German army instructor dismissed over racism
German army instructor dismissed over racism
Agencies
Tuesday April 17, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The German defence ministry today said it had dismissed an instructor who told a soldier to imagine he was firing a machine gun on three black men in the Bronx.
"The Bundeswehr has dismissed him," a spokesman told Reuters. The spokesman said the non-commissioned officer, whose name is being withheld, had been stripped of his rank and pay.
The defence ministry is still investigating a second soldier who filmed the training scenes, but it was unclear how long this investigation would take. Yesterday, it condemned the scenes depicted in the video footage as unacceptable.
German television channels aired the grainy 90-second video clip over the weekend.
"You're in the Bronx, a black van pulls up in front of you and three African-Americans get out and start really insulting your mother ... now do something!" the instructor says in German, while a recruit lying on the ground starts firing his gun.
The soldier is heard to snigger, before the trainer continues: "Before each shot I want to hear a loud 'motherfucker'." He sniggers again and, after the order to "act", fires his machine gun and shouts "motherfucker".
The trainer tells him to repeat the action and speak up. The soldier responds by firing several more rounds and repeating the obscenity.
Germany's army has had to face a number of embarrassing scandals that have damaged its image in recent years.
These include the publication of pictures German soldiers in Afghanistan took of each other holding skulls and allegations that torture had been used during training.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2059086,00.html
