Military

News Summary & Analysis

19 March 2004

KOSOVO

• AP reports NATO deployed more peacekeeping troops to regain control of Kosovo Friday and warned it was prepared to take harsh measures against rioters as ethnic violence continued into a third day. “Stung by the lawlessness that has left Serb enclaves in the province in ruins, peacekeepers promised to respond to provocations with a level of force not used here in the past,” the dispatch notes. It quotes U.S. Brig. Gen. Erlandson saying in a statement: “The soldiers … will not tolerate those who seek to cause harm. My soldiers will immediately and forcefully stop anyone who violates the rule of law.” The dispatch adds that NATO was bolstering its peacekeeping force with reinforcements from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and the United States.
  
  
• UN staff have pulled out of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in Kosovo where two days of inter-ethnic clashes have left 31 dead, reported BBC News. According to the network, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told a special session of the UN Security Council the decision had been taken in view of the worsening security situation.
  
  
• AFP reports Czech Prime Minister Spidla said Thursday his government would reconsider its plan to withdraw troops from Kosovo in light of the recent outbreaks of violence. Speaking during a visit by NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer to Prague, Spidla reportedly said the current violence in the province would probably have an impact on the future of the 500-strong Czech-Slovak battalion currently serving in Kosovo. “We will probably have to reconsider the idea of withdrawing 100 troops as we had planned. The Czech-Slovak battalion will probably continue to operate there on a full scale,” he added. Le Soir, March 18, quoted Defense Minister Flahaut saying, in connection with the presence of Belgian troops in Kosovo: “For those who were wondering about the need to keep Belgian troops there, these events provide an answer.”

Media highlight NATO’s swift response to the outbreak of violence in Kosovo.
Under the title, “NATO acts on Kosovo terror,” The Guardian notes that NATO rushed extra peacekeepers into Kosovo Thursday “amid fears that the ethnic violence might lead to an explosion of pogroms and fighting in the region.”
“NATO sends more troops to Kosovo,” writes the Financial Times, adding: “NATO officials said they hoped the additional forces would help prevent violence from spiraling out of control.”
NATO Thursday moved swiftly to contain a bloody outbreak of ethnic fighting in Kosovo. World leaders fear that clashes of this kind could spin out of control and destabilize the fragile Balkans region, says AFP.
“NATO responded to the violence by sending in reinforcements to head off a broader conflict,” notes the Washington Post.

Media also center on a SHAPE statement announcing that NATO was deploying prudent reinforcements to Kosovo in response to violence.
Deutsche Welle reported: “NATO’s top military commander in Europe, Gen. Jones, expressed concern about the flare-up. ‘I call on the leaders of both sides of the conflict to take decision action to control immediately their citizens and return to the rule of law,’ he said, describing the extra troop deployments as a ‘prudent reinforcement.’”
Gen. Jones expressed concern about the flare-up, AFP reports in a similar vein, adding: “I call on the leaders of both sides of the conflict to take decisive action to control immediately their citizens and return to the rule of law, he said, describing the extra troop deployments as prudent reinforcements.”
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that in a statement, Gen. Jones called on “the leaders of both sides to take decisive action” to control their citizens and return to “the rule of law.”
Gen. Jones assured that COMKFOR, Gen. Kammerhoff, had sufficient forces to preserve order in Kosovo, says a related article in Die Welt. He said the dispatch of “prudent reinforcements” was a demonstration of NATO’s resolve and commitment to the citizens of the region, adds the newspaper.

Several media attribute the violence to the fact that Kosovo’s final status has not been settled.
Scenes across the province were eerily reminiscent of the conflict that led to NATO’s military intervention five years ago. But now it is the Serbs who are being driven out rather than the Albanians. Kosovo was effectively separated from Serbia in 1999 when NATO air strikes drove out the Serbian army and police forces from the province. But the region’s final status has not been settled, writes the Washington Post.
After intervening to stop a civil war and occupying Kosovo in 1999, the international community has often shrugged off sporadic clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, describing them as minor bumps along the road to inevitable, harmonious multi-ethnic rule. The recent escalation exposes the emptiness of such optimistic messages. The wounds of war remain raw in Kosovo and throughout Serbia, writes the Financial Times. The article continues: “Plans to agree on Kosovo’s final status in 2005 to determine whether the province will gain the full independence its ethnic Albanian majority craves, or remain part of Serbia as Belgrade insists it must, have given way to plans to start talking about next year. The compromises NATO and the UN envisaged when they intervened in Kosovo’s centuries-old conflicts have failed to materialize. As long as the two sides remain diametrically opposed frustrations grow. The strain is beginning to show. EU foreign policy chief Solana calls the mob ring-leaders ‘criminals.’ But if their intention is to add urgency to the international community’s agenda in the Balkans, NATO’s swift reaction suggests the strategy is working.”
The New York Times quotes a senior Western diplomat saying the events of the past days “should remind us that we froze an insurgency in 1999, but we did nothing to solve the political reasons underlying it.”

IRAQ

• According to the Financial Times, Spanish officials Thursday expressed optimism that the UN would adopt a new resolution that would allow the incoming Socialist Party government of Prime Minister-elect Zapatero to keep its election promises on Iraq without withdrawing its troops. Security Council members are working on a new resolution and the U.S. and UK have indicated they are willing to consider a new resolution before the June 30 deadline for the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq, says the newspaper. Defense Secretary Hoon said Thursday he understood Spain would be willing to reconsider, given a handover of sovereignty in Iraq and agreement on a new UN resolution, it adds. The article further reports that a poll published Thursday indicated that 40 percent of Spaniards would accept Spanish troops remaining in Iraq provided they were UN control. Another 40 percent wanted the troops out regardless. “These results give Zapatero room for maneuver,” the article quotes an expert at the foreign policy institute that carried out the survey saying. “The results show that, provided the role of the international community is extended, Zapatero can keep Spanish troops in Iraq without breaking his election pledge,” the expert reportedly commented.