German Government Split Over ‘No-Fly’ Role : Politics: Ruling coalition’s junior partner files suit to require a constitutional amendment if nation is to help U.N. enforcement in Bosnia.

Faced with a NATO decision Friday to send warplanes to enforce a U.N. “no-fly” zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina, a divided German government immediately threw a possible monkey wrench into a key part of the operation.

The coalition government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, confronted by the prospect of deploying its military to a combat zone outside NATO territory for the first time since World War II, effectively sued itself to sidestep the controversial decision.

The 16 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization voted in Brussels on Friday to approve NATO operation of the enforcement program, which the U.N. Security Council requested Wednesday. NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner said plans will be finalized within two weeks and that the operation will mark the first time that the alliance has ventured beyond its borders since it was founded in 1949.

Woerner declined to provide details, but unidentified NATO sources have said that between 50 and 100 fighters, probably from U.S., British, French and Dutch forces, will be involved, controlled from a NATO air base in Italy.

After the NATO vote, Kohl rushed back from an Austrian spa vacation Friday for a special Cabinet meeting to decide on participating in the enforcement operation. The Cabinet voted approval over the opposition of the junior partner in the government coalition, the Free Democrats.

The Free Democrats, with the opposition Social Democrats close behind, then filed suit in the country’s supreme Constitutional Court. The court in Karlsruhe is expected to rule Monday whether it will take up the case. If it decides not to, the German government will be thrown into deep crisis.

At issue is whether the German constitution bars the country’s military from participating in a combat mission outside NATO’s traditional area of responsibility.

Germans make up one-third of the crews aboard radar surveillance planes under NATO command, with Americans, Canadians and other Europeans making up the rest of the crews for what is often touted as NATO’s first truly integrated force. Eighteen of the aircraft, known as Advanced Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), and 1,500 military personnel assigned to them are based in Geiselkirchen, near the Dutch border.

The AWACS have so far been flying only observation missions over the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of the former Yugoslav federation. But once the enforcement operation begins, they are to be used to spot violators of the no-fly zone and to guide NATO fighters toward them.

In a speech in Bonn last week, NATO’s supreme commander, U.S. Gen. John Shalikashvili, said it “would be very difficult” to operate the AWACS if the Germans pulled out.

The deadlock in Bonn stems from deep divisions within Kohl’s center-right coalition over how to define Germany’s international military role since the country regained its sovereignty with unification 30 months ago. Kohl and his conservative Christian Democrats insist that questions such as German participation in the NATO mission can be made by the Cabinet and do not violate the spirit of the constitution.

But the liberal Free Democrats insist that the constitution must be amended explicitly to permit deployment of German troops outside the NATO theater. They say they support German participation in the AWACS mission but insist that it be legally clarified first. Their suit in the Constitutional Court seeks an injunction to block German participation until a ruling is handed down.

The opposition Social Democrats complained that the AWACS decision should have been left to the Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament, where their support is needed for a two-thirds majority. They oppose the AWACS mission.

Kohl insisted that Bonn’s confusing yes-no action did not reflect a leadership crisis.

“If I had not made a decision, Germany’s isolation in the world would have been catastrophic,” he said in a television interview. “It’s bad enough as it is. The world does not understand what is being discussed here.”

Kohl has repeatedly said that united Germany must live up to its international duties as a NATO partner.

The news weekly Der Spiegel published a poll in this week’s issue showing 53% of 1,000 Germans polled in favor of the German military taking part in enforcing the no-fly zone, with 42% opposed and 5% undecided.

The conflict in the former Yugoslav federation presents a particularly thorny dilemma for Germany: Even those leaders who endorse AWACS participation adamantly oppose any active combat role for German ground troops there because of sensitivities over the Nazi occupation during the war.