Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

25 August 2004

BALKANS

• Defence Minister Nikola Radovanovic said the Balkan country felt "morally" obliged to help in Iraq after all the assistance it had received from the outside world. "Having in mind the experience we have had here, it is difficult to defend a thesis that it is dangerous in Iraq and we should send troops there once it becomes safe," Radovanovic said. Politicians from all parties and thousands of members of the public want the decision scrapped. Apart from the obvious security risks, some opponents argue Bosnia should not send soldiers to Iraq just to please the U.S., one of its main peacetime sponsors. "We think this is a really dangerous decision which can have long-term negative consequences for Bosnia-Herzegovina," opposition Social Democratic Union party leader Sejfudin Tokic said last week. Tokic said Bosnia would be targeted by terrorists in retaliation for its troop presence in Iraq. He said the decision could also harm the country's image abroad because the mission was not under the full UN control. Radovanovic said the de-mining unit would be formed by Bosnian Serb, Muslim and Croat volunteers. It would be sent to Iraq after completing three months of training with equipment donated by the U.S. The U.S. is covering half the annual cost of the de-mining unit of five million Bosnian marka ($3.2 million). "It is realistic to expect the unit to be in Iraq by the end of this year or, to be safe, at the beginning of 2005," he said. (Reuters 241723 GMT Aug 04)
  
• Nationalist allies of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia's parliament insisted Tuesday that the lawsuit against NATO over the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia must move forward. Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the anti-Western Serbian Radical Party, urged Serbian lawmakers to support a measure barring government officials from withdrawing the lawsuit before the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands. He said those trying to withdraw the suit are "traitors" of the national cause. "This lawsuit is the only instrument this country possesses to punish the brutal NATO aggression in 1999," Nikolic told the parliament. Nikolic's Radicals submitted the resolution last month after some Belgrade officials indicated the lawsuit might be dropped to improve relations with NATO and the EU. Veroljub Stevanovic, of the pro-Western Serbian Renewal Movement, denounced Nikolic's speech, saying it was reminiscent "of some old tunes we had to listen to" during Milosevic's reign. "How can we join the European Union if we are suing its NATO members?" he asked. "At this moment, the unconditional withdrawal of the lawsuit against NATO is not good for the national interests of this country," Milos Aligrudic of the Democratic Party of Serbia said. (AP 241557 Aug 04)
  

TERRORISM

• Swiss investigators have found evidence that suspected members of an al-Qaida support group were supplying fake documents to enable collaborators to enter Switzerland and other European countries illegally, the supreme court revealed Tuesday. The Federal Tribunal said a suspect was found to have links to both an al-Qaida recruiter who sent volunteers to the terror group's training camps and an individual convicted of terrorism offenses in France, neither of whom was identified. Swiss investigators previously have found evidence that some of the al-Qaida members involved in the Sept. 11 attacks made calls in Afghanistan and Pakistan using phones with prepaid cards bought in Switzerland. Swiss lawmakers recently closed a legal loophole which let customers purchase the cards anonymously. According to Le Temps, the report said two of the suspects arrested in Switzerland, both originally from Yemen, were in "close contact with several hard core members of Osama bin Laden's movement." (AP 241630 Aug 04)

OTHER NEWS

• A Russian plane that went missing around the same time as another jet crashed issued a signal indicating a hijacking or seizure before disappearing from radar, the Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified government source as saying Wednesday. Emergency and Interior Ministry sources in southern Russia, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told AP that a signal indicating an attack or hijacking was activated on the Tu-154. Another passenger jet that went missing at about the same time crashed in the Tula region south of Moscow. There was no word on survivors among the 89 people believed to be aboard the two planes. The nearly simultaneous disappearance of the two planes raised fears of possible terrorist involvement. Russian officials haven't spoken publicly about the crashes, but President Vladimir Putin ordered an investigation by the Federal Security Service. (AP 250341 Aug 04)