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German minister under pressure over new Kunduz report
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 09 - 12 - 2009


German Defence Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg
came under renewed pressure Wednesday over the government"s knowledge
of civilian victims of a botched airstrike in Afghanistan, according to dpa.
News magazine Stern reported Wednesday that Guttenberg, who became
defence minister in October, had been made aware on November 6 of a
report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that
claimed there had been 74 civilians including children killed in the
September 4 airstrike in Kunduz.
The airstrike, ordered by a German officer, targeted two fuel
tankers hijacked by militants that had become stuck in a river bed.
Franz Josef Jung, former defence minister and the military"s top
officer at the time of the airstrike, resigned from the government in
November when it emerged that details of civilian victims may have
been withheld from the public.
Defence Ministry sources confirmed to the German Press Agency dpa
on Wednesday that Guttenberg had seen the ICRC report on November 6
before he made a statement to the public in which he described the
airstrike as "militarily appropriate."
He said the government regretted every civilian casualty.
However on Wednesday Inge Hoeger, a member of parliament for the
anti-war Left Party, called for Guttenberg"s resignation.
"Whoever has a document on their desk that says that eight, ten
and twelve-year-old children were killed, can"t carry on as if
everything was alright," she said.
Guttenberg has since rescinded the judgement that the attack was
appropriate, in the light of documents on the attack he says were not
available to him at the time.
The precise number of victims of the airstrike, whether civilian
or militant, has not been conclusively determined.
A committee of the German parliament is due to begin investigating
the incident on December 16.
On Tuesday, a German lawyer acting for 78 Afghans who are
attempting to claim compensation from the German government for the
attack said he had been invited for talks with the Defence Ministry
over a possible financial settlement.
The lawyer, Karim Popal, told ARD radio on Tuesday that according
to his own research in the village in Kunduz province near where the
attack took place, there had been a total of 179 casualties,
including 137 dead. Some 22 people were still missing, and 20 had
been injured.
All - apart from 5 - had been civilians, Popal claimed.
The lawyer said that contrary to other reports, there had been no
high-ranking Taliban among the dead.
Following an inquiry, NATO said there had been a maximum of 142
people killed, including an indeterminate number of civilians.


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