The Korea Herald

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Israel marks Munich massacre anniversary

By Korea Herald

Published : July 23, 2012 - 20:04

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LONDON (AP) ― Complaining that the Olympic movement is still ignoring their pain, Israelis marked the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre on Sunday with a modest service in the atrium of a London apartment block.

Prayers were read for the 11 murdered Israelis, wreaths were laid for them and a plaque unveiled about six kilometers from the Olympic Stadium.

However, there will be no minute of silence for them at Friday’s opening ceremony.

“The International Olympic Committee have a moral commitment to commemorate the 11 athletes, coaches and referees,” Israeli Olympic Committee secretary general Efraim Zinger said. “Not because they were Israelis, but because they were Olympians and were murdered during the Olympic Games.

“It’s been 40 years since that dreadful day and I hope that the day will come that the IOC will recognize all 11 athletes as victims and find the proper way to commemorate their memory.”

IOC president Jacques Rogge reiterated Saturday that the opening ceremony was not an appropriate arena to remember the dead despite pressure from politicians in the United States, Israel and Germany.

Kidnapped Libyan released

TRIPOLI (AP) ― The president of Libya’s Olympic Committee said hours after he returned home Sunday that his kidnapping remains a mystery but that authorities promised to investigate the case.

Committee chief Ahmed Nabil al-Taher al-Alam was released unharmed a week after unknown gunmen abducted him from his car in the capital.

“It will be become clearer in the coming days. They raised no issue and they made no requests,” he said.

Al-Alam said his kidnappers posed as officials when they took him near his office on Tripoli. They later released him in Misrata, and rebels helped bring him back to Tripoli in coordination with security officials.

“It is a mystery. Investigation is promised and may this be a good omen to end these kidnappings,” he said.

The abduction comes during a wave of score-settling among rival groups left over from Libya’s eight-month civil war that ended with the capture and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in October.