No German weapons against genocide? Criticism of the Federal Government's hesitation, despite the atrocities and mass expulsions

In the course of the debate on possible arms-deliveries to Iraq, Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel emphasized that only legitimate governments should be able to receive weapons form Germany. The Secretary General of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), Tilman Zülch, criticizes the hesitation: "According to Sigmar Gabriel's argumentation, the existentially threatened Assyrian-Chaldean-Aramaic Christians in the Niniveh plains of northern Iraq and the Yezidis in the Sinjar region would by no means be able to obtain German weapons to defend themselves against the incipient genocide."

However, the ideological "father" of the terrorist organization "Islamic State", Saudi Arabia, has been receiving German weapons of all kinds for many years. From 1999 to 2013, German companies delivered shooting ranges, target devices, machine guns for aircraft, parachutes and spare parts for combat aircraft, machine guns, submachine guns and ammunition, components for electronic warfare, parts for combat aircraft and armored vehicles, patrol boats, silencers, various small arms, rocket parts, target drones and howitzers worth 5.23 billion euros – under approval of the Federal Government. Experts believe that Saudi Arabia provides logistical and financial support for the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) via Turkey.

The fact that weapons from Germany play an important role in genocide crimes in Iraq has a sad tradition which goes back to the 1970s. The companies Pilot Plant and Karl Kolb in Dreieich (Hesse) were involved in the construction of Saddam Hussein's toxic gas plants. Chemical warfare agents, among other things, had been used against the Kurdish town of Halabja, where at least 5,000 Kurds died on March 16, 1988, due to the poison gas bombardment. Thousands are still suffering from the effects of the poisoning. Iraqi battle helicopters built by MBB were used in the raids against the Assyrian-Chaldean-Aramaic and Kurdish villages along the Iraqi-Turkish and Iraqi-Iranian borders. Given this background, the Federal Government must not deny any help for the victims of the new genocide crimes, but must provide any necessary support – including the delivery of weapons supplies and other defense equipment to the government of the autonomous region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish, Christian and Yezidi self-defense organizations."

The Society for Threatened Peoples had informed the public about the activities of the companies Pilot Plant and Karl Kolb in Iraq as early as in 1987/88. At that time, the District Court in Bonn decided that the Göttingen-based international human rights organization would have to pay a fine of 500,000 DM in case the accusations were to be published again. It was not until the STP recited the same accusations from an Israeli source (Jerusalem Post) that the district court revoked its decision. When STP-members managed to enter and examine a warehouse of MBB in Ottobrunn in Bavaria, it became apparent the MBB had not respected the arms embargo against Iraq and had delivered spare parts for combat helicopters to Saddam Hussein's regime. These were used for bomb raids against the Kurdish-inhabited regions.

Tilman Zülch – Secretary General – is available for further questions: Tel: 0551 49 906 24 or politik@gfbv.de.

Header Photo: Nico Trinkhaus