Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

01 August 2003

BALKANS

• Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said on Thursday that Belgrade would arrest all remaining United Nations war crimes indictees found in the country by the end of the year. But he expressed doubts Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic was hiding in the country. Asked to comment on local media reports that he had invited U.S. secret services to help find and arrest Mladic, Zivkovic said: “No one (but Serb authorities) will be able to carry investigations in Serbia, to arrest or to try here.” (Reuters 312018 GMT Jul 03)
  
  
• Support for joining the European Union and NATO in Croatia has fallen slightly over the past year according to a poll released on Thursday. Support for EU membership was at 73.6 percent - four percentage points lower than in July 2002. And support for joining NATO was at 53 percent - down from the 61 percent who said last year that they hoped to join the alliance. (AP 311635 Jul 03)
  
  
• Bosnia must cut the number of sites where weapons are stored to reduce risk to civilians, prevent illegal arms sales and save money, its NATO-led peacekeeping force said on Thursday. SFOR said that the number of weapons storage sites across the Balkan country should be reduced to fewer than 10 as soon as possible, from 160 at present. (Reuters 311344 GMT Jul 03)

IRAQ

• Hans Blix said Thursday that he did not believe U.S. President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair had lied to the public before launching an attack on Iraq. Asked by reporters at a news conference in Hanover if he considered them to be liars, Blix responded simply, “No.” In an interview to appear on Friday in Berlin’s Tageszeitung daily, Blix stressed that he felt both leaders were convinced of their reasons to go to war, and he praised President Bush for acknowledging his mistakes. (AP 311827 Jul 03)
  
  
• Iraq’s U.S. administrator said on Thursday that rebuilding the country could require anywhere from US $50 billion to US $100 billion of outside money over the next couple of years. Paul Bremer, in an interview with CNBC’s “Capital Report,” said for at least the next few years “we’re going to have to spend a lot more money than we’re going to get revenues even once we get oil production back to pre-war levels.” (Reuters 010046 GMT Aug 03)

LIBERIA

• The lead ships in a U.S. Navy Amphibious Ready Group are expected to arrive off the coast of Liberia by Saturday, but no decision has been made on whether to put any of the 2,300 Marines aboard on the ground in the West African country, U.S. officials said on Thursday in Washington. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States will have “forces closer to Liberia available for whatever purpose the president may decide may be necessary.” The official added that “at the moment, there’s still some assessments going on” by U.S. teams in the region. (Reuters 312228 GMT Jul 03)

OTHER NEWS

• Israel will hold joint naval exercises with the United States and Turkey in August, an Israeli military said Thursday in Jerusalem. The exercises are the sixth to be held by the three navies, the military said, and will take place in international waters off the Turkish coast. The last U.S-Israeli-Turkish naval exercises took place in January off the Israeli coast. The joint naval exercises in August will focus on emergency search and rescue procedures, the Israeli military said in a statement. In addition to ships, some aircraft will also be involved. (AP 311744 Jul 03)