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U.S. Requested German Military Assistance
BERLIN, Nov 6 (News Agencies) - The United States has made a specific request for German military assistance in its campaign against Afghanistan, a deputy from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) said Tuesday, news agencies reported.
Hermann Scheer told Berlin's InfoRadio that Berlin had received the first specific request from the United States for the assistance of Germany's Bundeswehr military since the beginning of the U.S.-led bombing on October 7.
But he said that as of Monday, Berlin did not have a point-by-point wish list from Washington, Agence France- Presse (AFP) reported.
"As far as I know, the government did not yet know yesterday exactly what the details are," Scheer said. "[The government] knew it was coming but not what it included. That is why it cannot be given a detailed evaluation yet."
Several German newspapers reported Tuesday that the German government had received a call for assistance from Washington.
The daily newspaper, Berliner Zeitung, said that the request had included making planes available - including medical transport aircraft which will be primarily used for humanitarian assistance and the treatment of wounded U.S. soldiers, as well as providing Fuchs armored cars.
The newspaper added that the U.S. may request the deployment of up to 4,000 soldiers.
Public television broadcaster, ARD, said the U.S. requests were broad enough that they would require the approval of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.
Schroeder has pledged Germany's "unlimited solidarity" to the U.S. in its war on terrorism, despite increasingly critical voices from his ruling coalition of the SPD and the Greens party.
The chancellor called a meeting of the federal security council for Tuesday, which will be followed by a discussion with parliamentary and political party leaders - expected to address the U.S. request.
Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said that initial decisions about deployment of Bundeswehr forces in Afghanistan would be made Tuesday.
"We will set to work on a few ideas in the security council and be able to make a few decisions," Scharping told the DPA news agency on Tuesday morning in Berlin, on the sidelines of a forum on international security.
Asked when German troops might be deployed, Scharping said, "Making capabilities available is not a decision about deployment."
Schroeder told members of his party Monday that the German military could be called to assist in the campaign on Afghanistan "in the next few days or weeks."
SPD general secretary Franz Muentefering said that Schroeder had told a meeting of the SPD, of which the chancellor is also chairman, that a U.S. request for aid by Bundeswehr military forces was expected "soon".
The German Bundeswehr's assistance to the United States is currently limited to piloting AWACS surveillance planes over U.S. territory as part of a NATO defense mission against possible terrorist attacks.
Leaders of the German Greens party, junior partners in the government's ruling coalition, on Monday called for "critical solidarity" with the United States - a rejection of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's pronouncements of "unlimited solidarity".
"Critical solidarity means that one does not think everything that the partner does is right," said Greens co-leader, Fritz Kuhn, after a meeting of the party's governing council. "There is no question, however, of the fundamental solidarity with the United States among the Greens."
Kuhn said there had been "several critical voices about some ways of running the war" at the party council's meeting - in particular the use of cluster bombs in U.S.-led strikes against Afghanistan.
According to the British Jane's Defense Weekly, cluster bombs are 1,000-pound munitions that break into 202 bomblets, which then fracture into 300 fragments of steel each.
Asked about the Greens' apparent contradiction of Schroeder's foreign policy, Kuhn retorted, "It is not the chancellor's job to determine how debate is conducted among the Greens."
Kuhn admitted that the discussion within the party council on the question of a temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach refugees had also been heated.
Greens co-leader, Roth, who tends to lean more to the left than Kuhn, renewed her call for a break in the bombing.
Kuhn admitted that he tended to share the position of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens, who has opposed stopping the military campaign, warning it would only prolong the war.
Internal debate on the proper response to the anti-U.S. terrorist attacks of September 11 is expected to be the centerpiece of a Greens party congress November 24-25.
Schroeder has also faced dissent within his own Social Democratic Party on the U.S.-led bombing campaign, with a number of deputies denouncing the fact that the attacks have claimed a number of civilian casualties and calling for a more determined pursuit of a political resolution to the conflict.
A well-connected Afghan news agency said Tuesday that 633 civilians have been killed since the start of the U.S. led strikes on Afghanistan.
The Taliban militia has said more than 1,500 people have been killed since air raids started on October 7. But the United States has accused the Kabul regime of exaggerating the figures.
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