that the BLM movement represented "the worst side of American black culture".

"Slavery was not genocide. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there? An awful lot of them survived," Starkey said.

"We had Catholic emancipation at pretty much exactly the same time that we got rid of slavery in the 1830s. We don't go on about that because it's part of history, it's a question that's settled," he added.

The remarks prompted Sajid Javid -- a former finance and interior minister who has talked about how his Pakistani father faced discrimination after coming to Britain -- to call Starkey a racist.

"We are the most successful multi-racial democracy in the world and have much to be proud of," Javid tweeted on Thursday.

"But David Starkey's racist comments ('so many damn blacks') are a reminder of the appalling views that still exist."

Javid's tweet was picked up by British media, and Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam College accepted Starkey's resignation the next day.

'Not engaged enough'

Canterbury Christ Church University in southeastern England also terminated Starkey's contract as a visiting professor.

"His comments are completely unacceptable and totally go against our university and community values," the university said in a tweet.

HarperCollins UK called Starkey's views "abhorrent".

"Our last book with the author was in 2010, and we will not be publishing further books with him," it said.

"We are reviewing his existing backlist in light of his comments and views."

Starkey could not be reached for comment and did not respond to other UK media interview requests.

But the right-wing commentator who conducted the historian's interview disassociated himself from Starkey's remarks.

"Hand on heart, I wasn't engaged enough in this interview as I should have been," Grimes said in a statement.

"I should have robustly questioned Dr Starkey about his comments."

Underage rape probe opened into French author Matzneff

Yahoo – AFP, Eleonore DERMY, January 3, 2020

In the book "Consent", Springora describes how she was seduced at the age
of 14 by Matzneff (AFP Photo/Martin BUREAU)

Paris (AFP) - Paris prosecutors on Friday opened a rape investigation into the author Gabriel Matzneff, a day after the publication of a book detailing his sexual relationship with a girl of 14 over three decades ago.

The case has attracted huge interest in France, which is only now beginning to scrutinise attitudes after decades of what is seen by some as an overly permissive attitude towards sexual exploitation of women and paedophilia.

The probe was launched after an examination of the book "Consent", published on Thursday, where author Vanessa Springora describes a sexual relationship she had with Matzneff in the mid-1980s when he was 36 years her senior, Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said in a statement.

Heitz said the inquiry would focus on "rapes committed against a minor" aged under 15.

In "Consent", Springora, 47, now a leading publisher, describes how she was seduced at the age of 14 by Matzneff and how this left lasting scars.

Matzneff, an essay writer long admired by some in French literary circles, never made any secret of his preference for sex with adolescent girls and boys.

In the mid-1970s, he published a notorious essay called "Les Moins de Seize Ans" ("Those Less than 16").

'All other victims'

Springora had indicated she did not intend to bring a criminal complaint against Matzneff. But the Paris prosecutors used their power to open an investigation of their own accord.

Heitz said that beyond the events described by Springora, the investigation "will work to identify all other eventual victims who could have been subjected to crimes of the same nature in France or abroad".

In France it is against the law to have a sexual relationship with anyone under the age of 15.

Gabriel Matzneff has denounced Springora's book, saying it attempts to 

portray him as "a pervert, a manipulator and a predator." (AFP Photo/

Jacques DEMARTHON)

It is possible that investigations into Springora's evidence could be restricted by the statute of limitations, which in 2018 was extended to 30 from 20 years for this kind of crime but is not retroactive.

The book comes in the age of #MeToo as France wrestles with a series of accusations by women who say they were exploited by men who often held positions of power.

In one of the most prominent recent cases, French actress Adele Haenel accused film director Christophe Ruggia of constantly harassing her from the age of 12 to 15. She has since filed a complaint against him.

And the controversy has intensified around French-Polish film director Roman Polanski, a fugitive from US justice since 1978 when he admitted to statutory rape of a 13 year-old, after he brought out his new film "An Officer and a Spy".

'Not what we experienced'

Matzneff has denied any wrongdoing and in a lengthy statement sent to the L'Express magazine claimed that there had been an "exceptional love" between him and Springora, and that he did not "deserve the ugly portrait" that had been painted of him.

