Rights activists say Danes unaware of racism in their nation

July 02, 2020

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Rights activists on Thursday accused Danish officials of being unable to recognize racism after authorities said the killing of a biracial man by two white men was not racially motivated.

“In Denmark, white people are colorblind. They cannot see that racism exists. That is embarrassing,”said Jette Moeller, head of the Danish chapter of SOS-Racism, an international association. “Of course, racism exists (in Denmark). We know that. It has been documented for years,” said Mira Chandhok Skadegaard, an assistant professor at Aalborg University in northern Denmark.

A biracial man was killed last month on a Danish Baltic Sea island. The Danish police, prosecutor, a defense lawyer and a white friend of the victim all say a personal relationship that went wrong between the victim and the perpetrators was the reason for the slaying, not racism.

The 28-year-old victim, who had Danish and African roots, was found on the island of Bornholm on June 23. Two white brothers in their 20s whom the victim reportedly knew have been detained until July 22 on suspicion of murder. None have been named by authorities.

Speculation that the killing could be racially motivated began after it emerged that the victim's death bore some similarities to that of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes even as Floyd pleaded for air. Floyd’s death has sparked protests around the world demanding racial justice and condemning police brutality.

The Danish chapter of Black Lives Matter wrote on Facebook that “two brothers committed a racial murder on Bornholm” and posted a photo of a swastika tattoo, claiming it was on one suspect’s leg. “Let a judge decide” whether the slaying was racially motivated, Moeller told The Associated Press in an interview. “But it should be investigated as a racially motivated crime. Knowing those who killed him doesn’t rule out it could include some racial elements.”

Activists like Moeller see a pattern of denial in Denmark, which they attribute to rising anti-immigrant attitudes in the Nordic country. She also points out that Denmark's freedom of expression should not be used to denigrate people, and the miss-use of that right has previously brought the Scandinavian country of 10 million into the crosshairs of Muslims around the world.

“Racism is about the effect it has on other people ... One cannot use the liberty of expression as an excuse to taunt others, like Rasmus Paludan does by burning copies of the Quran,” she said. For months, Paludan, a far-right provocateur, has been touring the country and tossing copies of the Islamic holy book in the air before burning them before immigrants. This has sometimes led to brief confrontations between onlookers and police who have been protecting Paludan.

Last month, Paludan was convicted of racism, among other things, with a court ruling that “his statements were derogatory and degrading toward a population group.” He was given a three-month prison sentence, of which two were suspended, and his licence to practice law was suspended in part for three years. He has appealed the sentence.

In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad. This caused wide outrage among Muslims, who generally hold that any depiction of Muhammad is blasphemous and prompted often violent protests in Muslim countries. The newspaper — one of Denmark’s largest — said it had wanted to test whether cartoonists would apply self-censorship when asked to portray Muhammad. No Danish laws were violated with the cartoons’ publication.

It was the same daily that in January published a cartoon with the Chinese flag with what resembles viruses instead of the normal stars, sparking China's anger. In both cases, the Danish right to freedom of speech was invoked.

In 2017, a 16-year-old Afghan boy was set on fire by four schoolmates but race was ruled out as factor. The four teenagers were found guilty of gross violence and the Afghan boy survived with burns on his legs and chest.

A 2018 report by the European Union pointed out that hate crimes in Denmark had quadrupled over 11 years, from 35 reported cases in 2007 to 140 cases in 2016. In Europe, “Denmark belongs to the tough group,” Moeller told the AP. “I believe that we’re on the right track as we start to discuss it, address it.”

She noted that a racial justice demonstration in Copenhagen on June 7 drew at least 15,000 people. Chandhok Skadegaard, who has been studying discrimination for decades, said Danes “are far behind when it comes to recognizing racism in our society. Sweden is several steps ahead of Denmark ... as is Norway, and Finland and England.”

“People tend to not report discrimination, because they find it is not acknowledged or taken seriously by the authorities,” she said. In 2016, Denmark made international headlines when a law was passed requiring asylum-seekers to hand over valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner ($1,500), to help cover housing and food costs while their cases were being processed. Although the center-right government behind the move said it was in line with rules for unemployed Danes seeking benefits, critics denounced the law as inhumane.

Still, the law has not been changed under Denmark's present Social Democratic government.

Museum or mosque? Turkey debates iconic Hagia Sofia's status

July 01, 2020

ISTANBUL (AP) — In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and a museum under modern Turkey, attracting millions of tourists each year.

