GERMANY: Doubts Rise Over Afghan Engagement

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Jul 12 2007 (IPS) - Doubts are being raised about German military engagement in the so-called Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan ahead of a crucial vote in parliament due October.

Questions have arisen after a series of kidnappings and killings of German development personnel, and attacks on German troops.

Since the beginning of the German military intervention in Afghanistan in late 2001, 21 German soldiers have been killed, and numerous others wounded. A 42-year old German engineer working for a U.S. construction firm was kidnapped in Kabul Jun. 29, but released a week later. The German government and the U.S. company refused to comment, but it is believed that ransom was paid.

There is also growing concern over the high number of Afghan civilian casualties of military operations.

About 100 German special forces soldiers are involved in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in southern Afghanistan. Germany has also sent 3,000 soldiers to the UN International Security Assistance Force (ISAR), which patrols the north of the country to protect development workers. Besides, Germany has contributed six Tornado reconnaissance aircraft.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party of Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to support German military deployment in Afghanistan, but leading members of its ally in government, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), are expressing concern. The CDU has 224 deputies in parliament, and the SPD 222, out of 613.

The military operations in Afghanistan have been "uncoordinated and disproportionate," says SPD foreign policy expert Niels Annen.

Annen has called for an end of the parliamentary mandate for support to Operation Enduring Freedom. "It would be judicious not to renew that mandate in October," he said.

"The high number of civilian victims has undermined the legitimacy of the Afghan government in Kabul, and helped terrorists recruit new supporters," Annen said at a press conference. "This form of war against terror is failing to produce positive results."

Walter Kolbow, deputy to Peter Struck who is SPD parliamentary group&#39s &#39whip&#39, has been arguing similarly. "As a consequence of the fight against terrorism, there have been too many civilian victims in Afghanistan," he said. But both agree that international military intervention had been necessary in 2001 to end the rule of the Taliban and to dismantle al-Qaeda bases.

Annen and Kolbow have considerable party support. Seventy SPD parliamentarians voted against the government decision to send military aircraft to Afghanistan in March.

Opposition to military involvement has been growing since then. The Green party, which had approved German military intervention abroad as a government partner between 1998 and 2005, is planning a special party congress to discuss the mandate ahead of the October vote in the Bundestag, the German parliament.

According to party rules, 44 regional centres out of 440 must demand such a special congress if it is to proceed. So far, 43 have. The Green party has 51 members in the German parliament.

The Green party had voted against German military participation in Operation Enduring Freedom in December 2006. But a majority of the Green deputies voted in support of the deployment of Tornado military aircraft in March.

The new party, The Left, which has 53 members in parliament, opposes German military intervention in Afghanistan. Some of its leaders have called it "a terrorist campaign."

These positions echo public opinion. According to a survey on July 7, some 66 percent of people questioned, including 55 percent of CDU voters, want withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan.

The German constitution forbids engagement in aggressive military operations, and some opposition leaders, including the former SPD leader Oscar Lafontaine, now president of The Left, brought a case that German intervention in Afghanistan is anti-constitutional. But the constitutional court ruled Jul. 3 that the military operations did not violate the constitution.

Government officials defend the military intervention in Afghanistan as essential to keeping the Taliban and warlords out of government, and to support reconstruction.

It is by no means certain that the opposition within the SPD can effectively block continued deployment in Afghanistan. Peter Struck, who was minister for defence between 2002 and 2005, has argued that German troops will have to remain in Afghanistan for several years.

Foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a member of the SPD, has also defended German military intervention in Afghanistan, but he has admitted that deficits in any internationally led reconstruction are evident.

"I do not deny that the reconstruction of Afghanistan is not proceeding as quickly as hoped for," he told the German newsweekly Der Spiegel Jul. 3. "But at least 80 percent of the Afghan population now has access to healthcare again.

"Six million children are going to school again," Steinmeyer said. "The water supply is functioning again in numerous regions. But parts of the country are not profiting from reconstruction. That is mainly due to the security situation."