Neo-Nazis held over attack on US athletes

GERMANY braced itself yesterday for a wave of hostile reaction after US sportsmen were taunted and attacked by neo-Nazis in an east German discotheque at the weekend.

Five people were arrested after the attack, which was directed above all at black members of the US luge racing team staying in the small town of Oberhof.

Around 15 teenage skinheads shouted 'niggers out' and made monkey noises at two black members of the US team. When Duncan Kennedy, a white teammate and bright hope for the Olympics, moved to intervene he was badly beaten up.

Four of the arrested skinheads - known neo-Nazis from the neighbouring town of Suhl - have been released pending further inquiries, a move that has led to criticism. Erwin Marschewski, a spokesman for the ruling Christian Democrats, said the law 'urgently' needs reforming, so that suspects can be detained for longer if necessary. The Berlin tabloid BZ called the releases 'unbelievable'.

Claire Sharrad, the US luge team manager, was quoted in BZ as saying: 'For the first time, we experienced for ourselves what is written in the American press about neo-Nazis. We hadn't thought that it was so bad.'

The Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel carried a commentary arguing: 'We need have no illusions about how this appalling event will be seen in the homeland of those affected. The effect on the image of Germany in the USA could be devastating.'

The authorities in Oberhof, near the Bavarian border, yesterday ordered the discotheque where the attack took place to be closed. The mayor, Hartmut Gobel, spoke of a concerted action to cut the roots 'from the brown (extreme-right) hordes'.

The US team left Oberhof earlier than planned to continue their training in the Austrian town of Innsbruck. A question mark now hangs over the team's planned return to Oberhof, an important winter sports resort. Officials of the US Luge Association have said the team might pull out of a World Cup meeting in Oberhof in January, if athletes do not feel safe there.

Mr Gobel, alarmed by such a possibility, insisted that he can 'guarantee' such attacks will not happen again. He too said he was 'distressed' that four of the skinheads had been released so quickly.

The latest attack is the first serious attack against Americans since German unity, and will be seen as disastrous by German politicians. As Der Tagesspiegel noted yesterday, questions about how the rest of the world looks at Germany 'cannot be the main reason' for a democratic state wanting to crush racist extremism. None the less, it is especially embarrassing for Germany that Americans, too, have become victims of the racists.

German officials frequently worry aloud that the US media helps to fuel hostility towards Germany, because of the prominence given to violence or demonstrations by the tiny neo-Nazi minority in the three years since German unity. A small minority is responsible for the violence; after the attack in Oberhof, however, there will be even more international awareness of the violent few.