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(05/24/04 1:27am)
BERLIN -- Horst Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund who advocates bolder economic reforms in Germany, was elected Sunday as the country's ninth postwar president.\nNominated by opposition conservatives, Koehler defeated Gesine Schwan, a university professor backed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government who sought to become Germany's first female head of state.\nKoehler, a 61-year-old finance expert, won by a vote of 604-589 by a special assembly of lawmakers and state delegates in Berlin's Reichstag parliament building.\nAs electors rose and clapped, Koehler blinked back tears and received congratulatory handshake from Schwan. In his acceptance speech, Koehler encouraged Germans to be more innovative and self-reliant, indicating he would push for further trims in Germany's welfare state.\n"In my opinion Germany is too slow on the path toward a knowledge-based society," he said. "But my dream goes even further: Germany should become a land of ideas."\n"We have to face reality. Germany has to fight for its place in the 21st century."\nGermany's presidency is largely ceremonial and nominally above politics, but incumbents have often influenced national policy debates and are considered a voice of moral authority.\nKoehler replaces Johannes Rau, a member of Schroeder's Social Democrats who is stepping down after a single five-year term. Rau made history in 2000 as the first German president to give a speech in the Israeli parliament.\nKoehler's victory had been widely expected, which diverted attention before the vote to state delegate Hans Filbinger, 90, who allegedly was involved in passing death sentences as a Nazi-era naval judge.\nSome Jewish groups called for his removal, but the Christian Democrats, who appointed the former judge, stood firm.\nKoehler held a series of finance posts in the German government, headed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, then spent the last four years in Washington as the IMF's managing director.\nHe quit the post when the center-right Christian Democrats and Free Democrats nominated him in March.\nThough he helped former Chancellor Helmut Kohl negotiate German reunification in 1990, Koehler was largely unknown to the general public before his nomination.\nHe has said he wants to bring his experience in national and international affairs to the post, and has called on Germans to accept further trims in social programs, work longer hours and rely less on government as a way out of three years of economic stagnation.\nOn Sunday, Koehler said Germans must not rest on past achievements, including the reputation of the "made in Germany" label. "I am deeply convinced Germany has the strength for change," he said.\nThe Christian Democrats, his main backers, are using the same themes to hammer Schroeder in opinion polls and welcomed Koehler's victory as a boost in their campaign to unseat him as chancellor in 2006 elections.\nChristian Democratic leader Angela Merkel said it was a "good signal" for Germany's center-right.\nEchoing a widespread sentiment in Germany, Koehler criticized U.S. policy in Iraq during the low-key presidential campaign.\nHe was quoted as telling a closed meeting of his political backers that the United States was "arrogant" -- a remark he has not denied -- and he criticized Washington for lacking a concept for "winning the peace" in Iraq.\nBorn during World War II in Nazi-occupied Poland, Koehler has pledged to bring sensitivity to his personal history to bear on his new job.\nHis ethnic German parents had lived in Romania, but moved under pressure from the Soviet Union to the eastern Polish town of Skierbieszow.\nNazi SS troops had deported the town's Polish residents as part of a pilot project to "Germanize" conquered areas of eastern Europe, and the Koehlers moved into a vacated house. Koehler was born Feb. 22, 1943.\nAs the Red Army advanced westward, the family fled to communist eastern Germany and in 1953 moved to West Germany, living at first in refugee housing. One of eight children, Koehler is the only one who went to university.\n"Patriotism and being cosmopolitan are not opposites," he said Sunday. "Only those who respect themselves can also respect others"
(09/19/03 5:03am)
