Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

14 April 2003

WAR ON TERRORISM

• The German government plans to move the country’s foreign intelligence service to Berlin to improve the flow of information to officials and the parliament, a government spokesman said Saturday. The switch to the capital from its current base in Pullach, a suburb of the Bavarian city of Munich, will take place “in the medium-term,” the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. According to a report in the Der Spiegel weekly, the BND will move its thousands of employees to a government-owned facility in Clay Allee, in the west of Berlin. (AP 121729 Apr 03)

NATO

• The U.S. ambassador to Belgium said on Friday he had been misquoted by a newspaper as saying Belgium’s opposition to the Iraq war raised questions over whether NATO headquarters should stay in Brussels. Stephen Brauer was quoted by local newspaper De Financieel-Economische Tijd earlier in the day as saying Belgium’s opposition had set it at odds with some of its allies in the eastward-expanding 19-nation military bloc. “When the future seat of NATO is discussed again, the Belgian attitude on Iraq will certainly be raised,” the daily quoted him as saying in an interview. In a letter to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Foreign Minister Louis Michel, Ambassador Brauer quickly disowned the interview. A spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry said the government took note of the letter. The newspaper said it stood by its version of the interview. (Reuters 111450 GMT Apr 03)
  
  
• President George W. Bush sent documents to the Senate on Friday for the U.S. ratification of NATO’s expansion to include seven Eastern European nations. “The president is very pleased that the Senate will now be able to vote on expanding NATO to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia,” said a White House spokesman. The Senate must approve U.S. acceptance of new NATO members. No major problems were expected by the White House. (Reuters 111518 GMT Apr 03)

IRAQ

• Turkish Foreign Minister Gul said Saturday that he saw no immediate need for Turkish troops to intervene in northern Iraq, apparently satisfied with U.S. assurances that Kurdish forces would pull out of two key northern Iraqi cities. In comments published Saturday in the Turkish Daily News, the minister said Turkey would not “hesitate from taking the appropriate decisions” if “pledges and assurances made to Turkey” were not kept. (AP 121341 Apr 03)
  
  
• The Dutch government, which supported the U.S.-led war on Iraq, is discussing its possible role in a peacekeeping force in the region, officials said Friday in The Hague. The caretaker government under Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has been in contact with U.S. and British officials about a stabilization force, a spokesman said at a regular press briefing. The United Nations had not been involved in the peacekeeping discussions, he said. The Dutch may also contribute to humanitarian and financial assistance for Iraq, he said, without giving details. The daily Volkskrant newspaper reported that the Dutch could commit a battalion of 600-700 troops to Iraqi peacekeeping. (AP 111310 Apr 03)

EU

• Hungarian leaders on Sunday hailed a huge “Yes” vote in a referendum on EU membership, but some acknowledged a low turnout (45.62 %) showed more work needed to be done to sell the benefits of joining the bloc. The Hungarian vote was the third in a series of ballots meant to seal enlargement of the EU in May 2004 to 25 members with the entry of 10 mostly former communist East European countries. (Reuters 132126 GMT Apr 03)

BALKANS

• Former Yugoslav president Kostunica on Sunday reiterated accusations that the Serbian government is using a crackdown aiming to find those who killed the Serbian prime minister to curb political freedoms. Kostunica on Sunday again denied that his party had any links with organized crime bosses and paramilitaries suspected of the March 12 assassination of Zoran Djindjic. (AP 131427 Apr 03)
  
  
• Unknown attackers used explosives to damage a railway bridge in northern Kosovo early Saturday, killing one person, officials said. A spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force, said the railway and a nearby road outside the town of Zvecan, 45 kilometers north of Pristina, were shut down while the peacekeepers and UN police investigated and assessed the damage. “At the moment we do not know who is responsible or what was the motive for this,” the spokesman said. The rail link connects Kosovo with the rest of Serbia to the north. (AP 121648 Apr 03)