Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

10 November 2003

NATO

• Prague’s CTK quotes the Commander of the Czech Special Forces, Brig. Gen. Petr Pavel, saying a total of ten countries, including the Czech Republic, will take part in the international anti-chemical rapid deployment force of NATO to be based in Liberec, north Bohemia. According to the dispatch, Gen. Pavel, who recently took part in negotiations in Brussels on the unit’s composition, said roughly 500 soldiers in the unit would come from Belgium, Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the United States in addition to the Czech Republic “We were highly successful, and 13 countries offered some form of help. Even more significant, though, is that we were able to meet all of the capabilities that such a unit should have,” he reportedly said, adding that the unit should be formed by Dec. 1 and have a command staff of around 46 people, 19 of them from outside the Czech Republic. The dispatch notes that the great majority of the Czech soldiers involved will come from the present Czech anti-chemical unit. It adds that the multinational anti-chemical unit should be prepared for possible deployment by July 2004 and should be able to intervene within five to 20 days in any part of the world.

IRAQ

• A call by Senator Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for making the stabilization effort in Iraq a NATO-led operation is generating high interest in U.S. media. Leading Democrats Sunday called anew for President Bush to change course and seek more foreign help by offering to cede control over Iraq to the UN and NATO, writes the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sen. Biden laid out the most specific alternative policy to Bush’s, challenging the President to call an international summit on Iraq and offer to restructure the entire occupation command. He said that NATO should be given command of military security in Iraq and that civilian reconstruction should be put under a UN high commissioner, as in Bosnia, notes the daily. It adds that Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, and Richard Gephardt of Missouri, both candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, as well as Sen. Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee echoed Biden, arguing for NATO and UN involvement. In a contribution to the Washington Post, Biden expresses his conviction that participating in the securing and rebuilding of Iraq should be in Europe’s own interest and in the interest of Iraq’s neighbors, because a failed state in the heart of the Middle East threatens their security as much or more than America’s. He proposes: “President Bush should call a summit, go to Europe, and ask for more help. We’d have to give up some authority to get it, but Iraq is no prize, and we ought to be happy to share the burden of building peace. The president should propose three initiatives to bring more countries on board. First, we should make Iraq a NATO mission, and ‘double hat’ Gen. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, by putting him in charge of a new NATO command for the region. More countries would take part, because they would be reporting to the North Atlantic Council, not the Pentagon. But the United States would retain operational control on the ground with Gen. Abizaid as head of the new NATO command. Second, we should create a high commissioner for Iraq who reports to an international board of directors of which the United States would be chairman…. Third, we should transform the Iraqi Governing Council into a provisional government, with greater sovereign powers and make it an institution that better represents Iraq’s constituencies.” Commenting on Biden’s proposal in a CNN interview, former SACEUR, retired Gen. Joulwan advocated an internationalization of the effort in Iraq based on the model of ISAF in Afghanistan. “I would look at what we’re doing in Kabul. NATO is responsible for ISAF, working with the Central Command. I would refine it a little bit and say, let’s see if NATO can maybe take Baghdad as a responsibility and let Americans go out to the borders. You need to create a secure environment. We haven’t done that yet, and I think NATO can play a role militarily, diplomatically, politically and economically in this fight,” Gen. Joulwan said. He suggested that a dialogue on this should be launched in the NAC. Also on CNN, Congressman Gephardt deplored that “President Bush has not gotten us the help that we need from other countries,” stressing: “He should have gotten the NATO forces in there to provide security with us a long time ago. He should turn the civil reconstruction of Iraq over to the UN.”

ISAF

• Die Presse, Nov. 7, reported that during his farewell visit to Vienna, NATO Secretary General Robertson appealed to President Klestil, Chancellor Schuessel and Defense Minister Platter for an Austrian participation in ISAF. According to the newspaper Lord Robertson suggested that “Vienna could send troops to Kabul, where there was once an Austrian Army contingent under German command. Or it could provide a reconstruction team for a certain region of Afghanistan.” He reportedly noted that New Zealand, for example, had agreed to do that.” Lord Robertson was quoted saying: “We know that Austria is a small country with a small army. But take Iceland, a country with 245,000 inhabitants and no army of its own: Reykjavik has just agreed to take over the administration of the international airport in Kabul….” The newspaper added that despite his appeals, Lord Robert did not get more than the promise from Schuessel and Platter that the NATO request would be carefully examined. In fact, the daily stressed, the Austrian Army General Staff, together with specialists of the Army Intelligence Office, is analyzing the dangers and examining the possibilities of an Afghanistan mission. The politicians will make their decision on the basis of these reports.

ESDP

• Lord Robertson stressed in Vienna that the neutral states would by no means be excluded if an EU planning cell were to be developed at SHAPE headquarters in the future, wrote Vienna’s Die Presse, Nov. 7. Neutral and nonaligned states are involved in the NATO planning structures even within the framework of PFP, and a Swedish officer is at the head of the operations center of the EU staff at SHAPE, Lord Robertson was quoted saying.

OTHER NEWS

• In what it sees as a partial victory for anti-government protesters, CNN reported that the election commission had ordered parliamentary ballots to be retaken in some districts of the Republic of Georgia. The program recalled that thousands of protesters have taken to the streets during the past week as the opposition complained about alleged vote rigging in the November 2 election. It added that on Monday, Georgia’s Central Election Commission ordered a new round of voting to be held over the next two weeks in at least 16 of 85 parliamentary districts.