Fiche du document numéro 13289

13289

Monday April 18, 1994

19940418

Liffey, Kevin

1994-04-18ReutersKohlpushesforGermanstogoonU.N.missions.pdf

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1994-04-18ReutersKohlpushesforGermanstogoonU.N.missions.html

Kohl pushes for Germans to go on U.N. missions

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Reuters

Boudiguet

Dépêche d'agence

EN

BONN, April 18 (Reuter) - Chancellor Helmut Kohl said on Monday that
German troops should take part in United Nations operations abroad, a
day before a supreme court hearing to decide if such missions are
constitutional.

The debate over widening Germany's military role, long a taboo because
of lingering shame over Nazi militarism, intensified with news that
Bonn had considered sending paratroops to evacuate its citizens from
Rwanda.

The dilemma was avoided when Belgian troops rescued the 11 Germans --
which some politicians saw as a humiliation which should make Germany
take on a bigger foreign military role.

Germany must not stand aside when peace and liberty are at stake in
the world, Kohl said at a reception to honour the German soldiers who
have participated in U.N. relief missions in Somalia and Cambodia and
over Yugoslavia.

Our security and our ability to act in foreign policy depend on our
being reliable partners and our allies being able to trust us. For our
allies have stood by us in the past and continue to do so, he said.

The army's tasks will in future include dealing with crises and
conflicts, peace missions and humanitarian deployments which go beyond
the defence of the country and the alliance.

The government said at the weekend that the defence ministry had been
investigating the possibility of getting the Germans out of Kigali when
it heard that the Belgians had already acted.

Kohl's parliamentary whip Juergen Ruettgers said this showed the debate
over overseas deployments was not academic but concerns people's lives
and safety, and the issue of whether the SPD is ready to take on this
responsibility.

Kohl has been trying to widen Germany's military role ever since
unification in 1990, but the insistence of the opposition Social
Democrats (SPD) that the constitution does not allow this has brought
about the Constitutional Court hearing.

Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel and Defence Minister Volker Ruehe will
both testify when it starts in Karlsruhe on Tuesday.

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, a deputy SPD leader, accused Ruettgers and
the government of painting scenarios always with the idea How can we
find somewhere to deploy the army?'.

Kohl's parliamentary leader Wolfgang Schaueble has been trying to use
the court case and calls for international action to end the Bosnian
conflict to ensnare the SPD in a policy debate that could expose
internal divisions.

He has even called for German troops to help keep the peace in Bosnia
once the conflict ends -- an idea firmly rejected by Kinkel, leader of
the Free Democrat junior partners in Kohl's coalition.

SPD leader Rudolf Scharping told a news conference he believed the
Karlsruhe judges would rule that German military missions outside NATO
required parliamentary approval.

But he said those who argued that Rwanda showed the need for a higher
military profile were guilty of warmongering.

He said the SPD saw no reason to change its view that German military
deployments could extend to armed defence of peacekeepers or relief
workers but had to stop short of waging wars such as the United
Nations-led, 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.

Party manager Guenter Verheugen told German radio the SPD would not be
drawn into a foreign policy debate. He said Kohl's Christian Democrats
want to divert attention from their failures in employment, social,
financial and economic policy.

(c) Reuters Limited 1994