Minister defends army

Hamburg - The German Defence Minister, Mr Volker Ruehe, fighting to save the German army's reputation and his own political career…

Hamburg - The German Defence Minister, Mr Volker Ruehe, fighting to save the German army's reputation and his own political career, yesterday denied the Bundeswehr was a bastion of neo-Nazis.

Paying a morale-boosting visit to the elite military academy in Hamburg that has been tainted by a far-right scandal, Mr Ruehe denounced the German media for its "hysterical" efforts to portray the army as a haven for racists.

Mr Ruehe said it was an "unacceptable scandal" that a convicted extreme right-wing bomber, Manfred Roeder, had been invited to speak to recruits at the academy in 1995. But he firmly defended the army against charges that it harboured extremists.

Several other incidents linking the army with right-wing extremism have since surfaced, including reports that German soldiers on a peace mission in Croatia chanted "Sieg Heil", and the Nazi greeting, "Heil Hitler". Mr Ruehe dismissed these latest reports as lies designed to discredit the army.