Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

14 January 2004

IRAQ

• Iraq's U.S. Governor Paul Bremer said guerrilla attacks had fallen dramatically in the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture, and the United Nations planned to assess safety for a possible return of international U.N. staff. U.S. officials said Washington was reviewing how a new Iraqi transitional government would be selected after Iraq's most senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, demanded the process should be more open and democratic. "In the last three or four weeks we've seen a rather dramatic reduction in the number of attacks on the coalition. They are down by about 50 percent," Bremer told CBS television. "I think we have found since the arrest of Saddam a better way to go after the insurgency, more intelligence about who they are and, even more important, we are finding a lot of people...coming over and providing us information," Bremer said. U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, Kieran Prendergast, sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte saying a four-member U.N. team would be dispatched to Baghdad to assess security conditions. Under a U.S. plan to hand power back to Iraqis, regional caucuses would select a transitional assembly by the end of May and it would choose an interim government for sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections would follow in 2005. (Reuters 140025 GMT Jan 04)
  
• President Roh Moo-hyun dismissed concern Wednesday that South Korea has dragged its feet on a planned troop dispatch to Iraq, saying it took time to build consensus behind a mission that would make South Korea the biggest coalition partner behind the United States and Britain. After months of debate, South Korea's Cabinet finally approved plans late last month to send 3,000 troops to the northern oil town of Kirkuk to help U.S.-led forces rebuild Iraq. But the mission is deeply unpopular with the public, and the National Assembly has yet to approve the plan. Defense Ministry officials have meanwhile said any dispatch won't come before April because the units - to include special operations and marines as well as medics and engineers - need new training for the Iraq. "I don't think the dispatch will necessarily be delayed just because there may be a delay in getting approval from parliament," Roh said. "Even if there is a delay in getting approval, the government is making plans so that the troop dispatch takes place as soon as possible." South Koreans are divided over the troop deployment. Local media have reported polls showing an even split among South Koreans, with half opposing the deployment of troops and half in agreement with the plan. The new dispatch plan is subject to parliamentary approval. But all major political parties have indicated they would approve the mission, despite its unpopularity with the public. (AP 140525 Jan 04)

NATO

• NATO's new Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Tuesday he intends to build close ties between the alliance and Ukraine, despite concerns about democracy in the former Soviet republic. "Under my leadership, this alliance attaches great importance to a very constructive cooperation and collaboration with Ukraine," De Hoop Scheffer said at a meeting with Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Ukraine's foreign minister. However, De Hoop Scheffer, who took office last week, passed on the alliance's worries over political developments in Ukraine. "The allies very much hope that the upcoming elections at the end of 2004 will be free and fair," the former Dutch foreign minister told reporters. "That is ... an important yardstick by which NATO-Ukraine relations are being measured." Gryshchenko, a former Ukrainian ambassador to NATO, said his country would work hard to improve political and defense links with an alliance which Ukraine has said it would eventually like to join. He acknowledged that Ukraine had to "strengthen" its democracy and said the elections would be free and fair. However, NATO has said Ukraine will have to meet higher democratic standards before it is put on track for membership. De Hoop Scheffer said he planned to visit Kiev soon. (AP 131845 Jan 04)
  
• Azerbaijan will host its first ever NATO field exercise this fall, part of an effort by this ex-Soviet republic to boost its integration with the West, officials said Tuesday. The exercises will be held in August and September as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which includes many former Soviet bloc nations. About 100 people representing 20 nations are involved, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said. "The principle task of the field exercises, which will be held for the first time in Azerbaijan, will be to develop practical experience in peacekeeping operations," said Ilgar Verdiyev, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry. Azerbaijan's servicemen have served in NATO's peacekeeping operation in Kosovo and in Afghanistan, and a team of Azerbaijani peacekeepers are currently working in Iraq. Last month, Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Safar Abiyev said that his country might consider hosting NATO bases, adding that "nothing could be ruled out." (AP 131224 Jan 04)

AUSTRALIA-MISSILE DEFENSE

• Australia might buy U.S. missiles as part of Washington's planned defense shield, but any decision is still a long way off, a government official said Wednesday. Australia announced in December that it would join the American plan to build a missile defense system, calling the threat of ballistic missiles too grave to ignore. Defense Minister Robert Hill on Tuesday said the government might incorporate the missile defense systems on three air warfare destroyers planned for the Australian navy. But Australia's finance minister, Peter Costello, said Wednesday that discussions of any funding of the missile program were still a long way off. The program is likely to be discussed Friday when Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has talks with Prime Minister John Howard in Sydney. Washington hopes that developing a shield against ballistic missiles will protect the United States against potential threats from countries like North Korea. It wants allies like Britain, Canada and Australia involved in the project, particularly to use satellite tracking stations in those countries. (AP 140434 Jan 04)