The 6th-century building is now at the center of a heated debate between nationalist, conservative and religious groups who are pressing for it to be reconverted back into a mosque and those who believe the UNESCO World Heritage site should remain a museum, underscoring Istanbul’s status as a bridge between continents and cultures.

On Thursday, Turkey’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, begins reviewing a request by a group devoted to reverting Hagia Sophia into a mosque. They are pressing to annul a 1934 decision by the Council of Ministers, led by secular Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, that turned the historic structure into a museum. A decision could come later Thursday or within two weeks, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads an Islamic-oriented party, has previously spoken about possibly changing Hagia Sophia’s status to a mosque but has said his government would await the Council of State’s decision.

Analysts believe that Erdogan — a populist, polarizing leader who in nearly two decades in office has frequently blamed Turkey’s secular elites for the country’s problems — is using the Hagia Sophia debate to consolidate his conservative base and to distract attention from Turkey's substantial economic woes.

“This is not just a debate about a building,” said Soner Cagaptay, Turkey analyst for the Washington Institute. “Ataturk established Hagia Sophia as a museum to underline his vision of secularizing Turkey. And nearly 100 years later, Erdogan is trying to do the opposite.”

”(Erdogan) feels the pressure of popular support dwindling and therefore he wants to use issues that he hopes will remobilize his right-wing base around nativist, populist, anti-elitist topics,” said Cagaptay, author of the book “Erdogan’s Empire.”

Built under Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia was the main seat of the Eastern Orthodox church for centuries, where emperors were crowned amidst ornate marble and mosaic decorations. Four minarets were added to the terracotta-hued structure with cascading domes and the building was turned into an imperial mosque following the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople — the city that is now Istanbul.

The building opened its doors as a museum in 1935, a year after the Council of Ministers’ decision. Islamist groups, however, regard the symbolic structure as a legacy of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror and strongly object to its status as a museum. Large crowds have gathered outside Hagia Sophia on the May 31 anniversary of the city’s conquest to pray and demand that it be restored as a place of Muslim worship.

In the past few years, Turkey has been allowing readings from the Quran inside Hagia Sophia and Erdogan himself has recited prayers there. This year, he oversaw by video conference the recital of the “prayer of conquest” on the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest.

On Tuesday, Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, considered the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, noted that Hagia Sophia had served as a place of worship for Christians for 900 years and for Muslims for 500 years.

“As a museum, Hagia Sophia can function as a place and symbol of encounter, dialogue and peaceful coexistence of peoples and cultures, mutual understand and solidarity between Christianity and Islam,” he said.

Bartholomew added: “the potential conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque will turn millions of Christians across the world against Islam.” Greece also strongly objects to attempts to change Hagia Sophia into a mosque, arguing that its designation as a historic monument must be maintained.

“I hope that President Erdogan does not proceed with something that will deeply hurt Turkey,” Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said. “This monument has endured many things and it will always return, but Turkey’s image will take a severe blow.”

Turkish media reports say the government was considering the possibility of keeping Hagia Sophia open to tourists even if it were turned into a mosque. That status would be similar to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, which sits right across from Hagia Sophia and functions both as a house of worship and a tourist spot.

Hurriyet and other media have reported that Hagia Sophia could be reconverted into a mosque by a public holiday on July 15, when the country marks the fourth anniversary of the foiling of an attempted coup.

Cagaptay, the analyst said, the Hagia Sophia issue would likely have a “temporary impact in keeping Erdogan’s base with him.” “(But) if he does not deliver economic growth, I can’t see him winning elections as he did in the past,” Cagaptay said.

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.

Women taken from African mothers by Belgium now want redress

July 01, 2020

NEDER-OVER-HEEMBEEK, Belgium (AP) — Monique Bitu Bingi was only 4 years old when she was taken from her family in Belgian Congo and locked up in a religious mission run by Catholic nuns. Her friend Lea Tavares Mujinga was even younger the day her mother was forced to give her up: just a 2-year-old toddler.

Born from a white settler father and a Black mother — and despised because of their biracial heritage — both girls were seized from their mothers and separated from their African roots by Belgian authorities that ruled over the area from 1908-1960.

During colonial times, they, like thousands of other biracial children known as “métis,” were taken away and raised in Belgian institutions as the colonial power promoted a strict separation of white and Black people and systematically tried to prevent interracial unions.

