German Bundestag Information
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German Bundestag Printed paper 17/12050 17th electoral term 29.01.2013 Information from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces Annual Report 2012 (54th Report) Submitted with the letter from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces of 29 January 2013 pursuant to Section 2 Para. 1 of the Act on the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces of the German Bundestag. German Bundestag - 17th electoral term - 2 - Printed Paper 17/12050 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Foreword pected. And even after the end of these missions, we will not be able to simply In the past year, the reorientation of leave them behind us. The bereaved Germany's Federal Armed Forces families of our fallen soldiers, and ("Bundeswehr") entailed insecurity and those who continue to suffer from the burdens for many soldiers and, not consequences of their physical or psy- least, also for their families. This is chological injuries, have a statutory en- probably inevitable when such radical titlement to assistance and recognition, changes are made. The widespread feel- as do their relatives. This also means ing of not being involved in these that we must take precautions in order changes, and not being sufficiently in- to be able to detect and treat any de- formed, has meanwhile led to doubts as layed effects of mission-related stresses to whether the interests of the affected in good time. We are also heading in military personnel were given appro- the right direction in this respect, but priate consideration when distributing we still have a long way to go. the burdens. Doubts of this kind are understandable, at least where location I would like to thank all our soldiers for decisions are concerned. At any rate, the sacrifices they make in the service the military and political leaders are of our country. These thanks are also called upon, more than in the past, to extended to everyone else who likewise patiently and transparently explain has or had to accept personal sacrifices why certain decisions were necessary, and burdens, especially our police offi- and also to correct identified mis- cers, aid workers, diplomats and the judgements in planning before imple- many relatives at home. mentation. My wish for our soldiers is that they There are also reasons to be happy and find a place in the new structures of the grateful: no German soldier was killed armed forces that offers them a perspec- in the year under review, and there has tive, optimism and satisfaction. And: also been a marked decline in the num- may the coming year prove to be a ber and severity of woundings. The ma- peaceful one! jor improvement in mission pretraining and equipment is doubtless part of the reason for this. At the same time, it is also a result of the increasing sharing of burdens with the Afghan security forces. The hand-over to Afghan secu- rity forces of responsibility for security in further areas of Northern Afghani- stan was only possible thanks to the in- tensive and often strenuous training provided by our soldiers. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to every- one involved for what they have achieved. We can nevertheless not self- contentedly sit back and rest on our laurels. The commonly noticeable feel- ing that the Afghanistan mission is al- ready almost history, is premature. Ex- perience in the KFOR mission shows once again that the situation can de- velop differently than was to be ex- German Bundestag - 17th electoral term - 3 - Printed Paper 17/12050 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................. 2 The year under review at a glance ........................................................................................ 6 1 Leadership behaviour.............................................................................................. 9 1.1 Tone and manners ................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Reaction to violations of official duties ................................................................. 9 1.3 Extremism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia ........................................................... 11 2 Training ................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 General basic training ............................................................................................. 12 2.2 Legal knowledge of disciplinary superiors ............................................................ 13 2.3 Handling of small arms ........................................................................................... 13 2.4 Gorch Fock ............................................................................................................... 14 3 Processing of petitions and complaints ................................................................. 14 3.1 Processing time and processing method ................................................................ 14 3.2 Violations of the ban on discrimination ................................................................ 15 4 Missions abroad ....................................................................................................... 15 4.1 Predeployment training .......................................................................................... 16 4.2 Mission planning, mission duration and structural overtaxing ........................... 17 4.3 Accommodation on missions ................................................................................. 18 4.4 Equipment ............................................................................................................... 19 4.4.1 Protected vehicles ................................................................................................... 19 4.4.2 CH-53 transport helicopter ..................................................................................... 19 4.4.3 Route clearance ....................................................................................................... 20 4.4.4 Procurement of night-vision devices for special forces ........................................ 20 4.4.5 Night combat qualification of the MARDER infantry combat vehicle ................. 20 4.4.6 Personal equipment................................................................................................. 21 4.5 Air transport capacities on missions ...................................................................... 22 4.6 Transport to and from missions ............................................................................. 22 4.7 Recuperation times.................................................................................................. 23 4.8 Foreign duty allowance .......................................................................................... 24 4.9 Morale and welfare telecommunications ............................................................... 24 4.9.1 General situation ..................................................................................................... 24 4.9.2 Morale and welfare telecommunications on board seagoing units ...................... 25 4.10 Provision of sports equipment on board seagoing units ....................................... 25 4.11 Mazar-e-Sharif airport ............................................................................................. 26 4.12 Baggage transport .................................................................................................... 26 4.13 Military post ............................................................................................................ 26 4.14 Award of the Bundeswehr Foreign Duty Medal .................................................... 28 5 Compatibility of family and service ....................................................................... 29 5.1 Close-to-home assignment and duration of assignment between missions abroad ...................................................................................................................... 29 5.2 Conduct of superiors regarding family needs ........................................................ 32 5.3 Child care ................................................................................................................. 33 5.4 Reimbursement of additional child-care costs resulting from basic, advanced and continuation training ....................................................................................... 34 5.5 Family-related vacancies ........................................................................................ 34 5.6 Parental leave .......................................................................................................... 34 5.7 Telework .................................................................................................................. 35 6 Women in the armed forces .................................................................................... 35 German Bundestag - 17th electoral term - 4 - Printed Paper 17/12050 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 6.1 Missions abroad of servicewomen with children under the age of three ............ 35 6.2 Career development of servicewomen ..................................................................