Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

23 October 2003

AFGHANISTAN

• NATO’s outgoing Secretary-General asked Greece to boost its troop contribution to an international force in Afghanistan. Lord Robertson, who arrived on a two-day visit, reportedly asked Greece to send a helicopter-supported unit to ISAF. “I am hoping that the generosity of the Greek government and the Greek people will manifest itself in making a contribution to what is an alliance commitment and a hugely important one as well,” he said after talks with Foreign Minister Papandreou. Defense Minister Papantoniou said that he would discuss the issue on Thursday during a meeting with Papandreou and Premier Costas Simitis. “The contribution of Greece can also take alternative forms,” Defense Minister Papantoniou added, without elaborating. After leaving Greece, Lord Robertson is scheduled to travel to Turkey. (AP 222037 Oct 03)

IRAQ

• Turkey’s foreign minister says his country is “not in a hurry” to send peacekeepers to Iraq and the defense minister is questioning whether it is a problem if Turkey doesn’t send troops at all. Many other Turks are expressing relief at the prospect that peacekeepers may not be sent to Iraq on a mission that is unpopular and appears increasingly dangerous. Turkish officials said Wednesday that Iraqi opposition is keeping the troops out, but that might not be a problem for Turkey’s populist ruling Justice and Development Party. (AP 230042 Oct 03)

BALKANS

• The army commander on Wednesday branded as “unfounded” the recent war crimes indictments against two generals who commanded Serb forces during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo. “The accusations that the army as an institution has committed war crimes are unfounded,” Gen. Branko Krga, commander of the army of Serbia and Montenegro, told reporters in Belgrade. Gen. Krga said he was “shocked” when he heard that Lazarevic, who remains in active duty, had been indicted and said the army was “worried” by the indictments. Lazarevic also dismissed the charges, saying he had merely fought for his country. “I did not wage a private war there,” he told the Beta news agency on Tuesday. Members of Serbia’s police forces announced a street rally in the capital set for Friday in support of the also indicted Lukic and against “unacceptable accusations for the so-called command responsibility against people who simply did their job of defending the country during the war,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press. (AP 221703 Oct 03)
  
  
• Agim Ceku, wartime chief of staff of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, was released early on Thursday, a day after Slovenian police arrested him on a Serbian warrant accusing him of genocide. Ceku told Kosovo television in the Slovenian capital shortly afterwards “Slovenian authorities released me, now I’m free and tomorrow I’ll continue my trip to Kosovo.” “The investigative judge told me I was arrested on the basis of a Serbian warrant, accused of genocide,” he said. “But Serbian courts don’t have any competence in Kosovo, only UNMIK and Kosovo institutions are responsible for Kosovo citizens.” There was no immediate comment from Slovenian authorities. A source at UNMIK said on Wednesday that Ceku had apparently been arrested on the basis of an “old” warrant, and that UNMIK was working with Slovenia to resolve the problem. Serbian officials say Ceku and other KLA leaders were guilty of atrocities against Serb civilians during the 1998-99 fighting. (Reuters 230221 GMT Oct 03)

WAR ON TERRORISM

• French police and emergency services staged a mock chemical weapons attack on a major Paris metro station early on Thursday, the biggest test yet of the capital’s ability to respond to a major incident. Some 500 police and emergency service personnel were taking part in the four-hour exercise near the National Assembly parliament building. “We have put in place a certain number of measures...to respond to a major terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Raffarin told reporters after inspecting the operation. Interior Minister Sarkozy, who accompanied Raffarin, said France would organise 50 such exercises next year in all major cities, using a variety of scenarios. (Reuters 230052 GMT Oct 03)