Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

9 March 2004

ESDP

• The Financial Times quotes unnamed diplomats saying the EU and the U.S. are engaged in a fresh transatlantic dispute over who should take control of a new military mission in Bosnia once the EU takes over from NATO this year. According to the article, at stake for the EU is its ability to show it can command a strong and robust military operation. “We cannot end up drying the dishes while the U.S. runs the show. We cannot be a junior partner to NATO. We need overall responsibility for the mission,” the newspaper quotes a senior EU diplomat saying. The article adds, however, that NATO and EU diplomats say the U.S. wants the Alliance to retain responsibility for finding alleged war criminals indicted by the ICTY. It continues: The U.S. also wants to retain the counter-terrorism file and keep the special forces of around 500 Italian Carabinieri under NATO control instead of placing them under EU command. NATO will also keep a significant presence in Sarajevo where, under the PFP program, it will help the Bosnian authorities with defense reform. The U.S. will also keep its base in Tuzla as one of its “footprints” in the region when the U.S. finalizes plans to reduce and bring home some of its troops located in Europe. The article reports that the issue will be debated at NATO Wednesday when the Alliance and the EU’s special security ambassadors thrash out differences. A related ANSA dispatch stresses that “informed sources” tend not to dramatize the situation. “Now that the principle of an EU takeover of SFOR is accepted, some points remain to be clarified concerning a NATO residual presence…. In Brussels, rather than to speak of a dispute, one speaks of an exchange of opinion,” the dispatch adds.

NATO

• According to AFP, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in New York Monday NATO could play a welcome role in helping with the growing number of international peacekeeping missions in Africa. Noting that the UN Security Council last month authorized a new peacekeeping mission in the Ivory Coast and that other operations were likely on the way, Annan reportedly said: “Should such a surge take place strong support from NATO would be tremendously helpful. NATO’s increasing willingness to ‘go global’ presents important opportunities, in particular for Africa.” He added that the “wide-ranging” collaboration between the UN and the Alliance, in the Balkans and Afghanistan, was “absolutely essential” and should be continued and enlarged. He also said that NATO could work together with the UN in Iraq.

BALKANS

• Reuters reports SFOR said Tuesday it had released former Bosnian Serb Defense Minister Subotic, detained last week for allegedly helping war crimes suspects. The dispatch quotes an SFOR spokesman saying the reason for his release was based on the force’s operational needs. “SFOR will continue to investigate Subotic’s possible links to the persons indicted for war crimes’ support network,” the spokesman reportedly said, adding that SFOR’s three arrest operations this year, targeting alleged helpers of persons indicted by the ICTY, resulted in “important intelligence” that will be used in future searches for war crimes suspects. The dispatch observes that SFOR has in recent months stepped up efforts to tighten the net around Radovan Karadzic.
  
  
• According to Reuters, a senior official said in Skopje Tuesday the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will hold early presidential elections on April 14 to choose a new head of state to replace Boris Trajkovski, who was killed in a plane crash last month.