Dilemma for Merkel over extra troops as cover-up of civilian deaths claims third high-profile figure
The future of Germany's mission in Afghanistan was thrown into doubt today after a government minister resigned under growing pressure to admit his involvement in a campaign of misinformation over an air raid in which civilians were killed.
Franz Josef Jung, defence minister at the time, quit as labour minister a day after the army's chief of staff, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, resigned over the incident with the deputy defence minister, Peter Wichert.
Jung said his decision followed 'detailed consideration' and that he accepted 'political responsibility for the internal information policy' in his ministry.
With an estimated two-thirds of the German public already against involvement, the defence ministry's admission that it effectively lied by initially denying there were civilian casualties when two petrol tankers were bombed in September has left Angela Merkel's recently re-elected centre-right government in a state of uncertainty over how to proceed in the region.
Merkel had largely kept out of the row but received Jung in the chancellery this morning when both were said to have agreed his resignation was necessary.
Video footage emerged yesterdayof the botched air raid ordered by the German commander, Colonel Georg Klein, on the basis of a single piece of intelligence from an Afghan informant who was unable to see the vehicles. The video, leaked to the tabloid Bild, possibly in an attempt to influence a parliamentary decision on extending the German troop presence, prompted Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the new defence minister, to admit his ministry had at best withheld information and at worst lied about the deaths.
The German government is coming under American pressure to increase its presence in the region – it has 4,500 troops there – and to prove it means to stay the course, without aggravating an already very negative public mood. Barrack Obama is expected to announce an increase in US troop numbers next week on the understanding that his allies will do the same.
According to Nico Fried, a commentator with the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify the mission. 'The reason for dispatching several thousand people to Afghanistan, which has to be based on trust in the political and military leadership, is crumbling.'
The strike in Kunduz, in which Nato says 142 insurgents and an unknown number of civilians were killed after the Taliban seized the two tankers, reinforced the German public belief that their troops have been waging war, and not, as their politicians argue, working as a stabilising force.
The €785 million a year (£712m) mission is Germany's biggest overseas deployment since the second world war. The fallout over the Kunduz incident could prove to be hugely damaging, said Ulrich Kirsch, the chairman of the German army association, saying that attempts to mislead the public and politicians had 'returned to the government benches like a boomerang'. He called for more transparency,
The mission is repeatedly referred to as 'the German engagement at the Hindu Kush', a phrase that critics say is deliberately meant to convey the impression of adventure, an impression that is dissipating fast thanks to the Kunduz incident.
'Lies and deception are now overshadowing a mission that has always been difficult and is getting more so,' said Fried. Questions were now being asked more forcefully than ever before as to 'why Germany should continue its involvement in Afghanistan after eight years'.
Despite this week's resignations the row is far from over. The state prosecutor has started an investigation and if it is decided that the airstrike broke international law it could be tried in a German court as a war crime.
Tanker hijack: Why air strike was ordered
It was shortly after midnight on 4 September that a commander ordered what would turn out to be the most significant military action involving Germany since the second world war. Militants had seized two tankers delivering jet fuel to Nato forces in the northern province of Kunduz, where international military operations are led by Germany. Fearing the fuel could be used in attacks, German officers called in an air strike, even though the trucks were surrounded by civilians at the time. 'Based on information available at the scene, the commanders believed they were insurgents,' a Nato spokesman said. It soon became clear this was not the case. The Taliban said after one of the trucks became stuck in mud the militants emptied them, and many of those nearby had been local people seeking to get some of the fuel. Whatever the truth, the final death toll remains unclear. According to an Afghan government inquiry, 30 of 100 casualties were civilians. The independent Afghanistan Rights Monitor group said 70 civilians died.
For several days after the attack Franz Josef Jung, the then-defence minister, said there was no evidence of civilian deaths, despite apparently having access to military reports saying precisely the contrary.
Peter Walker
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