Merkel Seeks Forgiveness for Failures on Neo-Nazi Killings

German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked for "forgiveness" on Thursday from the families of 10 people, mostly foreigners, believed killed in a seven-year murder spree by a neo-Nazi gang.

Merkel, who led a memorial ceremony at Berlin's concert hall attended by about 1,200 people including some of the victims' relatives, described the killings as both a "disgrace" and an "attack" on Germany.

"Some relatives were themselves for years wrongly under suspicion (over the murders). That is particularly tormenting. For that I ask you for forgiveness," Merkel, dressed in black, said.

"How bad it must be, to be at the mercy for years of false suspicions, instead of being able to mourn," she added.

Germany was left reeling by the discovery of a small far-right group thought to be behind the unsolved murders of eight men of Turkish origin and a Greek between 2000 and 2006, as well as a policewoman in 2007.

Authorities have faced intense pressure to explain how the group was able to operate with impunity for 11 years and why they did not zero in on the far-right scene at an earlier stage.

At noon, businesses, schools, public transport and media held a minute's silence in memory of the victims.

"As chancellor of the federal republic of Germany I promise you we are doing everything to resolve the murders and discover the accomplices and contacts and bring all perpetrators to their just punishments," Merkel said.

The memorial began with students carrying 12 candles to the front of the hall to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The candles were for each of those killed, plus one for other victims of extremist violence and one representing hope for the future.

After Merkel's address, 25-year-old Semiya Simsek, the daughter of the first victim, Enver Simsek, who left Turkey to run a flower business in Germany and was killed in September 2000, spoke.

"For 11 years we couldn't say that we were victims," she said adding that members of her family had been suspected of involvement in the killing and her father also suspected of being a drug-dealer.

The memorial was the initiative of Christian Wulff, who resigned as Germany's president last week in the face of a corruption probe, following his meeting with families of the victims.

Members of the Turkish parliament's human rights committee as well as diplomats, German lawmakers, dignitaries and action groups fighting xenophobic violence were among the 1,200 guests.

Music by Turkish composer Cemal Resit Rey also featured in the ceremony, as well as a specially-arranged medley of "Fragile" by Sting and John Lennon's "Imagine".

The neo-Nazi gang calling itself the National Socialist Underground only came to light in November when two members were found dead in an apparent suicide pact and a 36-year-old woman turned herself in.

The extremist cell is also believed to have mounted two bomb attacks in the western city of Cologne in 2001 and 2004 with a total of 23 wounded in addition to a series of armed bank hold-ups.

The German justice ministry said last month it had already started paying between 5,000 and 10,000 euros ($6,500 and $13,100) in compensation to victims of the far-right cell.

A draft law has also been approved for the creation of a national registry of right-wing extremists with information collected by police and intelligence officials at the federal and state levels.

A number of suspects have been detained in connection with the case.