Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

2 April 2004

NATO

• Focus is on the flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters to mark the accession of seven new members. Media generally note that a ceremony in Washington Monday, when the new members handed over their accession documents, was the moment when the new member countries actually joined the Alliance. They stress, however, that the celebration in Brussels was a time for symbolism. “This is the Alliance’s largest expansion eastward resulting in a change in NATO’s nature from large standing armies to small, more mobile units,” stressed CNN, speculating that “we’re going to see NATO more in an international role.” Euronews observed that NATO, which is now close to Russia’s doors, “is present on a number of fronts, including Afghanistan. It is equipping itself with new forces which can be deployed easily wherever they may be needed.” Stressing that “NATO is becoming a global player,” La Libre Belgique highlights NATO’s transformation, quoting Gen. Jones saying: “We are no longer a regional organization, we are now a global organization.” The newspaper observes that NATO has become an “unavoidable political and military instrument in case of crisis.” It stresses: More than 6,000 soldiers are now deployed in Afghanistan under a UN mandate. Already new opportunities are emerging to which NATO will be able to participate alongside the Americans, among others, the “Greater Middle East Initiative.” Deutsche Welle remarked that “a year ago NATO seemed doomed to go from being an alliance of 19 members to a Cold War ghost with zero.” It added, however: “Today, NATO completed the most ambitious expansion in its history. Symbolism aside, the admittance of the Eastern European states means more political and practical help for Washington and its allies in the war on terrorism and in Iraq.” BBC News stressed that the new members are joining an Alliance which is currently undergoing rapid change. “NATO forces are engaged in peacekeeping in the Balkans; they are planning to expand their activities in Afghanistan; and there is even talk of a potential NATO role in Iraq. Then, of course, there is the growing threat from terrorism. NATO warships have recently stepped up their patrols in the Mediterranean. But much still needs to be done—not least to make the armed forces of the European NATO members more agile and deployable,” said the broadcast.
  
  
• AFP reports NATO Friday canceled plans to display F-16 fighter jets over the three Baltic republics as part of celebrations to mark NATO’s enlargement. A spokesman for the Lithuanian Defense Ministry was quoted saying NATO had not issued a permit for the demonstration flights by two of four NATO F-16s, run by the Belgian Air Force and presently deployed in Lithuania. “NATO air control institutions did not give a permit for the flight,” the spokesman reportedly said. According to the dispatch, the flights had been part of celebrations in the three countries to coincide with the flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters. “The flight of two NATO F-16 warplanes over Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, scheduled to take place today, has been cancelled. The NATO leadership did not issue the appropriate permission for that,” reports Moscow’s Itar-TASS.

BALKANS

• NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer vowed Friday the hunt for war crimes fugitive Karadzic would go on despite Bosnian Serb anger at the botched raid which has left a priest and his son seriously injured, reports AFP. “I would have preferred of course for this operation to be a success,” he reportedly told a news conference in Brussels, adding that Karadzic and other fugitives “cannot hide, they cannot run forever.” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer is further quoted saying: “Everybody’s doing everything he or she can to get them, because I think it’s important for the region that they should go where they should be—to the (ICTY).” The dispatch reports the Serb Orthodox Church in Bosnia threatened Friday to cut off relations with international and local authorities if they did not punish NATO troops who led the raid. The dispatch further says the Bosnian Serb government met late Thursday at an extraordinary session after which it qualified the incident in Pale as an “obvious example of violation of basic human rights and freedoms.”