Red Army Faction Communiqué re: Nonne

The entire history of the State’s “big pursuit” of us has been nothing but a bunch of lies from beginning to end.

We never made any contacts with a VS spy named Nonne [1], nor did we live with any such person before the Herrhausen action [2], nor did any spy know of it beforehand and help us with the preparations. This is nothing more than a lie fabricated by the German secret service, designed to have obvious consequences. OK, so they made their attempt, and now we’ll expose their lie!

This method of the State is used against resistance groups in order to make people uncertain by constructing lies. Only in the last 2-3 years has this been used expressly against us: the State’s lie about an abortive action against Kiechle [3]; the claim that we held secret negotiations with the State; and the lie repealed a thousand times over claiming that we were following a Stasi-line [4], and also the letter last summer from unknown RAF “defectors” which stated that we had split up due to internal divisions.

What is the goal of these State lies?

We think they are trying to do several things at once:

– They want to hurt the discussions around the release of imprisoned comrades. After 20 years of struggle against the torture and destruction of political prisoners, segments of the State apparatus are beginning to realize that they need to find a solution to the problem of the prisoners, and at least since the ’89 hungerstrike, they know that they can no longer resolve the contradiction of torture, quite the contrary, more and more people have come to understand and support the demands of the prisoners. The very fact that the question of the release of prisoners is now on the table is surely the direct result of all the struggles and initiatives for their regroupment and freedoms. But the State’s still trying its hardest to find a way to bury us.

When this smoke-screen of lies is presented as a “pursuit”, then the question should be asked (as it has been in the media), if, considering such results, they really still need to release the prisoners. So there’s only one possibility: everyone who is for the freedom of the prisoners needs to discuss among themselves, and of course with the prisoners, what we should make of this possibility of release, and which demands we should make and press through so as to stay on the path of demanding freedom for all political prisoners.

STRUGGLE TOGETHER FOR THE PRISONERS’ FREEDOM!

It’s obvious, that the State’s pursuit of the ominous “unknown RAF-members: Peter and Stefan” will lead to the arrest of comrades from the legal resistance – those people not organized in the RAF. They’ve wanted this for along time, ever since they showed those city-maps which the VS doctored up to substantiate their claim that comrades from the legal resistance were to act as “lookouts” for an action against the Daimler [5] chiefs. There was so much fuss made about this claim, however, that they eventually gave up.

That’s one of the main reasons we have to continually expose these State lies: to prevent comrades from getting arrested.

– Their claim that we are not actually illegally organized, but rather that we are simply mixed into groups on the fringes of the legal resistance movement, is used, on the one hand, to simply degrade us, but more importantly, they use this claim to justify their massive searches in legal groups and establishments.

– They want to broaden the State evidence statute. The reason why remains their secret.

Perhaps there’s more, but that’s all we want to say for now – just to repeat once more what the whole situation is regarding the press and the media. Even though this whole campaign of lies about spy contacts with Nonne just reeks of deception, not a single journalist has felt the urge to question the State’s motives or sincerity.

The simple question, which the VS confirmed, and which everyone can’t help thinking is: “Has the secret service fabricated the entire history?’ But no one asks this question.

Who else but the secret service could have put the explosives in Nonne’s basement?

Red Army Faction
January 24th 1992

[1] Shortly before this communiqué was released the VS (German Intelligence Service) had announced that an individual named Nonne had “defected” from the RAF. They claimed that he had participated in the planning of the attack on Herrhausen and was in a cell with two wanted RAF members as well as two persons from the autonomist movement. This sensationalist revelation came just as the German press was also beginning to discuss justice minister Kinkel’s proposal to allow the early release of some RAF members, particularly physically ill inmates such as Günter Sonnenberg, from prison. [return to text]

[2] Alfred Herrhausen, the chief executive of the Deutsche Bank, was assassinated by the RAF’s Wolfgang Beer Commando in December 1989. (you can read the communique from ths action here) [return to text]

[3] Christian Social Union politician and Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry at the time. [return to text]

[4] Stasi: the much hated and feared East German secret police. [return to text]

[5] Daimler: a German car company, later merged to become DaimlerBenz and then DaimlerChrysler. [return to text]