Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

13 October 2003

BALKANS

• Bosnia could be stable enough for NATO forces to withdraw sometime next year, NATO’s supreme military commander said Friday in Washington. NATO officials, at an informal meeting in Colorado this week, said the alliance’s forces could be able to withdraw from Bosnia within a year to 18 months. At a Pentagon news conference on Friday, Gen. James Jones was more optimistic. “It is not unreasonable to think that, absent any sudden change to the contrary ... that certainly during ’04 we could have a different footprint there than we currently have,” said Gen. Jones, who also heads the U.S. military’s European Command. Gen. Jones, like other NATO officials, said final decisions have not been made about ending the eight-year military mission in Bosnia. Nearby Kosovo is a tougher problem, and NATO forces will have to be there longer, Gen. Jones said. “Kosovo still requires a military presence, at least in ’04, at least from what I currently see,” he added. He also added that most NATO troops will be out of neighbouring Macedonia (sic) by the end of this year. (AP 102107 Oct 03)
  
  
• The Serbian government will face a crucial no-confidence motion next week despite concerns it might jeopardize delicate talks with Kosovo Albanian leaders, a top official said Sunday. “The session will begin as scheduled on October 14,” Natasa Micic, Serbia’s parliament speaker, told the Beta news agency. Certain government ministers had called for the session to be postponed to avoid complicating the long-awaited launch - like the vote, also on Tuesday - of talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials in Vienna. In another development that could affect the success of the talks, a key Kosovo Albanian leader said Sunday he would stay away from the dialogue, in comments indirectly suggesting that the province’s UN administration had overstepped its bounds. “I will not go to the Vienna meeting organized by the UN mission in Kosovo,” Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in pre-recorded statement broadcast on local televisions. “This is not the right time. This is not the right way,” he added. His refusal to attend was linked to parliament failing to authorize the government to participate. (AP 121754 Oct 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• The United Nations appealed to Afghan warlords on Sunday to cooperate with a UN-backed programme to disarm 100,000 factional fighters which is due to start this month. President Karzai gave approval on Saturday for the launch of the ambitious Japanese-led plan in the northern province of Kunduz bordering Tajikistan on October 24. The US $200 million project is expected to take up to two years to disarm and demobilise warlord armies seen as the main obstacle to extending extend central rule into the unruly provinces. (Reuters 120919 GMT Oct 03)

IRAQ

• Prime Minister Erdogan said Sunday that Turkish soldiers would be a guarantee of peace in Iraq even though Baghdad’s U.S.-appointed governing council says they would not be welcome. “If we go to Iraq it is solely with humanitarian and peaceful aims,” he told an AKP congress, adding that some 3,000 trucks carrying food and medicine crossed from Turkey into Iraq every day. (Reuters 121525 GMT Oct 03)
  
  
• Ankara expects Washington to persuade Iraq’s Governing Council to accept Turkish troops before tough negotiations start on the precise conditions of its planned deployment, Turkish officials said on Friday. “We are ready to begin negotiations but we are waiting for the United States to overcome the Iraqi opposition. The ball is in America’s court,” a senior Turkish official told reporters. “It would not be realistic to expect the talks to begin at the start of next week,” he added. Turkish Foreign Minister Gul, clearly annoyed by the Governing Council’s stand, accused some members on Friday of using Turkey to score domestic political points. “Some members of the Council have in the past few days used Turkey to play politics. We feel uncomfortable about this and have relayed our feelings very clearly to the American side,” Gul told reporters in Antalya. He said some Iraqi politicians were being inconsistent, privately encouraging Turkey to contribute troops but then coming out publicly against any Turkish military role. (Reuters 101327 GMT Oct 03)
  
  
• Muslim nations demanded “eviction of all foreign forces from Iraq” as they began a summit in Malaysia on Saturday, with only Turkey defending plans to deploy its troops alongside the U.S.-led alliance. Abdelouahed Belkeziz, Secretary-General of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said occupying forces should quickly withdraw from Iraq, to give the United Nations a chance to reconstruct the country. (Reuters 111330 GMT Oct 03)