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AZF suspends threats against France
A mysterious group that claimed to have planted bombs on the French railroad network announced Thursday it is suspending its terror threats while it improves its ability to carry them out. In two letters, addressed to President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the group, which calls itself AZF, said that "there are currently no bombs capable of functioning on the French rail network." "With the experience gained these last weeks and now conscious of its technological, logistic and other weaknesses, AZF suspends its action for the time needed to remedy this," the one-page typed letter said. The Interior Ministry said it received the letter Thursday morning, and made a copy available to the press. It carried the letters "AZF" and an arrow in the top left corner. The letter came a day after a bomb with seven detonators was found half-buried on a passenger train track near the town of Troyes, southeast of Paris, triggering a massive inspection of the tracks. It was the second bomb discovered hidden under tracks in just over a month â and the second inspection of thousands of miles of track. In the new letter, AZF also included a cryptic threat, saying that if the money were not paid when asked, "France will surpass without glory the sad Spanish records," an apparent reference to the Madrid bombings. "So understand well that we in no way renounce obtaining the sum ... that you should consider as a subsidy," the letter said. Investigators have carried on a cat-and-mouse game with AZF, using special phone lines and newspaper classified ads addressing the group with code names like "My big wolf." The investigators sign off as "Suzy." The daily newspaper Liberation said Thursday that police placed more ads March 12 and 17 that said "discretion assured" and included phone and fax numbers. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said there had been "several contacts" with AZF. State-run France-2 TV reported Wednesday a rendezvous had been planned for last weekend but AZF apparently did not follow up. In the letter, AZF described itself as "a small brotherhood" with no grievances against the French government. "Our true objective is to strike a decisive blow against the depraved spirit that prevails today in most human actions," the letter said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-25 |
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