To Accomplish a Mission
KABUL/PESHAWAR/BERLIN (Own report) - Combat escalation in Afghanistan is causing the first fissures among German war parties. According to Ruediger Sagel, a politician of the Green Party, a change of course with the eventual withdrawal of German troops has to be considered, in light of the destabilization of the north of Afghanistan. Sagel, a parliamentarian of the state legislative assembly of North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed to german-foreign-policy.com that, a growing number of grassroots associations in ex-foreign minister, Fischer's party are calling for the renunciation of the war effort, that the party leadership continues to pursue. An extraordinary party congress is expected to call for the withdrawal of German troops, thereby aligning itself with demands of the Left Party. Similar demands are being heard in the government coalition's SPD Party. In the meantime, the combat in Afghanistan is, to a growing extent, spilling over onto Pakistani territory, causing armed skirmishes between the troops of the Kabul government and those of Islamabad's army. With Germany's active participation, NATO has intensified its support of Pakistan. The first ISAF casualty on Pakistani territory is a direct consequence.
Exit Strategy
Ruediger Sagel, a Green Party MP, in the state legislative assembly of North Rhine-Westphalia, explained, in a discussion with german-foreign-policy.com. that the May 19 deadly attack on a German military patrol in Kunduz reveals the current destabilization in Afghanistan's north and illustrates the need to introduce a change of course in Berlin's foreign policy. Sagel joined the debate in April with an appeal formulated in the city of Bremen, calling for the necessity "of preparing an 'exit strategy' for the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan".[1] Ten days ago an internal party network ("Network of the Green Left") reinforced these demands calling for an extraordinary party congress on the question of the German Afghanistan policy. This call is receiving growing approbation among the membership of the party, making the controversy more acute within ex-foreign minister Fischer's party. The party leadership is still firmly supporting NATO strategy. Former ecology minister, Juergen Trittin is demanding an intensification of the conflict and breaking contacts between the occupation forces and the population.[2]
Unjustifiable
Until now German opposition to the Afghanistan deployment has been limited to the Left Party and a few of the conservative CDU/CSU MPs in the federal parliament (Bundestag).[3] Now it has spread beyond the Greens also to the SPD. "I don't see a viable perspective in the civil sector, by which the military interventions could be justifiable," explained Ottmar Schreiner, an SPD Bundestag parliamentarian, on Monday May 21 in German tabloids. "The entire mission must urgently be reexamined."[4]
Border Area
As the war in Afghanistan escalates, the combat is also spilling over into neighboring Pakistan, particularly into Peshawar, the capital of the so-called "Tribal Areas." Its population has close family ties to the bordering areas of Afghanistan and is therefore not exactly neutral toward the combat. Besides, Peshawar shelters numerous Afghan refugees, who, because of the continuation of the war in their home regions, must still submit to catastrophic conditions in Pakistani camps with no perspectives. Afghan rebels are supported in the "Tribal Areas". Therefore US units have, on various occasions, bombed small towns killing numerous civilians. Pakistani troops have been operating in the border areas for years and support the western war effort.
Invasion
This spring, the situation in the "Tribal Areas" went out of control. Just last week, a bombing attack in Peshawar killed at least 25 people. The message left behind by the terrorists was "this is the fate of spies working for the Americans." Only two weeks earlier, a bomb attack killed 27 people at a rally in the vicinity of Peshawar. The interior minister of Pakistan was among the wounded. In the meantime, there are armed skirmishes at the border to Afghanistan between the Pakistani army and Afghan government troops. The preliminary climax was reached a few days ago, when a Pakistani invasion onto Afghan territory is said to have resulted in numerous Afghan deaths. The Afghan Foreign Minister warned that possibly further violations of the border could "have dangerous consequences for the region's stability."[5]
Border Fortifications
A NATO spokesperson announced in Brussels that now NATO has decided to push ahead with measures to make the Afghan-Pakistani border even more hermetic. According to reports, the Pakistani soldiers are not satisfactorily complying with the US American demand, to apprehend or kill suspects.[6] Berlin has been participating for some time in this border fortification. The EU is financing a fortification program for the border. The construction of a so-called border fence began May 10. In addition, Pakistani and Afghan officers have been receiving two-week courses in border control since last spring, in Southern Germany's Garmisch-Partenkirchen.[7] The courses are held at the George C. Marshall Center and are to be provided several times per year until 2010. Since the Dec. 2, 1994 signing of government accords between the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany, officially, the George C. Marshall Center operates as a German-American cooperation project using a former Nazi caserne, that is named after Gen. Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen. Krafft von Dellmensingen was responsible for a poison gas attack in WW I and in the aftermath of the war, was a model for anti-republican ideological tendencies.
Arms Exports
Last week, during operations on Pakistani territory - euphemized in reports as negotiations on the Afghan-Pakistani border - the first ISAF soldier was killed outside the Afghan base of operations. Other ISAF soldiers were wounded. It was reported that it was a soldier of the Pakistani army, who fired the fatal shot.[8] In spite of obvious resistance being encountered, NATO is persisting in its plans to intensify its influence over Islamabad. Growing numbers of Pakistani soldiers are to be trained in NATO institutions. Two weeks ago the deputy commander in chief of the Pakistani armed forces was in Germany for a visit of several days, in which he was introduced to the Operations Command Headquarters in Potsdam. The Operations Command Headquarters is responsible for the German ISAF units. According to German military reports, the general from Islamabad also visited "enterprises in the southern region" - meaning Southern German arms industries.[9] Over the years, the German government has authorized enormous volumes of arms shipments to crisis regions in Pakistan (2004: 32.7 Million Euros, 2005: 99.7 Million Euros) and thereby greatly encouraged the willingness among Islamabad's military for cooperation in securing the border.
Grown
According to the German foreign ministry, the close cooperation with the Pakistani armed forces is in place "to use and maintain the decisive (...) military power that has been developed in a relationship over decades."[10] The actual "use" is in obtaining influence over what happens in the border region to Afghanistan, an area where Germany was previously only present through so-called development aid projects. In return for the many years of cooperation, that is being intensified with other NATO members, Pakistan is opening its borders for the "transit" of NATO personnel into the Afghan war zone.[11] The objective is to facilitate the operations of the western occupation forces in Afghanistan. The German government leaves no doubt that it will ignore the growing domestic opposition to the war on the Hindukush. "We will continue to fulfill our mission," declared the Defense Minister, Franz-Josef Jung.
[1] Bremer Appell für eine neue Afghanistanpolitik; www.sagel.info/bremer_appell.html
[2] Rückflug, Ermittlungen und politische Diskussion; Süddeutsche Zeitung 21.05.2007
[3] see also Kriegsverbrechen
[4] Nach dem Anschlag in Afghanistan: Heiße Debatte um die "Sinnfrage"; europolitan.de 21.05.2007
[5] Nato-Soldat nach Treffen in Pakistan erschossen; Basler Zeitung 14.05.2007
[6] U.S. Pays Pakistan to Fight Terror, but Patrols Ebb; The New York Times 20.05.2007
[7] see also Den Rückzug abschneiden
[8] Nato-Soldat nach Treffen in Pakistan erschossen; Reuters 14.05.2007
[9] Hoher Besuch aus Pakistan; www.streitkraeftebasis.de 15.05.2007
[10] Südasien. Aufgaben der deutschen Außenpolitik am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts; Berlin, Mai 2002
[11] NATO-Pakistan Talks May Improve Afghan Security; DefenseNews.com 09.05.2007
[12] Merkel: Wir bleiben in Afghanistan; Berliner Zeitung 21.05.2007
