NATO chief seeks troops for Afghanistan amid German crisis (Roundup)

Nov 26, 2009, 15:40 GMT

Berlin - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday that European states would have to send more troops to Afghanistan, as a scandal over civilian casualties in the country rocked the German government.

Two of Germany's highest military officials resigned and a former defence minister came under severe pressure, accused of covering up their knowledge of civilian casualties of a bombing raid two months ago.

'It is of utmost importance that an American announcement of increased troop numbers is followed by additional troop contributions from other allies,' Rasmussen said.

US President Barack Obama is expected to announce an extra 30,000 US troops for Afghanistan next week. Analysts predict European allies including Germany, Britain, France and Italy will then be asked for around 10,000 more soldiers.

'Right now I am travelling and contacting a number of allies with the aim to urge them to increase their contributions to our mission in Afghanistan,' Rasmussen said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The resignation of the German armed forces' top officer, General Wolfgang Schneiderhan, was announced by Defence Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg in parliament at the opening of a debate on the extension of the German military presence in Afghanistan.

   The mass-circulation Bild newspaper said Thursday that the government had held back video and eyewitness reports detailing civilian casualties in a German-ordered airstrike in Kunduz on September 4.

   In addition, Guttenberg said that a junior minister, Peter Wichert, who had been in office under Jung, was 'taking responsibility' by resigning.

   In the attack, a German officer called a US airstrike on two hijacked fuel tankers, in which up to 142 people died. The exact number of victims, and how many were civilians, is as yet unknown. The number of civilian casualties is suspected to be in the dozens.

   In the days after the event, then-defence minister Franz Josef Jung told the newspaper that 'according to the information I have at this time, only Taliban fighters were killed' in the bombing.

   However Bild revealed that the previously-secret video and eyewitness accounts by German soldiers of civilian victims had been passed to the military headquarters near Berlin on the same day as the attack.

   Parliamentarians demanded that Jung explain his actions. He promised to speak before the house later Thursday.

Merkel said at the press conference that she expected Jung to give an explanation in a spirt of transparency.

'I've always said that if we want to win confidence, we have to have full transparency,' Merkel said.

   Social Democratic opposition leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the German Press Agency dpa that the Bild revelations showed that information had been 'systematically withheld' from parliament.

   Germany has up to 4,500 soldiers in the northern Kunduz region as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led force there.

   Germany operates strict parliamentary control over its military, and the parliament will decide by next week whether or not to approve the cabinet decision to extend the Afghan mission for another year.

   The Kunduz attack caused outrage in Germany, where, according to opinion polls, a majority of the population opposes involvement in the Afghan war.

However Rasmussen said it was too early to speak of precise numbers.

Chancellor Merkel said 'We are about to enter into a new stage in our commitment' to Afghanistan, adding that 'Germany is aware of the reponsibility it has.'

The way forward was a 'step by step process of handing over responsibility to the Afghan government,' Merkel said.

Whilst broadly positive about NATO's increasing involvement in Afghanistan, Merkel said her government would not decide on any increased troop commitment before an international conference on the conflict planned for January 28, 2010, in London.