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Deadly air strike colonel to be promoted
Published: 9 Aug 12 12:39 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120809-44259.html
The German officer who ordered an air strike that killed more than 100 Afghan civilians and cost the jobs of the defence minister, the head of the army and a senior state secretary, is to be promoted to general next year.
- Relatives of Kunduz bomb victims to sue - National (1 Sep 11)
- Afghan politician calls German air strike payouts 'laughable' - National (6 Aug 10)
- Report says Bundeswehr lied during Kunduz strike - National (23 Dec 09)
The post is being created by the merger of the army’s military and civilian personnel departments. He is currently working in the military section, but is expected to take up the new job next spring.
In September 2009, Klein ordered a NATO air strike on two oil tanker trucks in Kunduz that killed over 100 Afghans, most of whom are thought to have been civilians.
Klein was investigated by German state prosecutors, though the investigation was dropped, and the Bundeswehr also dropped any disciplinary proceedings after several months.
The promotion effectively absolves him of any wrongdoing, even though his seniors were sacked following the scandal.
The Kunduz affair cost the job of Labour Minister Franz Josef Jung, who was defence minister at the time of the attack, after it emerged that he had misinformed parliament about the extent of the killing of innocents. His successor Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg then sacked Bundeswehr Chief of Staff Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Defence Ministry Secretary of State Peter Wichert for allegedly withholding information from him.
Karim Popal, the lawyer representing the victims, has strongly criticized the decision to promote Klein. "The promotion would be a slap in the face for the Afghan civilian population would be like a declaration of war," he told Thursday's edition of the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
Green Party MP Hans-Christian Ströbele, a long-time opponent of Germany's military intervention in Afghanistan, said the "catastrophic bloodbath" that he said Klein was responsible for should rule out any promotion.
An Amnesty International report on the air strike listed 83 names of victims, several of whom were under 16 years old. The report also said many people had died because the usual warning flyovers had been omitted.
The Local/DAPD/DPA/bk
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Your comments about this article:
It happens that sometimes civilians are mis-identified as combatants. It happens that sometimes civilians are killed unintentionally. If you can't deal with that, then you can't send your army to a war.
If they where only American or German civilians, his arse would be fired to the Moon.This shows how big hypocrits people, are even when it comes to inocent life, civilians, children.
But it is clear from the comments that most of those are from military personel, presumebly US staitioned in Germany. And their list of collaterall damage from Japan - Hiroshima, Vietnam to Afganistan is now larger than entire population of Afganistan.... You must be proud of yourselvs.
If fault lies anywhere, it is with the people who sent him in the conflict. Good job done .
In this world where the Islamist fighters violate every law to save their precious little war vehicles and warmaking capability, there are going to be collateral deaths.
In Iraq and in Lebanon, Palistine, and many other places, the cowardly warrior hides his arms and weapons in schools, churches, in many places that are illegal. Full well knowing that the minute the infidel aggressor attacks the missile emplacement, or criminal illegal combatant, they will hit innocents. The israelis even started calling the homes of people in the building about to be attacked and telling the innocents to leave ASAP.
People get hurt, but is the target legitimate otherwise? If no innocent civilians were hurt in the attack attributed to the Colonel, would the target have been a good target?
@Edin: They would not have been German or American civilians as we do not hide our arms and weapons amongst the masses. We follow the international rules of engagement and have professional military persons. One might say that the islamist combatants are not aware of rules about hiding guns and things in Mosques, but then one would be kidding themselves. They fight to win, they are not encumbered by rules of Engagement or any conventions that would protect landmarks or children..they want to cause an incident so as to inflame the populaces where they are.
GOd Bless teh Colonel and his promotion. He will be in a position to make a difference and maybe fix the ROE and other problems facing German soldiers having been a victim of them himself.