Military role

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has dismissed the idea that changes to the German constitution were needed to better deal with the threat of piracy in the future.

She noted that as part of the European Union's anti-piracy mission Atalanta, German troops were already involved in fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa.

Zypries was responding to a suggestion by Defense Minister Jung of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives that any action by the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, was possible only within the framework of the Atalanta mission.

For the Bundeswehr to react on its own, he said, the Basic Law, which serves as Germany's constitution, would need to be changed. At the moment, it is the police who are responsible for dealing with hostage-takings, both within the country as well as abroad.

What makes Jung's suggestion to amend the constitution controversial is that it would mean that potentially the military could also be deployed within the country alongside – or instead of – the German police.

Rainer Arnold, defense expert with the Social Democrats, said the military should under no circumstances be used domestically as a replacement for the police. Winifred Nachtwei of the Green Party criticized Jung's statements as unnecessary and accused the minister of trying to damage the constitution.

Birgit Homburger of the liberal Free Democratic Party said the military was "expressly authorized to participate in freeing hostages as part of the Atalanta mission."

Also the police itself criticised Jung over his suggestions. The chairman of the police trade union, Konrad Freiberg, said "the military must not be employed domestically." He also warned that the recent case of the Hansa Stavanger shouldn't be used for election campaigning. Germans are due to vote in general elections on September 27.

He stressed that what needed to be improved was the cooperation between the ministries to better coordinate the action of the police's special unit GSG9 and the EU's Atalanta mission.

The debate followed the end of a four-month ordeal faced by the crew of the German freighter Hansa Stavanger at the hands of Somali pirates. Over the weekend the freighter arrived safely in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

ai/AFP/dpa
Editor: Chuck Penfold