Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

19 March 2004

NATO

• German Foreign Minister Fischer cautioned on Thursday about sending overstretched NATO troops to Iraq and beefing up the alliance’s presence in Afghanistan. “We should be very careful in overstretching NATO,” Joschka Fischer said, noting that the alliance was sending more troops to Kosovo to quell the sudden unrest. “NATO has limited capabilities and resources and I think NATO is doing an excellent job in the Balkans, a very important one as we have learned again yesterday,” he said. Adding there were ongoing discussions on security in Iraq but “I think we should examine very carefully whether this would overstretch NATO. Don’t forget the Balkans.” On Afghanistan, he said NATO was doing an excellent job, despite the threat of the ousted fundamentalist Taliban in the south and eastern regions. In answer to questions, he did not recommend more troops, saying: “We are on a positive track.” (Reuters 181955 GMT Mar 04)

BALKANS

• Kosovo faced the risk of more violence on Friday after two days of fierce clashes that killed 31 Albanians and Serbs in a major blow to Western efforts to bring stability to the Balkans. In Belgrade, the Serbian government announced a march in the capital on Friday to protest at what they called Albanians’ “armed terror” against the Serb minority. It said the rally would demand that international forces immediately introduce peace in Kosovo and guarantee the security of Serbs remaining in the province. “The thousands of ethnic Albanians that attacked KFOR, the police, Serb enclaves and churches should be aware of robust reserve forces,” KFOR commander General Kammerhoff told reporters in Pristina. Serbia and Montenegro’s Defence Minister Boris Tadic said he expected more violence in Kosovo and appealed to NATO to do more to calm the “terrible situation.” The Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General James L. Jones, said extra troops were part of “a prudent reinforcement” of those already there. About 150 U.S. troops and 80 Italians arrived in Kosovo on Thursday as Britain readied 750 troops. (Reuters 190247 GMT Mar 04)
  
• Two days of fierce ethnic clashes in Kosovo have set back the province’s quest for independence from Serbia, UN Security Council members said on Thursday during an emergency session. “The recent events have highlighted the fragility of the structures and relationships in Kosovo. It shows that despite the progress that has been made since 1999, we have not come far enough,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the session, convened at the request of the government of Serbia and Montenegro. Goran Svilanovic, the Serbia and Montenegro foreign minister, rushed to New York to address the meeting. He said the violence sent a message to the world that Kosovo’s leaders “ignore responsibilities that come with authority.” A decision on Kosovo’s future “cannot be accomplished through violence,” U.S. Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham told the council. Washington had asked him to deliver “an appeal to the leaders of Kosovo - that they understand that the complete cessation of violence is the prerequisite for us to make decisions on Kosovo’s future political status,” he said. (Reuters 182338 GMT Mar 04)
  

TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS

• The United States and Europe, their relationship in crisis over the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, must take concrete steps to ensure the split does not permanently damage the trans-Atlantic alliance, American and European experts warned on Friday in Washington. The Council on Foreign Relations, in a new report, argued against U.S. unilateralism and predicted that if Europe defines its identity as countering U.S. power, the world likely will return to a pre-World War One balance of power system “with the same disastrous results.” The report, authored by a 26-member task force headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, said the allies must find a “common sense of direction” as they had during the Cold War and be prepared for compromise. “Americans must recognize that they cannot succeed alone” and Europeans “need to acknowledge that the post-9/11 world is by no means safe for trans-Atlantic societies and the dangers that make it unsafe do not come from Washington,” it said. The report urged the formation of common policies toward the use of military force, “irresponsible” states, the Middle East and the role of multilateral institutions. (Reuters 190247 GMT Mar 04)

WAR ON TERRORISM

• Pakistani troops may have cornered bin Laden’s top strategist and second-in-command on Friday in a mud fort on the wild Afghan frontier. Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden’s right-hand man and top planner for al Qaeda, may be surrounded in Waziristan, one of the most remote parts of the lawless tribal areas that border Afghanistan, a senior government official in Islamabad said. President Musharraf told CNN on Thursday that the ferocity of the resistance his forces had encountered led generals to believe they were shielding an important militant. A Pakistani intelligence source said he could not rule out calling in air strikes after daybreak if resistance persisted. (Reuters 190024 GMT Mar 04)