Military

BALKANS

¨         In a commentary in NRC Handelsblad, Aug. 16, ret. Dutch Maj. Gen. Schaberg warned against shifting NATO's peace mission in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the EU.  Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are currently the most dangerous areas in the Balkans, Gen. Schaberg wrote, stressing:  "In connection with the upcoming elections, it was decided . to reinforce Task Force Fox, including the Dutch troops.  There is a good chance that things there will go wrong again.  Only NATO has political and military authority there. What is at stake is not only the need to curb conflict, but also the survival of NATO troops in both areas.  In many regards, Task Force Fox relies on KFOR.  In emergencies NATO can reinforce the troops in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and if things really get out of hand, then NATO can conduct an emergency evacuation. Should the EU now begin playing a separate military role there, next to NATO? That is perilous, as constantly evidenced by how unstable the situation is..  No one in Europe really believes in an independent military role for the EU in the area of security.  All of the countries, each for its own reason, are joining in the game a little bit, but now they are certainly overstepping the danger line.  The Netherlands has an important military function in the Balkans and has become indispensable there.  In Bosnia, the Netherlands and its nearly 1,300 troops are responsible for a substantial area, which was considerably enlarged (last  week).  In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Netherlands directs all NATO troops in Task Force Fox with a Dutch brigade staff. The fact that all of this has gone well thus far is attributable to the quality of the Dutch troops, but also to the well-coordinated teamwork that has emerged with all international bodies that are active in those regions, most of all NATO..  The Netherlands must consider it absolutely unacceptable that the command over a military force in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia be taken over by the EU.  Everything in the Balkans is related to everything else, and only NATO has the weight, the structure, and the means to keep it all in check. The Netherlands must be clearer in opposing the EU's ill-advised plans.  If the EU wants to play a separate guiding role in the Balkans, then the Netherlands should withdraw.  In that case the risks are too great." 

NATO

¨         Portugal is soon to regain control of the airspace around the Madeira archipelago, the surveillance of which is currently carried out by Spain, reported Lisbon's RTP television, Aug. 18.  Defense Minister Portas has launched an international tender for the installation of a national radar system in Madeira and hopes the system will be operational in 2005, added the broadcast, which carried Portas saying:  "The decision we have taken last Friday is, in my opinion, a historic one because it will allow us to expand Portuguese sovereignty (of national airspace) to the Madeira archipelago and some 300 miles around it..  It is absurd to think that the management of the airspace, and sometimes even of the territorial waters of Madeira and its surrounding area, is carried out, not by Portugal-which has sovereignty over this territory-but by Spain, form the Canary Islands."  The network added that the project, estimated at 42 million Euros, will be almost entirely funded by NATO.  Once installed, the broadcast continued, the project for the extension of airspace under Portuguese surveillance will be continued in the Azores archipelago, where plans involve the construction of two new radars.  The program recalled that currently, the surveillance of the area over and around the Azores is carried out from the Lajes Air Base, in Terceira island.  It stressed that Portas believes the new system will provide Portugal with better defense mechanisms in case of external threats.

¨         According to Oslo's Aftenposten, Aug. 17, the Norwegian armed forces are to start using lead-free ammunition in the next few years, thereby considerably reducing the contamination of the environment by heavy metals.  "We expect that no more lead-based small-arms ammunition will be in use by 2008 or 2009," the newspaper quoted Maj. Gen. Haugen, the inspector general for the Army, saying and adding that he did not know whether other NATO countries had started to use similar ammunition.  The newspaper claimed that last year 13 million shots were fired by small arms in the armed forces, which amounted to 72 tons of lead, 31 tons of copper, 8.2 tons of antimony, and 3.4 tons of zinc.  It stressed that the new types of ammunition that have been approved by NATO will contain no lead or antimony and this represents a 70% reduction in emissions of environmentally damaging heavy metals from small-arms ammunition.  The article added that the Defense Research institute (FFI) has recommended that in the longer term the Armed Forces should find ammunition that is entirely free of environmental toxins.  Gen. Haugen has given advance notification of further environmental improvements involving fully acceptable alternatives, said the newspaper, quoting him saying:  "White phosphorous is a problem at present, and we will look more closely at alternatives to today's phosphorous grenades.  I believe that it will be possible to find these."

IRAQ

¨         Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quotes U.S. Ambassador to Berlin Daniel Coats saying he has told senior aides to Chancellor Schroeder during a meeting last week that the chancellor's stand on Iraq was "not appropriate."   The Bush administration is "disappointed," Coats reportedly further told the newspaper, adding that he criticized Schroeder's choice of words, including suggestions that the United States has no strategy for a post-Saddam Iraq.  A related AP dispatch stresses that a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Berlin confirmed Coats' remarks to the German daily. 

ANTI-TERRORISM

¨         According to Reuters, the White House said Monday that tapes obtained by CNN that appear to show suspected Al Qaeda members testing chemical weapons on dogs will be examined by U.S. officials to see if they contain any useful information.  "The appropriate officials will take a look," the dispatch quotes a White House spokesman saying and adding:  "This is a good reminder to the people of the world that these are the type of people that we are facing in the war against terrorism."

Media focus on videotapes shown by CNN, including one which shows what appears to be the agonizing death of three dogs exposed to a chemical agent.  Commentators generally consider that the tapes, which a CNN reporter brought out of Afghanistan, add weigh to reports that Al Qaeda was developing chemical weapons before the Afghan war of last October.

The series of videotapes revealing poison gas experiments by Al Qaeda on dogs suggests that Osama Bin Laden's organization may have been further advanced in developing chemical weapons than thought, writes The Independent.  Since Sept. 11, American officials have repeatedly warned that they believed Al Qaeda was seeking weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons. 

The International Herald Tribune highlights that the videotapes provide the clearest evidence yet to corroborate U.S. government charges that Al Qaeda developed and tested chemical agents.