Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

23 July 2003

NATO

• Greece and Turkey agreed on Wednesday during talks at NATO in Brussels to officer exchanges and other confidence-building measures intended to reduce tension between the traditional rivals. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson announced the agreement after talks with the Greek and Turkish ambassadors to the alliance. The talks will continue, Lord Robertson added. (AP 231307 Jul 03)

BALKANS

• NATO officials said on Wednesday that they were awaiting clarification to a suggestion by the president of Serbia and Montenegro for “joint action” to arrest one of the key indicted war criminals still on the loose - former Bosnian Serb army Gen. Ratko Mladic. “We need to find out a little more what they meant,” a senior NATO official said on condition of anonymity. At a meeting on Tuesday night with NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson, the new president, Svetozar Marovic, stressed that his country wanted to demonstrate its commitment in cooperating with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP 231456 Jul 03)
  
  
• Serbia will never agree to Kosovo’s independence, but would accept wide autonomy for the province, a government document said Tuesday in Belgrade. The document, which still needs parliamentary approval, represents the first official Serbian government stand on Kosovo since former President Milosevic’s ouster in 2000. It is intended to serve as a starting point for talks on Kosovo’s future. “A destruction of Serbia’s territorial integrity must not be allowed,” the document said. “If any part of the international community decides to recognize Kosovo as an independent state ... it would mean dismembering of territory of a sovereign country and be a dangerous, destabilizing precedent.” The seven-page document, which was drafted by deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic and obtained by The Associated Press, acknowledged implicitly that ethnic Albanians now dominate the province. In a separate statement carried by the Tanjug news agency, Covic protested against the privatization of state-run firms in Kosovo. He suggested that Serbia might take the case to the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands. (AP 231352 Jul 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• About 1,000 soldiers of Afghanistan’s new national army launched their first major operation, sweeping for insurgents in the east of the country, a U.S. military spokesman said in Kabul. The operation was the largest ever carried out by troops from the new army since the U.S. and French forces began training recruits over a year ago. (AP 240031 Jul 03)

OTHER NEWS

• Nuclear bombs are likely to be used before the end of the decade if the United States doesn’t do more to stop their spread, a group that advises Senate Democrats said in Washington. One key step would be to begin direct talks with North Korea to negotiate an end to its nuclear program, said the National Security Advisory Group, which includes top officials from the administration of former President Clinton. Former Defense Secretary William Perry, the group’s chairman, said Wednesday that North Korea could have six to eight nuclear bombs by the end of the year and could have “serial production” next year. “We must anticipate, given North Korea’s desperate economic condition, that some of the products of their nuclear program will be for sale to the highest bidder and could end up in an American city,” Perry said at a news conference. “If we cannot resolve the conflict through negotiation, we may drift into a situation where this policy conflict erupts into a military conflict,” Perry added. The advisory group also includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former national security adviser Sandy Berger, former NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark and former Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili. (AP 240053 Jul 03)