Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

18 June 2004

AFGHANISTAN

• Portugal has decided to reinforce the Armed Forces’ mission in Afghanistan in July, reports Lisbon’s daily Publico. The article quotes the Armed Forces General Staff Office saying a 20-strong Air Force team will be sent to the region. The team reportedly comprises a C-130 Hercules transport plane, crew and maintenance staff, three air traffic controllers, two weathermen and one official from the General Staff. It will stay in Afghanistan for a period of six month and will be based at Kabul airport, where Portugal has already deploy five Air Force firefighters.
  
  
• According to Reuters, combatants said Friday a renegade commander has taken control of most of the remote central Afghan provincial capital of Ghor after clashes in which 18 people were killed or wounded and the governor forced to flee. The dispatch stresses that the upheaval presents a fresh crisis for President Karzai and his efforts to impose his authority in the provinces by disarming regional militias seen as a threat to September elections. It notes it is the third time in less than three months that a provincial governor appointed by Karzai has been forced to flee. “Karzai has vowed to disarm 40 percent of armed fighters loyal to provincial leaders and commanders by the end of June. The plan is seen as key to stabilizing the country as it prepares for landmark elections in September, but has so far moved slowly. An upsurge of violence in recent months around Afghanistan, much in the south an east and blamed on Taliban guerrillas, has raised doubts about the elections being held on time,” adds the dispatch. In a similar vein, AP writes in a similar vein that the violence presents a fresh security threat for Karzai, whose authority is already sapped by factional fighting across a swath of northern and western Afghanistan as well as a spreading Taliban-led insurgency. Karzai has vowed to disarm the warlords who still control most of the country. But foot- dragging by powerful regional leaders means only a few thousands of the official total of 100,000 irregular fighters have given up their weapons so far, the dispatch continues.

In the wake of the bomb attack in Kunduz Wednesday, which killed four Afghans, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, June 17, warned that security in Afghanistan is deceptive. “While the Bundeswehr is very well accepted in the region, the bomb targeted Bundeswehr soldiers,” said the daily, adding: “From the south, where the Taliban have regrouped, instability moved to the north. Those responsible for the attacks must be sought among the Taliban rather than among local gangs…. The Taliban are now pursuing a strategy of making the country ungovernable everywhere. If NATO, which is responsible for stabilization, wants to avoid this, it must counter the development with much more forces and materiel. And the government in Berlin should realize that it is not useful to deploy forces in relatively safe regions. The situation will become unstable all by itself.”

NATO

• Istanbul’s Cumhuriyet, June 17, asserted that one of the important items on the agenda of the forthcoming NATO summit will be the definition of the role to be played by the Alliance in the Greater Middle East Project. Noting that NATO has been studying plans to expand the Mediterranean Dialogue, the article claimed that NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer sent his special representative to the region’s countries in May to listen to their opinions and reactions to the Alliance’s project. According to NATO sources, the article said, warm messages were received regarding the project from Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia, however, opted to act with caution, while Egypt refused to even talk to NATO. The daily expected that related developments would be included in “The Istanbul Initiative” to be disclosed at the summit.