Austria warns of possible new letter bomb attacks

Authorities warned Austrians on Tuesday to be on guard against a possible new wave of letter bombs a year after a bloody but still unresolveddomestic bombing campaign spilled over into neighbouring Germany. Since December, 1993, four people have been killed and at least 11injured in five waves of apparently racially motivated letter bombattacks and two pipebomb explosions. Police suspect the devices to have been the work of right-wing extremists. But, after questioning around 50,000 people, seeking assistance from abroad and poring over 400,000 pages of clues, police remain baffled by the bombings which have cast widespread public doubt on the state's security apparatus.''It's like searching for a needle in a haystack,`` said Robert Sturm, chief of Interior Ministry's bomb investigation unit. ``Letter bombs are very insidious and you never know which way the wind blows,``he told. About 30 special officers investigating the case have been unable to manage any convictions. The only two people arrested so far in connection with the bombs, two self-confessed neo-Nazis, were acquitted in December. Authorities have also failed to make arrests in the case of a pipe-bomb attack at Oberwart in southeastern Austria, in February, 1995, in which four young Roma men died. They were killed when they tried to take down a booby-trapped sign that read ``Romanies (gypsies) go back to India.`` More than 20 letter bombs have been posted since the campaign began 30 months ago and most have exploded.The majority of attacks were clearly racially motivated, targeting foreigners and figures linked with immigrant or refugee issues. Former Vienna mayor Helmut Zilk, who supported multicultural projects and close integration between immigrants and Austrians, lost three fingers when he opened a letter bomb in the first wave in December, 1993. German television personality Arabella Kiesbauer, whose father is Ghanaian, suffered facial injuries when a letter bomb exploded ather Munich office in June, 1995. A German Social Democrat lost part of a finger when a bomb exploded in Luebeck. Both bombs were posted in Austria and were assumed to be linked to the serial letter bombs. Other targets have included a Syrian-born doctor in rural Austria and a 71-year-old refugee worker. The last letter bombs exploded in December. The attacks have never been more than eight months apart. As the anniversary of the first cross-border bombings neared, the Interior Ministry issued a fresh warning to alert the nation to watchout for suspicious letters and packages. The ministry urged citizens to call police if they received letters which were unusually heavy, had oily spots which could come from plastic explosives or which hadbogus names and return addresses. Past letter bombs have included the names of Germanic folk heroes or obscure noblemen and bishops.``We have to consider the possibility of further attacks,`` Inspector Sturm said. ``We are reacting because it's so quiet,`` he said. ``Weare issuing a warning so that the people don't lower their guard and stop paying attention to suspicious letters.``

   
RomNews