Afghan Mission "Dangerous But Necessary"

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder expressed his condolences to the families of the seven German members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) killed in a helicopter crash in Kabul on Saturday.

At the same time the incident that has raised concern in Germany about the safety of their troops in Kabul, had the Chancellor defending the purpose of the German mission.

“We knew from the beginning that we were engaging in a dangerous mission,” Schröder said in an interview with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The chancellor stressed though that the operation to protect Kabul and the surrounding area is necessary: “It’s about defending our value system,” he said.

Schröder also ruled out an extension of Germany’s mandate to other parts of the country. He said that the German military is doing as much as it can in Afghanistan. “More won’t work. Our presence there is a big strain and pushes us to the limits of what we can do,” he insisted.

Just a day after Germany’s parliament voted to extend the Bundeswehr’s peacekeeping mandate in Afghanistan and to double the number of soldiers patrolling there from the current 1,300 to around 2,500, seven soldiers died in a helicopter crash six kilometers (four miles) outside of Kabul on Saturday.

The soldiers were on a routine reconnaissance mission, when their American-built Sikorsky CH-53 craft crashed into an abandoned house at 3:45 p.m. Kabul time.

Probe begins

A team of German military experts arrived in the Afghan capital on Sunday to investigate the cause of the accident. There is “no evidence whatsoever of an attack,” Defense Minister Peter Struck emphasized. A spokesperson for the Defense Ministry said on Monday that a defect in the helicopter’s main rotor may have been the problem.

The accident has prompted criticism and doubts over whether the Bundeswehr is well-equipped to face up to dangerous foreign deployments.

“We fly with outdated equipment,” criticized Wolfgang Ostermaier, vice chairman of the German Federal Armed Forces Association. He contended that the Bundeswehr needs new equipment in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt.

Criticism also came from the conservative opposition’s defense expert, Christian Schmidt: “Whoever believes that the Bundeswehr’s safety will be maintained through stretching, cutting and reducing is on the wrong path.”

The statement refers to a decision announced earlier this month by German Defense Minister Peter Struck to overhaul and modernize the German armed forces and make deep cuts in its budget.

Andreas Steffan, a spokesman for the German contingent of ISAF, dismissed the criticism. “The CH-53 helicopters are certainly very old. But they are one of the most reliable types of helicopters that exist worldwide,” he told the news agency dpa.

The Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter, referred to as a flying donkey within the military, was developed by the U.S. for the marines and first employed during the Vietnam War. The Bundeswehr bought 122 of the crafts in 1973. There are no plans to retire the helicopters from the German military -- on the contrary, they are not meant to be replaced until 2035.

Experienced personnel

The 53-year-old pilot and two soldiers aged 24 and 28 aboard the ill-fated helicopter were stationed in Laupheim near Ulm in Baden-Württemberg. Three others came from a regiment in the town of Rheine in Westphalia, while the seventh soldier was a 29-year-old stationed in Faßberg near Celle in Lower Saxony. The pilot was one of the most experienced in Laupheim, with thousands of hours of flying time, and had taken part in numerous foreign missions.

A memorial ceremony will be held for the soldiers in Kabul and in Germany after the investigation into the accident's cause is completed.

These is the second fatal incident involving Germans soldiers since the ISAF mission began in Afghanistan. In March, two German and three Danish soldiers were killed while attempting to dismantle a Soviet anti-aircraft missile.

Germany will take over the leadership of the ISAF forces together with the Netherlands in February.