A blind eye to German child's murder

By IMRE KARACS

BERLIN - The electronic visitors' book of Sebnitz, a picturesque town nestling among pines near the Czech border, oozes hatred.

"I want the Wall back," declares one entry. "Then the whole of East Germany should be carpet-bombed."

Says another: "A Nazi town like Sebnitz must be burned to the ground. You have brought disgrace to Germany."

The disgrace is the death of a 6-year-old boy named Joseph.

Fifty of Sebnitz's youths, with 200 people impassively looking on, beat him because of his dark skin. They tortured him, poisoned him and tossed him into the town swimming pool. And now they march to his mother's house shouting: "Sieg Heil."

But that is not what makes West Germans reach for their mental "Nuke the East" button. They are shocked by what happened next: nothing. Sebnitz closed ranks, the local police declared Joseph's lynching an accident, and prosecutors shelved the case.

Only now, after three years and under the weight of damning evidence gathered by the boy's mother, have they been forced to admit that they lied.

On June 13, 1997, Joseph Kantelberg-Abdulla went with his 12-year-old sister, Diana, to the outdoor pool. Joseph's mother, Renate, is German, a Social Democrat councillor. His father is an Iraqi refugee.

Sebnitz is a town of only 10,000, so it must be assumed that the 50 skinheads who set on Joseph knew of his mixed blood. First they taunted him and ripped off his towel. Then they began to beat him.

Somebody thrust a bottle between his lips, forcing him to drink what is believed to have been a sedative. Traces of ritalin were found during a second autopsy, conducted this year at the family's insistence.

They had to pay for the examination - the official one, after all, had concluded death by drowning.

But before Joseph was thrown into the pool, the lads and lasses of Sebnitz had a bit more fun. They gave him electric shocks with some kind of instrument, and then, amid cries of, "Chuck him in," they dropped Joseph in at the deep end.

A few of the most boisterous ones jumped in and trampled him under the water until he stopped moving. His body was pulled out 10 minutes later.

The attendants and adults lounging by the pool had seen or heard nothing, not even the shrieks of Joseph's sister.

Diana's version of events was supported by only one witness, who phoned Renate anonymously. The adults present, Renate was told, had been too scared to intervene.

Thus began Renate Kantelberg-Abdulla's quest for the truth. She interviewed 15 witnesses and pestered the authorities. But the Christian Democrat government in the regional capital, Dresden, was not interested in neo-Nazi crimes. The chief prosecutor endorsed the finding of accidental death.

Joseph's parents then sent all their evidence to a criminologist in Hanover, western Germany. He produced the report which forced the Dresden prosecutor to reopen the case.

Last week, the fresh look produced three arrests. Two men over 20 and a woman who happens to be the daughter of a Christian Democrat councillor in Sebnitz are accused of murdering Joseph.

Germany is watching closely what happens. Otto Schily, the federal Interior Minister, has already accused the local authorities of "negligence." They did not bother to record testimonies, and failed to notice the gashes and bruises on Joseph's body.

The town of Sebnitz, 65km from Dresden, a city once synonymous with baroque civilisation, is appalled. The local priest and the mayor have gone on national television to explain that the overwhelming majority of residents are decent folk. Only 7 per cent of them voted for the neo-Nazis in the last elections.

Some of the latter turned up outside Renate Kantelberg-Abdulla's house on Friday, shouting Nazi slogans and promising to "finish you off, with a knife in the guts." Police made no arrests.