Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

22 April 2004

KOSOVO

• NATO is debating whether to appoint a political representative in Kosovo following last month's ethnic violence in the breakaway Serbian province, an alliance official said on Wednesday. "The alliance is very focused on the political process in Kosovo and one of the issues that has been raised, at least unofficially, is whether or not it would be appropriate...to provide a senior representative," the official said. The West has since warned Kosovo Albanians who seek independence that violence is no short cut to a final status for the UN protectorate, which is legally part of Serbia. "The events of last month have only demonstrated how important it is that these standards are met before we go forward," the NATO official said. "And the Council will make that message very clear to all the political leaders there that any violence doesn't help to move forward towards any resolution of the status question, on the contrary it moves us away from it." EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana appointed a Balkans diplomacy veteran, Fernando Gentilini, as his personal representative in Pristina three weeks ago. (Reuters 211657 GMT Apr. 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• Police and international peacekeepers cordoned off a street in the center of the Afghan capital on Wednesday after finding an explosive device, and arrested at least two suspects, authorities said. Deputy Police Chief Amin Khalil Zada said the two men were taken into custody by a peacekeeping force in the early afternoon on a street just a few hundred meters from the Finance Ministry. Afghan security forces backed by peacekeepers have made several high-level arrests in recent weeks targeting supporters of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has teamed with Taliban insurgents and al-Qaida militants. On Wednesday, a bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off in the restive southeastern city of Spin Boldak, just 50 meters from a building where the provincial governor was holding a meeting. Kandahar Gov. Yousuf Pashtun was not injured. "There are many disputes in Spin Boldak, so it is hard to say who did it," Khalid Pashtun told AP. "But, of course, when such an incident occurs the people focus on the enemy, which is the Taliban." (AP 211538 Apr 04)

IRAQ

• Islamic nations, opening an emergency meeting on Thursday, will urge the UN to take a key role in Iraq after Washington transfers authority in June, as security in the Middle East takes a turn for the worse. Foreign ministers and envoys from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) will also reject a U.S.-backed Israeli plan to withdraw from Palestinian territories, officials from host Malaysia said. The OIC meeting also comes as Washington prepares a resolution that would ask the UN Security Council to give its blessing to a new Iraqi interim government, a multinational force and a UN role in the country after the planned handover of power to an Iraqi authority. "Hopefully, there will be a new mandate in Iraq for after June 30th that will give the United Nations a pivotal role," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters as he arrived at the Putrajaya Convention Centre in Malaysia's administrative capital. (Reuters 220212 GMT Apr 04)

EU

• The EU is dropping legal action against four member states that broke ranks by signing bilateral maritime security deals with the U.S. to fight terrorism, a top European official said on Wednesday. The decision to halt the proceedings came after the EU reached its own agreement with the U.S. on container security. A framework deal on container security cooperation between the two trading blocs will be signed on Thursday, U.S. and European officials said. The commission, the EU's executive arm, started the proceedings against the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France in December 2002 for signing individual deals to implement the U.S. Container Security Initiative, which seeks to prevent the use of shipping containers by terrorists. It argued that negotiating such deals was an EU matter and should be negotiated at the EU level, not by individual member states. Launched in January 2002, the Container Security Initiative seeks to identify high-risk containers, screen them before they arrive at U.S. ports and enhance technology to make containers easier to screen and less vulnerable to tampering. (Reuters 220116 GMT Apr 04)