Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

23 August 2004

GENRAL JONES

• German weekly Der Spiegel carries a 1,500-word report by Susanne Koelbl, portraying Gen. Jones and stressing he wants to transform NATO in a response force against terror and rogue states. Claiming that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld personally selected Gen. Jones for the SACEUR position, the article says: “Maybe he named (Gen. Jones), who holds a degree in political science, because he had grown up in France and therefore knows how to deal with stubborn Europeans. Maybe, because this experienced man of action possesses the original American optimism and persistently, but amiably pursues his objective. It is clear what Rumsfeld wants from the Europeans: They are to quickly modernize their obsolete giant armed forces of the Cold War era, if necessary at the expense of their prosperity and social peace. Instead of constantly criticizing the U.S. in terms of moral values, they should assume a larger part of the costs for the peace enforcing and peacekeeping missions in order to relieve the strain on Washington.” Rumsfeld sees Africa, apart from Central Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans, as NATO’s new main operational area, the article notes, adding: “We have to get near the danger areas, before the danger reaches us,” Rumfsfeld’s front man (Gen. Jones) is therefore advertising.” Claiming that “when (Gen. Jones) says ‘we,’ he is referring to the new NATO Response Force,” the article, titled “Where the dragons live,” continues: “The high-tech unit … will grow to a strength of 21,000 elite troops by the year 2006. The number is to include as many as 6,000 Germans, who could be deployed worldwide within the space of five days. The NATO warriors would have to hunt monsters and operate in regions of the world that medieval cartographers had described as ‘inhabited by dragons.’ These are the words the first NRF commander, the Briton Jack Deverell, used when he addressed the units of the NRF last autumn.” Reporting on SACEUR’s address to the SHAPE staff last month, the article further says: “’It is easy to leave the negotiating table with the good feeling to have installed NATO in a crisis region,” the supreme commander bluntly criticizes the European heads of state and government, who had agreed on a mission in Istanbul, but had since provided few of the means necessary for that mission…. Gen. Jones is meanwhile traveling like a beggar from defense minister to defense minister in his effort to get sufficient troops and helicopters for the missions in the Balkans and in Afghanistan; and the same now goes for Iraq. Even the deployment of the new miracle force NRF is anything but assured: because of parliamentary reservations, the Germans, for example, cannot guarantee that the Bundestag will indeed approve its operations within five days.” The article is illustrated with a photograph of Gen. Jones at his desk at SHAPE and a photograph made during a visit to the Republic of Georgia in 2003.

OLYMPICS

• According to the International Herald Tribune, at the end of the first week of the Olympic Games, security officials are generally pleased by the calm so far. “Foreign and Greek officials attribute the success the overwhelming security presence. The Greeks, with support from the United States and NATO, have created what one western security official described as a ‘hostile environment’ for terrorists,” stresses the newspaper.

BALKANS

• Finland is preparing to send a group of 200 peacekeepers to Bosnia in December, reported Helsinki’s Helsingin Sanomat, Aug. 21, adding that the Cabinet’s Committee on Foreign and Security Affairs made the decision on Friday. The daily noted that a military force about 7,000-strong will be established for the so-called ALTHEA operation. The Finnish troops will be part of a 1,200-strong northern department, which will have units from approximately 10 countries,” it added. It stressed that “the ALTHEA operation will be dependent on NATO planning and headquarters organization, but it will have a UN mandate. It will be … the most significant, to date, EU-led military force for crisis control. It will use both military and civilian crisis control methods.” The EU will take over the crisis management operation in Bosnia in December, said a related article in Helsinki’s Hufvudstadsbladet, Aug. 21, adding: “The EU-led ALTHEA operation will take over from SFOR…. However, NATO will continue to have a small force in Bosnia, principally to step up the hunt for suspected war criminals still at large.” The daily also noted that the EU’s military crisis management operation will take place under the terms of the Berlin-Plus agreement, which makes it possible for the EU to make use of NATO’s military resources. “The EU-led operation will be mounted with the support of NATO’s planning and staff structures,” it stressed.

OTHER NEWS

• Belgian media report the crew of a Ukrainian cargo plane being held at Brussels airport ended a four-day standoff with Belgian authorities Saturday, leaving the Antonov An-124 transport aircraft which had been chartered by NATO to supply ISAF peacekeepers. A related AP dispatch notes that the 22 crew members had been holed up in the aircraft since Wednesday, when bailiffs tried to impound the plane. It quotes airport officials saying they agreed to leave after negotiations with Belgian and Ukrainian officials. The dispatch adds that Belgian authorities moved to seize the aircraft acting on a Swedish court ruling last year. The court reportedly backed claims of a Cypriot-based energy company, which says it is owed over 40 million dollars from Ukrainian authorities in a dispute over supplies from an oil refinery. According to the dispatch, the plane is expected to remain in Belgium until its legal status is clarified. NATO officials reportedly said they would be able to find alternative transports to send the supplies to Afghanistan.