Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

17 April 2003

ISAF

• NATO agreed on Wednesday to assume command in August of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, EU diplomats said. Diplomats said Wednesday’s decision on the change in command does not prejudice a potential role for NATO in post-war Iraq. “The role of NATO, which is already giving logistical support to ISAF, will be reinforced,” a diplomat told Reuters. NATO will take over the strategic command and control of the peacekeeping force, diplomats said.(Reuters 1533 160403 Apr 03)

IRAQ

• Up to seven European countries may send troops to a peacekeeping force proposed by the United States for Iraq, where violence and looting is rife after the ousting of Saddam Hussein, EU officials said on Wednesday. Washington has asked Denmark to provide staff to lead a unit of 3,000 personnel as part of U.S.-led efforts to stabilize postwar Iraq, a request Copenhagen says it is considering. “We have today tried to explore whether there among the colleagues from the EU states is an interest in contributing towards a peacekeeping force in Iraq and there are several countries, which are considering this,” Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen told reporters. Rasmussen said Poland and the three Baltic states -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- were among states which had expressed an interest in an Iraqi peace force. “I do not think we reveal too much by saying that there is in the Baltic states a positive interest in participating...and we will most likely also be able to draw on the positive experiences we have in cooperation with Poland,” he said after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Annan. Rasmussen would not name other European states, saying they, like Denmark, were in the process of consulting national parliaments on what role they could to play in the reconstruction and stabilization of postwar Iraq.(Reuters1847 160403 GMT)
  
  
• With Baghdad deemed safe for a visit by the commander of the U.S.-led forces that overthrew Saddam Hussein, the focus shifted from combat to reconstruction and President Bush urged an end to UN economic sanctions on Iraq. “Now that Iraq is liberated, the United Nations should lift sanctions on that country,” Bush said. The White House said the United States would propose a UN resolution to end the sanctions “in the near future” and America’s UN ambassador, John Negroponte, said Washington envisioned a “step-by-step procedure.” Gen. Franks, who directed the war in Iraq, flew in to Baghdad airport. He met with troops and military commanders and gave Bush a progress report via videoconference from one of Saddam’s abandoned palaces. “I very simply provide the president and the National Security Council a statement of where we are in the operation,” Franks said. Franks said water and power were being restored and hospitals were beginning to function again after days of anarchy.(Reuters 0250 170403 GMT)

BALKANS

• French Prime Minister Raffarin made a brief trip to Macedonia (sic) on Wednesday to visit troops serving in the first peacekeeping mission run solely by the EU. Raffarin visited the headquarters of the EU's 400-member mission and met with the country’s prime minister, Branko Crvenkovski. In a statement issued after the talks, Macedonia’s (sic) Foreign Ministry said that Crvenkovski and Raffarin had discussed bilateral relations and the EU peacekeeping mission. They “evaluated the Concordia mission as a positive one,” the statement said. “The expiration of the mission’s mandate should mark the full stabilization of Macedonia.”(AP 161507 Apr 03 GMT)