At the St. Vincent de Paul sisters' mission, they went through years of deprivation and abuse that have left indelible scars. “We have been destroyed, both morally and psychologically,” Bitu Bingi told The Associated Press on Monday, the eve of the 60th anniversary of Congo’s independence on June 30, 1960. “We have lost our identities. Excuses are not enough.”

Now in their 70s, Bitu Bingi and Tavares Mujinga want reparations. Along with three other biracial women born between 1945 and 1950 in the African country, they have filed a lawsuit in Brussels targeting the Belgian state for crimes against humanity.

Their complaint comes amid growing demands that Belgium reassess its colonial past. In the wake of protests against racial inequality in the United States, several statues of King Leopold II, who is blamed for the deaths of millions of Africans during Belgium’s colonial rule, have been vandalized and a petition has demanded that Belgium remove all of his statues.

Last year, the Belgian government apologized for the state’s role in taking thousands of babies from their African mothers. And for the first time in the country’s history, a reigning king expressed regret Tuesday for the violence carried out by the former colonial power. In a letter to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, Belgium’s King Philippe conveyed his “deepest regrets” for the “acts of violence and cruelty” and “suffering and humiliation” inflicted on Belgian Congo.

Bitu Bingi, Tavares Mujinga and the three other women now live in Belgium and France after emigrating from Congo and have requested compensation of 50,000 euros ($55,000) each but are are also seeking broad reparations for all children seized from their mothers and placed in institutions during the colonial era.

“There were official documents from the administration, it’s a state crime that was organized by the Belgian colonial administration,” said Christophe Marchand, a lawyer representing the women. Tavares Mujinga said she was taken away from her family while her father, a Portuguese man who worked in the cotton industry, had left the country for a holiday. Bitu Bingi's father worked for the Belgian administration.

According to legal documents, in all five cases the fathers did not exercise parental authority and the Belgian administration threatened the children’s Congolese families with reprisals if they refused to let them go.

Time has passed since the five women were forced to cut ties with their relatives, but the trauma they went through has never been fully addressed, and their pain remains immense. None of them have ever received psychological assistance.

“When we talk about it, we cry," Noelle Verbeeken, one of the five plaintiffs, told the AP on the outskirts of Brussels. “We have no identity. We don't know where we come from. ... We are nothing. Just the ‘children of sin,'" Verbeeken said, quoting the expression used to describe the children when they arrived at the religious mission in the Congolese town of Katende. There, Tavares Mujinga was reunited with her older brother, who had been seized a few years earlier.

The women lived in the mission with 20 other biracial children and Black orphans in very harsh conditions. Bitu Bingi recalls that food was scarce, and rare were the days when she could properly wash.

“We did not know how chicken tasted. And one of the doors of our dormitory was overlooking the morgue," she said. The girls did receive an education. Tavares Mujinga, who went on to marry a Belgian airplane pilot, became a primary teacher while Verbeeken studied Greek humanities and became a nurse.

“They wanted to make nuns out of us. We had other plans," Bitu Bingi said. The women's traumatic journey took a turn for the worse several months after independence, when they and the other children were abandoned by both the Belgian authorities and the Catholic Church. The nuns and other mission personnel were evacuated amid political upheaval and the children were left on their own.

“There was no room for us,” Bitu Bingi said, recalling mutilated bodies around the mission during the post-independence unrest. She doesn't dwell on the sexual abuse and rape by Congolese militia fighters after the nuns left that is described in the lawsuit, which says the militiamen sent to the abandoned mission to look after the young girls molested them instead. Bitu Bingi was only 11.

To this day, she says she can’t help but think of the militia trucks whenever she hears the sound of a truck engine. She found solace during a trip to South America decades later after finding out that her father had emigrated to Argentina to start a new life. She traveled there and finally met that branch of her family, a trip she said eased her suffering.

“My father was already dead, but I received a warm welcome," she said. Bitu Bingi and the women she calls “sisters” now hope their lawsuit will lead Belgium to finally recognize its responsibility in their suffering and in the pain of the thousands of other children who were snatched away.

“What we expect, and what they expect, is a reparation law, a strong decision,” said Jehosheba Bennett, another lawyer for the women. “Telling the stories of what happened during the colonization is really important, because now there is not much awareness about this.”

Germany takes EU hot seat with big challenges, expectations

June 30, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Germany, the European Union’s biggest economic power, is taking over the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc amid massive challenges and huge expectations as the continent grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Berlin's six months in the EU hot seat will likely be Chancellor Angela Merkel’s last big turn on the international stage.