BERLIN -- France signaled Thursday it would help Germany train a new Iraqi police force as both nations renewed their pressure for quickly handing over the country's government to the Iraqis.\nFrench President Jacques Chirac, speaking after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, emphasized he would like to see the transfer of power in postwar Iraq as soon as possible -- "in a matter of months, not years."\n"That is our common assessment," Chirac told reporters after the German-French summit at the chancellery in Berlin.\nFrance has demanded a quick timetable on transferring power as a condition for accepting a U.S.-proposed resolution on Iraq at the United Nations. Last week, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called for a provisional government in a month, a draft constitution by year's end and elections next spring.\nChirac's remarks about "months" did not signal a change of position, a French presidential spokesman said.\nThe White House declined to comment on Chirac's remarks until more could be learned about his position.\nThe U.S. draft resolution seeks more money and peacekeeping troops for Iraq -- but debate over it has focused on the future U.N. role in Iraq and restoring the country's sovereignty. Russia and China also want a quick restoration of Iraq's sovereignty, though perhaps not as fast as the French proposal.\nChirac also endorsed an offer by Schroeder to help train new Iraqi police leaders in Germany, which Schroeder renewed at Thursday's news conference.\n"It is self-evident that if the chancellor reaffirms this position here, France will take the same position," Chirac said, though he appeared to stop short of an explicit offer of help.\nHowever, the French presidential spokesman said Chirac was indeed offering to train Iraqi police.\nGermany and France strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which divided Europe.\nOn Saturday, Chirac and Schroeder meet pro-war British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Berlin in an effort to seek a common stand.\nShades of differences emerged Thursday even between France and Germany, despite their common goal of a greater U.N. role and an early handover of power from the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.\nSchroeder, in a newspaper interview, said Germany was ready to train Iraqi police even without a new U.N. resolution. A French delegation source, speaking on condition of anonymity, made plain that Paris would wait for a resolution.\nSchroeder called for a "road map" for handing over authority to an Iraqi government.\n"However, no one can really say at this time whether elections can be held in Iraq in 2004," Schroeder told the Handelsblatt business daily. "The priority now is just to get the process going."\nThe United States has said it supports the return to sovereignty in Iraq, but has resisted being tied to a timetable.\nSchroeder's overtures came before a possible meeting with President Bush next week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The two leaders fell out last year after Schroeder won re-election on an anti-war platform.\nIn Washington, a senior U.S. official said of the German offer of help: "The more, the better."\nChirac and Schroeder also unveiled a plan to increase spending on research and development and infrastructure in a bid to boost Europe's lagging economy and create jobs. The projects involve telecommunications, extending high-speed rail networks and a European satellite system.\nNeither leader gave details on how the program would be financed.\n"The most important result of this meeting is our shared conviction that Europe cannot wait for growth, but must seek it out," Chirac said.\nSchroeder insisted European governments are allowed leeway under European Union rules designed to limit budget deficits to 3 percent of gross national product. Both France and Germany are now above the limit.
(11/21/02 5:17am)
BERLIN -- Michael Jackson said he made a "terrible mistake" by holding his infant son over the railing of a fourth-floor balcony at a Berlin hotel to show fans below but shocking many people who watched the scene captured on video. \nTelevision around the world repeatedly broadcast footage of the reclusive pop star's brief appearance Tuesday at the Hotel Adlon across from Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate. \nThe boy had a white cloth over his head as Jackson held him with one arm around his waist over the edge of the hotel's iron balcony railing. \nFans cheered as Jackson appeared with the child, but the pop star quickly retreated into his hotel room. \nThe child, wearing a baby blue jumper, was the singer's third and youngest, Prince Michael II, said Antje Sigesmund, a spokeswoman for the Bambi entertainment award ceremony, which Jackson is attending in Berlin. \nOn Tuesday night, Jackson issued a statement saying he had gotten carried away when fans below the window asked to see the baby. \n"I made a terrible mistake," he said. "I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children." \nEuropean media scolded Jackson for the incident, with Berlin's BZ daily calling his behavior "foolish." Sweden's Expressen headlined its story "Jackson plays with the baby's life." \nIn Britain, Jackson was chastised in The Sun tabloid under the headline "You lunatic" and in the