>
> Claims by the German Social Democrats that
> concentration camps have been set up for the
> Kosovo Albanians have inevitably drawn a
> sharp emotional reaction in Germany, and are a
> main factor in rallying support for the attacks on
> Yugoslavia.
>
> The Germans themselves have been surprised
> by the lack of protest and anti-American
> demonstrations. Most still cannot believe that
> Germany is now involved in a full-scale war,
> turning its back on half a century of pacifism.
> Newspapers ask: can this be Germany? Where
> are the protests? Where is the Left's knee-jerk
> anti-Americanism?
Some days ago the social democratic German Defence Minister, Rudolf Scharping, SPD leader from 1993 to 1995, used the term concentration camp in connection with the expulsions and civil war atrocities in Kosovo. This was based on a report by German TV channel ZDF that the central stadium of Pristina was reportedly used as a concentration camp - a report which was not only denied by the same channel on Thursday night but described as part of wartime propaganda.
Yesterday, Rudolf Scharping had been asked to comment on this remark during a press conference. He did not reiterate the term concentration camp.
In this joint press conference the leading figures within the red-green German Government, Schroeder (Chancellor), Scharping, and Fischer (Foreign Secretary), repeated their exhortations to hold out, i.e. to continue the bombing, accompanied by describing the fatal situation of the refugees in and outside Kosovo. The main argument for continuing the war of aggression now runs that the deportation of the Kosovo Albanians had been prepared long before the bombing started and that the expulsion had been planned by Milosovic in order to destabilize the neighbouring countries.
The governmental exhortations are in contrast to the emerging opposition of members of the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party at grass root level against this war af aggression. It looks like that the shock which the left wings of the SPD and the Green Party have been suffering from for more than a week is now giving way for some cautious opposition within these parties.
Hinrich Kuhls