"No, this is not me, this is not what we experienced together and you know it," said the writer, now 83, denouncing a book that he says tries to portray him as "a pervert, a manipulator and a predator".

In 2013, Matzneff was awarded the Renaudot prize for his essays on international affairs and philosophy, an award one member of the jury has now conceded was a mistake.

"It is clear that he would not have got the prize for one of his intimate journals," jury member Frederic Beigbeder told the Parisien daily. "This prize was a blunder."

In the book Springora writes: "Aged 14, you are not supposed to have a 50-year-old man waiting for you when you leave school, you are not supposed to live in a hotel with him, or find yourself in his bed with his penis in your mouth when you should be having a snack."

Ahead of the book's publication, French ministers rounded on Matzneff, with Culture Minister Franck Riester saying "having a literary aura is not a guarantee of impunity."

Pope apologises to Roma for Catholic Church's 'discrimination'

Yahoo – AFP, Mihaela RODINA, 2 June 2019

Pope Francis met with members of the Roma community

Pope Francis apologised to the Roma people on Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church's "discrimination" against them as he wrapped up a visit to Romania.

Making up around 10 percent of Romania's 20 million people, many Roma are marginalised and live in poverty and have suffered centuries of discrimination and insults.

"I ask forgiveness ? in the name of the Church and of the Lord ? and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you," the pope said in a speech to the Roma community in the central town of Blaj.

"My heart, however, is heavy. It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil," he said.

"Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment. How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!"

Earlier, the pontiff beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era.

Pope Francis, seen holding an icon, said the beatified Catholic bishops, victims of 

political oppression, were "shepherds, martyrs of faith" whose gifts to the Romanian 

people in the early days of Communist rule were "freedom and mercy"

"The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology," he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a "Field of Liberty" in Blaj.

"These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy," added Francis, while praising the "diversity of religious expression" in mainly Orthodox Romania.

Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy.

The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule.

Buried in secret

The bishops died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox monastery. They were then buried in secret -- to this day the whereabouts of four of their graves is unknown.

The bars of the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne built specially for the papal visit.

The bishops followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Romanian faithful in traditional dress turned out in their thousands to attend the pontiff's 

service in Blaj, notably home to thousands of Roma, a long marginalised community

While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority -- unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.

Under such stark political repression, most Romanian Catholics -- who numbered more than 1.5 million in 1948, abandoned their faith and their community has shrunk to around 200,000 today in a country of 20 million, almost nine in 10 of whom profess Orthodoxy.

The politics which has seeped through Romania's modern religious history has poisoned inter-faith relations -- even if the papal visit has softened feelings to a degree.

"No matter where we go, to the town hall, to the police or to school, doors get closed," a 72-year-old Roma, who gave his name as Ion, told AFP.

Roma, originating from northern India, suffered around five centuries of slavery before the practice was formally abolished in 1856.

But they remain a mainly poor and marginalised community -- even if recent years have seen roads paved and homes getting running water and electricity.

A Romanian couple in Blaj hold a Vatican flag as they attend Pope Francis's mass

Seeking inclusiveness

Francis's arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe's poorest states.

Although Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain some "urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed," according to sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna (Together) association.

Duminica and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for tolerance and social inclusion.

"The pope's visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not accepted by others," said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday mass.

Cambridge University investigates its links to slavery

Yahoo – AFP, April 30, 2019

The Cambridge University probe will be conducted by two full-time doctoral
researchers, overseen by an advisory panel (AFP Photo/Tolga)

London (AFP) - The University of Cambridge on Tuesday announced an investigation into its historic links to slavery, looking at bequests from traders and how its academics might have influenced "race-based thinking".

The two-year project will seek "appropriate ways to publicly acknowledge past links to slavery and to address its impact", the British institution said.

It is the brainchild of Canadian vice-chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope, and will be conducted by two full-time doctoral researchers, overseen by an advisory panel.

"There is growing public and academic interest in the links between the older British universities and the slave trade," Toope said in a statement.

"It is only right that Cambridge should look into its own exposure to the profits of coerced labour during the colonial period.

"We cannot change the past, but nor should we seek to hide from it."

The chairman of the advisory panel, Professor Martin Millett, said the probe would look at bequests to departments, libraries and museums.

