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SHAPE
News Summary & Analysis
7
May 2004
ISAF
- Norway
to send troops to Afghanistan
- Slovenia
to beef up Afghanistan contingent
- Prime
Minister Erdogan denies story on Bush request for troops
to Kabul
BALKANS
- German
Defense Minister defends German KFOR soldiers
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ISAF
- AFP
reports the Norwegian Defense Ministry said Friday
it was sending more troops to Afghanistan to reinforce ISAF.
The decision to send 70 extra soldiers was made after Oslo
received a request for reinforcements from NATO,
the dispatch adds, noting this will bring the total number
of Norwegian military personnel in Afghanistan to 300.
- Slovene
Chief of Staff Gen. Lipic told his NATO counterparts Thursday
that Slovenia will increase its presence in the ISAF mission,
reported Ljubljana’s STA, May 6. “We are examining
what else we might offer to the mission,” Gen. Lipic
was quoted saying at a news conference. The dispatch, which
stressed that Slovenia currently has a reconnaissance team
in Afghanistan and plans to send a firefighting unit to the
country, continued: “According to Gen. Lipic, NATO is
having trouble since it is unable to get member states to
make big enough contributions for the expansion of the mission.
Specialists that are most badly needed, he said, include air
traffic controllers for the Kabul airport, medical units,
firefighters and members for provincial reconstruction teams.”
- According
to Ankara’s Anatolia, May 6, the Prime Ministry’s
Press Office stated Thursday that news reports claiming that
President Bush had asked Turkey to send soldiers to Afghanistan
were “unfounded.” The dispatch, reported,
however, that NATO has asked Turkey’s support in the
framework of its effort to seek additional forces from allied
countries for ISAF. Diplomatic sources were quoted saying
Thursday that NATO had asked support of Turkey as part of
a call to all allied countries to make additional contributions
to ISAF.
BALKANS
- Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, May 6, reported that both the
government and the opposition have defended German soldiers
serving in Kosovo against accusations that they failed to
react efficiently to the violent incidents which occurred
there in March. “The Bundeswehr acted with
great circumspection and saved lives,” Defense Minister
Struck was quoted saying. The newspaper asserted that as a
consequence of the disturbances in which Albanian nationalists
attacked Serbs and destroyed historic buildings, the
Federal Government will study whether the law which forbids
the use of irritant gas or pepper spray by German soldiers
on foreign deployments can be changed.
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