Who was Klaus Kinkel? Giant politician uniting Germany, unmerciful to Milosevic

Yesterday he was taught about the death of renowned German politician Klaus Kinkel, widely known in our wartime society. He was 82 years old.

He was a civil servant, lawyer and politician of the liberal FDP party [The Party for New Democracy]. He has served as federal justice minister, foreign affairs minister and vice- chancer in the government of Helmut Kohli. He had also been president of the German Intelligence Service [1979-1982].

As foreign minister, Kinkel had had had a clear and firm stand to prevent crimes committed during the 1990s wars, and was the proposor for establishing the International Criminal Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia.

He had been extremely successful in Germany's political orientation within the European Union. On his initiative, Germany had become the first country to declare a break in contact with Bosnian envoys following the recommendation of Carlos Westendorp, the International Community High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has also mourned his death, saying that he lost “a reliable friend from Germany's reunification times. ”

It further added: “Kinkel was a great liberal and a champion of uncompromis of freedom and democracy. ”