World Cup security: Fans who perform Nazi salutes at this summer's World Cup will be arrested and prosecuted, Germany's interior minister warned supporters yesterday. Wolfgang Schauble said he had been encouraged by the tough line taken by the British home secretary Charles Clarke over provocative behaviour by England supporters.
Speaking at a conference in Berlin on World Cup security, the minister said that German prosecutors would take action against any fans displaying Nazi symbols, which are illegal in Germany, or giving a Hitler salute. "I know that these gestures are often associated in England with a kind of humour," he said. "But Charles Clarke has made clear that the use of such symbols will lead to prosecution and that he will support Germany in this. We have different sensitivities here."
Schauble's remarks came as 280 officials from 40 countries including Britain attended a two-day conference on security at the World Cup, which will begin on June 9th. Officials from the Home Office, together with Stephen Thomas - the senior police office responsible for co-ordinating British attempts to deal with hooliganism - held talks with their German counterparts. The tournament is the biggest challenge for German authorities since the ill-fated 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
Yesterday Schauble unveiled a series of security measures designed to prevent any terrorist activity, and admitted that public viewing areas - where ticketless fans can watch games on big screens - were of particular concern. Some 7,000 soldiers would be deployed across the country to be on stand-by in the case of a major incident, he said. Germany would also temporarily suspend the European Union's Schengen travel agreement, allowing it to make border checks on fans arriving from inside Europe.
Yesterday's conference was overshadowed by reports that neo-Nazi groups in Germany are planning to stage demonstrations during the World Cup. According to the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, far-right German extremists intend to link up with anti-semitic hooligans from neighbouring Poland. German far-right groups have already announced their intention to stage five demonstrations expressing solidarity with Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last year denied the Holocaust.
Yesterday Schauble admitted that his ministry had received "indications" that Germany's small but energetic far-right groups were preparing for the tournament. "Ways of exploiting the World Cup are being considered," he reported. But, he pledged: "We will use all means at our disposal to deal with this."
German officials say that there is no "concrete" evidence so far that terrorists will attempt to target the World Cup.
Franz Beckenbauer, president of the World Cup organising committee, said that security at previous tournaments had not always been strict. "I remember the 1966 World Cup in England," he said. "There were very few policemen there. The only ones I saw were directing traffic.
"It was the same in 1970 in Mexico. There was one policeman on duty wearing a sombrero and clutching an ancient machine gun. During the siesta period he fell asleep."
Security throughout the world had been transformed in the wake of the attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. "In the 1974 World Cup in Germany we were surrounded by police," Beckenbauer recalled. "They wouldn't let us out for excursions (to the pub), which is why we played so badly in the first three games. Eventually they came with us. Then we won."
