Interior Minister Seehofer spoke about the German citizen ISIS members captured by the YPG and said, “We will take them back after investigating them one by one and ascertaining their identity, but I am against bringing them back en masse.”
The Berlin administration still hasn’t found a solution for the German citizens captured alive in operations against ISIS by the YPG/SDF. The German citizen ISIS members came under the spotlight after US President Donald Trump called on Germany and other European countries to “take back (their) citizens and put them on trial”, as they are a large group.
Estimates are that there are at least 200 German citizens held by the YPG, most of them women and children. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer spoke about the German citizen ISIS members recently and said they are conducting meticulous efforts on the matter. Seehofer attended a program on the ARD television called Bericht Aus Berlin to be broadcast today and said, “The state needs to obtain detailed information on these individuals.”
“WE MUST KNOW WHAT THEY DID WHILE IN ISIS RANKS”
Minister Seehofer implied they are concerned that the ISIS members in question will risk Germany’s national security after they return to the country and said, “We must investigate each one of them in detail and know what they did while they were in ISIS’ ranks. That way we can put them on trial. Otherwise, we cannot just take them back like that. Because these people have lived under various aliases.”
Minister Seehofer said he is against the ISIS members being returned to Germany en masse, but experts say the Berlin administration must not abdicate its responsibility in the matter. Guido Steinberg, an expert on the Middle East from the Science and Politics Foundation, said Germany must take back its ISIS member citizens and added: “Like Germany deports foreign terrorists or criminals to Tunisia, Libya or Russia, they must take back their own citizens from other countries.”
The Federal Government led by Angela Merkel frequently argues that they “can’t verify the identity of ISIS members captured alive”, but that does not reflect the truth. Germany’s foreign intelligence service BND’s officers have reportedly visited the prisons and refugee camps in Rojava and Northern Syria where the ISIS members are held and determined who is a German citizen and who isn’t.
EU DOESN’T RESPOND TO AUSTRIA’S DEMAND
In February, US President Donald Trump said: “The US wants the UK, France, Germany and other European allies to take back the 800-plus ISIS fighters captured in Syria to be put on trial. There is no alternative, as otherwise we would be forced to release them.” Germany and the UK had responded negatively to Trump’s demand.
Some German politicians and experts proposed a prison similar to the US prison in Guantanamo Bay for Al Qaeda members to be built in Europe for ISIS members, while Austria took action to have ISIS members held by the YPG to be tried in an international war crimes court. Austrian Interior Minister Kickl appealed to the European Union Commission for the tribunal but the EU hasn’t responded to Vienna’s demand yet.
Over 2.800 ISIS members have been captured in YPG special units’ operations against ISIS in northern Syria. 800 of them are citizens of 46 different states, most of them Western countries. Only France, Indonesia, Russia, Morocco and the Sudan have officially requested from the Rojava administration the return of their citizens captured alive by the YPG to date.
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