Chancellor Angela Merkel promised tough action after German soldiers in Afghanistan were photographed playing and posing with a human skull. "The chancellor has made it clear that she finds these pictures shocking and disgusting," government spokesman Thomas Steg said, adding that Merkel wanted the troops responsible to face "strict measures."Germany's top-selling newspaper Bild on Wednesday printed the photographs of four German soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force displaying a skull like scalp hunters. The defence ministry said it had launched an internal investigation and was questioning two men, while Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung threatened to throw the culprits out of the army.
In one of the pictures, a soldier mounts the skull on the cablecutter at the front of a patrol vehicle, which bears both the German flag and the acronym for the international force, ISAF. In another, a soldier in camouflage uniform and a bullet-proof vest poses with the skull next to his exposed penis. Bild said the photographs were taken in spring 2003.
The report said the soldiers found the skull in a gravel pit on the outskirts of Kabul while they were patrolling near the Afghan capital. But the defence ministry said in a statement that it was possible that the soldiers had taken it from a cemetery south of Kabul where it had been exposed by the weather. Jung told reporters: "These pictures revolt and mystify me."
| Doesn't sound like Jung's ever been in the military. For that matter, it doesn't sound like he gets out much. |