Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

11 April 2003

BALKANS

• NATO Secretary General Robertson urged Bosnians Thursday to restructure their military and arrest war crimes suspects. “More has to be done in terms of bringing the military under the full civilian control and under a single command and control,” Robertson said in Sarajevo. NATO has refused to integrate a country with two armies into any of its structures. While the Muslim-Croat ministate has said it would accept a joint central command over the two armies, the Bosnian Serb ministate strongly rejects the idea. Robertson also made clear that before joining the alliance, Bosnian authorities have to arrest all suspects sought by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. “There will be no peace, no stability and no prosperity in the Balkans until all of those indicted for war crimes face trial in The Hague,” Robertson said. The first steps toward unifying the military were made last week when Bosnia's top international official, Paddy Ashdown, decreed that the two armies be put under the control of one ministry at the federal level by next January. (AP 101709 Apr 03 GMT)

IRAK

• U.S. and Kurdish forces moved to take control of two key northern cities in Iraq on Friday as troops in the capital grappled with continued looting and civil disorder and girded for more possible suicide bomb attacks. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said late on Thursday some American troops were also moving into Iraq’s third city of Mosul after signs of Iraqis surrendering in the area. “Within recent hours I’m told that in Mosul there appears to be an opportunity for the regular Iraqi forces to turn in their weapons and no longer pose a threat, in which case Kurdish forces and U.S. forces in small numbers are in the process of moving into Mosul,” he said.(Reuters 0238 110403 GMT)

ESDP

• Berlin sought on Thursday to avert deepening rifts in a Europe already divided by the Iraq war by ruling out that an April 29 defense summit of four EU states would form a military command structure to rival NATO’s. Defense Minister Struck said the summit by Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg would not agree to set up a joint military headquarters, rejecting part of a “reflection paper” presented by Belgium. “The things Belgium wrote down will not be part of whatever the final communiqué will be on April 29,” Struck told a conference in Berlin, referring to the joint general staff proposal which critics have said would weaken NATO. Struck also said the four states would not form their own defense union. “We should avoid at all costs setting up a conflict between NATO defense policy and European defense policy,” said Struck. “It would be totally wrong to assume that this group will form its own new core European security policy.” Belgium has suggested establishing joint 50-strong general staff for the four countries from May 1, 2004, to oversee their peacekeeping operations carried out using NATO equipment but where the alliance is not involved. The proposals also call for a so-called solidarity clause -- similar to NATO’s Article V -- which would oblige EU members to help another member if it were attacked. The Belgian proposal also envisages merging national military units to create, for example, a common air transport unit, unified pilot training and a joint force to tackle nuclear, chemical and biological contamination. According to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Belgian paper says European divisions over the Iraq war made defense integration crucial. “The powerlessness of the EU to play a part in the current international crisis obliges us to take a decisive step on the path to a European defense policy,” Sueddeutsche cited the paper as saying.(Reuters 2045 100403 GMT)

NATO

• Slovak lawmakers agreed on NATO membership on Thursday in a step towards reuniting the ex-Soviet satellite with the West, despite public opposition to joining the alliance being fuelled by the war in Iraq. “We have witnessed one of the most important parliamentary votes in the entire existence of our country. Today's decision determines our development for future decades,” Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda told journalists after the vote. “Our country is getting the maximum available degree of security, and it won't only be a high quality security umbrella, but also a chance...for the inflow of further foreign investment.” Dzurinda said he expected President Rudolf Schuster, currently in the United States after meeting with President Bush on Wednesday, to sign the treaty as soon as possible.(Reuters 1556 100403 GMT)