Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

2 August 2004

IRAQ

• AFP, August 1, reported that NATO is to have a collective presence in Iraq for the first time and, mulled the news agency, despite its modest size, the arrival of a team of military personnel there will be an event rich in political symbolism. NATO, observes the dispatch, is to send an advance party of officers as part of a plan to train Iraqi security forces on a request from Baghdad. NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer, who announced Friday night’s agreement, reportedly said: “The Alliance is united on Iraq.” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said the decision “represents the unification of NATO,” adding: “We are proud that NATO is now the vanguard of the international community in providing assistance to the people of Iraq…In essence, symbolically, we plant our flag and we will do that symbolically and figuratively…It’s not a fact-finding mission. It’s a long-term mission.” The report added that the team consisting of 40 military personnel, which will report back in September, will be based in Baghdad and their first task will be to begin training senior officials at the Iraqi defense ministry assessing the categories of Iraqi personnel who could be better trained outside Iraq. The training facilities outside the country likely to open up for this purpose, wrote the dispatch, include the Oberammergau NATO school in Germany and the NATO defense college in Rome. Friday’s agreement, argued the report, was reached following continuous negotiations over U.S. demands that the NATO training force should be under control of the coalition forces in Iraq, for security reasons. France, along with other countries like Germany, comments the dispatch, saw this as an attempt by the Americans to involve the Alliance into the U.S.-led Iraq coalition. That is why France, although it has finally agreed to permit NATO to play a modest role in the country, has refused to send any French soldiers to the country. Stephen Grey, in an article published in The Sunday Times, August 1, quoted senior military figures stating that British troops are likely to be withdrawn from Iraq next year after the country’s first democratic elections. Despite continuing violence in Iraq, said the paper, they believe the elected government will not want large numbers of foreign troops to stay for long. But, against this view, the paper commented that earlier this year British commanders suggested large numbers of troops might be needed before Iraq’s new security forces were ready to take control.

AFGHANISTAN

• Radio Afghanistan reported that the Afghan defense ministry is planning to increase the number of national army troops to 16,000 ahead of the presidential elections, in a broadcast on August 1. Speaking at a press conference, the defense ministry spokesman reportedly said two companies, 11 battalions and seven mobilization groups had been dispatched to different parts of the country within the framework of a special program of security measures. He also reportedly stated the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program was being implemented in the country.

SUDAN

• According to Sudan Television, August 1, the Sudanese government has rejected a UN Security Council resolution on Darfur because the document failed to take into account that Sudan was “fully cooperating” with the international community to resolve the crisis, or that the rebel movement had started the conflict and therefore was “responsible for all humanitarian and security disasters” in the region. Furthermore, it was observed, the 30-day deadline given by the UN Security Council resolution was illogical and difficult to meet, in particular because the agreement signed with UN Secretary General on 3 July 2004 stipulates that the agreement should be implemented within 90 days. Nevertheless, in a statement following a cabinet meeting on 1 August, Foreign Minister Uthman Isma’il reportedly said Sudan would adhere to the 3 July agreement signed with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and remain committed to the joint mechanism, which would review the agreement itself.