Germany's time at the EU helm, which starts Wednesday, is bookended by landmark moments for the bloc. At the beginning, the bloc will seek agreement on a huge package to pull its stricken economy out of the coronavirus crisis, and on its future budget. At the end, former member Britain’s definitive departure from the EU’s single market is expected -- with or without an agreement. In between, the EU must grapple with how to handle an increasingly assertive China and prepare for whatever happens in the U.S. presidential election in November.

Berlin, which will chair meetings of the 27 EU countries' ministers, will have to help prevent new rifts emerging as the damage from the pandemic becomes clearer and worries linger about a possible second wave of infections. Europe as a whole has seen over 190,000 confirmed virus-related deaths in the pandemic — nearly 40% of the world’s officially reported deaths — and is emerging from lockdowns in many countries that weighed severely on their economies.

Germany's motto for its presidency is “together for Europe’s recovery.” Merkel told the German parliament recently that “we must not allow the pandemic to lead to the economic prospects of the EU member states drifting apart."

“The anti-democratic forces, the radical, authoritarian movements, are just waiting for economic crises to misuse them politically,” she added. “They are just waiting to stoke social fears and spread insecurity. Working for sustainable development in all regions of Europe is also a political instrument against populists and radicals.”

Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in May proposed creating a one-time 500 billion-euro ($561 billion) recovery fund that would be filled through shared EU borrowing. That is a big step for Germany, breaking with its long-standing opposition to any kind of joint borrowing.

The EU's executive Commission expanded on the proposal, putting forward plans for a 750 billion-euro fund made up mostly of grants. It faces resistance from countries dubbed the “Frugal Four” — Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden — that oppose grants and are reluctant to give money away without strings attached.

It will be up to Germany to help find a quick agreement, ideally when EU leaders meet July 17-18 for their first in-person summit in months, on both the recovery fund and the EU's budget for seven years starting Jan. 1.

“Our task will be to work as an honest broker for compromises and solutions among the member states,” Merkel said in a weekend video message. “That isn't always easy,” she added with characteristic understatement.

Germany's turn follows a rough ride for Croatia, the EU's newest member, which held the presidency as countries responded to the explosion of COVID-19 infections in March with uncoordinated border closures and other restrictions.

Merkel, 65, who plans to step down when her fourth term ends next year, certainly has the necessary experience of banging heads together. She already led Germany through an EU presidency once, in 2007.

Since then, she has steered her country and influenced EU policymaking through the global financial crisis, the eurozone debt crisis, the 2015 migrant crisis and now the coronavirus crisis. Germany's medical and economic response to the pandemic has won plaudits, boosting Merkel's popularity and giving a sense of unity to a coalition government that previously was known for its infighting.

“We are lucky that the Germans are taking over in these difficult times,” said senior European Parliament lawmaker Philippe Lamberts, a Green party member from Belgium. "Hopefully, they will exert maximum pressure to get an agreement.”

“Germany’s presidency will be defined by the success or the failure of the recovery plan," he said. Still, Berlin and the EU have other matters on their plate. Relations with China are a key issue at a time of rising concern over trade tensions, human rights and the fate of Hong Kong. An EU-China summit that was to be held in Leipzig in September was postponed because of the pandemic, but there are hopes it could still happen this year.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called Monday for the summit to be rescheduled “as soon as possible” and said it's “indispensable for Europe to speak with a single voice to China.” He said the cornerstones of the German presidency will be “solidarity and sovereignty." He pointed to a need for Europe to analyse its “strategic dependencies," for example on medicines made in China and India and on others for information technology. And Merkel has promised to put climate protection high on the agenda.

But Germany doesn't expect to find a solution for everything in the coming six months. While Germany may have the clout to help nudge negotiations for a deal on future relations with Britain along, those talks are firmly in the domain of the European Commission and Berlin doesn’t plan to get involved in shaping the details.

“No one thinks that these problems we have at the moment can really be solved in half a year, but Germany is a very big EU country with a really very strong diplomatic service and has the strength and will ... to move forward the European agenda,” Daniela Schwarzer, the director of the German Council on Foreign Relations think-tank in Berlin, told NDR television. “And that is very, very important.”

Belgian city removes bust of Congo colonizer Leopold II

June 30, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — A bust of former Belgian King Leopold II was taken off public display in the city of Ghent on Tuesday as Belgium marked the 60th anniversary of the end of its colonial rule in Congo. The removal of the monarch’s likeness took place only hours after Belgium’s King Philippe, in an unprecedented move, expressed his “deepest regrets” for the violence the one-time colonial power inflicted on Congo and its people during the late 19th century.

