Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

15 October 2003

IRAQ

• Turkey’s prime minister on Tuesday shrugged off suggestions that a suicide car bomb attack on its embassy in Baghdad was linked to its proposed despatch of peacekeeping troops to Iraq. In an interview with the Financial Times, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also rejected criticism of Turkey’s troop deployment, which has been opposed by members of Iraq’s Governing Council and by Muslim countries in the region. “We don’t think this is a terrorist action against the authorisation granted by parliament,” he told reporters after an unscheduled meeting with General Hilmi Ozkok, chief of general staff of the armed forces. “This shows once again that we need to establish a common fight against international terrorism,” he added. (The Financial Times October 14 2003 22:14)
  
  
• The United States rejected a proposal by France, Russia and Germany Tuesday to add a timetable for the transfer of power to Iraqis to its new resolution and give Secretary-General Kofi Annan a role in its preparation. The absence of a timetable diminished the likelihood that the resolution will be adopted with broad support from the 15-member Security Council. A vote could come early as Wednesday afternoon. (The Guardian October 15 2003 04:16)
  
  
• More than two-thirds of Baghdad residents would like to see U.S. troops stay in Iraq for an extended period, according to a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization. Seventy-one percent of Baghdad residents believe U.S. troops should not leave within the next few months, according to the Gallup Poll released yesterday in Washington. Twenty-six percent feel the troops should leave that soon. Almost six in 10 — 58 percent — say U.S. troops in Baghdad have behaved fairly well or very well, with one in 10 saying very well. Twenty percent say the troops have behaved fairly badly and 9 percent say very badly. The biggest surprise may have been public reaction to the questioners, who visited Iraqis in their homes. Richard Burkholder, director of international polling for Gallup, said the response rate was close to 97 percent, with some people following questioners around the streets begging for a chance to give their opinions. A sizable minority feel there are circumstances in which attacks against U.S. troops could be justified. Almost one in five — 19 percent — say attacks could be justified, and an additional 17 percent say they could be in some situations. The poll of 1,178 adults was taken between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4 and had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. (The Washington Times October 15 2003)

ESDP

• A potential trans-Atlantic breach has opened in the aftermath of the Iraq war that seems to leave Britain wavering between its exclusive, pro-American commitment to NATO and involvement in a European Union defense initiative pushed by France and Germany. British officials hold that there is nothing ominous about this for the trans-Atlantic relationship since Britain regards NATO as having clear primacy except where it is specifically transferred to wholly European auspices. A recent African operation run out of French national headquarters is an example. For Bernard Jenkin, the shadow secretary of state for defense of the Conservative Party, the government’s action breaches “the fundamental undertaking Blair gave to Bush” on Europe’s relation to America. “If the government were really asserting NATO’s primacy,” he said, “it would be asserting the primacy of the ‘Berlin Plus’ accord we’ve agreed to, which provides for ‘separable but not separate’ EU forces,” he added. (IHT October 15 2003)

BALKANS

• Serbs and Kosovo Albanians met face-to-face on Tuesday in Vienna for the first time since their war in 1999, but the talks ended on a sour note with rival leaders clashing over the future of the Balkan province. Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders insisted on outright independence, and Serbs rejected such plans. The rivals refused even a ceremonial handshake before the start of the talks, which were intended merely to pave the way for future negotiations on everyday issues burdening Kosovo, such as energy supplies, transportation, missing persons and the return of refugees. “My country, Kosovo, wants to become a part of the European Union and NATO,” the Kosovo president, Ibrahim Rugova, told the gathering. “This means a democratic, peaceful and independent Kosovo.” “Independence of Kosovo is an irreversible process,” said Nexhat Daci, the president of the Kosovo Parliament. “Kosovo is prepared to achieve that at any price,” he added. But the Serbian deputy prime minister, Nebojsa Covic, made it clear that the republic did not recognize Kosovo as anything more than “one of its parts.” “There can be no dialogue if it is not clear to everyone that we are not talking as representatives of two states,” he said. “Instead of using this Vienna meeting for a dialogue on burning problems, Pristina officials keep on describing Kosovo as an independent state,” he said. (IHT October 15 2003)