Inquiry demand
November 28, 2009
Franz Josef Jung quit his post as labor minister on Friday, November 27, after a newspaper report said he had misled the public about civilian casualties in the aftermath of the September 4 airstrike in the Kunduz province. Jung was serving at the time as Germany's defense minister.
The estimated casualty tally of up to 145 people, including dozens of civilians, makes the Kunduz attack the deadliest operation involving German troops since World War Two.
The Social Democrats (SPD) - who were junior partners to Merkel's conservative bloc before being routed in the September 27 general elections - and the Green Party have demanded a full investigation of the alleged cover-up scandal.
"It's about more than just the misconduct of a few individual people," Social Democratic opposition leader and former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.
"It's about a basic question of parliamentary democracy. The people of this country have a right to clarification," he added.
Green Party leaders Renate Kuenast and Juergen Trittin said they would demand that the events be "comprehensively explained."
“We must determine where the structural faults lie," Trittin told the weekly Neue Presse newspaper. "The political maneuvering in Berlin following the bomb attack is obvious: with the federal election in mind, there was an attempt to deny the reality.”
"It must be clarified whether the orders for the cover-up came from the then (defense) minister or from the chancellor's office,” he said.
Denial of civilian casualties
In the aftermath of the airstrike, Jung, a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), had repeatedly denied civilians deaths.
On Thursday, Jung finally admitted he had known for weeks about the existence of a military report that pointed to civilian deaths. But he said he had no "concrete knowledge" of its contents because it had been passed to NATO.
Newspapers from across the political spectrum condemned the 60-year-old Jung. One called the affair the first major crisis of Merkel's new center-right administration.
On Friday afternoon, Jung announced he was stepping down in a terse statement delivered at a hastily called news conference.
"I hereby assume the political responsibility for the internal communication policy of the defense ministry," he said.
Jung's exit from the post of labor minister came a day after it was announced that Germany's military chief of staff, Wolfgang Schneiderhan and a former deputy defense minister were stepping down over the airstrike.
Awkward timing
The examination of the government's conduct with regard to the Afghan conflict could hardly come at a more awkward time for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The German parliament is expected next week to renew a mandate which allows Merkel's government to deploy up to 4,500 in the country, but officials have indicated this number could be raised early next year.
With violence reaching its deadliest levels since the Taliban were forced from power in 2001, US President Barack Obama is set to announce his country's new strategy for the conflict next week, and is expected to ask European allies for up to 10,000 more troops.
The Bundeswehr's mission in Afghanistan, however, remains highly unpopular in Germany.
rb/dpa/AP/Reuters
Editor: Toma Tasovac