"But the panel is just as interested in the way scholars at the university helped shape public and political opinion, supporting, reinforcing and sometimes contesting racial attitudes which are repugnant in the 21st century," he said.

Universities in Britain and the United States have in recent years faced protests by students over their past associations.

In 2016, Cambridge's Jesus College removed from its main hall a bronze cockerel statue stolen with other artefacts from the West African kingdom of Benin in the 19th century.

Around the same time, rival Oxford University faced an angry but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to remove a statue of 19th-century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes.

Harry and Meghan shake up royal tradition in star-studded wedding

Yahoo – AFP, James PHEBY with Robin MILLARD in London, May 19, 2018

The royal newlyweds kissed in front of the Windsor crowds (AFP Photo/Danny Lawson)

Windsor (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot at Windsor Castle on Saturday in a royal wedding like no other, mixing British pomp and African-American culture in front of a celebrity congregation and cheering crowds.

The new Duke and Duchess of Sussex exchanged vows in St. George's Chapel in a historic ceremony, sealed with a kiss, which brought the biracial US TV star into the heart of the British monarchy.

As more than 100,000 people packed the sun-baked Windsor streets and millions watched worldwide, Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family were joined inside by stars including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Elton John, George Clooney and David Beckham.

The couple held hands throughout and exchanged vows in a Church of England service modified to reflect the bride's heritage and strong sense of independence.

Firebrand US pastor Michael Curry delivered a full-throttle address invoking slaves and the power of love, and a gospel choir sang classics "Stand By Me" and "This Little Light of Mine".

Markle walked down the aisle in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on her own

before being accompanied to the altar by Prince Charles (AFP Photo/Danny Lawson)

Markle began her walk down the aisle alone with her 10 bridesmaids and page boys walking behind her flowing white silk dress, designed by Clare Waight Keller at the French fashion house Givenchy.

Her father had been due to meet her half-way but after he pulled out due to heart surgery, Harry's father Prince Charles stepped in to escort her to the altar.

Markle's mother, Doria Ragland, looked visibly moved during the wedding.

With the words "I will", 33-year-old Harry, and US former actress Meghan, 36, declared they would love, comfort, honour and protect each other.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby declared them husband and wife -- sparking huge cheers from crowds outside the church, watching on big screens.

The bride's father Thomas Markle also followed the wedding on television and voiced regret he was unable to attend, TMZ reported.

"My baby looks beautiful and she looks very happy. I wish I were there," he told the US celebrity news website.

The royal couple rode in a horse-drawn carriage through Windsor after the 

wedding (AFP Photo/Jeff J Mitchell)

Smiles at the altar

Harry hand-picked flowers for Markle's bouquet from their home at Kensington Palace.

Her five-metre veil also contained floral designs from her native California and all 53 Commonwealth countries.

The groom and his brother Prince William -- his best man -- wore the blue doeskin frockcoat uniform of a major in the Blues and Royals, the regiment Harry served with in Afghanistan during his 10 years in the British army.

"You look amazing," Harry told his bride as she arrived.

The couple grinned during Curry's dramatic address about the power of love, in which he quoted civil rights icon Martin Luther King.

"I'm talking about some power. Real power. Power to change the world," the African-American preacher intoned.

The bride and groom held hands and giggled at the altar (AFP Photo/

Owen Humphreys)

There were no political leaders among the 600 guests but many celebrities, including Idris Elba, James Blunt, Tom Hardy and James Corden.

Some of Markle's former co-stars in US hit television series "Suits" attended, as did Harry's ex-girlfriends Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas.

The newlyweds kissed on the chapel's West Steps after the wedding, before going on a carriage procession ride through Windsor where flag-waving well-wishers cheered them on in a carnival atmosphere.

"It's been a historic, epic day," said Leslie Owusu, from nearby High Wycombe.

"It's a union of different cultures, you've got America and England and a fusion of two people that love people and life."

Kiss and carriage ride

Hundreds of street parties and public screenings were held around Britain where the wedding is a welcome respite for a country still burdened by austerity and divided over Brexit.

