Kajaani Finland's most racist city, statistics reveal

Kajaani has largest number of racially motivated crimes in proportion to number of foreigners

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Saturday evening's attack against a Kajaani pizzeria run by immigrants was not an isolated incident. Of all the cities in Finland, Kajaani has the largest number of racially motivated crimes in proportion to the number of foreign residents. The cities of Joensuu and Oulu are the runners-up in this questionable contest.
      Statistics compiled by the Police College of Finland reveal that the northern Province of Oulu - home of both Oulu and Kajaani - is the country's darkest territory for hate crimes.
      In the Province of Oulu, the number of racist crimes per 1,000 foreigners is 6.4, while the corresponding figures for the provinces of Eastern Finland, Southern Finland, Western Finland, and Lapland are 4.3, 2, 2, and less than 1 respectively. The figures refer to data from 2003.
     
Only a piece of timber sheeting concealing a broken window of the pizza and kebab restaurant Istanbul in a quiet Kajaani shopping centre between the districts of Kättö and Kuurna bears witness to the incident that took place here during the weekend.
      "Fifteen men stormed in simultaneously from the front and the back doors. Armed with billiard cues, they came from the adjacent bar. They did not say anything, just started hitting us in the head and breaking the place up", the owner Al-Masri Mohamed, 31, describes the events.
      Mohamed now has five stitches in his head and three in his hand. Two of his employees, and the two foreign customers who happened to be there at the time, received worse injuries.
     
The broken furniture has now been replaced, and the employees have taken their families to safety in Oulu, Denmark, and Sweden.
      "The police is unable to protect immigrants in Kajaani. My pregnant wife and I have been threatened with baseball bats. Once a hamster had been strung up by the neck outside my door. Later a man came up to me and told me that the same fate awaits me, too", Mohamed recalls.
      Furthermore, the pizzeria has received disturbing phone calls, and its door and windows have been busted in several times. While living in the cities of Oulu and Kemi, Mohamed - who originates from Jordan and is also an Israeli citizen - never encountered such problems. Mohamed has lived in Finland for nearly 13 years.
      "This is worse than Israel. I never imagined anything like this when I applied for asylum here."
     
In the adjacent Pub Jibbijee some regular customers sit surrounded by heavy cigarette smoke. One of the six billiard cues has gone missing. A few of the customers admit that they were present on Saturday evening, but no one knows anything about the attack.
      "People took off while I was in the men's room", a man in his twenties describes.
      Some of the pub's customers argue that a one-sided view of the events has been portrayed. "Everyone is being blamed for something that was done by only a few people. Most of us have nothing to do with it", complains Ilkka Ruskonmäki.
      Most of the shopping centre's customers are shocked at what has happened and feel sorry for the victims.
     
The police is already aware of the identity of some of Saturday's culprits. They are mainly 20 to 25-year-old Kajaani residents.
      "Saturday's attack was surprisingly fierce and we take this very seriously", Det. Chief Insp. Ari Kylmäniemi says.
      In recent years, pizza and kebab restaurants run by immigrants have been targeted with vandalism and disturbing phone calls, while the workers have been shouted at. Some entrepreneurs have even left Kajaani because of this.
      In Kylmäniemi's view it is possible that the situation in Kajaani will develop into what it was like in the eastern city of Joensuu a few years ago.
      "We do not have actual skinhead gangs, but there are a number of marginalised, unsociable young men, who idly hang around and who are often drunk. These are issues that cannot be solved by the police alone. "
      The municipal social and youth services will consider measures to tackle the problem once more data has been gathered.
     
In 2003, the police recorded 522 racist crimes in Finland, most of which took place in the south of the country, where the bulk of the immigrant population live. The most common racist crime was assault.
      The victims, typically black or Arab men and Somalis, were most commonly 15 to 44 years old, while the perpetrators were between the ages of 15 and 24.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hooligans storm pizzeria run by immigrants in Kajaani (2.8.2005)

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