State parliament: Racist arson attacks: Saarland uses a subcommittee

The Saarland state parliament set up a committee of inquiry to investigate racist arson attacks in the early 1990s. This was decided unanimously by the state parliament, a good 30 years after the death of Ghanaian Samuel Yeboah (27) in an arson attack on a home for asylum seekers in Saarlouis in September 1991.

The committee is to examine the “handling of the Saarland authorities” with this arson attack and five other obviously racist attacks up to October 1992.

Mistakes in action?

The ruling SPD and the opposition CDU jointly introduced the decision to set up the committee of inquiry. It says that the deficits of the earlier investigations, which have now become known, made it necessary “to investigate the processes within the Saarland state government and its subordinate authorities”.

The committee should clarify “errors in action and possible omissions by the Saarland state governments and their subordinate authorities”. It is hoped that this will provide indications of “a possible need for change” in the structures of the Saarland security and judicial authorities.

Yeboah died in September 1991 after severe burns in a nighttime arson attack on an accommodation for asylum seekers. Two other residents were injured. The investigation was discontinued in 1992. Since November 2022, however, a 52-year-old German has been standing before the Koblenz Higher Regional Court because of the arson attack.

In mid-June, Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger (SPD) expressed her “deep regret at the mistakes made” in dealing with the death of Samuel Yeboah and apologized for “mistakes at the time”. At the same time she announced a compensation fund for victims of racist violence.