'Land of Dungeons' a concern

2008-04-30 19:38

Vienna - Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer expressed concern on Wednesday over damage to Austria's image caused by the incest abuse scandal over a woman imprisoned for 24 years by her father.

Gusenbauer is one of many to highlight the impact of the notoriety caused by the third case of sequestration of children in recent years. One leading marketing professional said Austria was now being called "the Land of Dungeons".

In a statement released after a cabinet meeting, Gusenbauer said Austria's reputation had been hurt by the horrific events linked to 73-year-old Josef Fritzl in Amstetten, a town 100km west of Vienna.

An international campaign of slander was underway, he said.

"We cannot accept that. There is no 'Amstetten case', there is no 'Austrian case'. There is only an isolated case," the chancellor said responding for the first time to revelations that Fritzl had incarcerated his daughter in a windowless underground bunker for 24 years and abused her sexually. The woman bore seven children by her father.

Gusenbauer said the "unimaginable and horrific events" and the "gravity and abominable nature" of the crime had left many people speechless.

"The government will react with all the means at its disposal" to help the victims, he pledged.

'A proverbial character'

Ministers had been instructed to review all administrative structures that played a role. The federal government would also work with authorities in Lower Austria, where Amstetten is located.

"We'll do everything in an unbureaucratic way," he promised.

President Heinz Fischer meanwhile also defended his country, saying: "There is definitely nothing fundamentally Austrian in this case."

"Monstrosities, that human beings are capable of, manifest themselves everywhere," he told the daily Kleine Zeitung.

But Karin Cwrtila of the Austrian Marketing Association (OGM) said: "Everyone is writing that: Austria - the 'Land of the Dungeons'," the APA news agency reported.

"Of course it doesn't do any good to Austria's image."

"It has such a proverbial character, like Jack the Ripper in London," OGM- chief Wolfgang Bachmayer said, noting however that the notorious serial killer did not permanently taint the British capital's image.

As an isolated case, it was less likely to affect the country's image than a repeated occurrence, he said.

The Amstetten incest story comes just two years after another internationally publicised abuse case: that of Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped on her way to school in 1998, aged 10, and kept locked up in a basement for over eight years before escaping in August 2006.

Tainted image

It has also drawn comparisons with the case of convicted paedophile and rapist Marc Dutroux in the 1990s, which shocked the world and forever tainted Belgium's image.

In another abuse case in Austria revealed last year, three young girls were locked up for seven years by their mentally ill mother near Linz.

Cwrtila and Bachmayer were confident the latest case would have little or no effect on the upcoming European football championship, which Austria is co-hosting with Switzerland on June 7-29.

"Austria's international image will definitely not suffer any damages from this," Bachmayer concluded.

- AFP