1983 French consulate attack in West Berlin

1983 French consulate bombing
Maison de France pictured in 2013
Location Kurfuerstendamm, West Berlin, West Germany
Date 25 August 1983
11:20 am (UTC+01:00)
Deaths 1
Non-fatal injuries
 23
Perpetrator Carlos the Jackal on behalf of Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

The 1983 French consulate bombing was a terrorist bomb attack targeting the Maison de France consulate on the Kurfuerstendamm in West Berlin, West Germany on 25 August 1983. It killed one person and injured 23 other people.[1] The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) claimed responsibility in a telephone call which included a bomb at a French base in Beirut the same day, and coming a month after the group's Orly Airport attack. The group commented "We will continue our struggle until the liberation of innocent Armenians from French jails."[2][3] However the attack was actually orchestrated by Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, who had relations with the ASALA's leadership. Carlos claimed responsibility in a letter written to the German Embassy in Saudi Arabia.[4]

The bomb, containing 20 to 30 kg of explosives of nitropenta, was planted in a storage room on the building's fourth floor by Ahmed Mustafa El-Sibai, a Lebanese man and associate of Carlos.[5] The blast tore the building's roof, destroyed the fourth floor and caused part of it to collapse, causing a total of 2.5 million marks in damage.[6] The explosives were brought into East Berlin by Johannes Weinrich, another close aide to Carlos, and were kept by the Stasi secret police. East German lieutenant colonel Helmut Voigt passed the explosives from Stasi's arms store to Weinrich at the Syrian Embassy, which was Carlos's base in East Germany. Weinrich successfully transported the explosives from East to West Berlin via the Friedrichstraße before giving them to El-Sibai who planted it.[7]

The fatal victim was 26-year-old Michael Haritz, a peace activist who was handing out leaflets at the consulate protesting France's nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific, and died from asphyxiation.[7]

Carlos previously bombed several targets in France, such as the 1982 Capitole train bombing. He claimed the attacks in France and West Berlin were in revenge for French air strikes against a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine training camp in Lebanon.

Aftermath and convictions

The Maison de France is a French cultural centre featuring a French book shop, grocery store, cinema and restaurant. It was rebuilt after the attack and opened by Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand in 1985.

On 12 April 1994, Voigt was found guilty for his role in the bombing after being extradited from Greece, where he escaped to in 1991. He was sentenced to four years in prison.[4] In 2000, Weinrich and Nabil Shritah, the Syrian diplomat who stored the explosives at the embassy, were jailed for life and for two years, respectively.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Rückblick – Anschlag auf Maison de France". Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  2. ↑ "Armenian terrorists bomb three French targets". UPI. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  3. ↑ "French Consulate Bombed in Berlin". The New York Times. AP. 1983-08-26. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  4. 1 2 Kinzer, Stephen (1994-04-12). "Ex-East German Agent Guilty in Terror Bombing". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  5. ↑ Dietl, Wilhelm (1994-01-10). "Einer muß für alle büßen". FOCUS Online (in German). Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  6. ↑ Cummings, Richard H. (2009-10-26). Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950–1989. McFarland. ISBN 9780786453009.
  7. 1 2 Follain, John (July 2011). Jackal: The Complete Story of the Legendary Terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. Skyhorse. ISBN 9781628724875.
  8. ↑ "Wegen Sprengstoffanschlag: Lebenslang für Johannes Weinrich". Spiegel Online. 2000-01-17. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
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