MUNICH: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday asked for forgiveness at a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics attacks on Israeli athletes and team members at the airfield near Munich where a failed rescue attempt took place.
Steinmeier said Germany should shoulder its share of responsibilities for the failures to protect the athletes and for taking decades to compensate the victims' families.
"We cannot make right what happened," Steinmeier said in his speech.
"I am ashamed. As head of state of this country and in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany I ask for forgiveness for insufficient protection of the athletes, for insufficient resolution of this matter."
Members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage on September 5, 1972 at the athletes' village by Palestinians from the Black September group.
Eleven Israelis, a German policeman as well as five of the Palestinian gunmen died after a stand-off at the Olympic village and the nearby Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield, as rescue efforts erupted into gunfire.
The Games continued despite the attacks and the IOC for almost half a century ignored calls from the victims' families for an official act of remembrance at an Olympic Games ceremony. Agencies
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