German attack on Indians "shameful" says Merkel

BERLIN, Aug 22 (Reuters) Chancellor Angela Merkel believes an attack on eight Indians in an eastern German town was ''extremely deplorable and shameful'', a government spokesman said today.

Thomas Steg said Merkel brought up the incident in Muegeln at a regular cabinet meeting and asked the ministry responsible for tackling xenophobia in Germany to give her a report on what measures were being taken to tackle the problem.

''She made clear that what occurred was an extremely deplorable and shameful incident,'' Steg told a news conference.

''She condemned this attack on these Indian fellow citizens in the strongest terms and expressed her profound dismay about the brutal violence that occurred,'' he said.

''And she made clear that it was not acceptable for people to be chased through German towns and then beaten up.'' The attacks occurred during a town fair in the eastern town of Muegeln, near Leipzig, last weekend.

Locals in Muegeln watched as the Indians fled from some 50 Germans into a pizzeria which the mob tried to storm. Around 70 police officers were needed to restore order.

India's foreign ministry has asked Germany to take action over the incident and prevent further attacks taking place.

Steg urged Germans to show greater ''civil courage'' to prevent such attacks and condemned the Muegeln residents for failing to intervene.

''We cannot just put up with this apathy and indifference,'' he said. ''Turning away and looking elsewhere is not an option.'' State prosecutors in Leipzig said today they had begun investigating two men aged 21 and 23 on suspicion of breaching the peace. The two were briefly detained on Sunday.

Prosecutors said police had spoken to numerous witnesses but had yet to obtain any concrete leads on suspects.

Since German re-unification in 1990, racist violence has broken out sporadically in the poorer east of the country.

Some politicians and industry leaders have warned the incident could put people off immigrating to Germany, which is suffering from a serious shortage of skilled labour.

Wolfgang Tiefensee, the minister responsible for the eastern states, said after the attacks there was enough support for Nazi ideas in Germany for some people to fear for their lives.

Last year crimes committed by neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists reached their highest level since 1990.

In Muegeln's state of Saxony, the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) entered the regional parliament in 2004 after winning more than 9 per cent of the vote in an election.

Reuters GT RN2036