Leopold, who ruled Belgium during 1865-1909, plundered Congo as if it were his personal fiefdom, forcing many of its people into slavery to extract resources for his own profit. The early years after he laid claim to the African country are especially infamous for killings, forced labor and other forms of brutality that some experts estimate left as many as 10 million native people dead.

Belgium has long struggled to come to terms with its colonial past, instead focusing on the so-called positive aspects of the colonization. But the international protests against racism that followed the May 25 death of George Floyd in the United States have given a new momentum to activists fighting to have monuments to Leopold removed.

The Leopold statue in Ghent had been vandalized several times in the past and again after Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck. Following a short ceremony punctuated by readings, the monarch’s bust was attached to a crane with a strap and taken away from the small park where it stood amid applause.

After his claimed ownership of Congo ended in 1908, Leopold handed it over to the Belgian state, which continued to rule over the colony 75 times Belgium’s size until the African nation became independent in 1960.

In a letter to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, King Philippe stopped short of issuing a formal apology but conveyed his “deepest regrets” for the “acts of violence and cruelty” and the “suffering and humiliation” inflicted on Belgian Congo.

Philippe stressed the “common achievements” reached by Belgium and its former colony, but also the painful episodes of their unequal relationship. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BRUSSELS (AP) — For the first time in Belgium's history, a reigning king expressed his regret Tuesday for the violence carried out by the former colonial power when it ruled over what is now Congo. In a letter to the Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, Belgium's King Philippe stopped short of issuing a formal apology but conveyed his “deepest regrets” for the “acts of violence and cruelty” and the "suffering and humiliation" inflicted on Belgian Congo. The letter was published on the 60th anniversary of the African country’s independence.

“To further strengthen our ties and develop an even more fruitful friendship, we must be able to talk to each other about our long common history in all truth and serenity,” Philippe wrote. Philippe's letter was sent amid growing demands that Belgium reassess its colonial past and take responsibility for the atrocities committed by former King Leopold II. In the wake of the protests against racial inequality triggered by the May 25 death of George Floyd in the United States, several statues of Leopold, who is blamed for the deaths of millions of Africans during Belgium’s colonial rule, have been vandalized. A petition has called for Belgium to remove all statues of the former king.

A bust of Leopold II is expected to be taken down from display later Tuesday in the city of Ghent following a decision from local authorities. Earlier this month, regional authorities also promised history course reforms to better explain the true character of colonialism. The federal Parliament has decided that a commission would look into Belgium’s colonial past.

Belgium Prime minister Sophie Wilmes has called for “an in-depth" debate conducted “without taboo." “In 2020, we must be able to look at this shared past with lucidity and discernment,” she said on Tuesday. “Any work of truth and memory begins with the recognition of suffering. Acknowledging the suffering of the other.”

In his letter to Tshisekedi, Philippe stressed the “common achievements" reached by Belgium and its former colony, but also the painful episodes of their unequal relationship. “At the time of the independent State of the Congo, acts of violence and cruelty were committed that still weigh on our collective memory," Philippe wrote, referring to the period when the country was privately ruled by Leopold II from 1885 to 1908.

“The colonial period that followed also caused suffering and humiliation,” Philippe acknowledged. Leopold ruled Congo as a fiefdom, forcing many of its people into slavery to extract resources for his personal profit. His early rule, starting in 1885, was famous for its brutality, which some experts say left as many as 10 million people dead.

After his ownership of Congo ended in 1908, he handed the central African country over to the Belgian state, which continued to rule over an area 75 times its size until the African nation became independent in 1960.

“I want to express my most deepest regrets for these wounds of the past, the pain of which is today revived by discrimination that is all too present in our societies," the king wrote, insisting that he is determined to keep “fighting all forms of racism."

Philippe also congratulated President Tshisekedi on the anniversary of the country's independence, ruing that he was not able to attend the celebrations to which he had been invited due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian monk denying coronavirus takes control of monastery

June 17, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — A rebellious Russian monk who has denied the coronavirus' existence and urged believers to ignore the Kremlin's lockdown orders has taken control of a monastery in the Ural Mountains. Father Sergiy showed up Tuesday at the Sredneuralsk women's monastery that he had founded years ago and took charge. Scores of volunteers, including battle-hardened veterans of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, helped enforce his rules, while the prioress and several nuns have left.

