Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

15 March 2004

TERRORISM

• The European Union said on Sunday that it might call a special interior ministers’ meeting to discuss security as signs grew that al Qaeda might be behind Madrid’s deadly rail bombings. Ireland, the EU president, said it was considering such talks, which Germany said were urgently needed. “If it is confirmed that the Madrid attacks have an Islamic background, it means that Islamic terrorism in Europe has taken on a new quality,” said German Interior Minister Otto Schily, noting Basque separatist involvement had not been ruled out. (Reuters 141954 GMT Mar 04)
  
  
• Belgium’s prime minister said that he had no indication of a “specific” terrorist threat to the Brussels headquarters of the EU and NATO. “There is no information to suggest there is a specific threat for Belgium,” Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told RTBF television. However he said the authorities were keeping the situation under constant review. “It’s important to intensify international and European cooperation,” he told the RTBF. “I’ve proposed creating a European intelligence bureau to analyze the threats both within and outside Europe,” he added. (AP 141249 Mar 04)
  
  
• International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said on Saturday that the train bombings in Madrid had triggered a review of security arrangements for the Athens Games in August. Speaking the day after Greece called in NATO to guard the Athens Olympics, he said all aspects of security would be looked at. On the eve of Mr. Rogge’s visit, Greece announced it had called in NATO to help with sea and air patrols as well as guard against nuclear, chemical or biological attacks. (Reuters 131204 GMT Mar 04)

BALKANS

• Under Western pressure, Bosnian Serb police said they had launched a large-scale search on Saturday for war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic. The force said it had received information that Karadzic was near the town of Bratunac, in a hardline nationalist region bordering Serbia. However, after several hours there was no indication police were close to catching him. The SFOR peacekeeping force, which has stepped up its hunt for Karadzic in recent months, said a small number of its soldiers provided mainly observation assistance. (Reuters 131555 GMT Mar 04)

OTHER NEWS

• The United States has no plans to build permanent military bases in Azerbaijan, but will cooperate closely with the Caspian Sea nation in the global war on terror, U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, deputy head of U.S. forces in Europe, said on Saturday. “We plan to continue to build the strategic relationship with Azerbaijan over the years and we plan to do that via temporary deployments, exercises, practices with our military friends,” Gen. Wald said after meeting top officials in Baku. The temporary deployments could range from naval missions to special operations or ground operations, he added. U.S. Navy Admiral Gregory Johnson, commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe, said Azerbaijan would host a fall exercise including 17 countries as part of its participation in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program. (AP 131747 Mar 04)
  
  
• China and France will hold joint naval exercises off the mainland’s eastern coast on Tuesday, just four days before Beijing’s rival Taiwan holds presidential elections. China’s official Xinhua news agency made no link between the exercises off Qingdao and the election. “It’s the biggest in scale and the most substantial in content of an exercise between the Chinese navy and a foreign navy,” the Xinhua news agency said on Monday. (Reuters 150532 GMT Mar 04)