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 The
German government has been asked to approve the export of up to
1,000 tanks to Turkey in what is the first major test of new ethics
rules on arms shipments, government sources said on Thursday.
The source said arms
manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, part of the Mannesmann group,
made a preliminary request to the Foreign Ministry to allow the
shipment of Leopard II battle tanks to go ahead. Such a request must
be made ahead of an official application for an export permit.
Ankara's tender for up to 1,000 tanks caused a row between
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and their junior
partners the ecologist Greens last year when Krauss-Maffei applied
for permission to send one tank to Turkey for testing.
Greens politicians said such a shipment could not go ahead given
Turkey's human rights record and its treatment of its Kurdish
minority.
The firm was finally allowed to send the test tank after tighter
rules were drawn up over arms shipments and the government pledged
that no further shipment could be made unless Ankara substantially
improved its human rights record.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a leading Green, is already
under sharp attack from his party after reports the government had
approved the export of 64 "Fuchs" (Fox) armored
reconnaissance vehicles to the United Arab Emirates. Western leaders
have repeatedly called for greater democracy in the Gulf Emirates.
As foreign minister, Fischer is one of the ministers in Schroeder's
cabinet who has a say in improving arms exports.
Earlier, the Defense Ministry denied any approval had been given for
the Fox delivery but the Economics Ministry said defense firm
Henschel Wehrtechnik GmbH IWK had requested permission to export the
armoured cars.
With a Greens party
congress starting on Friday, the timing of the two export requests
is particularly difficult for Fischer.
He has already been
criticized by his own party for not informing them earlier of the
Fox order. Greens politicians said they expected him to explain
himself at the weekend congress, to be held in the southern city of
Karlsruhe.
Greens co-leader Antje Radcke said she expected the government to
apply to the letter the new rules which ban arms shipments in
certain cases of human rights abuses.
"We have the tighter rules on arms exports and they will help
the government in making its decision," she said. (Arms
Trade News)
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