Former minister Diestel criticizes the way the marine inspector is handled
Created: 2022-01-25Updated: 2022-01-25 12:18 p.m
The last GDR Minister of the Interior and lawyer Peter-Michael Diestel in Stralsund.
© Stefan Sauer/dpa/archive image
The last GDR interior minister and lawyer, Peter-Michael Diestel, sharply criticized the way Kay-Achim Schönbach, the inspector of the German Navy who had been relieved, was treated.
"You don't throw an officer out because he expresses his opinion," Diestel said on Tuesday of the German Press Agency in Zislow (Mecklenburg Lake District).
Who should organize the defense readiness of the German Navy if not deserving officers like the 56-year-old, Diestel pointed out.
Zislow - Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) is taking the same wrong path as ex-Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU), explained Diestel.
The CSU politician also dismissed leading soldiers as defense minister from 2009 to 2011 if he made mistakes himself.
Under Diestel's leadership, the GDR state security was dissolved in 1990 and the East German police led to reunification.
In the midst of the tensions between Russia and NATO, Rostock's Vice Admiral Schönbach expressed understanding for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin at a performance in India and declared: "The Crimean peninsula is gone, it will not come back." The statements triggered outrage.
In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea on the Black Sea.
Schönbach had said to Putin: “What he really wants is respect at eye level.
And - my God - showing respect to someone costs next to nothing, costs nothing.”
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What Schönbach said was actually the opinion of the United States, said Diestel.
Historically speaking, Crimea has always had a special status.
Diestel also expressed understanding for Putin: He could understand that the Russians felt threatened.
Contrary to the promises made after 1989, NATO has expanded in Eastern Europe.
dpa