Hundreds of believers from Yekaterinburg and other cities in the Urals have flocked to the convent to hear the priest's fiery sermons. The Russian Orthodox Church has denounced Father Sergiy's move, saying he has been banned from conducting church services and urging him to repent. Police visited the monastery Wednesday and found no violations.

Last month, the monk was suspended by the church leadership following his continuous calls to disobey the closure of churches during the lockdown. Orthodox churches across Russia were closed to parishioners on April 13 because of the coronavirus outbreak and were only allowed to reopen earlier this month.

Father Sergiy has declared the coronavirus non-existent and urged believers to ignore the lockdown orders from authorities. He denounced electronic passes introduced in Moscow and some other regions as part of efforts to stem the outbreak as “Satan's electronic camp.” The monk has described the vaccines being developed against COVID-19 as part of a global plot to control the masses.

Next week, Father Sergiy will face a church panel that will decide on his future. He also has faced charges of spreading false information about the coronavirus, The monk has ignored the church's ban. In a video from his cell where icons and images of Orthodox Church hierarchs of the past adorn the wall alongside pictures of Russia's last Czar, Nicholas II, and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, he warned church officials that they will need to seize the monastery by force to get him out.

Germany: 657 virus cases at slaughterhouse in new outbreak

June 17, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Regional officials in western Germany said Wednesday that the number of new COVID-19 cases linked to a large meatpacking plant has risen to 657, a significant regional spike for a country that has recorded nationwide infections in the low hundreds lately.

Health officials in Guetersloh said they have received a total of 983 test results from workers at the Toennies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck. Of those, 326 tests were negative. Since the start of the outbreak, Germany has recorded 188,474 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 8,844 deaths. The infection rate declined sharply after authorities imposed nationwide social distancing rules in March and the daily case increase had averaged between 300-400 in June.

News of the outbreak in Guetersloh came as Chancellor Angela Merkel was meeting with Germany's 16 state governors to discuss progress in tackling the pandemic. “We are far away from an exponential increase,” Merkel told reporters after the meeting, insisting that the country would continue to try to relax restrictions while containing any local outbreaks.

“That’s why I very much welcome that, as today in the county of Guetersloh for example, when there is such an accumulation of infections then measures are immediately taken, for example the closure of schools and such-like,” she said.

“We see from these outbreaks that the virus isn't gone,” she added. Company officials at Toennies said the outbreak at the slaughterhouse may have been linked to workers taking the opportunity to visit their families in eastern European countries as border controls were relaxed.

Officials ordered the closure of the slaughterhouse, as well as isolation and tests for everyone else who had worked at the Toennies site — putting about 7,000 people under quarantine. The infections pushed the county above the threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over a week at which local authorities in Germany have to consider new restrictions. Officials decided to close schools and child care centers across the county from Thursday until the summer vacation starts near the end of the month, but chose to avoid a wider-ranging lockdown.

There have been several outbreaks at German slaughterhouses in recent weeks, prompting the government to impose stricter safety rules for the industry and ban the practice of using sub-contractors. The outbreak in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, where Toennies operates one of Germany's biggest slaughterhouses, could affect the meat supply in Germany. Sven-Georg Adenauer, head of the regional administration, said a fifth of Germany's meat products could be unavailable while the plant is shut, the dpa news agency reported.

Gereon Schulze Althoff, the Toennies official in charge of the company's pandemic response, said that the company had been “fighting like lions since February ... to keep the virus out of the operation.”

Schulze Althoff said he had no conclusive explanation for why the infections had occurred now. But he noted that many foreign workers had wanted to go and see their families as European borders started to reopen, meaning that “we were exposed to new risks.”

“We were aware of that, but we ... carried out extra testing of people returning from holidays and so on,” he added. “But we didn't succeed in keeping out these sources or this source (of infection) — we don't know which exactly.”

He said the company has a lot of workers from eastern European countries, and many went home over recent long weekends. He said cooled rooms may also have facilitated the virus spreading. Germany started loosening its coronavirus restrictions in late April and has largely kept infection rates low, though local outbreaks linked to slaughterhouses, church services and a restaurant among other places have caused some concern.

This week, the German government launched its coronavirus tracing app, designed to help people learn if they've been in close proximity to someone who later tests positive. Officials said the app was downloaded more than 6 million times in the first 24 hours.

Merkel declined to say whether she was using the new app, saying only that she was “willing” to do so.