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Germany bans soldier T-shirt that jokes about fatal airstrike
Nov 29, 2009, 16:46 GMT
Berlin - Germany has banned its soldiers in Afghanistan from wearing a T-shirt that makes a joke of a fatal airstrike in September in which Afghan civilians were killed, the Defence Ministry in Berlin said Sunday.
The printed T-shirts depict two tanker trucks driving in opposite directions with the caption, 'Thou shalt not steal! Exodus 2.15.'
The verse is one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible.
The ministry said the shirts had been offered at a shop at the Mazar-i-Sharif NATO base, which houses forces from 15 nations. It said the shop was not run by the German military. The German commander had insisted they be removed from sale.
A German colonel ordered the airstrike on two hijacked tankers, triggering political disarray in Germany. Non-disclosure of the civilian deaths led to the resignation last week of labour minister Franz Josef Jung, who was defence minister at the time.
Reports say the civilians who were killed were opportunistically taking fuel from the tankers at night while they were stuck in a riverbed. More than 100 Taliban fighters and civilians were killed, with accounts varying. The highest estimate was 142.
German soldiers have been warned not to wear the shirts. The armed forces said it would institute disciplinary measures if it discovered that any German personnel had been involved in producing the T- shirts.
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