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German Soldiers Contest Tornado Mission In Afghanistan
Berlin (AFP) March 16, 2007 A group of German soldiers are contesting the military's decision to send Tornado jets to Afghanistan to carry out surveillance missions for NATO, the defence ministry confirmed on Friday. Officers have published a letter in the online newspaper Netzeitung accusing Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung of misleading the country about the mandate of the mission. The group, who belong to an army association called the "Darmstaedter Signal", dispute Jung's repeated assurances that it is not a combat mission. "The results of the reconnaissance flights will be used directly to support the combat led by ground troops and fighter aircraft," they said. Defence ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe on Friday rejected their argument as "false." The same claim was made by political opponents of the Tornado mission, which was approved by parliament last week with 405 votes to 157. The German military has 2,750 soldiers in the relatively stable north of Afghanistan, but has resisted pressure from NATO allies to extend its mandate to the south where they would likely face combat against the Taliban. Raabe confirmed reports that an officer who organises logistical support for German forces in Afghanistan has filed an application asking to be relieved of these duties because he had misgivings about the Tornado deployment. The soldier argues that the mission might contravene both the German constitution and international law. The mission has sparked considerable controversy in Germany. The nation remains wary of sending troops into combat six decades after the end of World War II and a recent poll showed that 77 percent of Germans did not want the Tornados sent to Afghanistan. Two conservative MPs launched a court application to stop the deployment but it was rejected. A group linked to Al-Qaeda last Sunday warned Germany and Austria that their presence in Afghanistan has made the countries targets for militant attacks. Another militant group said it would kill a German woman and her son being held hostage in Iraq unless Berlin began withdrawing its soldiers from Afghanistan within 10 days.
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Putin's Potemkin Alliance
Washington (UPI) March 16, 2007Russian President Vladimir Putin places great store by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional international organization Russia co-founded in 2001 that also includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The ostensible aims of the organization are to combat the three "evils" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as to promote various forms of cooperation among the member governments. In addition to these stated goals, however, the organization also seeks to limit American and other Western influence in Central Asia, and to help member governments resist democratization efforts emanating both from inside and outside of the member states. |
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