Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

26 August 2004

AFGHANISTAN

• Britain will send six harrier jets to Afghanistan to help provide air support for a NATO security force on the ground ahead of a presidential election in October, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. The six harriers will be deployed at Kandahar for nine months, representing the first British combat aircraft in Afghanistan during the campaign which began in 2001. The deployment "confirms ... our determination to help ensure the success of the international community's support for the Afghan electoral process," Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said in a statement. (Reuters 251638 GMT Aug 04)
  
• The U.S. told NATO allies Wednesday it is sending an extra 110 soldiers to help strengthen the alliance peacekeeping force in Afghanistan ahead of the country's key presidential elections in October. The infantry company, equipped with lightly armoured vehicles, will form a quick reaction force in support of NATO's mission in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador at NATO. In a statement, Burns said the company would be fully operational by the end of September and stay in Afghanistan for a total of 90 days. "The decision to offer these additional forces ... reflects the strong and sustained U.S. commitment to assist the Afghan people as they seek to exercise their democratic rights," Burns said. (AP 251817 Aug 04)
  
• Pakistan's UN ambassador challenged the NATO-led force in Afghanistan to match the 75,000 troops his country has deployed to stop cross-border terrorist attacks by al-Qaida and Taliban supporters, a growing concern as Afghanistan moves toward a landmark election in October. After listening Wednesday to appeals from the UN, Afghanistan and others for Pakistan to do more to prevent terrorist infiltration, Pakistani envoy Munir Akram got testy and told the UN Security Council "We feel very strongly that we are doing everything we can. Cross-border action is a responsibility not only of Pakistan but it is even more the responsibility of Afghanistan and of the international forces which are in Afghanistan," he said. While Pakistan has deployed 75,000 troops, he noted that the 6,500-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, was being strengthened by only 1,500 soldiers before the election. "Is that the response that is required from the international community, and if the international community asks us to do more, should it not do more itself?" Akram asked. "If the UN asks us to do more, should it not ask ISAF at least to match our efforts on the other side of the border?" "These are real and practical issues, and therefore I must say that my government is very sensitive to any assertion that we could do more than what we're doing without the help of the international community," he said. (AP 260040 Aug 04)
  
• President Hamid Karzai's main challengers, mostly mujahideen or militia commanders, are considering uniting behind a single candidate to contest Afghanistan's historic election, one rival said on Wednesday. And legal challenges, public protests, and cabinet resignations lie in wait for Karzai unless he bows to pressure to quit before the Oct. 9 vote, he added. "If we stand for election individually I am sure we will lose," Latif Pedram, a former journalist and fierce Karzai critic who returned from exile in France to contest the poll, told Reuters on Wednesday. Karzai said on Tuesday his enemies lacked constitutional grounds to call for his resignation, but Pedram was undaunted. "First we will write an application to the Supreme Court," he said arguing that Karzai's tenure should have ended in June. "Secondly we will ask the people all over the country to launch a mass demonstration. Thirdly, we will ask our ministers in Karzai's government to resign. "And finally, if these three don't work, we will ask the people not to vote. We will force him to resign." However, their best shot could be by forming a united front that would ramp up chances of Karzai being pushed to a run-off if he fails to capture 51 percent of the vote first time. "We have another decision. Dostum, Ismail Khan, Fahim, Mohahqiq and I will hold a meeting on whether to only have one candidate. We are thinking about it but until now we don't know who that will be," Pedram said. (Reuters 251620 GMT Aug 04)
  

BALKANS

• A confidential report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan by Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide recommends the scrapping of a 1999 policy insisting that Kosovo meet a lengthy list of performance benchmarks before the international community can take up the question of its ultimate status, according to a copy of the report obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. Eide submitted his report last month, but Annan has not yet made up his mind on how to proceed, UN officials said. "Serious exploratory discussion of the future status question should be undertaken by the UN beginning this fall," his report said. Current UN plans call for a decision to be made in mid-2005 on when the international community can take up Kosovo's final status. "The international community in Kosovo is today seen by Kosovo Albanians as having gone from opening the way to now standing in the way. It is seen by Kosovo Serbs as having gone from securing the return of so many to being unable to ensure the return of so few," Eide said. (Reuters 252050 GMT Aug 04)
  
• Kosovo's top UN administrator toured a Serb village shattered by ethnic violence Wednesday and promised to improve security for the beleaguered minority in this ethnically tense province. Strolling amid the rubble of homes burned in riots earlier this year, Soren Jessen-Petersen promised to work closely with NATO-led peacekeepers to prevent a resurgence of the violence that seared this community some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital, Pristina. "It is clear that this must not happen again," Jessen-Petersen said. "We will do whatever is within our power to make sure that this is a safe place." Jessen-Petersen, a Danish refugee expert who assumed his post last week, has made it his priority to move the province away from its violent past by improving security and reviving the dilapidated economy. "Let us now move from destruction to building up again, building up the physical infrastructure, but also rebuilding the social infrastructure," Jessen-Petersen said. (AP 251420 Aug 04)
  

OTHER NEWS

• The Athens Olympics will cost a total of almost 10 billion euros ($12.1 billion), more than double the original target, pushing Greece's budget gap well above EU limits, finance ministry sources said on Wednesday. The original Games budget was set at 4.6 billion euros, but a rising security bill and overruns in construction costs have prompted several upward revisions in recent months. "The estimate is that the total cost of the Olympic Games will be close to 10 billion euros, mainly due to overruns in spending," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "For example, the costs of security will exceed the 1 billion euro target," he said. The official said it was not clear yet how much Greece would need to contribute to NATO for its help in protecting the Games. (Reuters 251736 GMT Aug 04)