Daily Mirror as "Mad bad dad." \n"The Berlin police should arrest this negligent father for reckless endangerment of his own child," said an editorial by Mirror show business editor Kevin O'Sullivan. \nBerlin prosecutors said they were not investigating the incident, although an inquiry could be opened if a complaint was filed. \nPromoters of Thursday's Bambi ceremony, during which Jackson will receive a lifetime achievement award, played down the flap. \n"Some people obviously found it strange, but that's why Michael Jackson has given an explanation for the incident," said Patricia Riekel, editor of celebrity magazine Bunte and a board member at publisher Burda, which organizes the Bambis. \n"I thought it was a very spontaneous action and he loves children. I don't think it was dangerous," Riekel said at a news conference on the awards. \nOn Wednesday, teenage fans still crowded the pavement in front of the luxury hotel, hoping to glimpse Jackson and breaking into intermittent screams of excitement even though Jackson was nowhere in sight. \n"It was rather bizarre, what he did," said 17-year-old Joerg Diestel of Berlin. "But Michael's a bizarre person." \nMaria Hunyadi, 15, from Budapest, Hungary, said, "I thought it was dangerous, but he probably did it spontaneously." \nUta Nierlein, a 16-year-old fan from Berlin, said, "If I had a child I wouldn't hang him out of the window like that"
(09/23/02 5:18am)
BERLIN -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats won Germany's closest postwar election Sunday, after a campaign that focused on fears of a war with Iraq and unleashed anti-American rhetoric.\nA jubilant Schroeder appeared arm-in-arm with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens party, the partner in his governing coalition, before cheering supporters at Social Democratic Party headquarters.\n"We have hard times in front of us and we're going to make it together," Schroeder shouted above the din.\nWith 99.7 percent of the vote counted, official results showed the Social Democrats and Greens combined won 47.1 percent of the vote to continue their coalition for another four years. The conservative challengers led by Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber had 45.9 percent in a likely alliance with the Free Democrats, who had 7.4 percent.\nThe Social Democrats and environmentalist Greens won 305 seats in the new parliament of 601 seats, compared to 294 for the conservative challengers led by Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber, according to projections by ARD public television. Smaller parties won the remaining seats.\nStoiber stopped short of conceding in a speech to rowdy supporters in Munich, but predicted that Schroeder's majority would be too slim to form a lasting coalition.\n"Should the result not allow us to form a government, then I predict before you that this Schroeder government will rule for only a very short time," he said.\nStoiber said Schroeder will have to repair relations with Washington, damaged by a new German assertiveness that emerged over American determination to oust Saddam Hussein.\nSchroeder, whose outspoken defiance against war with Iraq was credited with giving him a late push in the tight campaign, said he won't back down. He has insisted he would not commit troops for a war even if the United Nations backs military action.\nWhile Schroeder's anti-war stand resonated with German voters, the rhetoric reached a damaging peak in the final days of his campaign when Justice Minister Herta Daeuberl-Gmelin was reported to have compared President Bush to Hitler for threatening war to distract from domestic problems. She denied saying it.\nThe Social Democrats already have made clear she would not have a post if they are re-elected, however Schroeder sought to appease Washington with a conciliatory letter to Bush. Washington reacted cooly -- indicating to analysts that a Schroeder team will have to work hard to repair the traditionally strong bond.\n"It seems to me that for the relationship and the Iraq issue itself there's no doubt that Schroeder was trying to tap radical pacifist and anti-American sentiment in the population and preliminarily it doesn't seem to have hurt him. And it may have even helped him," said Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Aspen Institute think tank in Berlin.\nSpeaking on CNN Sunday, Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the "core relationship between the Republic of Germany and the United States is solid. What you had is Schroeder doing what a lot of politicians do, trying to get out his base."\nBiden, D-Del., said the relationship between the two countries can be repaired.\nStoiber, who used the ruckus over Iraq as ammunition, again accused the chancellor of whipping up emotions against the United States for electoral gain.
