Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

14 July 2003

UNIVERSAL COMPETENCE LAW

• In its first decision since taking office, Belgium’s re-elected center-left government has agreed to replace a war crimes law that has clouded relations with the United States, Israel and other nations. “Changing the universal competence law is a priority of this government,” Prime Minister Verhofstadt said. A new bill is expected to be approved by parliament before the summer recess starting in early August. The government is scheduled to approve a final text of the bill next Saturday which will limit the law to cases where the victim or suspect are Belgian citizens or resident in the country for at least three years. (AP 130835 Jul 03)

BALKANS

• A former U.S. special envoy to the Balkans urged his country to encourage independence for Kosovo in remarks published on Saturday. Richard Holbrooke told the Kosovo newspaper Koha Ditore that the only way to bring lasting peace to the region was separating Kosovo from Serbia. Holbrooke also noted that Kosovo’s Serb minority needed protection in an independent Kosovo. In the interview, Holbrooke said Kosovo should be “an independent state with its own UN membership, its own separate international identity” with close economic ties to Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia (sic) and Bosnia. He added that Kosovo’s final status “must be decided in an international negotiation” between Kosovo and Serbia with the support of the U.S., the EU, the UN and Russia. (AP 121542 Jul 03)
  
  
• The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia for another year and demanded that all those indicted for war crimes during the conflict be handed over for prosecution. (AP 120131 Jul 03)

IRAQ

• Pressure is mounting on the Bush administration to seek NATO’s support in Iraq as U.S. costs and casualties climb, but diplomats said on Friday it will play a waiting game to avoid another alliance bust-up. Italy, one of Washington’s closest European allies, said on Friday it would support the deployment of NATO forces in Iraq. But the United States is unlikely to call on NATO to take a direct role in the post-war stabilisation of the country any time soon because, as one diplomat put it, “they know it would be a train wreck.” “It would be premature because we don’t have the potential for a consensus,” said another. “I don’t think they will try their chances because it could bring another crisis.” How long President Bush can wait may depend on pressure at home, where there is increasing dismay over the almost daily attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. “The problem is that if they bring this to NATO it would be like confessing their failure,” said one diplomat. “I think they will wait for another two or three months for things to settle down and then test the water with their allies.” (Reuters 111644 GMT Jul 03)
  
  
• A group claiming to be linked to the al Qaeda network said on Sunday that it, and not Saddam Hussein loyalists, were behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and warned of more anti-U.S. attacks in coming days. “I swear by God no one from his (Saddam Hussein) followers carried out any jihad operations like he claims... they (attacks) are a result of our brothers in jihad,” said an unidentified voice on an audio tape broadcast by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. (Reuters 132248 GMT Jul 03)
  
  
• The chief of the armed forces suggested in a published weekend interview that France could spare some 5,000 soldiers for an eventual operation in Iraq, but said he has received no orders to prepare for such a mission. French military planners foresee about 20,000 soldiers on external missions, and 15,000 troops are currently deployed in operations outside France, from the Balkans, to Afghanistan and Africa, Gen. Henri Bentegeat said in an interview published in the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche. The armed forces chief reiterated the French position regarding Iraq: that it would send soldiers there only under a UN mandate. Gen. Bentegeat said that, despite the diplomatic row between Washington and Paris, there has never been tension on the military front. He said that French special forces would be sent to Afghanistan “in the coming days” on a “very confidential mission” surrounding the fight against the al-Qaida terror network and the Taliban. Those forces, he said, “will be placed directly under operational American control and will remain under my operational command.” (AP 121940 Jul 03)

EU

• The Netherlands has proposed sending EU peacekeepers to back the settlement of a decade-old dispute between the ex-Soviet state of Moldova and its breakaway Dnestr region, diplomats said on Friday in Brussels. The proposal, floated this week in a paper at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, would have to be handled carefully by the 15-nation bloc because Moldova still lies in Russia’s sphere of influence. If it does field a force, it would almost certainly include a large Russian contingent. A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the OSCE had been in contact with both NATO and the EU to discuss the possibility of raising a limited peace force. Diplomats said an EU force in Moldova would probably number no more than several hundred troops. (Reuters 111635 GMT Jul 03)