Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

14 May 2004

NATO

• NATO’s peacekeeping force is changing the way it conducts its mission in the aftermath of a serious outbreak of ethnic violence in mid-March, the commander of NATO forces in southern Europe said Saturday. During a one-day visit to the province, Adm. Gregory Johnson said that the alliance is “having to take a look at all of our procedures and make sure that we have the capability to provide a safe and secure environment whatever might happen,” adding that troops would use translators more often. (AP 151034 May 04)

IRAQ

• The United States expects the Iraqi Ministry of Defence to put its troops under the command of an American “multinational force commander” after the July 1 establishment of an interim government in Baghdad, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday. “You have to have unity of command on a battlefield, and we hope that we will be able to work out arrangements with the Iraqi interim government to bring this to pass,” Powell said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. Iraqi Governing Council member Adnan Pachachi, speaking on CNN’s Late Edition from Baghdad, echoed that view. “Our main concern now is the problem of security and until we have ... enough Iraqi forces to confront the dangers of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations we will probably be needing external help,” he said. (Reuters 161901 GMT May 04)
  
• German Chancellor Schroeder said Saturday that he did not think NATO would be an effective replacement for U.S. troops in Iraq. “I have doubts whether NATO, which would encounter the same psychological problems as the coalition troops now, could really produce an increase in security,” he said in an n-tv interview. “In the long run, if an Iraqi government, supported by a United Nations mandate, asks for assistance I think it would be easier for those related to them in faith... Islamic troops out of Islamic countries,” he added. Chancellor Schroeder reiterated that while Germany would do its “international duty” and provide assistance, the country is not prepared to send troops. (AP 151644 May 04)
  
• The U.S. plans to withdraw an army brigade based in South Korea and deploy the 4,000 troops in Iraq, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday. Washington had recently notified Seoul of the plan, which left open the possibility that the brigade (2nd Infantry Division) would not return to South Korea after its mission in Iraq, the paper quoted a South Korean government official as saying. (Reuters 170108 GMT May 04)
  
• Portuguese police in southern Iraq were called out to support Italian troops under fire Sunday, engaging in combat for the first time since they deployed to the city of Nasiriyah in November, an official said. A spokesman at police headquarters in Lisbon said the Portuguese were sent to the Libeccio base. The attackers are believed to be supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. (AP 162236 May 04)
  

RUSSIA

• Russia faces grave environmental and terrorist threats unless donors accelerate a slow trickle of international aid for dismantling its rusting nuclear submarines, a senior official said in Berlin. Russian Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Sergei Antipov said Russia would raise its concerns next month at a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) leading nations in the United States. He said Moscow was very worried at the slow rate of funding to secure stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological materials. (Reuters 160933 GMT May 04)

TERRORISM

• Leaders of Arab countries from the Persian Gulf denounced terrorism on Sunday and declared their solidarity with Saudi Arabia, which has suffered several terrorism attacks in the past year. The leaders of Gulf Cooperation Council states Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, as well as senior officials from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, were meeting in Jiddah, in Saudi Arabia, for their annual consultative summit. The Gulf Arab states signed a security pact earlier this month to improve intelligence sharing to combat Islamic terrorists. (AP 161814 May 04)