Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

01 July 2004

U.S. MILITARY

• The U.S. Army plans to summon a new group of about 4,000 reserve soldiers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking the total number of additional call-ups announced this week to nearly 10,000, officials said on Wednesday in Washington. The Individual Ready Reserve troops were scheduled to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan later this year and early next year as part of the regular rotation of U.S. troops. Mr. Robert Smiley, an Army official dealing with training, readiness and mobilization, said thousands more reservists from this pool could be involuntarily mobilized in future as the Army strives to find enough troops to cope with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Reuters 010045 GMT Jul 04)
  
  
• The U.S. military said farewell Wednesday to its first East European outpost, which evolved from a jump-off point for NATO into Bosnia to training Iraqi exiles last year ahead of their return home. Adm. John W. Goodwin of the U.S. military’s European command spoke of the symbolic significance of the Taszar base in Hungary in comments at the ceremony. “This was the first presence of a NATO member state in a country that once belonged to the Warsaw Pact,” he said. The U.S. decided to leave as part of its ongoing review of defence strategies, Adm. Goodwin told The Associated Press after the ceremony. “We are reorganizing worldwide to improve efficiency,” he said. “And with the Balkan mission coming to an end, we no longer need the base.” (AP 301608 Jun 04)

BALKANS

• The West punished Bosnian Serbs on Wednesday for failing to arrest top war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, sacking 60 senior officials in a major escalation of pressure for his handover. Those removed by Western peace envoy Paddy Ashdown included Parliament Speaker Dragan Kalinic, who heads the Serb Democratic Party founded by Karadzic, Interior Minister Zoran Djeric and other ministers, police officials, mayors and parliamentarians. “(Bosnia’s Serb Republic) has been in a grip of a small band of corrupt politicians and criminals for far too long,” Mr. Ashdown told a news conference in Sarajevo. (Reuters 301833 GMT Jun 04)
  
  
• The Defence Ministry has sued a former naval commander for defamation, saying remarks he made on television implied that top military officials supported human trafficking, the ministry spokesman said in Tirana. A Ministry spokesman said Vladimir Bajrami did not make a direct accusation but said on television that after his men stopped a speedboat with 17 smuggled immigrants, the Mafia called him and threatened to have him fired. Mr. Bajrami and other officers were discharged. The international community has told Albania to curb smuggling and trafficking if it wants to fulfil aspirations to eventually join the European Union and NATO. (AP 301452 Jun 04)

IRAQ

• Iraq’s new government and a U.S.-led forces are expected to publish detailed plans within a month on progress in building up Iraqi security capability, Britain’s Tony Blair said in London. The prime minister said that plan could allow his government to sketch out an eventual reduction in British troops in Iraq, although sources said it would not rule out an increase in numbers in the short-term. (Reuters 301329 GMT Jun 04)
  
  
• Most of the 140 Norwegian troops in Iraq were preparing to go home as their mission mandate expired Wednesday, military officials said in Oslo. About 10 staff officers would stay in Iraq, mostly to serve as liaisons with the British and Polish forces. “We are ready to participate in training Iraqi forces,” Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik also said on Wednesday. Norway said it decided in December not to extend the deployment because its troops were needed elsewhere, particularly in Afghanistan and Africa. (AP 301526 Jun 04)