Well-wishers cheered as they watched the wedding on a giant screen (AFP 

Photo/Tolga AKMEN)

Revellers also packed into bars to watch as far afield as Sydney, Hong Kong and Markle's native Los Angeles, for what is likely to be the last big British royal wedding for a generation.

In Windsor, thousands of fans bagged their spots by dawn, bearing rugs and picnics, Union Jack flags and patriotic paraphernalia, and the bubbly was flowing freely.

"It made me really emotional when I saw them coming past," said Helen Oliver, 50.

Canapes and Meghan's speech

The queen hosted a lunchtime reception at the castle, where Elton John performed to guests eating canapes including Scottish langoustines, English asparagus and Windsor lamb.

The royal couple cut the lemon and elderflower cake, while Charles and Harry made speeches introduced by William.

Profiles of Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with photos and 

details of wedding (AFP Photo/Cecilia SANCHEZ)

Harry later drive his bride to the evening reception for 200 friends and family in an open-top E-Type Jaguar with the number plate E190518 -- the wedding date.

In another break with convention, Meghan was due to speak at the Frogmore House bash.

"She's got her own voice, a personality, and I think all that made a huge impression on everybody," said Shrabani Basu, a Commonwealth historian.

The couple met on a blind date in July 2016 and had a whirlwind romance, criss-crossing the Atlantic as she continued filming "Suits" in Toronto.

Harry was scarred by his mother Diana's death in a Paris car crash in 1997 when he was just 12, and he had to mourn in the full glare of the world's media.

His wedding featured a hymn used at Diana's funeral, at which he and William had walked behind her casket.

Sixth in line to the throne, Harry is one of the most popular royals, while Markle, a divorcee, is seen as a breath of fresh air for the monarchy.

Bishop Michael Bruce Curry gave an impassioned address during the

wedding ceremony (AFP Photo/Owen Humphreys)

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave Windsor Castle for an evening reception at Frogmore House pic.twitter.com/q2MeMD1Y7C

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 19, 2018

Hundreds of children put to work as beggars; four gangs work in NL

DutchNews, June 22, 2016

Police outside the house in
Barcelona. Photo: OM

Dutch police have identified four criminal gangs who are putting Roma children on the streets to beg and steal in the Netherlands, the public prosecution department said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The Dutch probe is part of an international investigation into the exploitation of some 300 children by criminal gangs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Spain, the department said. 

The children, ranging in age from eight to 16 – come from Bosnia, Croatia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia, the NRC reports. According to police spokesman Arthur de Rijk, they have been lured away from poor families and taught to steal in groups. They are expected to ‘earn’ up to €1,000 a day, he told the paper. 

Raids

Some of the children were found in Spain last week and brought back to the Netherlands where they are now in the hands of social services. 

They were found in police raids in Barcelona, where six children, ranging in age from under one to 15, were found living in a filthy home with a 49-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman, said to be from eastern Europe. Four of the children were already on a Dutch watch list.

‘They had been put under the supervision of Dutch social services earlier and so we are responsible for them,’ a prosecution department spokeswoman said. Eight other Roma children who are known to the Dutch authorities are still missing. 

Amsterdam 

The children, put to work in groups, were stealing up to €1,000 a day, police said. The money was passed on to criminal families who spent it on fast cars, luxury homes and gambling, according to Dutch media reports. 

The investigation began a year ago after police noticed they had been repeatedly arresting the same children pick-pocketing at Amsterdam’s central station.

‘We started to look into where the children lived,’ Arthur de Rijk said. ‘Their parents never came to pick them up. It was always other family members but they never had ID. Something was not right.’ 

DNA

In one case, dna tests showed the woman who came to fetch two children was not their mother, as she claimed to be. Various children were placed in care but encouraged to run away by their ‘families’. 

The two adults arrested in Barcelona will be extradited to the Netherlands to face charges. Five of the children have been placed in a secure unit to stop them running away. A sixth remains in Spain where she has to serve a youth detention sentence.

Colonia Dignidad: No 'glorious chapter' for German diplomacy

Torture, slavery, child abuse: Germany's foreign minister met with victims of a German sect run in Chile for decades. At the same time, the government in Berlin is declassifying the Colonia Dignidad files.

