Police Union Chief Predicts 'Renaissance of Left-Wing Terror'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,638752,00.html
07/28/2009
In recent months, Berlin has been hit by a wave of arson attacks on
cars and increasingly violent left-wing protests. This has led the
head of Germany's police union to warn of a dangerous rise in
left-wing terrorism, and to claim that the city of Berlin and its
mayor are fanning the flames.
The headlines are there almost every morning: BMW burnt, VW set
alight, a Mercedes torched. Almost nightly, somewhere in Berlin, a
vehicle is set on fire in what police say are political statements by
an increasingly militant left-wing. Around 170 cars have gone up in
flamesthis year; and earlier this month, police vehicles became the
latest targets.
Additionally, during May Day celebrations this year the traditional
scuffle between left-wing protestors and police became unusually
violent. Leftists also recently staged a demonstration at Berlin's
defunct downtown Tempelhof airport. What was intended as a peaceful
protest against gentrification turned violent and resulted in the
arrests of 102 people and the injury of 21 police officers.
The developments this week prompted Rainer Wendt, who heads the
German Police Union (DPolG), to conclude that left-wing violence is
rising dangerously. He has also criticized Berlin's politically
ambitious mayor, Klaus Wowereit, for being too sympathetic to the
leftist cause.
Is Wowereit Fanning the Flames?
"The capital's mayor is stirring things up against the police and
then using (them) his employees as cannon fodder during large
protests," Wendt told SPIEGEL ONLINE, referring to this year's May
Day demonstrations in Berlin when more than double the number of
police were injured than the previous year and local police chiefs
were blamed for not being more forceful. Not only that, Wendt said,
but parts of Wowereit's administration -- the governing coalition
pairs the center-left Social Democrats with the far-left Left Party
-- were openly sympathetic to the left-wing extremists. "That's not
really a shot in the arm for my colleagues. A lot of Berlin police
have had enough," Wendt said.
This is not the first time that Wowereit, and his administration has
been criticized in this manner. In the aftermath of the Tempelhof
protests, opposition politicians accused the mayor, and other
left-wing and Green Party politicians, of inaction against the "red
terror" that verged on tacit compliance. Conservative politicians
such as those from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats
(CDU) even said in a statement, that the left wing "feels
particularly safe and is tending increasingly towards violence" as a
result of the Berlin government.
Left Wing More Organized And Militant Than Ever
Wendt agreed. He said he had recently noticed a different approach to
the car arsons in Berlin. In the past, it felt like while some of the
arsons were politically motivated, others could have been the result
of copycats or teenage pranks. Wendt said that now, "unlike in
earlier years, these vehicles are being specifically targeted. Before
the event, there's been some intensive planning and research." For
instance, the police cars recently set on fire were locked up on
private property. Arsonists have also targeted DHL courier company
vehicles because of their connections to the German military and cars
belonging to national railway Deutsche Bahn because of their
involvement in the transport of nuclear waste. And, as the Berliner
Morgenpost reported, auto arsons went up during the recent "Action
Weeks," in June when pamphlets had been circulating telling left-wing
activists to protest against gentrification, to "disturb the
neo-liberal order" and "take back the city."
"We have also noticed this kind of thing (better organization) at
protests," Wendt continued. "First of all the culprits work out where
the police's weak spots are, then they strike them. The extreme
left-wing groups seem to be looking far more conspiratorial -- and
increasingly militant. We are extremely concerned."
So concerned, in fact, that Wendt believed that these incidents may
actually be the early signs of a "renaissance of left-wing terror,"
similar to that which Germany saw in the 1970s -- when the Red Army
Faction killed more than 30 people in a campaign of bombings,
kidnappings and assassinations that terrorized West Germany. He
warned that symbols of the state, including politicians themselves,
may soon be in danger.
"The number of cases we have cleared, with regard to these offences,
is so low because resources have not been devoted to investigating
them," Wendt explained. "We cannot get to the left-wing extremists
without a lot of undercover investigation. The country simply lacks
the capacities. Making the fight against right-wing extremism and
against Islamic terrorism a priority has torn a big hole in other
areas. We need to find a balance."
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment