From: eero@sofi.su.se Date: Fri, 09 Feb 1996 09:53:50 EST To: revs@csf.colorado.edu Subject: attack Luebeck coverup? To all, This just in from a European antiracism list. Apologies for any cross-postings. Eero Carroll ----- Begin message from MX%"DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org" 9-Feb-96 From: MX%"DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org" 9-FEB-1996 02:16 To: MX%"antiracism-eur-l@mail.comlink.apc.org" CC: Subj: Antifa Info-Bulletin / Supplement 96/01/23 Return-Path: Feb 96 02:04 MEZ; (Smail3.1.28.1) 9 Feb 96 02:09 MET Sender: owner-antiracism-eur-l@sonne.comlink.apc.org (Smail3.1.29.1 #11) id m0tkhKd-000KgUC; Fri, 9 Feb 96 02:08 MET To: antiracism-eur-l@mail.comlink.apc.org From: DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) X-ZC-ROT-vor-Gateway-Path: oln.comlink.apc.org!DEBRA Organization: HRNet - Human Rights Info Network Subject: Antifa Info-Bulletin / Supplement 96/01/23 Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 07:51:00 +0100 Reply-To: DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) X-Gateway: ZCONNECT UA SONNE.comlink.apc.org [UNIX/Connect v0.73/MB] Lines: 114 Sender: owner-antiracism-eur-l@mail.comlink.apc.org ## author : counter@francenet.fr ## date : 01.02.96 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||| A N T I F A ||| ||| I N F O - B U L L E T I N ||| ||| * News * Analysis * Research * Action * ||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 GERMANY ALERT THE FREE FLOW OF UNCENSORED FACTS EVIDENCE MOUNTS THAT GERMANY IS STAGING COVER-UP OF MURDEROUS LUEBECK ATTACK Witness denies government claims that arrested man argued with him on night before deadly firebombing LUEBECK. Germany's attempt to pin the murder of ten refugees on a 21 year old Lebanese resident is beginning to look as suspicious as the killer blaze itself. An attorney Safwan Eid, who has been arrested and charged with the 10 murders, says his client, who was injured while escaping the inferno, was asleep when the firebombing took place. Much more damning to the government's claims, however, comes in a statement from Gustaf Sossou, an African refugee who German officials say got into a fight with Eid on the night before the blaze. Sosson told reporters that he had not even argued with Eid. Speaking through his lawyer, Eid said that he, his parents and six brothers and sisters were all asleep when the fire began. Eid's mother and a sister were seriously injured while trying to escape the raging fire. The disintegrating government story has led to further speculation that Germany is staging a massive attempt to cover-up for neo-Nazis who had threatened the refugees on numerous occasions and are believed by many to have firebombed the four-storey building. Three Germans, all reportedly identified with the neo-Nazi scene, were detained after the killer blaze but later released because, according to government claims, that had an alibi. Among the ten dead in the Luebeck fire were four children. Refugees from Lebanon, Syria, Zaire, Togo and Poland were attacked as they slept. Survivors said they fear Germany is staging a cover-up to deflect international outrage at the pogrom. Skinheads shouting fascist slogans and other Germans wearing Nazi armbands had on numerous occasions threatened to murder the refugees, but the government refused requests for security guards, they said. Fire officials and a local prosecutor said Thursday that multiple fires set off the inferno. Survivors spoke of smelling an odor like kerosene - frequently used in Nazi attacks -- as they fled the raging inferno. But on Friday some government officials tried claiming the refugees may have died from an "electrical fire." Luebeck's police chief said the fire began on the first floor of the gutted apartment complex. Then, on Sunday, officials claimed the blaze started on the fourth floor, and was set by Eid. Meanwhile in Bonn, PDS parliamentarian Ulla Jelpke revealed hundreds of attacks that had previously gone unreported. From last January through November there were 406 racist, anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi attacks in Germany, government figures obtained by Jelpke disclosed. They included 33 anti-foreigner and 2 anti-Semitic firebombings, 282 anti-foreigner and 8 anti-Semitic attacks against persons, 31 anti-Semitic cemetery desecrations, and 50 anti-Semitic attacks that caused property damage. The government figures disclosed an additional 1,248 "anti-foreigner and right-wing-extremist" and 662 other anti-Semitic crimes had been commited. Jelpke revealed government statistics documenting 351 persons who had been injured in the attacks. The refugees Luebeck were fire bombed about 3:30a.m. Thursday as most of them lay sleeping in the turn of the century structure. Eyewitnesses said one of those killed in the pogrom, an African woman, died when she jumped out of an upper floor window while holding a baby in her arms. The infant was reported alive but seriously injured. On Friday, German police freed four neo-Nazis who had been held as suspects in the attack. They had been seen in the area of the refugees' home only minutes after the firebombing but claimed they had an alibi. Luebeck is the same western German port city where Nazis firebombed a synagogue during the 1994 Jewish Passover holiday. Before the new murderous attack, Germany's worst anti-foreigner attack was in Solingen, where five Turkish women and children were murdered.