Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

4 July 2003

LIBERIA

• The U.S. military commander in Europe has been ordered to begin planning for possible American intervention in Liberia, U.S. defense officials said on Thursday in Washington. To move planning along, a directive called a “warning order” was sent overnight to European commander Gen. James Jones, asking him to give the Pentagon his estimate of how the situation in the West African nation might be handled. (AP 032035 Jul 03)

IRAQ

• The U.S. government put a US$25 million bounty on Saddam Hussein’s head and offered US$15 million for information leading to the capture of either of his sons. With the uncertainty surrounding Saddam’s fate providing a rallying point for anti-U.S. forces, the ousted dictator’s capture is seen as crucial to putting down a mushrooming insurgency. (AP 040004 Jul 03)

BALKANS

• The president of Serbia and Montenegro said on Thursday he did not believe top Bosnian Serb fugitive Ratko Mladic was still in the country, as the United Nations’ chief war crimes prosecutor alleges. President Svetozar Marovic pledged in an interview that the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander would be arrested if he was located. But he said the authorities did not have information that he was hiding in Serbia and Montenegro. (Reuters 031510 GMT Jul 03)
  
  
• Despite setbacks, the UN official in charge of Kosovo said on Thursday that the groundwork was in place for a democratic future but Serbia’s delegate said the political climate had not improved. “Huge challenges remain,” Michael Steiner, told the Security Council. “But the groundwork for Kosovo’s future progress has now been laid,” he added. But Serbia’s UN ambassador, Dejan Sahovic, said Kosovo institutions functioned poorly at best. He said the country’s elected assembly overstepped its competencies and that legal protection for the Serb minority was patchy. Steiner’s successor has not been named. (Reuters 032340 GMT Jul 03)