Neo-Nazi puzzle

A poster with photos of the three members of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) is to be distributed around German in the coming days, in a bid to facilitate investigations into the neo-Nazi gang accused of shooting dead nine immigrants and a policewoman over the past 13 years.

Joerg Ziercke, head of the Federal Crime Office, who has assigned 420 detectives to the case, said Thursday the investigation so far had been mainly based on 2,500 items found in the trio's home and their camper-van, as well as on rental-vehicle records.

Harald Range, the federal prosecutor-general, invited neo-Nazis to give information to police, and told them they need not fear revenge by the militants.

"I am appealing to everyone in the country who maybe doesn't want to mention their name but does want to talk about this," he said, adding that informers could pass information to the authorities.

Investigators admit there are big gaps in their knowledge of what the gang did after going underground in 1998. Some 240 to 250 people so far have reported encounters with the three neo-Nazis who used false names and posed as law-abiding citizens.

The gang never issued claims of responsibility for its killings, which only came to light when the two men in the group died in a November 4 shooting following a botched bank robbery. The survivor, Beate Zschäpe, turned herself in to police after setting fire to their apartment.

Further links suspected

The exposure of the gang has caused unquiet among Germany's 3-million-strong Turkish minority, with many accusing the police of racism because detectives had worked on the assumption that many of the victims had links to Turkish organized crime.

Ziercke said the trio had carried on a normal-seeming life, regularly going on caravan holidays in summer to beaches on the Baltic coast. Police especially wanted to hear from any people who recalled casually meeting the three at camping grounds.

Range said it was conceivable the group had committed other crimes in addition to the murders for which they are alleged to be responsible. Two bomb attacks and 14 bank robberies, which police said netted the gang a total of 600,000 euros ($800,000), are believed also to be their work.

Police are also seeking evidence of links between the gang and the openly xenophobic National Democratic Party (NPD), a group that has seats in state assemblies and local councils, but has never won seats in the federal parliament.

"We are going to expose further links to the NPD," Ziercke said. But Range said the party itself was not a suspect in the case.

NPD ban 'more likely'

On Tuesday, Ralf Wohlleben - a former NPD official - was the fourth person to be arrested in connection with the murders allegedly carried out by the NSU, increasing the likelihood that the German government will attempt to have the party banned.

Wohlleben, 36, is accused of supporting the NSU and of providing the perpetrators with a gun and ammunition.

"If the accusations against him can be proven in court, the chances of an [NPD] ban rise significantly," said legislator Wolfgang Bosbach, on public broadcaster SWR.

Bosbach, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, heads a parliamentary committee which gathered Wednesday to discuss intelligence failures that enabled the murders to go unsolved for years.

A former NPD member in the former East German city of Jena - where Wohlleben was the local NPD chief - said the city's chapter was "highly dangerous" and very willing to engage in violence.

Right-wing extremism has experienced a resurgence in former East Germany in the 21 years since unification, which led to a sharp increase in unemployment and the cutting back of youth activities in the former communist state.

Author: Gabriel Borrud (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton