Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

18 August 2004

U.S. TROOP BASING

• A shrinking U.S. military presence in Europe will sharpen the challenges facing NATO and force the old continent to take greater responsibility for tackling its own crises. Former military commanders and defence experts in Germany, the country most affected by the partial U.S. withdrawal, accept the logic of the move as part of a new division of labour within the transatlantic alliance. “‘Homeland Defence Europe’ shall be handled by European armed forces, ‘Homeland Defence U.S.’ by the Americans. Everything else that can and must be jointly fought anywhere in the world, will be done by NATO,” said Klaus Reinhardt, a former NATO general in command of peacekeepers in Kosovo. “It will force European armed forces to finally do what they’ve committed to, namely to modernise and make their forces more compatible, more inter-operable,” he added. “From a purely military point of view, it makes a lot of sense to place more troops at the periphery of NATO, near the new contingencies,” said Frank Umbach of the German Council on Foreign Relations. One German analyst, who asked not to be named, said U.S. geo-strategic interests would continue to ensure that Washington remained closely engaged in Europe despite the return of many of its soldiers. “I can’t imagine a crisis scenario in the Balkans, the Caucasus or the Middle East in which the Americans would not have a massive interest and be engaged and militarily present,” he said. (Reuters 171618 GMT Aug 04)
  
  
• Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said that Moscow sees no grounds for concern in a planned redeployment of U.S. forces that would increase their presence on the territory of former Soviet allies. The Foreign Ministry was more cautious. “I don’t see anything alarming in these plans yet,” Mr. Ivanov said in televised comments. On a trip to Yekaterinburg, he said the United States had “objective reasons” for the shift and added, “We understand them.” He said that Russia, like the United States, is trying to streamline its military and increase its mobility. The Foreign Ministry, as is often the case, was more wary in its comments, saying Russia’s attitude toward the U.S. plans will depend on how they take shape “to what degree they represent a threat to Russia’s interests.” In a statement, the ministry said U.S. plans must not violate agreements and pledges regarding the number and strength of military forces, including the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty. The Foreign Ministry also said it was proceeding from the “understanding” that U.S. bases in Central Asia will be removed when the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan is over. (AP 171803 Aug 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an urgent increase in international forces in Afghanistan to address the deteriorating security situation in the country. In a report Tuesday to the Security Council, he welcomed NATO’s recent decision to increase its troop strength to help improve security. He expressed hope that the new soldiers will arrive in time for the presidential election campaign that starts in early September and remain beyond April’s scheduled parliamentary elections. Mr. Annan said the deteriorating security “must be addressed resolutely” not only by increased international forces but by “the full cooperation of neighbouring states.” (AP 180150 Aug 04)
  
  
• Seventy Spanish army and air force soldiers flew to Afghanistan on Tuesday, the first new contingent following a government pledge to boost its troops there to more than 1,000. Spain announced last month it would increase its troop numbers temporarily to 1,040 ahead of planned elections there in October. The number of soldiers are to be reduced to 540 by the end of the year. (AP 171036 Aug 04)

TERRORISM

• Terrorist groups are still operating in the Horn of Africa, but a 2-year-old U.S. task force has built cooperation in the region’s anti-terror operations and prevented militants from staging attacks, the unit’s commander told The Associated Press. The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, set up in Djibouti in June 2002, is responsible for fighting terrorism in nine countries around the Horn of Africa: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia in Africa and Yemen. Brig. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of the task force, said aggressive security measures in cooperation with U.S. forces have reduced the area where terrorists can hide and train. He said U.S. training of regional militaries is increasing and the U.S. task force is averaging one civilian-military operation every three days to promote cooperation. The task force uses military training, humanitarian aid and intelligence operations to keep nations in the region from becoming terrorist havens by strengthening local security forces and keeping terrorist groups from operating, he added. (AP 180055 Aug 04)
  
  
• Beijing has hinted that if the United States releases any Guantanamo Bay detainees from its restive Muslim far west Xinjiang region, they should be handed over to Beijing and not sent to a third country. “The United States should handle the issue according to international rules and with a view towards international anti-terrorism co-operation and bilateral ties,” spokesman Kong Quan said in a statement on the Foreign Ministry Web site www.fmprc.gov.cn. In recent years, some have staged riots and deadly bomb attacks both in Xinjiang and in other parts of China, including Beijing, as part of a campaign to establish an independent state one day that they would call East Turkestan. China was responding to a report that the United States did not plan to send such detainees back to China but was trying to find another destination for them, the official Xinhua news agency said. (Reuters 180400 GMT Aug 04)
  
  
• An international treaty aimed at preventing terrorists from infiltrating shipping crews will enter into force in February 2005, the International Labour Organisation said on Tuesday in Geneva. The pact is aimed at eventually requiring the world’s 1.2 million seafarers to carry new identity cards. It will first apply to shipping crews from France and Jordan, the first two countries to ratify it, the United Nations agency said. “The new identity document for seafarers allows for the use of a ‘biometric template’ to turn two fingerprints of a seafarer into an internationally standardised two-dimensional barcode on the seafarer’s document,” it said in a statement. (Reuters 171753 GMT Aug 04)