Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

7 July 2004

IRAQ

• According to CNN, Iraqi officials announced Wednesday a new security plan that will increase detention powers and allow the prime minister to mobilize the country’s armed forces. The program noted that the announcement of the much-debated security initiative has been delayed several times even as insurgents continue to target Iraq’s power supply and oil pipelines, and stage roadside bomb attacks on Iraqi and multinational security forces. It remarked that “at the same time, a NATO official is conducting a fact-finding tour in Iraq to see what kind of military and police training help it can provide to the government.” Earlier, Dubai’s Al-Arabiya television reported: “A meeting grouping representatives from three NATO countries and Iraqi Defense Minister Shalan was held at the Iraqi Defense Ministry Tuesday…. The talks centered on how NATO can help Iraq develop its army and strengthen its capabilities. NATO thereby made a presence in Iraq. This presence will add to the world momentum toward the country following years of isolation that kept it away from the international fold. Bringing NATO to Iraq is a step which many Iraqi consider a diplomatic gain, more than a military gain.”

ESDP

• Berlin’s DDP reports that at a security conference in Berlin Wednesday, German Gen. Schuwirth, who is due to take over the position of SHAPE COFS, said the EU had developed into a strategic partner of the Alliance. With its new capabilities, the EU is “more than the European pillar of NATO,” he reportedly said. In addition to its new political and economic crisis management capabilities, the EU meanwhile also has its own military and police capabilities, he added, suggesting that the EU will prove this when its takes over the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. The report stresses, however, that at the same time, Gen. Schuwirth advocated worldwide missions of the Alliance. “The concept of defense has attained a completely new meaning because of the internationally acting terrorists. NATO therefore has to be able to carry out missions far beyond its present area,” Gen. Schuwirth is quoted saying and adding: “Today no country can any longer call itself a risk-free area.”

AFGHANISTAN

• According to AFP, officials said in Kabul Wednesday the U.S.-led coalition had opened a new PRT in troubled southeast Afghanistan, as NATO had expanded its command of such teams in the north ahead of autumn elections. The coalition’s latest team opened in troubled Paktika province, which borders Pakistan on June 30, the dispatch cites a military spokesman saying. It also quotes an ISAF spokesman noting that so far three PRTs, in northeastern Kunduz, northern Mazar-I-Sharif and northwestern Meymaneh are under the control of NATO-led peacekeepers. Kunduz is staffed by German soldiers, Mazar-I-Sharif by peacekeepers from Britain, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway, Romania and Sweden and Meymaneh by troops from Britain, Norway and Finland, the ISAF spokesman reportedly said.

In a contribution to the Wall Street Journal, Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador and special presidential envoy to Afghanistan, stresses that the free world must step up to do everything possible in this critical period to enable Afghans to cross the threshold to a new era of freedom and democracy.
He writes: “Afghans are looking to NATO to increase its operations in their country to enhance elections security…. As the moderate majority of Afghans prevail, their victory will help tip the scales in the wider regional battle. When the Afghans succeed in facing down the terrorists and holding elections, it will be their, and our, finest hour.”

OLYMPICS

• Athens News Agency reports the latest security readiness exercise ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games was held Tuesday by special police and military units, with the emphasis on a response to biological, chemical and radiological threats. Part of the exercise’s scenario involved dealing with an incident of chemical contamination, which necessitated the decontamination of vehicles and the transfer of injured parties, the report says. It recalls that the joint unit dealing with biological, chemical and radiological incidents has been trained in the Czech Republic. Defense Minister Lambropoulos reportedly expressed confidence in the unit’s high level of operational training.