DPA/AFP/Berlin
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she was “relieved” about Osama bin Laden’s death, days after she was criticised for expressing happiness over the Al Qaeda leader’s demise.“Bin Laden was the head of an international terrorist network who had commissioned appalling crimes. We can be, and should be relieved that he can’t hurt people any more,” Merkel told Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 airplane attacks in Washington and New York, was gunned down on Monday by US special forces in a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, north of Islamabad.She came under fire this week from political allies and religious groups for welcoming bin Laden’s killing by US forces in Pakistan.On Monday Merkel said: “I am happy that it has been possible to kill bin Laden”, later emphasising that this meant he would no longer be able to orchestrate terrorist attacks.Several figures distanced themselves from the comments, including some from within her own conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann even filed a criminal complaint against Merkel for “endorsing a crime” and described her comments as “disgraceful”.Clarifying the “happy” comment, Merkel said yesterday that she had meant she was relieved that he could no longer pose a danger to innocent people.“This debate in Germany perplexes me,” said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in comments to appear today in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.“One of the most brutal of murderers can no longer continue his mischief, and we’re arguing about the words you’re allowed to use to comment on the event.”Westerwelle said that he experienced “a sense of relief” when he heard that bin Laden had been killed, even though he would have preferred that the Al Qaeda leader was brought to trial.An ARD television poll this week showed that a majority of Germans disapproved of the killing and believed bin Laden should have been taken prisoner instead. In the same Passauer Neue Presse report yesterday, Merkel also defended the presence of German soldiers in Afghanistan amid a renewed debate on Germany’s military role in the country.“The death of bin Laden does not change the fact that Afghanistan is still unstable. Our soldiers are there to prevent the country from becoming a terrorist base again resulting in risks to our safety,” she said.According to a recent poll, 59% of Germans support a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Germany in January extended its military mission in Afghanistan by one year in co-operation with international forces.Parliament authorised the deployment of up to 5,350 troops.