Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

12 May 2003

NATO

• Anti-American attitudes around the globe could destabilize the world by making the United States more isolationist, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said in remarks released Sunday. “I’m very worried about anti-Americanism because I think it is deeply corrosive to a relationship that is critically important for the overall security of the world,” Lord Robertson said in a BBC radio documentary about Britain’s relationship to Europe and the United States “If they continue to be criticized in that unreasoning and emotive way, then I see disengagement being the outcome and that being much more dangerous to all of us than American involvement or interventionism,” he added in remarks released by the BBC ahead of the program’s broadcast on Monday. In the program, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also said he was concerned about “trite” anti-Americanism in Britain. (AP 111626 May 03)
  
  
• Still smarting from its bust-up over bolstering Turkey’s defences for the U.S.-led strike on Baghdad, NATO is in no hurry to claim a role for itself in the post-war stabilisation of Iraq, diplomats said on Friday. A senior diplomat at the defence alliance’s headquarters said it was most unlikely that NATO would take command of any peacekeeping operation in Iraq in the way that it is preparing to do in Afghanistan three months from now. “There is nobody out there who is arguing blindly that, whatever happens, NATO mustn’t have a role,” he said. “But...there would be a common wish to have no more bloodletting and not to repeat what we did about Turkey and Iraq. So I think it’s going to be wait and see, take it slowly and if there is a requirement, react to the requirement.” (Reuters 091649 GMT May 03)

IRAQ

• The United States declared Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party dead, with the war’s commander telling Iraqis that the instrument of their deposed dictator’s power was dissolved and promising to purge its influence from the country it dominated for 35 years. Gen. Tommy Franks’ message, delivered Sunday in Arabic by an announcer for the coalition’s Information Radio, broadcast a clear message over the AM radio waves across postwar Iraq: Any activity by Baath Party holdouts who oppose U.S. occupation will not be tolerated. The statement told Iraqi citizens to collect and turn in any materials they had relating to the party and its operations. It called them “an important part of Iraqi government documents.” (AP 120050 May 03)
  
  
• The leader of Iraq’s largest Shiite Muslim group denounced the U.S.-led occupation force this weekend. Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who returned to his homeland this weekend after spending more than two decades in exile in neighboring Iran, demanded that U.S.-led forces pull out and allow the Iraqi people to establish their own government. Al-Hakim told Al-Jazeera television on Sunday that he would not attend meetings to form a new Iraqi government. He said he would send representatives to the meetings but that his specialty is religion, not politics “and therefore I don’t think I will attend any of these meetings, whether they are supervised by Iraqis or by others.” In his speech, al-Hakim vowed to defend the rights of all Iraqis and insisted he would not seek a Shiite government. Immediately after his return on Saturday, al-Hakim told cheering supporters that Iraq should have an Islamic government. In the same speech, however, he condemned religious extremism and rejected any foreign-installed government. (AP 120033 May 03)
  
  
• The new U.S. plan for ruling postwar Iraq raises several questions and does not provide a clear picture on the lifting of sanctions, Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said Saturday. The United States introduced a draft resolution on Friday that would give the UN stamp of approval for a U.S.-British occupation of Iraq for at least a year and give the Americans and British control of the country’s oil wealth for rebuilding the country. He said Russia wants the sanctions removed as soon as possible, but “in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions,” according to the Interfax news agency. (AP 101401 May 03)
  
  
• The commander of British forces in the Persian Gulf returned home Saturday as Britain continued to scale down its presence in the region. Air Marshal Brian Burridge landed at the Royal Air Force base at Northolt, after flying back to Britain via Cyprus from his base in Qatar. He told reporters he was certain alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction would eventually be discovered. With Air Marshal Burridge’s departure, Maj. Gen. Robin Brims, commander of British land forces in Iraq, is the ranking officer in the region, the defense ministry said. Also returning to Britain on Saturday were more than three hundred Royal Marines from the 40 Commando. (AP 101317 May 03)

BALKANS

• Filip Vujanovic, a former prime minister who pledged to hold a referendum on independence from Serbia, won a landslide victory in Montenegro’s presidential election, according to preliminary results. Vujanovic won about 63 percent of the Sunday vote, according to the Podgorica-based Center for Election Monitoring, a non-governmental organization whose previous election results proved reliable. (AP 120012 May 03)
  
  
• Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, General Ratko Mladic, has had no contact with Serbia and Montenegro military officials for almost a year, the country’s defence minister said on Saturday in Belgrade. “Last time any of the military officials had contact with Mladic was on May 21 last year,” said Boris Tadic. “It was in one of the military compounds. And he has not been seen or heard of since,” he said, declining to disclose further details. Tadic said he would inform NATO about this last report of Mladic’s whereabouts soon. “This does not mean that the army investigation to hunt down Mladic will end, on the contrary,” the minister added. (Reuters 101953 GMT May 03)

OTHER NEWS

• A battalion of Georgian troops graduated from a U.S.-led training course on Saturday and President Eduard Shevardnadze said the program would help Georgia gain entry into NATO, one of his country’s top priorities. U.S. Ambassador Richard Miles told graduates, “this training program continues to draw high level attention from not only the Georgian government and the American government, but neighboring governments.” He said, “I am proud to say that everyone can see that the Train and Equip program is a true model of effective military transformation.” (AP 101130 May 03)