'We'll defend Austria's image'

2008-05-01 16:01

Vienna - Austria's image is not going to be "held hostage" to the shocking case of a man who held his daughter captive and sexually abused her for 24 years, Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said on Thursday.

"We're not going to allow Austria and its entire population to be held hostage by a single, barbarous criminal individual," Chancellor said in a speech to the May Day parade in front of Vienna's City Hall.

The chancellor's Social Democrat SPOe party estimated that around 100 000 people assembled on the square in front of the building.

"We will defend Austria's image," he said.

Just the day before, Gusenbauer had expressed concern Austria's image would be tarnished by the case of Josef Fritzl, 73, who has admitted to locking up his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and incestuously fathering seven children with her.

The case comes only two years after another young Austrian woman escaped from eight and a half years of incarceration and sexual abuse at the hands of her tormentor.

Gusenbauer expressed shock at the horror of both cases and said "everything will be done to solve this crime and help the victims."

Original sin

But in what appeared to be an oblique reference to Austria's Nazi past, the chancellor continued: "We will not allow anyone to believe they can impute another 'original sin' to our youth. We are not collectively responsible for every criminal individual. Quite the opposite."

Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, and more than 99% of Austrians voted for the Nazis in a plebiscite shortly afterwards.

The question of collective responsibility for the atrocities committed under the regime of Austrian-born Hitler has divided Austrians and Germans alike ever since.

AFP tried to contact Gusenbauer's spokesperson for an explanation of the chancellor's comment, but nobody could immediately be reached at his office to comment.

Austria was "one of the safest and best countries" in the world, Gusenbauer said.

"We won't let anyone, anywhere in the world, put us down on that," he said.

In view of the similarities of both cases, international media have speculated why these crimes occurred in Austria, which is widely seen as a tranquil, picture-book country.

'Ramification of Second World War'

Austrian politicians have gone on the defensive, saying such crimes are not typical of their small Alpine country, but have also been committed elsewhere.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, the previous sequestration victim, Natascha Kampusch, admitted that while she believed such instances existed around the world, she thought it was "also a ramification of the Second World War".

"At the time of national socialism, the oppression of women was propagated, and authoritarian education was very important.

"One can change that, and one would have to start with the education of the youngest of us," said Kampusch, who managed to escape from her kidnapper in August 2006.

- AFP