Denmark minister's car torched

Last updated at 13:04 08 June 2005


The Danish immigration minister's private car was torched in front of her home early on Wednesday in a protest against the Nordic country's tough immigration policy, local media reported.

"We are investigating the case as arson," police inspector Carsten Krogh was quoted as saying by Danish news agency Ritzau.

Ritzau said a previously unknown action group had claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement reading: "We will not watch passively while the official Denmark exercises its rasict immigration policy. Therefore we act now!"

The group's Danish name "Graensloese Beate" translates as "Beate Without Borders" or "Boundless Beate".

Danish police were not immediately available for comment.

The fire spread from the car to the house but Minister for Refugees, Immigration and Integration Rikke Hvilshoj, 35, and her family were unhurt, a government spokesman told Reuters.

Denmark's centre-right government won a landslide victory in 2001 on pledges to cut the number of immigrants coming to the Nordic country.

Hvilshoj was appointed minister in February, when the coalition was re-elected on the back of the popular crackdown on asylum-seekers and tax cuts.

Since 2001 the number of asylum-seekers has plummeted by almost 80 percent.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and opposition leaders condemned the attack.

Ritzau said the name of the group claiming the attack, could refer to the head of the Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), Beate Winkler.

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