Germans protest drones at Ramstein air base

FRANKFURT, Germany – Thousands of peace activists demonstrated Saturday outside the Ramstein Air Base in Germany to protest the facility’s reported leading role in the U.S. drone program.

Ramstein, which is the principal U.S. Air Force facility in Europe, is in a rural area of southwestern Germany, near the city of Kaiserslautern.

About 5,000 people from across Germany helped form a human chain during the protest, organizers said.

Local police put the number of protesters at about 2,000.

Among the participants was Germany’s Oskar Lafontaine, a leftist maverick and former finance minister who called the U.S. drone program contrary to international law and criticized the German government’s position on the issue.

“It’s intolerable that the government remains silent,” Lafontaine said.

He said it is “schizophrenic” that Germany offers a generous approach to refugees but supports wars waged by the United States.

The Intercept website reported last year that Ramstein serves as the high-tech heart of Washington’s drone operations in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa.

The German and U.S. governments have repeatedly downplayed the importance of the base and have evaded direct questions about its role in the drone program.