Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

28 January 2004

NATO

• The top soldier at NATO's headquarters has a map of Iraq on his office wall, a sure sign that the U.S.-dominated alliance is already thinking ahead to a robust role in stabilising the Middle Eastern country. Yet General Harald Kujat is worried that, when the call comes, NATO will not have the military resources to do the job. "If the political will is there to do it then we can provide the necessary capabilities," the German chairman of NATO's Military Committee told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. "But we must avoid the situation where...military capabilities are overstretched." The alliance is working flat out to extend its 5,700-member peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan beyond the capital, Kabul, and into lawless provinces before crucial elections in June. No one will say yet just how many extra boots will be needed on the ground because the operation plan is still being drawn up, but experts believe the alliance will need to deploy – at the very least -- 3,000 additional soldiers in Afghanistan. NATO will also have to find dozens of helicopters to transport and protect special military reconstruction teams across the nation, Kujat said. "We are asking for contributions that are expensive ... engineers, helicopters. If they (allies) do have them, are they prepared to accept the financial burden?" Kujat said. "If we accelerate...the process of making forces available for Afghanistan, it may be difficult for nations at the same time to offer forces for Iraq," he said. "Running both operations parallel in Afghanistan and in Iraq will be a major challenge for the alliance, no question about it." Kujat said the alliance could take command of the multinational division and do even more - he would not specify what - but the nature of its mission would depend on the willingness of allies to back political will with resources. "Most nations are already considering whether they are more prepared to provide forces for Afghanistan or whether there is a probability of being asked to provide forces for Iraq," he said. "So they are considering where the emphasis for them will be." Kujat said a sharp reduction of forces in NATO's Bosnia peacekeeping operation, which the European Union is set to take over towards the end of this year, will free up resources. But in the long term, he said, allies must work harder to improve military capabilities and their "usability". (Reuters 271817 GMT Jan 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• NATO condemned the suicide bombing that killed a Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian Tuesday in Kabul, and pledged that such attacks would not deter the alliance's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. "The attack on these soldiers was a shameful act, but it will not detract from our commitment to help Afghanistan build a better, more hopeful future," said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "I would like to express my deep condolences to the family of the soldier who was killed and to the Canadian authorities," he added in a statement. "I would also like to express my concern, through the Afghan and Canadian authorities, for the civilians and soldiers who were injured by the attack. " Mullah Hakim Latifi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban former rulers, said the attack was the start of a campaign of suicide bombings that "will be continued until the coalition forces leave our country." (AP 271701 Jan 04)

IRAQ

• U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Tuesday that premature elections in Iraq could do more harm than good, but he suggested he would not play the kind of leadership role there that the United States has sought. "If you get your priorities wrong, elections are a very divisive process," said Brahimi, speaking at a luncheon sponsored by U.N. groups. "They create tensions. They create competition. And in a country that is not stable enough to take that ... one has to be certain it will not do more harm than good." He also said that he would be working on Iraq in his current role as an adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, but he said categorically: "To take responsibility for Iraq, no, that's not in the cards." (Reuters 271926 GMT Jan 04)
  
  
• Two Slovak police officers will be part of a team training Iraqi policemen in Jordan, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. The two Slovaks, who will start n a statement. The program is financed by the United States. The United States has asked countries belonging to the European Union - and countries that will soon join the group - to provide specialists for the training team. Slovakia, a central European country of 5.4 million, is to join NATO and the European Union this year. One of the two officers specializes in border issues, while the other specializes in rapid intervention actions, the ministry said. (AP 272040 Jan 04)

EU-DEFENSE

• A Briton is poised to be the first head of a new European Union defence agency meant to boost joint arms projects and build Europe's military capabilities for long-range intervention, EU sources said on Tuesday. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana faces a sensitive choice between candidates from the EU's two biggest military powers -- Britain and France, who are bitter rivals. But the sources said he is set to pick Nick Witney, director general for international security policy at the British Ministry of Defence, this week. Diplomats said France was still fighting hard for its candidate, Laurent Giovacchini, director of cooperation and industrial affairs at the French armaments agency (DGA). But a well-placed EU official said the French were preparing for a disappointment, noting that a French officer would take over as head of EU's military staff from February. Britain does not want the agency to be narrowly focused on armaments with a "buy European" policy, even where European products are inferior, but to have a range of tasks including developing defence capabilities and promoting defence research. In British eyes, it should act as a small lobby group that can "argue, bully and broker solutions" to enhance European countries' defence capacities in close cooperation with NATO. The French want a European military capability more independent of the U.S.-led alliance, and have long favoured creating big European military industrial champions. Germany and Spain also put up candidates, but diplomats said the choice had been narrowed down to the final two. (Reuters 271925 GMT Jan 04)