Protestors
June 14, 2007
The German Defense Ministry confirmed earlier this week that it had sent Tornado surveillance jets to take aerial photographs of the G8 premises in Heiligendamm and the surroundings. The action had included flights over a G8 protestors' camp in nearby Reddelich.
The mission had occurred at the request of police, said Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, a member of the ruling coalition partner Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
According to the defense ministry, the deployment involved technical assistance to G8 organizers. Its aim was to recognize changes in soil conditions, as well as manipulations in major roads, it said.
Leading opposition politician Hans-Christian Ströbele from the Green party got the debate rolling after a protestor in the Reddelich camp informed him about the flights. Ströbele said the use of Tornados was a violation of the constitution. He has threatened to bring the case before the constitutional court in Karlsruhe.
Heiligendamm is not Afghanistan
Critics of the deployment said the jets were similar to those used by the German Air Force in Afghanistan to find Taliban guerrillas.
"Protestors aren't Taliban, after all," said Niels Annen, a foreign affairs expert for the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the CDU's coalition partner.
Dieter Wiefelspütz, the SPD's interior spokesman, said the mission was legal, but politically "extremely foolish and insensitive."
Wiefelspütz said police should have used their own helicopters for filming.
"The defense minister is apparently lacking political instinct," Wiefelspütz told the daily Passauer Neue Presse. Jung's predecessor Peter Struck from the SPD would have never approved such an action, he said.
The G8 summit was not the first time Tornados have been deployed as official support. AWACS jets patrolled areas during the soccer World Cup last year, as well as during Pope Benedict's visit to Germany. They are also used, for example, to monitor the repercussions of natural disasters.
Debate continues on domestic military deployment
The issue was on the agenda Wednesday at meetings of the parliamentary interior and defense committees in Berlin. Merkel's own CDU said it could not understand the outrage.
"The mission was not only justified, but necessary," said Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy parliamentary head of the CDU. It did not violate any personal rights. "There was no photographic material taken of individual persons."
The military, which also provided AWACS airspace monitoring at the G8 summit, said it made no secret of the fact that it filmed the area in May and June.
The coalition partners have been arguing for some time whether the military can be deployed within Germany's borders for defense purposes. This would go beyond simple administrative or technical assistance. The CDU is in favor, the SPD opposed.