Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

8 August 2003

NATO

• NATO diplomats are considering the unprecedented idea of a Canadian successor to the 19-nation Western defence alliance’s outgoing secretary-general, George Robertson, to break a deadlock pitting Washington against Paris. “There are a number of candidates whose names are being informally discussed by allies, including Deputy Prime Minister John Manley’s. The secretary general should be chosen on leadership abilities, not country of origin,” a Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman said. (Reuters 072221 GMT Aug 03)
  
  
• The upper chamber of the Czech parliament overwhelmingly approved expanding NATO membership to include seven new countries. The parliament’s decision will be sent to President Vaclav Klaus for ratification. (AP 071707 Aug 03)

BALKANS

• Serbia and Montenegro purged its army leadership of 16 high-ranking officers, most of them generals, as part of a drive to radically reform a force once vilified by the West for brutal tactics during the violent collapse of old Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It included deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Vladimir Lazarevic, who headed the army in Kosovo during the 1999 war, and military intelligence chief Major-General Radosav Skoric, local media reported. (Reuters 071731 GMT Aug 03)

IRAQ

• U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday that he regretted the Arab League’s failure to strongly welcome the U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq and said the United States would keep pushing for this. UN diplomats said Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at a Wednesday Security Council luncheon meeting, raised the issue of whether the council should adopt a resolution welcoming the Governing Council’s creation. Annan said afterward he believed the council would take a new look at the question. (Reuters 072059 GMT Aug 03)
  
  
• With American troops under constant fire in Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the U.S.-led military coalition may want to “stand back a little” and rely more on local forces to maintain security in the country. “Iraqis have started to create security forces that will protect installations, so that you don’t need a coalition military organization protecting that installation,” he said. (AP 072308 Aug 03)