Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

12 July 2004

BALKANS

• In a defiant television appearance, one of four Serb generals indicted for alleged war crimes in Kosovo by the UN tribunal said Sunday that his hand-over to the court would be an act of treason. In an interview on Serbia’s BK TV, Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic said that his extradition or that of the other three generals “would be treasonous, it would betray the memory of fallen Serbs and would provide amnesty for all war crimes committed against Serbs.” The interview coincided with Serbia’s inauguration of its first democratic elected president. President Boris Tadic repeated on Sunday that cooperation with The Hague court remained his republic’s top priority. (AP 111800 Jul 04)
  
  
• NATO-led peacekeepers have released six ethnic Albanians detained after a gunman slightly wounded four Finnish soldiers, an official said Sunday in Pristina. The peacekeepers sustained shotgun pellet wounds to their arms and legs from a shot fired late on Saturday as they were patrolling near the town of Lipljan. The gunman remained at large and the investigation was ongoing. “KFOR is not expecting that this was a planned attack against them,” a KFOR spokesman said. He did not elaborate beyond saying that the shooting was “possibly related to a local smuggling operation.” (AP 111412 Jul 04)
  
  
• Some 20,000 Bosnian Muslims gathered in Srebrenica on Sunday to bury newly identified victims of the 1995 massacre and demanded justice for all the victims. There was no senior Serb official present at the burial. (Reuters 111300 GMT Jul 04)
  
  
• Chief UN war crimes prosecutor del Ponte said she still believed top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic would soon be caught. Asked by the SENSE news agency, which covers the Hague UN tribunal for south-eastern Europe, if she remained confident Karadzic would soon be arrested, she said: “I still have (reason to believe that), and that’s why I can’t divulge any details.” In the interview late on Friday, Carla del Ponte said her information came from a “tracking team” she has not previously mentioned, made up of intelligence agents from various countries and tasked with tracking down war crimes suspects. In a separate interview on Saturday with the Bosnian daily Nezavisne Novine, SFOR Commander Gen. Virgil Packett said there were indications that Karadzic had suffered health problems and “had to deal with them.” He gave no further details. (Reuters 101606 GMT Jul 04)
  
  
• The UN Security Council extended the mandate of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a final six months on Friday, in anticipation of the European Union taking over its mission by the end of 2004. The measure also “welcomes the EU’s intention to launch an EU mission to Bosnia” by that time. (Reuters 100525 GMT Jul 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• A bomb exploded on a bustling street of Herat on Sunday, killing five people, injuring 29, and deepening concern over security two days after Afghanistan set a date for its first free elections. Afghan leader Hamid Karzai blamed unidentified enemies of peace and democracy for the blast, which occurred as UN and government officials watched a disarmament parade for militia soldiers across town. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The top UN official in Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that militias might stage violent incidents so they could argue that they are needed to maintain security. He urged NATO to speed the deployment of promised extra troops. (AP 111501 Jul 04)

IRAQ

• Iraq’s new interim government plans to introduce an amnesty for rebels who have been fighting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq within “a couple of days,” the country’s president told British newspapers on Monday. “We are offering an amnesty definitely, for people who have not committed too many atrocious acts; everybody except murderers, rapists and kidnappers,” interim President Ghazi al-Yawar told the Financial Times in an interview. “It’s good to have a carrot-and-stick approach,” he told The Times in an interview. (Reuters 120021 GMT Jul 04)
  
  
• Syria and Iraq will set up a special security force to prevent infiltration of foreign fighters across their shared border, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said Sunday in Damascus. Mr. Saleh, speaking after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, said Iraq and its neighbours “should join forces to prevent infiltration and boost the political process in Iraq.” (AP 111609 Jul 04)

TERRORISM

• Belgian police arrested two suspected Sudanese members of the Al Qaeda network at Brussels’ main airport late on Friday, Belgium’s VTM commercial television reported on Saturday. A Belgian federal police spokesman said two arrests had been made, but was unable to give further details. VTM said the two had flown in from Athens, Greece, and were travelling on forged passports. The television network, quoting no sources, said the police found photographs of militants involved in suicide operations in the suspects’ luggage and a mobile phone number referring to bin Laden. Earlier on Saturday, the Netherlands said it was increasing security at key locations after receiving information that radical Islamists might be planning terror attacks. (Reuters 101821 GMT Jul 04)