(12/06/01 4:11am)
KOENIGSWINTER, Germany -- With a war still being fought in their homeland, Afghan factions signed a pact Wednesday to create a temporary post-Taliban administration, putting aside differences over power-sharing to take the first step toward peace. \nAmid applause and embraces, exhausted envoys at a luxury hotel near Bonn agreed to a U.N.-brokered plan that allows for the deployment of foreign troops to secure the transition, stresses the inclusion of women and strives for a democracy. It offers Afghanistan its best chance in decades to escape a cycle of war. \nThe mood was resolute, and the U.N. envoy who will foster the process warned of the difficulties ahead. \n"If there is one thing the world has learned, it is that the situation in Afghanistan is far too complex for quick and simple solutions," U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told a ceremony attended by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. \nThe 30 interim Cabinet members, drawn from Afghan communities around the world, face staggering tasks. They must not only rebuild a war-ravaged land, but ensure stability by integrating fighters into a regular army, reopen education for women and fight drug production and corruption. \nStill, the pact represents "the breathing space during which the people of Afghanistan can take the first of many steps that will be required before a broad-based, multiethnic and truly representative government can be established," Brahimi said. \nIn tune with realities on the ground, the deal gave most posts in the six-month interim Cabinet, including defense, foreign affairs and interior, to the northern alliance, which has captured most of the country backed by U.S. forces. The interim Cabinet is due to take power Dec. 22.\nAt the same time, the list reflected international pressure to include women after years of suppression by the Taliban and to strike a balance among Afghanistan's ethnic groups. Two women were named as ministers. \nHamid Karzai, a moderate Muslim commander involved in the push to conquer the last Taliban stronghold in Kandahar, was chosen as a broadly acceptable leader to head the interim administration. \nKarzai, 44, belongs to the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, and heads an influential western Afghan clan with longstanding links to the Afghan royal dynasty exiled since King Mohammad Zaher Shah was deposed in 1973. \nKarzai, who has Washington's support, has gone on a risky mission in recent weeks to win over tribesmen who supported the Taliban in his native Kandahar region. \nIn a CNN interview Wednesday from Afghanistan, he called the appointment an honor and expressed hope for a smooth transfer of power in Kabul. \n"I hope very much it will be in the interest of the Afghan people, one that will keep our country good forever," he said. \nIn Kabul, northern alliance foreign minister Abdullah, who will retain his post, said Karzai was an acceptable choice. \n"He's an educated, intelligent person who will put the interest of the Afghan nation above everything else," said Abdullah, who uses one name. \nIn Islamabad, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, denounced the interim administration, saying Afghans would never accept a government organized by a foreign power. \n"Any government imposed on Afghans from abroad can't be accepted," Zaeef told The Associated Press. "We reject this interim government. ... We will continue to fight against the puppets of America." \nThe U.N. accord sets the stage for a 2 1/2-year transitional period as a prelude to democratic elections and the drafting of a constitution based on principles of "Islam, democracy, pluralism and social justice." \nDelegates in Germany wrapped up the deal at dawn Wednesday, but were still bargaining over who would fill key posts even after the formal signing. And despite pressure to enshrine women's rights, delegates said a ministry of women's affairs was only created in a late compromise to secure a deal at the insistence of Sima Wali, a U.S.-based activist for Afghan women's rights. \nIn the end, Sima Samar, a 44-year-old doctor and women's rights activist currently based in Pakistan, was named as one of five deputy premiers and minister of women's affairs. Another woman, Suhaila Seddiqi, will be health minister. \nKarzai will preside over a diverse group that melds opponents of Taliban rule who survived in Afghanistan with intellectuals and experts based outside the country, a reflection of two decades of war that began with the 1979 Soviet invasion. \nMindful of a horrific civil war between rival warlords after the Red Army withdrew in 1989, the U.N. accord calls for all fighters to leave Kabul and other areas when the international force arrives. \nBut northern alliance chief delegate Younus Qanooni said Afghans had learned from the past. \n"Today the Afghans have proven that, just as they were ready to die for their country, today they are ready to sacrifice and hand over power peacefully," he said. \nBrahimi said he would go to Afghanistan early next week to begin preparations for the transfer of power from the nominal northern alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani. \nHe said he hoped to stop along the way in Rome to meet the exiled former king, who is to convene a gathering of tribal leaders next spring as part of the transition process. \n"The real work starts now," Brahimi said. "The real difficulties are going to start when this interim administration that has been agreed upon here goes to Kabul"
