Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

16 April 2004

NATO

• NATO’s top military commander in Europe, General James Jones, on Thursday told seven new countries joining the alliance that its members still faced a “collective attack.” “Threats are defined in a different way to the 20th century. Today’s threats are much more insidious. We are facing a collective attack on the values that we hold as free people,” Gen. Jones told a news conference at SHAPE. “It (the threat) is not defined by a single nation or a uniformed army or a clear territory. We are not necessarily facing identifiable uniforms,” Gen. Jones said in comments believed to refer to the U.S.-led war on terror. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia formally became members of the 26-nation alliance on March 29. (Reuters 151801 GMT Apr 04)

TERRORISM

• Differences over the Iraq war should not prevent Europe from uniting to combat terrorism, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Thursday in the Netherlands. In a joint press conference with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Mr. Schroeder said he expected countering terrorism to be the focus of the Dutch presidency of the European Union, which begins in July. “Madrid showed that we can and must work together against such a threat,” he said. Terrorism must be combated not only with “military means, or with policing. We also have to improve economic development” in order to address the causes of terrorism, he added. (AP 151938 Apr 04)
  
  
• A taped message purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that sets a 90-day deadline for European countries to agree to a truce suggests his followers may have attacks planned in case the demand is rejected, some U.S. analysts said on Thursday in Washington. The CIA said its technical analysis determined the voice was “likely” that of bin Laden on the audiotape aired by Arab television stations earlier in the day. Several European states rejected the purported truce offer. Analysts said the intent of the truce proposal was to drive a wedge between Americans and Europeans and to show moderate Muslims that bin Laden was not a terrorist as portrayed in the West. (Reuters 151919 GMT Apr 04)

TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS

• The French ambassador said that sympathy for America after the Sept. 11 attacks soured over the war with Iraq but maintained that the United States and France must move forward and work together to defeat terrorism and stabilize the Middle East. Jean-David Levitte said Thursday in Los Angeles that France has a keen interest in the stabilization of Iraq and its transition to sovereignty. “What is at stake in Iraq is not only the future of the Iraqi people. It’s not only the future of the Middle East,” Mr. Levitte said. “But for us, it’s even more importantly, the future of the relations between the Muslim world and the West.” He also said the UN should play a greater role in Iraq’s transition and the international community should consider the proposals by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. He concluded a question-and-answer period on an upbeat note, saying that his message was one of “hope and confidence.” “We will win these wars if we can build a global coalition,” Mr. Levitte said. “And for that we need American leadership.” (AP 160127 Apr 04)

BALKANS

• Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive General Ratko Mladic has not been seen in Serbia since 2002, the country’s interior minister Dragan Jocic said, contradicting the UN war crimes prosecutor. Recently retired U.S. ambassador in Belgrade, William Montgomery, was quoted this month as saying Del Ponte’s charges were “dangerous” because no one really knew for sure. “No one, absolutely no one, knows where they are and that includes del Ponte,” Mr. Montgomery told the daily Blic on April 6. “Our efforts to discover the hideouts of Karadzic and Mladic have, so far, been unsuccessful. Such statements of del Ponte are dangerous and extremely counter-productive,” he said. “Operative checks were made at all addresses where Mladic lived and certain measures were applied,” Dragan Jocic told a news conference in Belgrade. “He has not been seen in the territory of Serbia since 2002.” Deputy Defence Minister Vukasin Maras of Serbia and Montenegro delivered a message similar to Mr. Jocic’s on a visit to neighbouring Bosnia on Thursday. (Reuters 151647 GMT Apr 04)

IRAQ

• Latvia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday in Riga that soldiers it sends to Iraq in the future will serve for four months instead of six. Airis Rikvelis, a ministry spokesman, said the reduced term of service will take effect with the next group of soldiers heading for Iraq in late June. He said the recent surge in violence in Iraq played no role in the decision to reduce the length of the assignment. Instead, he said the military had been letting its troops in Afghanistan serve for four months and found that morale was improved. The mandate for Latvia’s troops to stay in Iraq runs until the end of October but could be extended, he added. (AP 151406 Apr 04)