Lord Killanin Says There is No Way to Prevent Another Munich Massacre

Lord Michael J. Killanin, president of the International Olympic Committee, said he is unable to guarantee that the 1972 Munich massacre could not be repeated at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Asked on the ABC-TV “Issues and Answers” program Sunday what steps his committee can take to insure that the 1976 Olympics do not become another Munich, Lord Killanin replied, “Let’s absolutely face the facts of life. If someone wants to murder somebody and they have planned it, it is jolly hard to stop it.” He was referring to the murder by Arab terrorists of 11 members of the Israeli team in the Munich Olympic Village and at a military airport near Munich in Sept. 1972.

Lord Killanin also said his committee was “still inquiring” into the beatings of Russian Jews, demonstrations against the Israeli team, and the barring of Israeli journalists from the International University Games in Moscow, an event that took place eight months ago. He implied in his answers to reporters’ questions that the incidents may have been “exaggerated” and that some of the journalists may not have been bona fide media men.

Referring to the events in Munich, Lord Killanin said, “Quite naturally, as a result of the Munich experience, the greatest steps will be taken to insure the control of entering the village and the sports grounds.” He added, “This is a matter completely for the country and city hosting the games. We ask questions all the time about it and make quite sure that bit by bit we get better security.” He said that “one of the greatest problems” at the Olympic Village is the number of journalists who want to enter.

In connection with that remark he was asked about the banning of Israeli Journalists from the University Games in Moscow last year. “All I can find out.” Lord Killanin replied, “is that certain journalists from Israel were stopped or not given their visas in Switzerland as they were promised. Now it is not for me to know whether they were journalists or not. One of the problems we have frequently in the games is all sorts of people trying to get in as newspapermen.”

Regarding the demonstrations against the Israeli sportsmen in Moscow, the Olympic Committee president said, “I witnessed the opening when there was some whistling and booing of the Israeli team. I have still been trying to find out the facts.” He said that “some Russian Jews were beaten outside the games. Certainly there were reports and we are still inquiring and I am still waiting for the reports from the organizers of the University Games.” He added that “It is very hard to get the facts….It may be as our Soviet colleagues say, that the incidents dealt with security. There were certainly demonstrations of one sort or another but I think like many other things, much may have been exaggerated far more.”