Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

27 February 2003

AFGHANISTAN

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked U.S. senators on Wednesday in Washington to support a request that the United States subsidize his budget so that he can pay 100,000 irregular militiamen living in the provinces. He disputed the widespread impression that the 100,000 armed men are beyond the influence of his government. He also turned down offers from senators that they lobby for an expansion of the international force, known as ISAF, saying he would prefer to expand the new national Afghan army, which now has about 3,000 trained troops. President Karzai said Afghans had given up asking ISAF to expand outside its Kabul enclave because the international community was not responsive to their initial entreaties. “If there is a need to expand ISAF to the provinces, the Afghan government would not be against it, we would welcome it. However, we would prefer speeding up of the training of the national Afghan army,” he added. (Reuters 262251 GMT Feb 03)

NATO

• Germany cannot offer Turkey further help to protect it during a possible war in Iraq, a government spokesman said Wednesday after receiving a list of requests sent to all NATO members. “We are providing the solidarity requested, and expect now that the other countries will make their contribution,” the spokesman said, adding that NATO members will outline their support for alliance member Turkey at a meeting on Monday. Turkey requested additional Patriot batteries and equipment such as protective clothing, antidotes and gas masks, a spokesman at NATO’s military headquarters in Belgium said on condition of anonymity. (AP 261815 Feb 03)
  
  
  
• NATO hopes to conclude membership negotiations with seven East European countries on March 26, an alliance official said Wednesday in Brussels. Foreign ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia and ambassadors of the 19 NATO nations are to sign the accession protocols then at a ceremony at the alliance headquarters. The seven East European countries are to officially join on May 1, 2004. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson was to visit Lithuania on Thursday and Latvia on Friday as part of a round of visits to all seven candidates. (AP 261652 Feb 03)
  
  
• NATO warships on anti-terrorist patrol in the Mediterranean may get a green light this week to board and search suspect vessels, an alliance official said on Wednesday in Brussels. The official, who asked not to be named, said a decision on whether to beef up the fleet’s powers to include boarding should be made by the end of this week or early next week. Legal experts have been considering rules of engagement at sea for a decision by NATO envoys, which the official said could put the last piece in a package aimed at broadening NATO’s mission in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. (Reuters 261816 GMT Feb 03)
  

BALKANS

• Kosovo’s ethnic rift widened on Wednesday as a mass ethnic Albanian protest lauded suspected anti-Serb war criminals as heroes, just a day after minority Serbs declared a “union” of towns they dominate. Tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians protested in Pristina at last week’s arrests of four ex-rebels accused by a UN court of atrocities against Serb civilians. They cheered as a leading war veteran read out a demand for immediate Kosovo independence. It was by far the largest rally held so far against the arrests. (Reuters 261548 GMT Feb 03)