Call for action after shisha bar killings
HUNDREDS of grieving people flocked to prayers in the mosques in the German town Hanau yesterday, two days after a racially motivated shooting shook the country and prompted fresh calls for a crackdown on far-right extremism.
Germany’s government now faces calls to toughen gun ownership laws and step up efforts to track far-right sympathisers after the suspect in one of its worst mass shootings since World War II was found to have published a racist manifesto.
The 43-year-old presumed killer of nine people in two shisha bars in Hanau on Wednesday has been identified as Tobias Rathjen. He left a number of rambling texts and videos espousing racist views and claiming to have been under surveillance since birth.
The suspect, who is believed to have killed himself and his mother after the shootings, belonged to a gun club, raising questions as to how a man with such ideological convictions managed to gain membership and obtain the weapons he used.
“We need new and stricter laws to regularly and thoroughly check owners of hunting and firearm licences,” Bild – Germany’s biggestselling newspaper – wrote on its front page. “We immediately need more (intelligence) positions to monitor right-wing radicals and intervene before it’s too late.”
Federal prosecutor general Peter Frank said yesterday that the suspect had a licence for two weapons, and it remained unclear whether he had contacts with other far-right sympathisers at home or abroad.
Frank added that the gunman had sent a letter to prosecutors in November complaining about an unknown intelligence agency with powers to control people’s thoughts and actions, fuelling speculation he may have suffered from paranoia or other mental illnesses.
“The letter did not include his racist calls for the extermination of certain peoples,” Frank said during a news conference. “We did not launch an investigation based on the letter, which later appeared in the gunman’s racist manifesto.”
In October, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government outlawed the sale of guns to members of extremist groups monitored by security agencies and obliged online platforms to inform police about hate content.
Those measures followed the killing of a pro-immigration German politician in June and an attack four months later on a synagogue and a kebab shop in Halle by an anti-Semitic gunman who livestreamed his actions.
At least five of the Hanau victims were Turkish nationals, Ankara’s ambassador to Berlin said on Thursday. His government demanded a robust response, calls echoed by representatives of Germany’s large Kurdish community.
Driven in part by a rise in immigration, popular support for far-right groups is growing in Germany in conjunction with a shift away from the political mainstream.
Germany’s top security official said authorities would step up the police presence throughout the country and keep a closer watch on mosques and other sites, in a first reaction to the rampage. In Hanau, German and Turkish flags flew at half-staff outside a mosque where worshippers were gathering yesterday.
Thousands of people gathered in cities across Germany on Thursday evening to hold vigils for the shooting victims but also to express anger that authorities haven’t done enough to prevent attacks. |