Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

11 March 2003

NATO

• Visiting a country lukewarm about its potential NATO membership, the alliance’s top official said Monday that there was no punishment for rejecting the invitation but called it a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” “People have to be very clear that they will not have a quick opportunity to vote again” if they reject membership in the March 23 referendum, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson told reporters. Lord Robertson said there would be “no threat, no penalty, no punishment” if Slovenes rejected membership, but said that “being at the top table is definitely better than sitting on the sidelines.” On Iraq, Lord Robertson said that NATO was “not going to be involved in any military action that might follow a decision of the (UN) Security Council.” (AP 101845 Mar 03)

IRAQ 

• President Chirac said on Monday that France was prepared to veto the U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq, joining Russia in saying it would vote against giving Saddam Hussein a March 17 deadline to disarm. “No matter what the circumstances, France will vote ‘no,’” Chirac said in a televised interview. “Right now we consider that there is no need for war to achieve the objective we fixed - the disarmament of Iraq,” he said. However, he indicated the veto might not be needed because the resolution does not have the nine Security Council votes needed for passage. (AP 102115 Mar 03)
  
  
• Britain would consider a compromise United Nations resolution that extends an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein beyond the March 17 deadline already proposed, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday during a television forum. Blair said he had spoken by phone on Monday to UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and earlier to representatives of other Security Council members about setting specific tests to clarify whether Saddam was complying with the UN’s will. (AP 102121 Mar 03)
  
  
• Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso said Monday that Portugal would support U.S. military action in Iraq even without United Nations endorsement. “In the case of a conflict between the U.S. and Iraq, without a solution in the framework of the UN, Portugal knows its position,” Barroso said, according to the Portuguese national news agency Lusa. However, Prime Minister Barroso added that Portugal will not take part in any military action against Iraq. (AP 101950 Mar 03)
  

BALKANS 

• Thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral of two ethnic Albanians shot dead by Serb police in the volatile Presevo Valley in southern Serbia. A message from a shadowy militant group calling itself the Albanian National Army (ANA), which said the dead men were its members, was read out and greeted with applause by the crowd of roughly 5,000 ethnic Albanians in Breznica. “We are today saying goodbye to our most recently killed soldiers who joined us for our cause of national unification of all lands where Albanians live,” the statement said. (Reuters 101751 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• An ethnic Albanian man in Kosovo, Feriz Deliu, was indicted by an international prosecutor on charges of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons, an official said Monday in Pristina. He was arrested by NATO-led peacekeepers in the eastern part of the province over a month ago. Authorities did not reveal any details of the alleged plans. (AP 101717 Mar 03
  

OTHER NEWS

• To the chagrin of the United States, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan inaugurates the World’s first permanent war crimes court on Tuesday in The Hague. The court will have jurisdiction to punish war crimes, including genocide, in any country that has ratified the statute, if that country refused to prosecute suspects itself. Nonparty states can ask the court to intervene, as can the UN Security Council. Its jurisdiction is not retroactive, meaning crimes committed before last July cannot be handled by the court. The Security Council also has the power to postpone investigations by up to two years. (AP 110221 Mar 03)
  
  
• The United States on Monday rejected Iran’s assertion of peaceful nuclear aims and said the country was “clearly pursuing” nuclear arms. Officials said Washington was waiting to hear from international inspectors before deciding on a response to disclosures Iran’s nuclear program was more advanced than previously thought. Time magazine reported in this week’s edition that the Natanz uranium enrichment plant was “extremely advanced” and The Washington Post reported on Monday that Iran is on track to produce enough enriched uranium by 2005 for several nuclear bombs per year. (Reuters 102348 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• The United Nations announced on Tuesday that peace talks between the Greek and Turkish leaders of divided Cyprus had ended in failure and there would be no more negotiations. “Regrettably these (peace) efforts were not a success. We have reached the end of the road,” said a statement by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. (Reuters 110452 GMT Mar 03)