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The World from Berlin

Ex-Guantanamo Prisoner Vexes German Government

Germany's Defense Ministry has admitted that special forces were operating secretly in Afghanistan at the time Murat Kurnaz claims he was abused by German soldiers. Muraz has been cleared of working with terrorist groups, but German soldiers did nothing to prevent his transport to Guantanamo Bay. Many are calling for a full investigation.

Shortly after Murat Kurnaz was released from the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay and returned to Germany in late August, the Bremen resident went public with the accusationthat he was physically abused by two unknown German soldiers. Officials in Berlin were quick to denounce the claims made by the Turkish national, who was born and raised in Germany, as unfounded.

But a different picture began to emerge on Wednesday, when the Defense Ministry was forced to admit that German Special Forces -- the so-called KSK -- had in fact been guarding the US prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan five years ago, and that they had contact with Kurnaz during the time of the alleged abuses. However, the ministry claims there is no evidence of any abuse against Kurnaz.

The parliamentary committee investigating the German military's activities during the war in Iraq has also been unable to find evidence to substantiate Kurnaz's claim that the soldiers had pulled him by the hair and thrown his head against the ground. German papers on Thursday are arguing for a full investigation.

The conservative daily Die Welt is quick to point out that the German commandos must be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Kurnaz's accusations "are severe, but the hearings so far have not produced any evidence." According to the paper, "the real scandal" is that the federal government, including the parliament, "were not fully aware of what their elite troops were doing in Afghanistan." According to the paper, the German army has a duty to report its activities to the parliament "without gaps" -- after all, it is "a parliamentary army, and not a secret one."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung shares this view, calling for public parliamentary investigation into Kurnaz's allegations. "Just like the intelligence agencies, the KSK is allowed to operate in secret, but not without checks." The Munich-based paper commends Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung for rejecting calls for an investigative committee behind closed doors. Given the gravity of Kurnaz's allegations, it would be a mistake to avoid a public hearing, the paper warns. "Only a complete investigation can avert damage from the Armed Forces and rid the KSK of the suspicion of having abused the parliament's and the public's provision of trust."

The left-wing daily Die Tageszeitung also argues for an open investigation. "Soldiers are not above the law," the paper writes, "and that includes elite soldiers." The daily paper dismisses demands for a secret inquiry on grounds of national security as "just different words for a cover-up." Regardless of whether Kurnaz can substantiate his abuse allegations, the paper sees a wider problem. "It would be a greater scandal than any single instance of abuse," it writes, "if Kurnaz's prison time had been extended for the sole reason that German government agencies did not want him back in Germany." This would be scandalous even if no laws had been broken, the paper writes, because conditions at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay recall the "torture chambers of a dictator."

"Once again, red-green government is caught in a lie," writes the leftist Berliner Zeitung, referring to the coalition of Social Democrats and Greens led by then-Chancellor Schröder. The paper criticizes both Schröder's government and that of current Chancellor Angela Merkel for misleading the public. According to German law, soldiers and secret agents in crisis regions like Afghanistan must stick to the mandate given them by the German parliament -- which means they must try to protect the human rights of all German citizens. The soldiers learned of Kurnaz's arrest but made no effort whatsoever to prevent his transport to Guantanamo.

The KSK also began its mission one month before Rudolf Scharping, the German defense minister at the time, has publicly admitted. The Berliner Zeitung says it is no longer a secret that German soldiers and agents have been at the front lines in the "War on Terror," and the Kurnaz case proves that the government has "covered up its impressively consistent participation in the ugly side of the War on Terror by using lies."

The op-ed page of the Financial Times Deutschland joins the chorus of voices calling for more transparency in the Kurnaz case, but argues that a new parliamentary committee would, "as paradoxical as it sounds, actually hamper the clarification of these allegations" -- for two reasons. First, a committee already exists to investigate the role of the German intelligence services in the Iraq war. Also, "hardly anyone on the second committee would truly be interested in clarification," since the investigators would be drawn mainly from the governing Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. The most effective solution, writes the FTD, would be "if the government were to simply put an end to its secretive tactics."

-- Alex Bakst, 1:30 p.m. CET