Fighting the fallout from Cologne's New Year's Eve sexual assaults

They had posters, flags, a stage and speeches. But at a gathering of asylum seekers incentral Cologne one January afternoon, along with the leaflets, young men were alsohanding out roses.

It must have taken some courage. For one,it was an exceptionally cold Saturdayafternoon. And all asylum seekers had been feeling the brunt of a firestorm over NewYear's Eve sexual assaults and thefts committed by a group of them.

Some had beenheckled, even attacked, in public.

But this was a matter of reputation. And the (mostly) young men were not leaving that tobe shaped by an unrepresentative group of criminal thugs.

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So they walked up to German women they didn't know and handed out the roses, alongwith the leaflets that sought to put distance between them and the perpetrators.

"Those guys are going to cause problems for us," Basel Ishak, a Syrian who arrived in thefall, said as his teeth chattered against the wind.

"We want to show the German people that from refugees, there is a good side and a badside so we're trying to show them you have to separate between us."

The unfortunate events of New Year's Eve here have confirmed some German people'sworst fears about the refugee crisis, and that has had far-reaching consequences foreveryone involved.

Much of that fallout has been about reputation.

Residents of the city of Cologne including journalists, politicians, and ordinarypeople are overtly uneasy about the national and international attention, and what thatmust be unfairly doing to their image.

As Cologne's coveted carnival festivities got under way last week, city officials,including a new police chief, were at pains to show they were handling things differently.

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On the assaults on New Year's Eve, deputy mayor Guido Kahlen was both stoic anddefensive.

"It happens, sorry, also in other countries, also in other cities from Germany," he said inan interview.

"But the point of view is now Cologne, so we have to show that we have learned ourlessons. And that we will do everything [so] that it never comes again."

Criticismnot letting up

But the critics, in Germany as well as across Europe, seem to have been emboldened.

From protests, to political movements even to hooded thugs beating foreign lookingpeople in Stockholm those critics are making their voices heard.

And as yet more refugees continue to arrive on European soil including 91,000 inGermany in January alone that will have an impact on cities, on policing, on Europe'schequered refugee policy, and the actions of national governments.

On the eve of an election year in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is the main target.

With her open-door refugee policy under attack, and her popularity at a 4.5-year-low, shetoo is battling to keep control of her image.

Last week, she was lauded by the UN migration chief as "a hero."

Merkelexpectedpolitical heat

"She knew it was a moral issue. She knew she was going to take political attack withher popularity affected negatively as a result," said Peter Sutherland.

At home, she has been forced by the backlash to impose restrictions, to curtail Germany'sreputation as easily accessible to people seeking asylum.

Last week, her cabinet agreed to banning family reunifications for two years, anddeclaring North African countries safe, making their residents ineligible to claim asylumand making it easier to deport them.

The latter seemed a direct response to the Cologne assaults. The prosecutor here says themajority of the suspects are of North African origin.

Most Germans are still in favour of helping refugees fleeing war. But rightly or wrongly,Cologne is a turning point.

Possibly for women too.

Police more interested in hearing complaints

On Friday, city officials gave a sober assessment of carnival's first alcohol-fuelled night.Inevitably, like others before, it wasn't without incident. There were 22 sexual assaultcomplaints, and one reported rape.

Officials said on average, they receive 50 sexual assault complaints over the span of fourdays of carnival celebration.

The seemingly higher numbers could signal one upside to all that's happened that morewomen are now coming forward with complaints of sexual assault.

"We have had assaults like that before New Year's Eve, and no one was everinterested then," says Irmgard Kopetzky, a Cologne rape crisis counsellor.

She says such assaults are usually brushed away, by police, and by society as a whole. Byreporting such incidents to police, women send the message that it does matter, and thatsuch complaints should be taken seriously, she says.

"It's not in Cologne it's the situation of women and girls everywhere in Germany,everywhere around the world," she says.

"Maybe it changes now."