Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

02 February 2004

GEN. JONES

• NATO’s top commander in Europe said Sunday that he views the alliance’s mission in Kosovo as a testing ground for how it will operate in future missions around the world. “NATO has signalled that it desires to be much more flexible and have a greater role on a global basis,” said Gen. James L. Jones. For such multinational missions to succeed, he said, soldiers must think globally rather than nationally. “It has been wonderful to see this transition occur right here in Kosovo, which I consider to be one of the great test-beds for how the operational forces and the alliance worldwide will have to work in the future,” he said at the end of a two-day visit to this UN-run province. The planned transformation of KFOR into an even smaller force with greater flexibility reflects NATO’s larger transformation, Gen. Jones said. (AP 011517 Feb 04)

BALKANS

• A Serb, suspected of involvement in killings in the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991, was detained after surrendering to a court in Serbia, the Beta news agency reported on Sunday. The Belgrade daily Danas described Milan Lancuzanin on its website as a member of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party and commander of a paramilitary unit operating in Vukovar in 1991. Also, KFOR said that two people suspected of ethnic Albanian “terrorism” had surrendered in the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo. Avdil Jakupi and Adnan Abazi were handed over to the UN Mission in Kosovo police on Friday. KFOR said in a statement that Jakupi, known as the commander Chakala, is wanted for various crimes and his links to terrorism in neighbouring Macedonia (sic). Abazi holds an Albanian National Army ID card and is being questioned over his membership of ANA which has been listed as an illegal organisation. (Reuters 012039 GMT Feb 04)
  
  
• The head of Serbia-Montenegro’s military intelligence claimed in comments published on Sunday that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups are present in the Balkans and planning to increase their activity there. In an interview with the official Tanjug news agency, Col. Stojanovic also claimed that the ultimate aim of al-Qaida and other extremist Islamic groups is to carve out an independent Muslim state in the Balkans. “We have information that al-Qaida has strongholds in Kosovo, northern Albania ... and that they are active in western Macedonia (sic),” Col. Momir Stojanovic, the head of the Military Security Agency said. “The strategic aim of the Muslim extremists in the area is to create an Islamic state in the Balkans,” which would include Muslim-dominated areas in the region, he added. There was no immediate comment to his claims from UN-run Kosovo or Albania, but the Macedonian (sic) Defence Ministry said it had no evidence of any al-Qaida on its territory. (AP 011427 Feb 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• Afghanistan faces a growing terror threat because remnants of the Taliban intend to disrupt the build-up to elections planned this summer, Germany’s defence minister said in remarks published on Saturday. “The situation in Afghanistan has grown more unstable,” Peter Struck told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. His comments came as he began a visit Saturday to the Afghan city of Kunduz, where some 200 German troops were deployed in January as part of international efforts to provide security outside the capital. Defence minister Struck said that Germany, France, Belgium and Spain could jointly take over command of the peacekeepers from NATO in August. Germany and the other countries plan to make the proposal to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Peter Struck told the paper. (AP 311350 Jan 04)

NATO

• NATO’s secretary general told President George Bush on Friday that the alliance would probably agree to more direct military involvement in Iraq if requested by a sovereign Iraqi government. “If that sovereign Iraqi government would put in a request to NATO to play a greater role in Iraq, I am sure that the alliance would react and could react positively to that,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after the meeting. Recognizing the caution of members such as France and Germany, de Hoop Scheffer made clear that NATO involvement would be contingent on control being handed over to the Iraqis in a timely manner, and on the request coming from the Iraqis themselves. He also expressed confidence that he’ll be able to persuade allied governments to give him the troops to make good on a pledge to the United Nations to expand NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan outside of the capital of Kabul into several provincial cities. Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer said that NATO is now transforming itself - through modernization and new members - into an operation that can defend “values wherever there is a necessity in the world.” (AP 302257 Jan 04)

TERRORISM

• The Security Council set a March 31 deadline for nearly 100 countries to report on their enforcement of sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban or be publicly named and shamed. A resolution adopted unanimously on Friday by the council gives the committee that monitors sanctions new powers to assess what states are doing to implement the asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo against the two groups and terror leader Osama bin Laden. (AP 310145 Jan 04)