Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

26 August 2004

IRAQ

• Reuters reports Maj. Gen. Hilderink, the head of the NATO Training Implementation Mission in Iraq (NTIM-I), told a news conference in Kabul Thursday a team of 57 NATO officers had started training Iraqi security forces in Iraq and could expand its mission if the government needs more help. “We already are giving advice to several authorities in the field of training,” Gen. Hilderink reportedly said, adding: “This is a long-term implementation mission, which means that tailored to the needs and tailored to the decisions of NATO authorities, the mission in the future will probably expand to meet the needs of the Iraqi interim government.” According to the dispatch, Gen. Hilderink added that the mission, which includes officers from 12 countries and operates under NATO command, will prepare a report and present it to NATO headquarters in September to assess whether to send more trainers and equipment. “NATO is going to decide, based on our report, how long we will actually stay,” he said. The dispatch also quotes the mission’s spokesman saying that while the mission was currently under the direct command of NATO, “final command and control will be discussed in September.” A related AP dispatch notes that Gen. Hilderink would not disclose details of the training, saying only that NATO was coordinating closely with U.S.-led multinational forces and the Iraqi government.

AFGHANISTAN

• “As the presidential elections draw closer, ISAF is expanding,” reported Kabul’s Radio Afghanistan. The program quoted an ISAF spokesman saying at a news conference Wednesday that Dutch soldiers had left the Netherlands Tuesday to make arrangement to establish a PRT in Baghlan province. The spokesman reportedly added that the Netherlands had promised to send a military unit to help the German PRT in Kunduz. He also indicated that a Spanish battalion had arrived in Mazar-e Sharif and that an Italian battalion would soon be stationed in Kabul as reserve operational forces. The spokesman was further quoted saying that NATO had evaluated the idea of forming a strategic reserve force to be stationed outside the country. This force would be used as a temporary reinforcement for ISAF. “The spokesman said ISAF will keep increasing its forces in Afghanistan as the elections get closer,” the program stressed.

BALKANS

• According to Reuters, a German Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday Germany’s military had overhauled training and rules of engagement for its KFOR contingent after a review of its handling of serious riots in Kosovo last March. The spokesman is quoted saying a number of measures had been undertaken, including issuing tear gas and riot gear and clearing up ambiguities in rules of engagement to ensure troops felt able to act forcefully before lives were directly threatened. He reportedly said senior commanders had made several visits to Kosovo to investigate the situation on the ground and the parliamentary defense committee had been fully informed. “During international investigations on the ground, considerable efforts have been undertaken in the area of prevention. In addition, improvements have been made in mission planning, particularly as far as flexibility and mobility are concerned,” the spokesman is quoted saying. “The Bundeswehr is reacting to the behavior of the German contingent during the unrest in Kosovo last March with comprehensive changes in the training, equipment, and operational concept,” writes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Previously,” the newspaper notes, “it was stated that under the rules of engagement, German soldiers were supposed to be able to defend Serbian-Orthodox religious structures only if they themselves were attacked by the perpetrators of pogroms. Under the new operational concept, access roads to religious sites and to Serbian settlements are to be blocked so that the protected facility can be approached only with force and a direct attack on the blocking personnel. In addition, Serbian settlements have been declared prohibited military areas.”

  In a contribution to the Wall Street Journal, Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE), chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and Thomas Grant, senior research fellow in international law at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, write that the EU must take over Kosovo.
  Against the background of ethnic violence in the province last spring, they say: “As the international community faces a decision on Kosovo’s status in mid-2005, consideration should be given to an option that would facilitate European integration of the entity while continuing guarantees of minority rights. The UN should next year hand over the governance of Kosovo to the EU under the authority of the UN trusteeship system. Establishing a Trust Territory of Kosovo under the administration of the EU would be a creative mechanism to bring good government to Kosovo today. At the same time, it would put Kosovo firmly on the path to eventually become part of the EU without immediately prejudging whether it ultimately will enter the union as a part of Serbia or as an independent state…. The EU should take over the civilian administration of Kosovo, while leaving NATO in charge of security in the province.”