Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

08 September 2003

NATO

• Military officials from 15 NATO member countries on Saturday inaugurated a major air exercise organized for the first time in Poland. More than 90 aircraft and some 1,700 military personnel have arrived at an air base near the city of Poznan for NATO Air Meet 2003, a recurring event which this year runs through Sept. 19. (AP 061253 Sep 03)

IRAQ

• The United States expects no more than 15,000 foreign troops to be added to an Iraqi occupation force as a result of a proposed new UN resolution, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday. “We are not expecting this new resolution to cause a large number of additional troops to be added from the international community. I would guess that perhaps there are 10,000 to 15,000 more who might be made available,” Powell said on NBC television’s “Meet the Press.” “What we’re really interested in, in this resolution, ... is to get the international community to come together and participate in the political reconstruction of Iraq,” Colin Powell added. (Reuters 071603 GMT Sep 03)

BALKANS

• The President of UN-governed Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, said on Sunday that he hoped the province would soon become independent of Belgrade, the Beta news agency reported. Rugova’s statement came only a day after Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Affairs Minister Goran Svilanovic said that talks between Belgrade and Pristina officials would start this autumn in Brussels. Belgrade media quoted Svilanovic as saying that the talks would open up with issues like security, energy and communications. (Reuters 071203 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• Local police of Ljubuski and international peacekeepers found large stocks of weapons during a week of inspections in western Bosnia, officials said Friday. The statement did not give details on how the police found the weapons or where the weapons had been hidden. In a separate search in the town of Prijedor, NATO-led peacekeepers have discovered a significant amount of weapons this week in the basements of private homes in and around the town, NATO said in a statement Friday. (AP 051725 Sep 03)
  
  
• Macedonia (sic) said on Sunday that several gunmen were killed in a clash with security forces seeking to root out ethnic Albanian militants in the country’s mountainous north near Kosovo. In what appeared to have been the biggest such crackdown since a seven-month guerrilla insurgency shook Macedonia (sic) in 2001, officials said police units backed by the army suffered no casualties in coordinated action in the remote village of Brest. Diplomats in Skopje, stressing they still did not know details of what happened in Brest, said they backed efforts to resolve the problem with armed groups operating in Macedonia (sic). (Reuters 072008 GMT Sep 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said on Sunday he was hopeful that NATO might expand peacekeeping operations outside the Afghan capital, but that security was primarily the responsibility of Afghans. “I certainly agree that an expansion of ISAF would be a good thing,” he said in response to a question at a joint news conference with President Karzai. “For whatever reason, there have not been countries lining up to expand ISAF, but it strikes me that...there is at least the possibility of somewhat of an expansion,” he added. (Reuters 071918 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• Taliban fighters, paid and trained by al-Qaida, are pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the top American commander in Afghanistan said on Sunday. Lt. Gen. John Vines said the Taliban were trying to regroup and regain control of the country. His comments to reporters travelling with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld were the first confirmation from a top U.S. military official of reports of a Taliban resurgence out of Pakistan into Afghanistan. (AP 072012 Sep 03)

EU

• Premier Costas Simitis said Sunday that he believed traditional rival Turkey is willing to make political reforms required to join the European Union but urged faster progress in efforts to resolve volatile disputes with Greece. He said lasting peace with Turkey would allow the government to reduce funding for Greece’s massive defense budget - about 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product - and to spend more on social services and boost the economy. (AP 071413 Sep 03)