By DPA
Berlin : Prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into two Germans Wednesday in what Chancellor Angela Merkel called an “extremely grim and shameful” attack on a group of Indian men.
The two aged 21 and 23 were detained in the aftermath of Saturday evening’s violence in the eastern German town of Muegeln, but later released for lack of evidence.
Prosecutors said the men, both of them locals, faced breach of peace charges after further police questioning of witnesses turned up new evidence against them.
Eight Indians were injured when a mob of about 50 Germans chanting racist slogans hounded them across the market square in Muegeln after a town festival, forcing them to seek shelter in a pizzeria.
Prosecutors said an undisclosed number of unidentified persons were being sought on charges of aggravated assault, trespass, criminal damage and breach of peace.
Merkel told a morning cabinet meeting that it was unacceptable for people to be chased through the streets of German towns and beaten up, spokesman Thomas Steg said.
“Such incidents are liable to damage the reputation of our country,” Steg said and called for a thorough investigation into the incident and find out those responsible for it.
He said the violence in the eastern state of Saxony had shown the need to foster a culture of tolerance among all segments of society.
The assault continued to draw condemnation Wednesday, with warnings that attacks of this kind were part of a pattern in the former communist region and were likely to happen again.
Stephan Kramer, general secretary for the Central Council of Jews, said there was an “apparently dangerous situation” for foreigners in certain parts of Germany.
The authorities should warn foreigners not to settle in certain eastern German regions, he told the online newspaper Netzeitung, adding that a long-running discussion about declaring “no-go” areas should be revived.
Kramer said this was not a hysterical response but “bitter reality.” And he accused mainstream politicians of taking up predictable positions without re-evaluating their strategy in combating racism.
The minister responsible for reconstruction in the states of former East Germany, Wolfgang Tiefensee, spoke Tuesday of an “unendurable excess of violence.”
The parliamentary head of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), Volker Kauder, said: “I am deeply hurt that something like this is possible in our country.”
But Saxony’s prime minister, Georg Milbradt, also a CDU member, warned against pre-judging the issue. The police should be allowed to probe the case before conclusions were made about the incident, he told national television.
On Tuesday, some 200 demonstrators gathered in Muegeln to express opposition to the attack.
Chancellory Minister Hermann Winkler spoke ony telephone to Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar after she voiced concern over the incident and called for steps to be taken to ensure there was no repetition of such violence against Indians.
The assault revived the debate about right-wing extremism in Germany, particularly the eastern states which were reunified with West Germany in 1990.
Saxony is a stronghold of the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD), which polled 9 per cent in a state election in 2004 and now sits in the state parliament in Dresden.