"ANTI-TERRORIST" POLICE OPERATION ENDS IN SCANDAL
A large scale operation of German security forces aiming at the arrest of two alleged members of the "Red Army Faction (RAF) is causing disarray and scandal in Germany. As we are writing this, both the German Interior Minister, Rudolf Seiters, and the Federal Prosecutor General, Alexander von Stahl, have resigned and the dissolution of the famed GSG-9, a special anti-terrorist unit comparable to the British SAS is discussed.
"High noon" in Bad Kleinen
Not even two weeks after the dramatic shoot-out that lead to the death of an alleged terrorist and a policeman, were the responsible authorities able or willing to present a tenable account of what really happened on Sunday, June 30 in the little East German town of Bad Kleinen. An uninterrupted flow of contradictory official statements and media revelations is constantly adding to the general disarray and the German weekly "Der Spiegel" is already predicting a "state crisis".
So far, only the following facts appear to be established: On June 30, two alleged members of the "RAF", Wolfgang Grams and Birgit Hogefeld, met in a restaurant near the train station of Klein-Baden in the east German region of Mecklenburg.
According to some sources, a third man called "Klaus", - possibly an under-cover agent took part in the meeting as well. When Grams and Hogefeld left the restaurant, they ran strait into a police trap. More than 50 police officers belonging to the GSG-9, the BKA (Federal Office of Criminal Investigation) and another special unit, the "Grenzschutz-Sicherungsgruppe Bonn", had encircled the site. A wild shoot-out errupted, leaving two men dead. A young policeman, member of the GSG-9, and Wolfgang Grams. Birgit Hogefeld was arrested. Interior Minister Seiters immediately presented the operation as a big success of police after years of vain efforts to track down the alleged hard core of the "RAF", a phantom like group accused of a series of spectacular terrorist attacks between 1984 and 1990. Yet, only days later, the magazine "Der Spiegel" published a shocking version of the event in Bad Kleinen, based mainly on the statutory declaration of an unnamed policeman who had participated in the operation. According to this witness, Wolfgang Grams, already lying motionless on the ground, had been executed at point-blank range and in cold blood by a colleague policeman. This account was confirmed by another, civilian witness. The authorities reacted in panic. Secrecy was imposed on all staff involved in the operation, ever more pressing questions of the media remained unanswered, different authorities involved produced totally contradictory accounts of the incident, causing total disarray and a strong impression among public opinion, that the authorities concerned and the government are desperately trying to conceal the truth. Indeed, one week after the shoot-out no formal records of the police officers involved in the operation had been taken down - a fact that seems to indicate deliberate obstruction of any later enquiry.
And the most obvious and essential questions continue to remain unanswered: Was Grams armed or not? Was he really executed by a policeman in a situation of defencelessness? Or did he commit suicide? Was the GSG-9 member killed by bullets from Grams' gun or by accident, by police gun fire? What types of guns and bullets were used by whom? Who was the mysterious "third man"? Was he an under-cover agent? What happened with him? Who was in charge of the operation on the site?
Every day passing without convincing answers further and irreparably undermines the credibility of Germany's powerful internal security apparatus, already seriously questioned as a result of its troubling lack of initiative in combatting neo-nazi violence.
N.B.
Sources: Der Spiegel, No.27, 5.7.93; Die Tageszeitung, 3.7.93; Berliner Zeitung, 7.7.93; other German press articles.