Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

17 June 2004

AFGHANISTAN

• According to AFP, Foreign Minister Kovacs announced Wednesday that Hungary will boost its military presence in Afghanistan five-fold to 151, but will cut the total of its peacekeeping forces abroad to 1,000 next year. He said 120 soldiers would go to Afghanistan to reinforce the 31 Hungarian troops currently stationed there as part of ISAF. “The task of the contingent will be to boost security by providing reconnaissance in Kabul and its surroundings, including Kabul international airport,” Kovac reportedly told a new conference.
  
  
• Reuters reports the UN again asked NATO Thursday to expand its peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to boost security ahead of the September elections. A UN spokesman is quoted saying at a news briefing in Kabul: “We do hope NATO troop contributing nations will find the means to deploy the forces that are required here. It is necessary. I believe that no one has any doubt on the need for this deployment. The question is the troop contributing nations finding the means to effect this deployment.” The dispatch notes that COMISAF, Lt. Gen. Hillier, said Wednesday he thought that NATO would expand its force to the northern provinces of Balkh and Faryab before the elections. It stresses, however, that despite UN and government calls, he said it did not at this stage intend to go into southern and eastern areas, where militants are most active. The stabilization of the two regions was the responsibility for the separate 20,000-strong U.S. led force hunting the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies, he reportedly said. The dispatch further quotes Gen. Hillier saying NATO would provide a quick reaction force for any emergencies outside its areas of mandate, which would focus on helping Afghan security agencies ahead of the elections. According to the dispatch, he said the security situation was cause for concern but it should be possible to hold elections as scheduled. In a related development, AFP reports Afghan Reconstruction Minister Amin Farhang appealed Thursday for ISAF to be boosted to ensure the smooth running of the elections. “Additional forces are needed in the short term so that we can hold elections as planned in late September or early October,” he reportedly told German daily Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung. He said the 6,500-strong ISAF should be boosted “to 8,000 or 10,000 soldiers,” adding: “If the Germans, in particular, could boost their already big contribution within the framework of NATO, we would be very pleased.” Deutsche Welle reported meanwhile that a bomb attack in Kunduz Wednesday that appears to have targeted a car belonging to German peacekeepers has opposition politicians in Germany questioning the strategy for stabilizing the region. Stressing that according to an ISAF spokesman, the car that was attacked had been clearly marked with ISAF’s insignia and German flags, the report added that opposition politicians are questioning whether the soldiers’ presence is enough to secure peace in the region. According to the broadcast, the defense policy spokesman for the CDU-CSU conservative parliamentary group called for stepping up intelligence-gathering to find out why attacks have begun to be directed at German soldiers. He also demanded that the German Parliament should be the one to decide whether more German soldiers should be sent to the town of Faizabad as another PRT.
  
  
• The UN said Thursday nearly 4 million Afghans have registered to vote in coming national elections, bringing registration to two-thirds of the minimum sought by President Karzai, reports AP. The dispatch quotes a UN spokesman saying that by Wednesday, 3.95 million people were registered for the vote with the total rising by about 90,000 a day. The dispatch observes that the UN has yet to declare whether it thinks the presidential and parliamentary elections, already postponed from June, must be delayed again. With the election date to be set 90 days in advance, officials just have two weeks to call a September vote, stresses the dispatch.

ESDP

• All media report that EU leaders are meeting in Brussels for a two-day summit to try to agree on the first constitution for the bloc. According to The Guardian, the draft constitution says the EU’s “competence in matters of common and security policy will cover all areas of foreign policy and all questions relating to the EU’s security, including the progressive framing of a common defense policy, which might lead to a common defense.” It calls on member states to “actively and unreservedly” support EU policy in what is called a “spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity,” refraining from actions “contrary to the union’s interests” or effectiveness. It creates an EU foreign minister and diplomatic service. It provides for greater military cooperation and arms procurement systems, as well as a terrorist “solidarity clause” if attacked.