BERLIN The German Army, struggling to stamp out racism in its ranks, is investigating a senior noncommissioned officer suspected of making racist remarks, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Bild newspaper said a 25-year-old staff sergeant was accused of sending defamatory messages and neo-Nazi slogans to a recruit with Turkish roots. One of the messages called for the gas chambers for Turks in Germany.
A spokesman for the army confirmed the report.
"The incident is under investigation," he said.
Germany has been shaken in recent months by a spate of far-right violence against foreigners and minorities. Three neo-Nazis were convicted last week of murdering a 39-year-old Mozambique man in Dessau.
A mysterious bomb attack in Duesseldorf in July wounded 10 immigrants, including six Jews, from Eastern Europe.
Bild said the staff sergeant based in Mainz had sent racist electronic messages to the cellular telephone of the soldier.
One message read: "When Ali is swinging from the oak tree, when Mehmet staggers through the gas chamber, when the Swastika is once again used to tar our streets, that's when Germany will be worth living in again." The army, which some left-wing groups say has long turned a blind eye to racists in its ranks, has become especially sensitive to the far-right in recent years following a number of embarrassing racist incidents.
(Reuter)