Deutsche Welle, 27 April 2016

Human rights groups welcome as a "positive step" plans by the German government to make public files on the notorious Colonia Dignidad colony in Chile.

Files that would have remained sealed for another decade will be made available to journalists and researchers in the coming weeks, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. The documents detail how informed German diplomats were about what was going on in the colony from 1986 to 1996. The foreign ministry isn't responsible for what Paul Schäfer and his cronies did, but the German embassy denied the colony's residents the protection they would have needed. "I salute the victims of Colonia Dignidad," Steinmeier told a group of victims Tuesday in Berlin.

Wolfgang Kneese managed to flee
when he was 20

Steinmeier conceded that German diplomats for decades turned a blind eye to the human tragedy playing out before them, adding that embassy staff in Chile should have been able to see what was going on at the Colonia Dignidad commune. From the 60s to the 80s, German diplomats looked the other way, and "did too little to protect their citizens in this commune," he said.

Respect for the victims

The foreign ministry in Berlin has pledged that it will find out what role German diplomats played. "Transparency is imperative," Steinmeier told the victims, who had traveled from Chile to Berlin to hear just those words.

Colonia Dignidad was founded in 1961 by Paul Schäfer, a German lay preacher, former soldier and convicted pedophile who fled the country to Chile after World War II.

Today, victims estimate that over the course of 30 years, more than 30,000 boys were raped at the remote commune hidden behind security fences. Schäfer brutally suppressed and controlled his followers, including brainwashing, draconic punishments and enforcing a vow of secrecy. Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet used the German commune, which was situated about 350 kilometers south of the capital Santiago, as a torture camp, and hid weapons and poison gas on the premises.

A scene from the film Colonia

One of the few who managed to extricate himself from the sect's grip doesn't like to be reminded of the role the German embassy played. "When I left the colony, I was wary of the foreign ministry," Wolfgang Kneese said, adding that Paul Schäfer's system involved people who profited from Colonia Dignidad, who went along with the sect's well-oiled apparatus of repression, and who looked the other way.

Emotionally crippled

A feature film about Colonia Dignidad actually got the ball rolling.

"Colonia" by Florian Gallenberger aired in Germany last year after the director had put in five years of research. The film reminded the foreign ministry of this dark chapter of German diplomacy, Steinmeier said, adding that it goes to show how culture can "act as a trigger for politics."

The commune is the only home Anna
 Schnellenberger ever knew

Anna Schnellenkamp still lives on the premises of the former colony. She was surprised at how well the film depicts Schäfer's harsh rule. "But in truth, it was much worse," she admitted.

Fleeing sex abuse charges by Chilean authorities, Schäfer disappeared in 1997. Almost eight years later, he was found hiding in Argentina, sent back to Chile and sentenced to 33 years in jail for sexual abuse of children. He died in 2010 in a Chilean prison. Meanwhile, life at the colony continued as before.

Today, the commune with its roughly 130 residents calls itself Villa Baviera and tries to attract tourists with Bavarian music and Oktoberfest events.

Many of the original followers stayed on, in part because "no one had documents, no one had money," Schellenkamp said, adding another reason: two out of three are older than 65 years of age. Many of Schäfer's victims feel like emotional cripples, Wolfgang Kneese says. Some hope the German government will grant them psychological support, others demand compensation.

It's time "the burden is taken from our shoulders," Schnellenkamp said.

Traumatized victims, open questions

Many victims find hard to bear the thought that perpetrators have gotten away. Hartmut Hopp, a former colony deputy, fled to Germany in 2011 to avoid imprisonment in Chile, where he was sentenced to five years in jail for child sex abuse in 2005. It's surprising that people, like Hopp, "continue to live freely in Germany," Wolfgang Kneese said. Hopp lives in the western German town of Krefeld, and it remains unclear whether Germany will enforce the Chilean verdict, start new proceedings, or simply put the matter aside. The latter is almost unbearable to many victims.

It's also not clear what will happen to the sect's isolated premises in Chile. Turn it into a memorial, urges film director Florian Gallenberger, who visited the area many times. They have some tourism, but that's all, the director argues. Perhaps an upcoming visit by German President Joachim Gauck to Chile will help resolve matters.

Related Article:

Switzerland to compensate victims of centuries-old child labor practice