Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

16 April 2004

NATO

• An AFP dispatch, April 15, reported that NATO’s top commander in Europe, Gen. James Jones, welcomed Thursday in a ceremony at the NATO’s European military headquarters in Mons new military chiefs from seven ex-communist countries into NATO. In his speech, according to the agency, he reiterated that the Alliance’s expansion represented no threat to Russia and the accession of the seven should not therefore be cause of concern. Gen. Jones also reportedly said terrorism was among key new threats facing NATO: “Today’s threats … are much more insidious and in many ways much more difficult to deal with. We are facing a collective attack on the values that we hold as a free people.” The report comments that Russia expressed concerns notably about NATO military air deployments to police the skies over the Baltic states, which were full-blown Soviet republics and not just Soviet satellites during the Cold War. A Bulgarian National Television Channel 1 broadcast, April 15, noted that at the press conference following the admission ceremony for the seven new NATO members, Gen. Jones explained that for the time being NATO does not plan to take part in missions in Iraq. Chief of the Bulgarian Army General Staff Gen. Kolev, added the program, specified that discussions on this issue are still going on and in his opinion the only possible formula is a UN Security Council resolution and a potential request on the part of the sovereign Iraqi authorities when the state has been restored. Romanian government press agency Rompres, April 15, also reported on the event. The agency, which wrote the chronology of the steps that led the country to the integration, said a delegation of the Romanian Army headed by Gen. Popescu attended the ceremony and stressed that Romanian integration in the Alliance was the major goal of foreign policy promoted since 1990 by all the Romanian governments.

IRAQ

• According to the New York Times, “the Bush administration accepted on Thursday the outlines of a UN proposal to dissolve Iraqi Governing Council installed last year by the U.S. and replace it with a caretaker government when Iraqi sovereignty is restored on July 1.” Administration officials reportedly said the proposal by special UN envoy in Iraq Brahimi to create a new government of prominent Iraqis had still to be refined but for now it was acceptable to President Bush. Secretary of State Colin Powell also supported the plan, adds the daily, while Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said it was likely to become a reality. American, European and UN diplomats, comments the paper, all said the Brahimi plan would probably give the UN a major role, and perhaps the leading role, in superintending the process of building a democracy in Iraq. On Thursday night, adds the newspaper, Mr. Annan met in New York to discuss Brahimi’s proposal with Prime Minister Blair, who welcomed Mr. Brahimi’s efforts “to find the right political way forward.” Meanwhile, The Independent writes that “European leaders flatly rejected yesterday the ‘truce’ offered by bin Laden, in change of the withdrawal of their countries’ troops from Iraq.” The statement by the Al-Qaeda leader, comments the paper which notes this is the first time such a proposal has been made, was an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between America and those European countries that have supported the war in Iraq. The daily stresses that the Italian administration, after the execution of an Italian private contractor on Wednesday by Iraqi insurgents, remained resolute. Italian Foreign Minister Frattini is quoted as saying: “It’s unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden; everybody understands this.”

BALKANS

• An AFP dispatch, April 15, reports that Bosnia is to hold its third postwar elections on October 2, expected to test the strength of the ruling Croat, Serb and Muslim nationalists who won general elections in 2002. Over two million people are eligible to elect municipal councils in 142 municipalities, observes the dispatch. Another AFP dispatch announces that the appeals chamber of the UN war crimes court is set on Monday to deliver a historic verdict in the case against Radislav Krstic, the first man to be convicted of genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia. Whatever the decision of the trial chamber, argues the report, it will have an impact on the definition of genocide and also on many ongoing and future cases in war crimes courts.

NORWAY-DEFENSE

• “A top Norwegian Parliament official warned yesterday that the country would abandon the Joint Strike Fighter program if project manager Lockheed Martin Corp. doesn’t help Norway’s local industries secure work on the aircraft,” writes the Washington Post. Marit Nybakk, cahirwoman of the defense committee in Norway’s Parliament, reportedly said the Parliament will evaluate the country’s participation in the program in June, adding: “ If we don’t get more signals, better signals from Lockheed Martin … there is a big possibility that the Norwegian Parliament will be inclined to get out of the development program for the Joint Strike Fighter, which is a pity.” The program, adds the article, also counts England, Italy and Turkey among its participants and the plane will not be operational until 2008.