Racial Army Video Airs on German TV

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Updated 4:35 PM ET April 14, 2007


By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

BERLIN (AP) - A German army instructor ordered a soldier to envision himself in the Bronx facing hostile African-Americans while firing his machine gun, a video that aired Saturday on national television showed.

The Bronx borough president demanded an apology from the German military and said the clip "indicates that bias and assumptions and racism is alive and well around the world."

Coming after scandals involving photos of German soldiers posing with skulls in Afghanistan and the abuse of recruits by instructors, the video seemed likely to raise more questions about training practices in Germany's conscript army.

The Defense Ministry said the video was shot in July 2006 at barracks in the northern town of Rendsburg and that the army has been aware of it since January.

"We are currently investigating the incident," said Florian Naggies, a spokesman for the army and Defense Ministry.

He did not identify the instructor or the soldier.

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=070414&cat=news&st=newsd8ogjmjo2&src=ap

[MADem]

1. There's actually some humor in this awful story--like the German military has the chops to

invade the goddamn Bronx? Gimme a break. But gee, Al Sharpton sure is busy lately, isn't he?

The clip shows an instructor and a soldier in camouflage uniforms in a forest. The instructor tells the soldier, "You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways. ... Act."

The soldier fires his machine gun several times and yells an obscenity several times in English. The instructor then tells the soldier to curse even louder....The Rev. Al Sharpton said he was outraged that Germans were "depicting blacks as target practice."

"I think this is an incredibly racist kind of insult to African-Americans and it speaks to the kind of institutional racism that people think we are hallucinating about," he said.

The existence of the video was first reported on the home page of the German news magazine Stern on Friday and excerpts were aired on the news...The video is the latest embarrassment for the German army. Eighteen army instructors are currently on trial for allegedly abusing and humiliating 163 recruits in 2004. Last year, newspapers published photos of German soldiers in Afghanistan posing with a skulls _ including one who exposed himself while holding a skull.

"We can no longer talk about an isolated case," said Lt. Juergen Rose ...."Things like this don't happen in the army on an everyday basis, but unfortunately in recent years there have been a number of comparable incidents."

___