E/CN.4/1997/71 page 22 inhabitants and the staff at a nearby public hospital heard a blast. It was not reported to the police at the time because people thought it was a New Year firecracker or similar firework. 64. The pipe bomb which killed the four Roma was apparently made to look exactly like a post for a road sign. An iron tube, originally about l m 20 long, protruded from the mounting. A metal plate covered in black varnish with the words “Romanies go back to India” in yellow letters, was attached to it. (c) The bomb attack in Stinatz 65. At about 11 a.m. on 6 February 1995 an employee of the highways department in the village of Stinatz (Federal Province of Burgenland) was emptying dustbins. While doing so, he noticed an apparently empty aerosol can beside the dustbins and decided to throw it away with the other rubbish. When he bent down to pick it up it exploded. The workman's hand was seriously injured (several fingers had to be amputated). 66. On 6 February 1995 a letter was found at a bus stop in Ollersdorf (a village between Oberwart and Stinatz); the contents suggested that it was from one or several people claiming responsibility for the Stinatz explosion. 67. Thorough forensic examination of the booby trap confirmed that it was linked to the Oberwart pipe bomb. Other letters sent at the same time and claiming responsibility for a number of letter-bomb attacks suggest that the Stinatz explosion and the letter-bomb attacks are not unconnected. 3. The Austrian authorities' assessment of the bombings 68. Without a doubt, the Oberwart and Stinatz bombings represent a swingeing attack on democracy and peaceful coexistence with Austria's ethnic groups. They are apparently part of a series which began with letter bombs in December 1993 and has no precedent in Austria's history since the Second World War. 69. The Oberwart incident, in which four people died, is by far the most serious of these attacks. In view of the apparent circumstances of the attacks, there is everything to suggest that the culprit(s) were xenophobically or racially motivated. The Oberwart attack deliberately targeted the Romanies, whose status as a national minority in Austria was officially recognized in 1993. 70. All Austria's political institutions and the public at large were outraged, and they continue to condemn the cowardly attacks at Oberwart and Stinatz. 71. On 8 February 1995 the Austrian Parliament paid tribute at one of its sittings to the memory of the victims of the Oberwart attacks. 72. On 9 February 1995 the Austrian Federal Chancellor visited the Romany camp in Oberwart and the victims' families. The funeral of the four victims, on 11 February 1995, was attended by the Austrian Federal President, the