European News: A new Kohl caper - but not so funny

Did Helmut Kohl know about his secret agents' hare-brained scheme to smuggle plutonium into Germany? Yesterday was the moment of truth. But Imre Karac, in Bonn says that before a parliamentary inquiry, the Chancellor was overtaken by amnesia.

Some of the facts of German dabbling in state-sponsored terrorism are simple enough. On 10 August 1994, smack in the middle of Mr Kohl's re-election campaign, agents at Munich airport arrested three men carrying a radioactive briefcase. Contents: 363 grams of weapons-grade plutonium. Origin: the former USSR.

The find was hailed as a great triumph for the security services, the BND, and by extension, for the government. A tiny consignment of low-grade uranium smuggled into Germany had greatly alarmed the public. After Munich, Mr Kohl would be able to go to the voters and assure them that he had everything under control.

Things did not quite work out like that, because somebody let it be known that the plutonium affair was a BND stunt from beginning to end. There is little doubt now that Bernd Schmidbauer, head of the BND, set it up and arranged payments to the hapless couriers - a Colombian and two Spaniards - who have since been thrown into jail.

Opposition politicians claim that the operation was masterminded by Mr Schmidbauer. Its aim was to give Mr Kohl a pre-election boost, and to force Russia to tighten security at its nuclear reactors. Mr Schmidbauer is a a friend and political appointee of Mr Kohl's and has his office in the chancellery in Bonn. He remains in charge.

Three years after the event, Mr Kohl was finally popped the question yesterday by members of a parliamentary committee. "When did you find out about the plutonium caper?" He sweated and wriggled in his seat, but perked up noticeably when the cakes arrived. "It was on the weekend of 12th and 13th August," he replied confidently.

"But were you not seen having dinner with Mr Schmidbauer at a restaurant before that?" he was asked. Dinner? Restaurant? His memory was failing now. "I really don't know," he shrugged. The Chancellor had a perfect alibi: he was on holiday in Austria at the time when the Lufthansa airliner landed with its deadly cargo in Munich.

This went on for a while longer. His inquisitors from the opposition parties probed, but the Chancellor, reputed to have a telephone book of a brain, just could not recall a thing. "Can you remember anything at all?" shouted a red-faced Social Democrat. - "I cannot recall what I did on a particular day," Mr Kohl repeated.

Another Social Democrat changed tack. "We have information that the people who carried out the Munich job took part in two other similar stunts," he said. "Where did you get that," frowned the Chancellor. "It says so in the letter you wrote to President Yeltsin." Mr Kohl could not remember that, either.