EUROPE: Germany Wakes Up to Terror Threat

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jess Smee

BERLIN, Aug 23 2006 (IPS) - A man who attempted to bomb a German train has been caught but his accomplice is still at large, waking Germany up to the reality that terror attacks can strike at home.

Three weeks ago, two men plotted to simultaneously bomb two trains. The plan was only averted because the homemade bombs did not work. Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said the trains would have become “balls of fire”, had the bomb-loaded suitcases exploded as planned.

This came as a big shock for Germany where people have long believed terrorist attacks were unlikely given that it has not participated in the war in Iraq and has fairly good relations with the Muslim world.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned he could not rule out an attack on the German public transport system on the scale of the bombings in Madrid and London which killed dozens of passengers. At the weekend he described the security situation as exceptionally serious.

“The threat has never been so close,” he told ZDF television. “We do not know what could still happen.” Shock at the attempted bombings has sparked a political debate on how to beef up security and avert future violence.

Many are calling for wider usage of closed circuit television after grainy CCTV pictures of the two attempted bombers led to the capture of a 21-year-old student from Lebanon and the identification of the second man.

“We will probably see extended usage of cameras in public spaces like in other countries. “It must be done in a way that strikes the delicate balance between individual freedom and general security in society,” Michael Zuern, professor at the Otto-Suhr Institute for politics in Berlin told IPS.

Security has already been stepped up at German airports and the rail authorities have announced they are installing more closed circuit TV cameras at stations. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that video surveillance is an important tool for catching criminals. But some politicians oppose broad CCTV use, arguing that individual freedoms will be impeded and the data flow will become unmanageable.

Other proposals under discussion include deploying armed guards on trains and creating an anti-terror register, to enable security and intelligence services to quickly share information.

Calls for tighter security reflect prevalent fears that Germany could be a target in the future. Fanning public concern, prosecutors said it appeared that the two men responsible for the attempted train bombing were not acting alone but were likely part of a terrorist group aiming to carry out serious acts of violence in Germany. A link to Lebanon is being investigated by the authorities and they have not ruled out a connection to Pakistan.

A note written in Arabic, a telephone number in Lebanon, and packets of starch with labels in Arabic and English were found among the homemade bombs.

It was first thought that the bomb plot was a blackmail attempt but as it emerged that it was a terror attack, Germany underwent a sea change of opinion. For the first time established notions have been challenged regarding the threat of terror attacks on home territory, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily wrote.

“There was always the vague feeling that it wouldn’t affect this country,” it wrote in an editorial. “The arrest in Kiel has finally exposed this as a naive and false belief.”

Even though Mohammed Atta, one of the Sep.. 11 hijackers, lived and studied in the northern city of Hamburg, the general public always thought that attacks were more likely in centres like New York and London.

For minority groups living in Germany the latest news stokes fears of racial tension. Following the Sep. 11 attacks in the United States, Muslims living in Germany have reported being treated with suspicion and anger. This has further complicated Germany’s attempts to boost the integration of its immigrant communities who make up some nine percent of the total population.

Kenan Kolat who heads an organisation representing Germany’s some two-million-strong Turkish population, reports a rise in tension in recent years.

“The stigmatism of Muslims has risen because of the terrorist attacks by extremists,” he told IPS. “After the recent news we haven’t had reports of people feeling targeted: right now everyone feels worried about the threat, that includes minority groups.”

Against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict, Interior Minister Schaeuble has warned that it may provoke the Muslim community in Germany and trigger a radicalisation among Arab youth. The minister said some 900 Hezbollah supporters as well 300 supporters of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were thought to be in Germany.

As with the attacks in London, the averted tragedy has raised the spectre of so-called home-grown extremism: violent acts by European residents or even citizens. This, according to the Otto-Suhr Institute’s Michael Zuern, is a problem that must not be taken lightly by any country.

“We need to be prepared for a range of threats, both from Islamic groups and also from copycat groups within Europe. This is a danger which will remain with us for the foreseeable future.”