Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

21 May 2003

NATO

• Reuters reports NATO ambassadors agreed unanimously Wednesday to provide Poland with the logistical support it sought in running a “stabilization zone” in Iraq. “The (North Atlantic) Council has unanimously decided today to task NATO military authorities to provide advice as soon as possible on the Polish request for NATO support to Poland,” the dispatch quotes NATO Secretary General Robertson saying. AFP notes that the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, trumpeted the Alliance’s decision to help Poland in Iraq, saying it marked the end of a crisis sparked by the Iraq conflict. The dispatch adds that describing the decision as amounting to NATO involvement in Iraq, Burns also raised the possibility of a larger role for NATO in Iraq in the future, stressing: “There’s no question NATO is out on the frontlines in the global war on terrorism. I do not exclude the possibility that NATO could play a larger role in the future.” While AP opines that the NATO decision should help heal the divisions suffered by the Alliance in the run-up to the Iraq war, the BBC World Service stressed that the decision was symbolically important and would provide a welcome balm for sore feeling left by the war. Earlier, the Financial Times suggested that NATO would instruct its military planners to help Poland find troops, logistics and communications. It expected that NATO would nod through a decision to provide “force generation” for Poland. “That would include logistics and communications support similar to the arrangement for the joint Dutch-German led command of ISAF, which expires in the summer when NATO takes over,” said the newspaper. Poland is also seeking further assistance, added the newspaper, claiming: “It wants SHAPE, the military planning arm of NATO, to provide a detailed handbook on how to assemble the multinational division since Poland has never carried out a mission of this kind. In addition, Poland wants SHAPE to build up and provide the military planning headquarters in Iraq.”
  
  
• Prague’s CTK, May 20, quoted Dusan Lupuljev, head of the Czech chemical forces, saying the specific concept of the chemical-protection unit the Czech Republic is to create for NATO can be ready by mid-June. He reportedly indicated that the battalion is almost certain to include Slovaks and perhaps troops from the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, France and Germany.
  
  
• A NATO medical committee meeting in Warsaw aims to develop a standardized response to bio-terror attack, according to its chairman, Belgian Gen. Van Hoof, reports AFP. The dispatch quotes Gen. Van Hoof saying a goal of the biannual meeting “is to standardize the methods and medical material to facilitate cooperation in a multinational environment” in the event of biological or chemical attacks. “Bio-terrorism has been at the heart of our discussions for a long time, but after the Sept. 11 attacks and the conflict in Iraq, it has become a more widely recognized problem,” Gen. Van Hoof reportedly noted. He observed that the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary “have always been at the forefront in the detection and isolation of biological arms,” adding: “These countries brought their know-how and experience to the Alliance even before their adhesion.” The dispatch stresses that Gen Van Hoof presides over NATO’s Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services (COMEDS), which links senior military medical authorities of member countries and provides medical advice to NATO’s Military Committee.

MISSILE DEFENSE

• According to AP, Defense Minister Ivanov said Wednesday Russia is ready to start talking with the United States about cooperation on a missile defense system. “We are prepared to talk with the United States on the theme of cooperation in the field of anti-missile defense,” he reportedly said. He added, however, that if Washington and Moscow did cooperate, both sides would want to “guard their intellectual property.” He also called for full transparency in developing the systems, and warned against the militarization of space. Earlier, the Washington Times reported that the White House Tuesday announced that global opposition to President Bush’s missile defense plan largely has collapsed in the wake of the war against terrorism, causing a “sea change” of views even in nations such as Russia. The newspaper added that to mark the milestone, the White House Tuesday formally codified its quest for a global missile defense system in a document known as National Security Policy Directive 23, releasing an unclassified version that spells out the president’s vision. “Hostile states, including those that sponsor terrorism, are investing large resources to develop and acquire ballistic missiles of increasing range and sophistication…. The United States and our allies lack effective defenses against this threat,” the document reportedly stressed. The article quoted officials saying that to remedy that, the Bush administration is accelerating deployment of the first stages of a missile shield in Alaska that would be able by next year to intercept any missiles fired from North Korea. But, the officials reportedly added, the shield eventually would be extended to encompass many nations, a large number of which are scrambling to sign up for protection. Other officials are quoted saying the administration is close to reaching agreements for use of radar facilities in Britain and Greenland that would provide early warnings of missiles fired at the United States or its allies

BALKANS

• According to AFP, the state of Serbia and Montenegro wants Germany and NATO to help it improve its defense policy. The dispatch quotes Defense Minister Tadic saying in Berlin Tuesday that the state “is trying to contribute to the democratization of all the states in the region, by respecting human rights and those of ethnic minorities.” But, he reportedly stressed, “without the help of Germany and NATO we will not be able to carry out such a policy.” According to the dispatch, he also stressed that international peacekeepers would have to stay in the region until the “Balkans had received enough aid to carry out reforms.”

BELGIUM-UNIVERSAL COMPETENCE LAW

• The lawyer who filed a war crimes complaint against the commander of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks, said Wednesday he will appeal a Belgian government decision to refer the case to the United States. He said he will take the case to the Council of State, Belgium’s Supreme Court, to try and have the case heard in Belgium, reports AP. The dispatch adds that the government late Tuesday, acting on the advice of Prime Minister Verhofstadt, used a recently approved amendment to Belgium’s universal jurisdiction law that allows a case to be sent to the country of the accused if it has a democratic and fair legal system. Verhofstadt said Saturday that the war crimes complaint filed against Gen. Franks was an “abuse of the law,” which allowed prosecution of war crimes around the world in Belgium courts until it was amended last month, adds the dispatch.

OTHER NEWS

• The International Herald Tribune reports that officials in Paris, at UN headquarters in New York and in Africa sought Tuesday to head off a massacre in the northeast Democratic Republic of Congo as violence between two tribes increased. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for volunteers to end the terror, the article notes, adding that Tuesday France responded by sending a dozen officer to reconnoiter the area of Bunia, leading to speculation that they were preparing the way for a larger UN force. The dispatch recalls that EU foreign policy chief Solana said this week the EU is also considering providing soldiers.