The German Churches criticized the policy on weapon exportation by the Federal Government: “the tendency to increase weapon exportation is incessant”, said in Berlin, on December 17 Karl Jüsten, Catholic President of the Common Conference Church and Development (Gkke). Jüsten highlighted the increased number of authorizations to weapon exports; from 1.5 billion to 7.7 billion Euro in 2006 compared to the previous year. On his part, the deputy Protestant president of Gkke, Stefan Reimers, deplored the lack of transparency in arms exports. Criticism by Catholics and Protestants were rejected by the Merkel government, whose spokesperson, Ulrich Wilhelm, claimed that Germany “applies a very restrictive approval procedure” on the subject and added that these exports “represent only 0,15% of all exports”. Jüsten affirmed that among the major causes of exports is “increasing European cooperation in the field of arms and the well-known high level of German manufacturers”. “Since it’s hard to exclude that arms with German components may reach the Developing Countries, this fact may be possible”, he affirmed. According to data by Gkke, the amount of German weapon supplies amount to over 20% of the overall arm exports. According to the government, the quota is 9,5%. The author of the Gkke report, Bernard Moltmann, criticized exports that are still under way in crises areas: “There’s a problem especially with weapon supplies in Countries where human rights are trampled upon and that are located in areas of conflicts” ignoring the EU behaviour code which prohibits such operation. According to data by Gkke, approximately 95% of the weapons used in the conflicts in Africa come from out of Africa. “From an ethical perspective, war supplies to Developing Countries are unacceptable and highlight the dilemma of German policies on war exports”, Jüsten declared. Flaws at political level are evident, according to Reimers, also in the fact that the German Bundestag discussed the last three reports by the government also in the absence of many MPs.
