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Austria: More letter bombs injure three

01 May 1995

Two more letter bombs injured three people on 9 June - one in Linz, Austria injured two women, the other sent from Austria to a television station in Munich injured an employee. The bombs were the latest in a series of 14 attacks over the last 18 months (see Statewatch, vol 3 no 6, vol 4 no 1 & 6, vol 5 no 1). The bomb in Linz was sent to a bureau that arranges marriages and partnerships for migrants living in Austria. Two Hungarian-born women were injured - one was taken to hospital with severe hand injuries, the other with shock. The second letter bomb exploded in the studio of the Pro Sieben television station in Munich and injured an employee. It had been sent to Arabella Kiesbaurer, daughter of Ghanian and German parents. She was a popular presenter on Austrian television before moving to Germany. The Austrian human rights movement SOS Mitmensch, of which Kiesbauer is a member, said: "she is an activist against racism, anti-semitism and anti-foreigner sentiments". The head of the Austrian Interior Ministry explosives section said that the Linz devise was similar to that of the ten letter bombs sent out in December 1993. It contained a letter signed: "Graf Ruediger von Starhemburg" (who defended Vienna against the Turks in the seventeenth century). The "Bavarian Liberation Army" claimed responsibility for the bombings as they did for the bomb that killed four Romas in February. The Munich police said that a letter signed: "Andreas Hofer von Tirol" and "Graf Ruediger von Starhemburg" had been enclosed. Reuters, 9.6.95; European, 16.5.95.