Germany Suffers First Peacekeeping Death in Cambodia

A 26-year-old army medic was shot dead Thursday in Cambodia, the first German soldier to be killed in a U.N. peacekeeping operation since Germany began participating in such operations after unification.

Sgt. Alexander Arndt, 26, was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle as he was driving with a colleague in the capital, Phnom Penh, said Defense Ministry officials in Bonn. He had been scheduled to return home next month.

Fourteen other U.N. personnel have been killed since the mission began 19 months ago.

The Cambodian contingent is not as large or controversial as the deployment of German troops in Somalia, but the medic’s death is almost certain to reignite a national debate about German military participation in U.N.-sponsored actions. That debate centers on whether such participation is prohibited under the German constitution.

Thursday night, the opposition Social Democrats’ parliamentary spokesman on foreign affairs, Karsten Voigt, called for a detailed report on the soldier’s death and demanded clarification of the legal terms under which German soldiers serve as peacekeepers.