- "I'm considering whether to take steps to restore
my reputation," he said. "Any chicken thief is given a hearing,
but a German general is sent into the desert without a hearing."
-
- BERLIN (AP) -- The former
commander of Germany's special forces, fired for supporting a lawmaker
accused of lacing a speech with anti-Semitism, sought to defend his actions
in remarks released yesterday and raised the possibility of legal action.
-
- Brig. Gen. Reinhard Guenzel was dismissed Tuesday after
writing a letter to lawmaker Martin Hohmann praising his "courage"
for the speech, which drew outrage across the political spectrum.
-
- Defense Minister Peter Struck acted shortly after German
television reported on the letter, describing Guenzel as a "muddled
general."
-
- Breaking his silence on the affair, the 59-year-old Guenzel
was unapologetic, telling the newsweekly Focus that "to accuse me
of anti-Semitism is crazy."
-
- "I am firmly convinced that the text I had was not
anti-Semitic," he was quoted as saying,
-
- Hohmann, in an October 3 speech marking German Unity
Day, which he also sent to Guenzel, cited the prominent role of Jews in
the 1917 Communist revolution in Russia and suggested their actions were
comparable to those of the Nazis. He said "it would follow the same
logic with which the Germans are described as a guilty people."
-
- Hohmann, 55, apologized for the comments last week under
pressure from his Christian Democratic Union, the main opposition party
formerly led by ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl. While party leaders publicly
reprimanded him, critics in Germany's Jewish community and Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder's governing coalition have urged the party to take tougher sanctions.
-
- Guenzel's letter praised Hohmann for making "an
excellent speech, of a courage, truth and clarity, which one seldom hears
or reads in our country."
-
- In separate comments in the Bild am Sonntag daily, Guenzel
expressed annoyance that "the minister branded me a mentally muddled
man."
-
- "I'm considering whether to take steps to restore
my reputation," he said. "Any chicken thief is given a hearing,
but a German general is sent into the desert without a hearing."
-
- Guenzel added that he had always encouraged cooperation
with Israeli forces "because they are fantastic people and soldiers."
-
- Meanwhile Bavaria's chief, Edmund Stoiber, said Hohmann
is under observation. He told the Bild am Sonntag, "Any more events
of this kind and there is no way he can continue to belong to the (Christian
Democratic) Union.
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