Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

26 February 2003

IRAQ

• Iraq is providing new information about its weapons and has reported the discovery of two bombs, including one possibly filled with a biological agent, moves that the chief UN weapons inspector said show genuine cooperation from the Iraqis. Hans Blix said that Iraq had reported finding handwritten documents on the disposal of “prohibited items in 1991.” “There are pieces of evidence that are coming forward, but we still have to see this evidence,” he added. “This is cooperation on substance,” Blix told the Associated Press. “Substance is if you find weapons, you can destroy it. If you find documents, it may constitute evidence. That’s not process.” “There are some elements which are positive which need to be explored further,” Blix said. (AP 260517 Feb 03)
  
  
• The Army’s top general said a military occupying force for a postwar Iraq could total several hundred thousand soldiers. Iraq is “a piece of geography that’s fairly significant,” Gen. Eric K. Shinseki said Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington. And he said any postwar occupying force would have to be big enough to maintain safety in a country with “ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems.” Gen. Shinseki said he couldn’t give specific numbers of the size of an occupation force but said that “assistance from friends and allies would be helpful.” (AP 260018 Feb 03)
  
  
• Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein says he would rather die than leave his country, dismissing recent suggestions by U.S. and Arab leaders that he could go into exile to avoid war. The U.S. television network, CBS, reported excerpts of the interview on its Web site Tuesday night, and said the comments would air on Wednesday on its TV newsmagazine “60 Minutes II.” Saddam also denied any links to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network and indicated he would not set fire to Iraq’s oil fields or destroy its dams if a U.S.-led invasion occurs in Iraq. (AP 260454 Feb 03)
  

NATO

• Poland’s government stalled Tuesday on a deal for 48 U.S.-made jet fighters supposed to boost its profile within NATO, seeking more time to bargain over the terms. The government was expected to formally sign the US $3.5 billion contract by the end of February, with accompanying side agreements to be sealed within another 60 days. But deputy defense minister Janusz Zemke told a parliament finance committee that if Poland signed “too soon, we might not have enough time to properly and fully negotiate the offset agreements,” according to the Polish news agency PAP. The Defense Ministry confirmed the report, which said Zemke didn’t want to sign before April. But it declined to give details ahead of an official statement slated for Wednesday. (AP 251739 Feb 03)

BALKANS

• Kosovo’s minority Serbs formed a union of Serb-dominated towns and areas on Tuesday and said they saw their future with Serbia, angering the pro-independence ethnic Albanian majority. The UN-led administration in Kosovo made clear it would not deal with the new self-styled Union of Serb municipalities. Ramadan Avdiu, political adviser to ethnic Albanian Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said: “This union is an attempt for the division of Kosovo and it is unacceptable.” About 300 delegates at an inaugural assembly meeting in the Serb-dominated north of Mitrovica elected a union president and a 15-member executive board and advocated the establishment of a Kosovo Serb entity. “The Serb entity would...function as an integral part of Serbia,” a resolution said, calling for the return of some Serbian army and police forces to help secure Serb-dominated areas and fight organised crime and “terrorism.” (Reuters 252213 GMT Feb 03)

RUSSIA

• Russia would like to play a more active role in international peacekeeping missions but is held back by budget constraints, a military official said Tuesday in Moscow. Russia’s current level of involvement in peacekeeping operations “fails to match its national interests,” the Interfax news agency quoted Col. Gen. Valentin Bogdanchikov, first deputy head of the Defense Ministry department for international military cooperation, as saying. (AP 252045 Feb 03)