BERLIN: Germany’s leaders admitted on Tuesday that the
government failed to provide adequate support and comfort to relatives
of victims in last year’s devastating Christmas market attack, and acknowledged security gaps in the run-up to the atrocity.
A
year after rejected Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri rammed a truck
into the crowded market at the Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and
wounding 70, the authorities have come under fire over security failings
and their clumsy handling of the aftermath of the assault.
Chancellor
Angela Merkel, accused of failing to reach out personally to families
of victims, had met with them for the first time only on Monday.
“The
talks were very open, and from the part of those affected, no holds
barred, and pointed to the weakness of our country in this situation,”
Merkel said as Germany held a day of solemn commemoration for the
victims. “Today is a day of sadness, but also a day of our will to make
better things that did not work well,” she vowed, adding that she had
offered to meet the bereaved again in a few months’ time.
President
Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told the bereaved and emergency workers at
a private church memorial for the victims that “it is true that some
support came late and remained unsatisfactory”. “Many family members and
injured — many of you — felt abandoned by the state,” he said,
recalling the words of a mother who had lost her daughter and said no
one had comforted her after the attack.
“I can’t get
those words out of my head,” he said, saying that the relatives’ appeal
to be heard had “triggered something and set it in motion.” In the hours
following the assault, which was claimed by the militant Islamic State
group, politicians had put on a brave front and repeated the mantra that
Germany would not be cowed by terror. But Steinmeier said such rhetoric
had done little for the victims.
“So soon after the
attack... these words don’t sound simply defiant and self-confident, but
also strangely cold and detached,” he said.
To mark the
anniversary, the popular Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz will stay
shut all day out of respect for the victims. At midday, Merkel joined
relatives in inaugurating a memorial — a 14-metre (46-foot) golden crack
in the ground engraved with the victims’ names. And during the evening,
there will be a public ecumenical prayer at 8:02pm — the exact time
when Amri rammed his truck into the crowded square — when people can
light candles and the church’s bells will chime for 12 minutes.
