Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

5 January 2004

NATO

• Jaap de Hoop Scheffer takes over on Monday as NATO secretary-general. He will certainly need as much nerve as his predecessor, George Robertson, to keep the allies in line as NATO prepares to expand its Afghanistan peacekeeping operation beyond Kabul and debates a central role in Iraq. He will need to press ahead with Robertson's campaign to modernise Europe's armed forces, and so shore up the credibility of an alliance which won the Cold War but still needs to prove it is the answer for new security threats. De Hoop Scheffer flew military cargo planes in his youth and liked to sit in the cockpit when his government jet took off. But the stocky career diplomat is no stuntman. He won a reputation last year as a purposeful bridge-builder eager to mend transatlantic relations following the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He has a good rapport with colleagues in Paris and Berlin, whose languages he speaks fluently. But he is also on first-name terms with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, and was warmly welcomed by the White House for lending Dutch political – but not military -- support to the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Such even-handedness was good practice as he will now have to maintain an alliance of 19 nations -- and soon to be 26 nations -- where trust remains fragile after a damaging bust-up over Iraq. De Hoop Scheffer has served as foreign minister in two centre-right coalitions and will be the third Dutch NATO chief. (Reuters 1251 040104 GMT).

AFGHANISTAN

• Afghans have approved a new constitution, embracing a deal shaped in three weeks of rancorous debate as a chance to cement a fragile peace and push ahead with reconstruction. The charter, ratified Sunday after a last-minute deal to recognize minority languages, creates a strong presidential system that the country's U.S.-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai says is critical to uniting a country torn by two decades of war. U.S. President George W. Bush said the new constitution marks a historic step forward after the removal two years ago of the strictly Islamic government of the Taliban militia, which allowed Osama bin Laden to use Afghanistan as a base of operations. (AP 050010 jan 04GMT).

TERRORISM

• The Al-Jazeera satellite channel broadcast an audiotape purportedly from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in which he urged Muslims to continue fighting a holy war in Iraq and the Middle East rather than cooperate with peace efforts. The speaker, who referred to recent events, including the December capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, called on Muslims to "continue the jihad to check the conspiracies that are hatched against the Islamic nation." He said the U.S.-led war against Iraq was the beginning of the "occupation" of Gulf states for their oil. “My message is to incite you against the conspiracies, especially those uncovered by the occupation of the crusaders in Baghdad under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, and also the situation in (Jerusalem) under the deceptions of the road map and the Geneva initiative," the speaker said. The tape's authenticity could not immediately be verified, although the voice on the tape resembled that of bin Laden. "The CIA and appropriate intelligence authorities are reviewing the tape to check for its authenticity," Allen Abney, a White House spokesman, said Sunday. (AP 050003 jan 04GMT).

OTHER NEWS

• Georgian opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili claimed victory in the country's presidential elections and vowed to root out corruption after an exit poll showed him with an overwhelming lead. After the polls closed Sunday, Georgian independent television station Rustavi-2 said its exit survey indicated that Saakashvili had won 85.8 percent of the vote. (AP 050446 jan 04GMT).