Escalation Desired: Germany Intensifies Mission in Afghanistan

• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

The third phase was also characterized by lies. It began directly after the air strike.

Only a few hours later, still on Sept. 4, a confidential, three-page report, of which SPIEGEL has a copy, was written in Kunduz. The author is a sergeant who manages Afghan informants. His report proves how early the Bundeswehr knew about the devastating effects of the strike within the civilian population. According to the Bundeswehr, the informant was an Afghan "with direct access to information on the activities of the insurgents in the Chahar Dara district." The informant's information had been "relatively credible" in the past.

According to the informant, the casualties included "Taliban as well as civilians." The Taliban had apparently intended to distribute the fuel from the tankers, the source reported. "This was the reason for the large number of civilians in the area." At least 100 people were apparently killed.

The sergeant felt that the informant's report was credible, because it confirmed the mission "at its core." According to the sergeant, it seemed "likely that civilians were also killed in the air strike," and it was even "conceivable" that, at the time of the bombing, "a large number of civilians was present" to collect free gasoline from the tankers.

The sergeant, concerned about the fallout, wrote in his report: "Should the information prove to be true, particularly the information about the large number of civilian casualties, negative consequences are quite possible."

The report remained classified. Publicly, the Bundeswehr, ranging all the way up to then Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, initially claimed that there were no civilian casualties, and that all those killed were Taliban. The investigative committee will now have to determine who knew about the document when, and who decided, against his better judgment, to claim the opposite was true.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany is now looking into whether it should launch an investigation into possible war crimes committed by Klein. Until now, the investigators have assumed that purpose of the air strike was to defend against impending attack. In that sort of a situation, international criminal law permits the killing of enemies, even if this could lead to civilian casualties.

There is no clear mathematical formula in international criminal law defining a military strike as a violation of international law once a certain number of casualties has been reached. Until now, the Karlsruhe investigators have been eager to give Klein the benefit of the doubt. From their offices in a provincial southern German city, they have been loath to decide how a commander in Afghanistan should view the world.

But the picture becomes more complicated if it turns out that Klein knew, at the time of the bombing, that there were still civilians and an innocent truck driver in the target area. The federal judges will now have to determine whether Klein was prepared to accept the possibility of collateral damage during the attack.

The clearer it becomes that there was no acute threat and that the air strike was ordered out of a purely destructive desire, the narrower the investigators' latitude, and the more thoroughly federal prosecutors have to examine the case. And the more serious the outcome of the Karlsruhe investigation is, the greater the collateral damage for the Bundeswehr will be. Soldiers pay very close attention to the consequences a commander must anticipate when he makes a decision with fatal consequences.

And so the soldiers remain stuck somewhere between the Taliban and the law. The Taliban attack the Germans where they can, and the prosecutors pay close attention to whether the Germans strike back on a regular basis.

This is what happens when a democracy wages war. It cannot be any different. But when a military mission is accompanied by lies and cover-ups, democracy squanders its moral advantage.

Reported by ULRIKE DEMMER, MATTHIAS GEBAUER, JOHN GOETZ, DIRK KURBJUWEIT, HOLGER STARK

• Back
• 1
• | 2
• | 3

• Part 1: Germany Intensifies Mission in Afghanistan
• Part 2: The Bundeswehr Gets Teeth
• Part 3: 'At Least 100 Were Apparently Killed'