(12/05/01 4:29am)
KOENIGSWINTER, Germany -- Talks on Afghanistan's future hit the final stretch Tuesday as Afghan factions and U.N. mediators turned to filling seats for an interim administration. \nDiplomats said distributing ministerial posts in the interim government could take a day or two. But talks were rejuvenated here after all four factions agreed on a U.N.-drafted framework for a 29-member interim governing body. \nStrong U.S. pressure on the northern alliance broke an impasse earlier Tuesday, with the northern alliance finally presenting its candidates for the interim administration, the missing link in the talks, now in their eighth day. \nDuring the night's tense diplomacy, a U.S. official called the northern alliance's titular head, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in Kabul to press him not to risk the collapse of talks. \nAfter jubilant celebrations for the political agreement, U.N. mediators grappled Tuesday with the names, a total of around 150 candidates, submitted by the northern alliance, a delegation loyal to the exiled former Afghan king and two smaller exile groups. \n"This is a very difficult hurdle," U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said. But "now we have a roadmap to a free and independent Afghanistan over a period of 2 1/2 years, leading, we hope, to a new constitution and free and fair election," he said. \nSome diplomats said a signing ceremony could be held as early as Wednesday or Thursday. \nConcerns also focus on the date for a transfer of power, which was not set in the U.N. framework. Those worries have been heightened amid signs of differences within the northern alliance. Rabbani, a former Afghan president, is portrayed by Western diplomats as reluctant to be shunted aside by a younger generation of leaders. \nFawzi said the U.N. mediators will consult Tuesday on the handover with Rabbani, and he appealed to the alliance leader "to continue supporting the Bonn process until the successful conclusion of the transfer of power." \nIn Kabul, the alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, said the 29-member council would include one woman and have a plurality of Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group. \nHe said the new administration would reflect the proportions of Afghanistan's diverse ethnic makeup: Pashtuns representing 38 percent of the population; Tajiks, 27 percent; Hazaras, 17 percent and Uzbeks, six percent. Afghanistan has not had a census for decades, and Abdullah said those were the statistics the alliance had.
(11/30/01 3:57am)
KOENIGSWINTER, Germany -- Afghan factions meeting to work out a post-Taliban government moved Thursday toward agreement on an interim administration to run the country, and the northern alliance dropped its objection to an international security force to secure peace there. \nYounus Qanooni, the leader of the alliance delegation at the talks, said the group will not oppose an outside force during an interim government, but added that such a force was not needed at present. \nQanooni had said a day earlier the alliance, which holds power on the ground in Afghanistan, rejected a United Nations' proposal for an international security force in Afghanistan, insisting that there was a force already in place to safeguard peace - theirs. \nBut he said Thursday that once a transitional administration is established, and the need for an international force "is inevitable," the alliance wouldn't oppose one, he said. \nThe United Nations said earlier Thursday that the four Afghan factions at the U.N.-sponsored talks in Bonn, Germany, were moving toward a formula for a temporary, two-body power-sharing formula that would run the country until a traditional, national council can be convened in Kabul to make longer-term decisions. \nThe proposed provisional administration would have two bodies: one with executive powers and another, larger assembly with a parliamentary-like role. Fawzi said the executive branch would have 15 to 25 members and the larger assembly up to 200. \nThe northern alliance on Thursday said it had agreed with the former Afghan king's delegation, the other main faction at the talks, on a formula for the smaller, executive council. \nThe northern alliance said it had agreed with the ex-king's side that the executive council would have 42 members, with 21 members each from the northern alliance and delegation of former King Mohammad Zaher Shah. \n"This is an important breakthrough because had it not come through these talks would have bogged down, but now they have a focus," said Mohammad Hussin Bakhshi, an aide to northern alliance delegate Mohammad Natiqi. \nBut U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi cautioned that a complete deal had yet to be sealed, partly because the two smaller exile groups also at the table have other proposals. They are all meeting at a luxury hotel near Bonn. \n"Over the last 24 hours there has been a fine-tuning of the positions but we are still not there," Fawzi said. "There is some very hard work going on. There is a determination to achieve something in Bonn." \nDelegates were "making headway" in drafting lists of proposed delegates to the two bodies, Fawzi said. \n"There is almost agreement on the size of each group," he said. "But we're not there yet." \nThe provisional government is envisaged as giving Afghanistan an initial measure of stability and setting the stage for a traditional council of tribal elders to meet in March. U.N. mediators are pressing for a deal by Saturday.