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Germany denies soldiers, police trained Libyans

Germany on Monday denied reports that its federal police and soldiers had covertly trained Libyan security forces, except in one case where a sergeant was suspended and placed under investigation.

“As far as we know, no government official and no soldier in active service took part in the planning or implementation of training programs in Libya,” government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm stressed that Berlin has never supported an initiative to help train security operatives in Libya, denying press reports implicating former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the scandal.

He spoke as political parties across the spectrum stepped up pressure on the government to come clear on its role in the alleged training of 120 Libyans between December 2005 to June 2006.

“The government must place all its cards on the table,” said Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

The liberal opposition Free Democrats said the government must explain whether it had known of or tolerated a training scheme and warned that the affair could “lead much higher” than the security and intelligence services.

MOONLIGHTING

Media reports at the weekend said that following a request from Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, members of the German police had moonlighted as highly-paid instructors for the Libyan forces and that the German embassy in Tripoli knew about it.

The affair has caused an outcry, partly because it suggests shady dealings between Berlin and Tripoli at a time when Libya was still an international outcast.

Bild am Sonntag said Schroeder and Qaddafi discussed the matter first during a secret meeting in Cairo in 2003 and again at an official summit the following year.

The paper said providing training for Libyans was a political pay-off for Tripoli’s role in securing the release of three Germans who were among 21 Western tourists kidnapped by extremists on the Philippine island of Jolo in 2000.

Schroeder, the foreign ministry and the foreign intelligence service, the BND, have denied the reports.

The former chancellor threatened to sue newspapers for printing “lies.”

Schroeder denied meeting with Qaddafi in secret or speaking to him about training Libyan forces, saying he “certainly has no recollection” of giving such undertakings.

INVESTIGATION

The regional interior ministry in Duesseldorf said last week that eight members of the Special Operations Squad (SEK) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia were under investigation for taking part in the clandestine training scheme and had been relieved of their duties with the elite unit.

The ministry said a master sergeant in the German army and a former SEK officer, who was suspected of organizing the training of Libyan forces between 2005 and last year, were also under investigation.

The sergeant was suspended in 2006 when it became known that he was trying to recruit fellow soldiers to train Libyans, a spokesman for the defense ministry said.

Press reports have said some 30 Germans were involved and that they were paid up to 15,000 euros (US$23,500).

The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung said on Monday the affair proved that Germany had two foreign policies, one official and one covert.

“This shows again that in Germany it remains possible to have a private, parallel foreign policy that escapes any form of official control,” the newspaper said.

The matter is due to be discussed in parliament today.
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