German Gov't Accused Of Covering Up Anti-foreigner Killings

Berlin, July 22, IRNA -- The head of the Turkish community Kenan Kolat on Saturday accused the German government of destroying evidence linked to a neo-Nazi terrorist cell whose killing spree targeting immigrants rocked the country late last year. Speaking to the Cologne-based daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger, Kolat said the shredding of the wiretap protocols following an interior ministry order was in fact a 'cover-up.' He branded the destruction of the neo-Nazi files 'outrageous,' saying German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich was not only fully responsible for the scandal but had also to likely face political consequences. Kolat urged Friedrich to testify as a witness in the special parliamentary probe dealing with the neo-Nazi xenophobic killings. Earlier this month, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, Heinz Fromm resigned after admitting his agency had shredded files on the neo-Nazi cell. Fromm's resignation is only the latest in a series of embarrassing setbacks for Germany's security apparatus over their handling of the 'National Socialist Underground' (NSU), which went undetected for more than a decade despite its murder of 10 people, mostly immigrants of Turkish origin. German media reported earlier an official working in the secret service is suspected of having destroyed files on an operation to recruit far-right informants just one day after the involvement of the NSU in the murders became public. The NSU cell's reported role in the neo-Nazi murders was only uncovered after two of the neo-Nazis committed suicide following a botched bank robbery last autumn. A third member was later arrested. The widening scandal has been a deep embarrassment to the center-right government of Chancellor Angela Merkel whose country is still grappling with its dreadful Nazi past.end