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SHAPE News Morning Update
4
February 2003
IRAQ
- Powell
to offer UN Iraq photographs, overheard conversations
to press U.S. case
- Russia
says second UN Iraq resolution may be needed
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BALKANS
- UN
court rejects Yugoslavia’s attempt to contest
jurisdiction, block Bosnia case
- Serb
former mayor is convicted of war crimes in Kosovo
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OTHER
NEWS
- Germany
takes over presidency of UN Security Council for month
of February
- French
aircraft carrier heads for exercises
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IRAQ
- Secretary
of State Colin Powell will present photographs of mobile biological
weapons and transcripts of overheard Iraqi conversations to
convince allies that Saddam Hussein has potent arsenals in
defiance of UN disarmament demands, an administration
official said. Powell sifted through classified U.S. intelligence
on Monday to choose what he will make public on Wednesday
to the UN Security Council. The chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, Rep. Duncan Hunter, said he expected the
evidence to show details of a transfer of technology from
other countries and the relocation of weapons systems within
Iraq. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain rallied
to support the United States. “Show weakness
now and no one will ever believe us when we try to show strength
in the future,” he said as he prepared for
a meeting on Tuesday with French President Jacques Chirac.
(AP 040443 Feb 03)
- Russian
President Vladimir Putin said on Monday a second Security
Council resolution on Iraqi weapons might be necessary if
UN inspectors were obstructed in performing their duties.
“The weapons inspectors are playing a key role. They
must carry out their inspections and present their conclusions
to the Security Council,” Putin told a news conference
alongside Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “The
inspectors have to say what else we need from Iraq. Everything
has to be decided, I say again, in the UN Security Council...For
the moment, (a second UN resolution) is not indispensable,
but we do not rule it out.” (Reuters 031819
GMT Feb 03)
BALKANS
- The
World Court refused to hear Yugoslavia’s case against
its jurisdiction on Monday, reaffirming its authority over
Bosnia’s decade-old genocide suit against Belgrade.
In a vote of 10 to three, a panel of international judges
dismissed a complaint made by Yugoslavia last November that
it was not a member of the United Nations at the time the
case was filed in 1993, and shouldn’t be subject to
the UN court. (AP 031730 Feb 03)
- A
Serb former mayor on Monday was found guilty of war crimes
for the deportation and forced labor of ethnic Albanians during
Kosovo’s war, a UN official said. A panel of
international judges convicted Andjelko Kolasinac on three
counts, including deportation and registration of ethnic Albanians
for forceful displacement, forced labor and failure to prevent
subsequent looting in the southern town of Orahovac. (AP 031753
Feb 03)
OTHER NEWS
- Strongly opposed
to war in Iraq, Germany began its first working day
as president of the UN Security Council on Monday
during a critical month when the United States may press the
council to support military action to disarm Saddam Hussein.
(AP 040430 Feb 03)
- France’s
sole aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, will set off
on Tuesday for a three-week training exercise in the Mediterranean,
the maritime prefecture said on Monday in Toulon.
The training will include some joint military exercises with
other European or possibly U.S. vessels. (Reuters 031805 GMT
Feb 03)
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