Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

23 October 2003

NATO

• AP writes that citing needs for military personnel at home to provide security at next year’s Olympics, Greece Thursday rejected a request by NATO to boost its troop contribution in Afghanistan. The dispatch reports that NATO Secretary General Robertson, in Athens for a two-day visit, asked Greece to send a helicopter-supported unit to ISAF. It quotes Prime Minister Simitis saying, however: “We cannot respond positively to this request this time. Greece has substantial financial needs related to the Olympic Games and there is a greater need in 2004 to have our forces here in the country.” According to the dispatch, Defense Minister Papantoniou indicated that Greece might provide “alternative forms” of support to ISAF but did not elaborate. The dispatch quotes Lord Robertson saying he understood Greece’s response and adding: “No one can come to Athens and not be aware of what the Olympic Games (are) doing to the infrastructure of Greece and what a huge financial burden this has placed on the country…. There are 19 NATO allies and I am knocking on quite a few doors for some of the missing capabilities in Afghanistan…. Tomorrow I will be in Turkey and I will be knocking on their door too.”
  
  
• Based on an interview with Lord Robertson ahead of his visit to Ankara, Istanbul NTV highlighted that the Alliance has developed new opportunities and capabilities in order to cope with new threats. Noting that, with this in mind, Lord Robertson described the NRF as the most important project that NATO has developed, the network carried him saying: “The (NRF) will arrive swiftly at the scene of an incident and will hit hard. Both the United States and the European countries should extend more support to this force…. It is NATO’s most important symbol. It is the symbol of the fact that from now on, NATO will not only speak but take action in the face of a threat….. The (NRF) is the responsibility of all the NATO members. They should all extend more support to this force. Since one of the headquarters of this force will be stationed in Turkey, there are many things that Turkey has to undertake with regards to this force. During my visit to Turkey, I will explain this situation to the Turkish officials.”
  
  
• Moscow’s Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey quotes the managing director of Volga-Dnepr, Yevgeny Filatov, saying Wednesday that the NATO command has applied to the Russian government with an offer to include the AN-124-100 Condor, the heaviest commercial aircraft in the world, operated by the Russian carrier Volga-Dnepr airlines, in the tender for NATO airlift programs. “NATO and European rapid reaction forces have included the AN-124-100 in the NATO cargo airlift tender,” the report quotes Filatov saying.

SHAPE

• Plans by the “bomspotter” pacifist organization to demonstrate against SHAPE Saturday continue to generate high interest in Belgian media. Statements by police officials regarding the planned demonstration appear to be shifting the focus to law enforcement measures. La Derniere Heure writes: On Saturday, over 2,000 personnel will be deployed to protect SHAPE: federal and local police, military personnel as well as civil protection and provincial road police personnel. They will be supported by an aircraft, a helicopter and dogs. A dozen checkpoints are envisaged in the vicinity of the headquarters. The newspaper quotes the coordinator of the Federal police, Michel Rompen, saying: “Many people are under pressure. SHAPE is an international base. Now is the time to show that Belgium is capable to carry out a police operation. We must protect no less than a 6.2 kilometer-fence. But there is no question for the demonstrators to get through it and this in accordance with an international convention between Belgium and SHAPE.” La Province stresses: “Things are clear. There is no question of letting demonstrators penetrate the SHAPE compound. NATO’s territory must remain inviolable, as guaranteed by an agreement with Belgium. In the current international context, it would be bad if Belgian pacifists could ridicule the ‘gendarmes of the world.’ Political pressure is real and Belgium is making sure it has all the necessary means to succeed. Those means will be greater than those required to ensure the security of a European summit. Law enforcement forces are not giving out precise information on the means being deployed.” The newspaper quotes police sources saying: “Giving out weapons to the adversary by disclosing our strategy is out of the question. We are not naïve.” A related article in Le Soir stresses: “For local authorities, the inviolability of SHAPE must be preserved at all cost in accordance with an international convention between Belgium and NATO…. In a nutshell, the country’s credibility is at stake.”

BALKANS

• According to Reuters, Prime Minister Zivkovic announced Wednesday that Serbian police had received an anonymous tip on the whereabouts of top war crimes fugitive Mladic which they are following up. “Action was launched to check the whereabouts of Mladic following an anonymous tip-off,” Zivkovic reportedly told various media, adding: “Our bodies respond to any tip-off that sound serious.” The dispatch notes that Serbia is under heavy international pressure to arrest Mladic. It recalls that the ICTY stepped up the pressure Monday by making public indictments against four top Serbian police and army generals during the Kosovo conflict--a move seen by the Serbian press as “blackmail” to hand over Mladic. The dispatch also notes that in an indication of an increased sense of urgency, Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Svilanovic told the daily Danas that authorities should now focus on finding Mladic, making clear this could help resolve relations with the ICTY.
  
  
• AP quotes Austria Press Agency reporting Wednesday that lawmakers have voted to continue Austria’s participation in KFOR. A parliamentary committee had reportedly voted unanimously overnight to approve a request by Foreign Minister Ferrero-Waldner to extend Austria’s participation in the international mission. The new commitment is to last through Oct. 31, 2004, according to the dispatch.

TERRORISM

• The Times claims it has learned that a secret international exercise has revealed serious flaws in plans to deal with a biological terrorist attack on Britain or elsewhere abroad. According to the newspaper, the operation, codenamed Global mercury, found that deadly germs and viruses would travel across the world long before governments could shut borders and cancel flights. The unprecedented multi-national exercise reportedly took place amid high security last month in eight countries including Britain, the United States, France, Germany and Japan. It imagined that terrorists from Asia deliberately infected themselves with smallpox before boarding a plane for Vancouver in Canada. The three-day exercise was set over 12 fictional “gaming day” and involved senior public health officials and emergency response teams in all the participating countries. By the time the exercise was over, people across four continents had all been “infected” with small pox. The findings of the exercise are to be reported in Berlin next months to a meeting of the eight health ministers who make up the Global Health Security Group, the newspaper adds.