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Fri, 16 jan 04
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NE-@latvia-usa.org
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Jan 16, 2004 10:35 PST
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NATO ENLARGEMENT DAILY BRIEF (NEDB)
Friday, 16 January 2004, 13:31 EDT
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* NATO'S SECGEN SAYS ALLIANCE TO STAY COMMITTED IN KOSOVO ?
AP / Garentina Kraja
* FRANCE SAYS NATO TROOP NUMBERS TO BE SLASHED IN BOSNIA,
KOSOVO - AFP
* 101 LATVIAN SOLDIERS HEAD TO IRAQ ? AFP
* POLAND TO START IRAQ TROOP PULL OUT in 2005 ? AFP
* FRANCE, GERMANY OFFER TO HELP IRAQ AFTER U.S. OPENS UP
CONTRACT BIDS ? AFP / Indalecio Alvarez
* FRANCE SAYS NO PLANS TO SEND TROOPS TO IRAQ YET ? Reuters
/ Mark John
* FRENCH DEFMIN, VISITING U.S., HOPES TO IMPROVE TIES ? WP
/ Keith B. Richburg
* SCHROEDER RULES OUT TROOPS IN IRAQ BUT OPEN TO
HUMANITARIAN MISSION ? AFP / Deborah Cole
* GERMAN SOCDEMS SAY PARTICIPATION IN NATO IRAQ MISSION
"PREMATURE" -
BBC Monitoring / Frankfurter Rundschau
* FRENCH OFFICIAL CRITICIZES U.S. IDEOLOGY ? AP / Barry
Schweid
* SPANISH REPORT FINGERS NATO OVER TURKISH PLANE CRASH ?
AFP
* FERRERO-WALDNER NO LONGER SUPPORTS AUSTRIA'S NATO
MEMBERSHIP - Austria Today
* NATO MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF POST-COLD WAR PARTNERSHIP
? AFP / Leon Bruneau
* EU ENVOY PLEDGES TO REMAIN FIRM BEHIND AFGHANISTAN'S
RECONSTRUCTION ? AFP
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NATO'S SECGEN SAYS ALLIANCE TO STAY COMMITTED IN KOSOVO
AP, 16 Jan 04, by Garentina Kraja
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - NATO's new
secretary-general pledged Friday that the alliance would
remain committed to the province where thousands of troops
were deployed to keep the peace after the 1999 war.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who assumed his post as NATO's top
official last week, traveled to Kosovo for a one-day visit
to alliance peacekeepers and local leaders. NATO has
provided security in Kosovo since the end of a 78-day
alliance air war launched to end former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians.
Initially, NATO deployed some 50,000 troops in Kosovo. But
the force has gradually decreased to 19,000 as tensions
eased.
Though NATO now faces post-Sept. 11 pressure to supply
peacekeepers elsewhere -- such as Afghanistan -- de Hoop
Scheffer said that "considerable changes in the structure"
were not expected in Kosovo.
"It might vary, but we will not see considerable changes
and not a considerable downsizing," he said.
Although in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO is
expected to hand over its mission to the European Union
later this year, de Hoop Scheffer suggested that alliance
has no plans to leave Kosovo, which remains ethnically
tense despite Western efforts to build coexistence between
the province's ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority.
The two communities remain deeply divided.
Tens of thousands of Serbs and other minorities fled Kosovo
after the war in fear of attacks by extremists seeking to
avenge the deaths of an estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians
killed during Milosevic's 1998-1999 crackdown.
Later, de Hoop Scheffer appealed to Kosovo's ethnic
communities to work together to build democracy and
tolerance. He also appealed for compromise in having
displaced people return home -- goals set by the United
Nations.
International officials here have said no decision can be
made on the province's final political status until those
conditions are met. They have set mid-2005 as the date
Kosovo's status will be reviewed.
"Let's not waste this year if we want 2005 to have any
meaning," he said.
NATO TROOP NUMBERS TO BE SLASHED IN BOSNIA, KOSOVO - FRANCE
AFP, 13 Jan 04
The number of NATO troops serving in Bosnia and Kosovo,
which are still recovering from bitter inter-ethnic
conflicts, is to be slashed by nearly half by November, a
senior French minister announced on Tuesday.
Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told parliamentarians
in the French lower house, the National Assembly, that the
figure would be reduced "from 30,500 troops today in all to
17,500 by November."
She said much progress had been made in the troubled
Balkans regions, and this was reflected notably by the
return of displaced people.
"But despite this, the situation is still delicate and
unstable in some places and especially in Kosovo," she
added.
"This is the reason the disengagement by the allies is
taking place gradually over the entire Balkans region," she
said, adding that the troop reduction in Bosnia and Kosovo
would be carried out in parallel in both places.
Bosnia was ripped apart in a brutal and chaotic three-year
war involving the Bosnian Croat, Serb and Muslim
communities in the early 1990s.
Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since 1999, when
a two-year war between separatists from the ethnic Albanian
majority and Serbian forces controlled by Belgrade was
ended by NATO intervention.
Alliot-Marie also said France would be taking over command
of the NATO operation in Kosovo in the second half of 2004
and that Paris would insist on partner countries
maintaining troop levels there.
"Following that we shall of course continue to work closely
with the United Nations High Representative so that
gradually, through elections and the setting in place of
institutions, this country can get back to normal," she
told French lawmakers.
She added that the programme of gradual withdrawal of NATO
troops would take account of the evolving situation in the
region.
101 LATVIAN SOLDIERS HEAD TO IRAQ
AFP, 13 Jan 04
Latvia sent 101 soldiers to Iraq on Tuesday to replace a
contingent serving in the Polish-led multinational force
there, an army spokesman said.
"101 Latvian soldiers went to the international
peacekeeping mission in Iraq, where they will replace those
who started serving in Iraq last summer," said Uldis
Davidovs, spokesman for the Latvian National Armed Forces.
The soldiers traveled to Poland by land and were to fly to
Iraq.
The Baltic state, on course to join the European Union and
NATO this year, currently has 123 soldiers in Iraq.
Latvia's parliament agreed in early December to prolong the
country's participation in Iraq until October 16, 2004.
Latvian troops rotate every six months.
POLAND TO START IRAQ TROOP PULL OUT NEXT YEAR - PRESIDENT.
AFP, 16 Jan 04
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said on Friday that
Warsaw would next year start to scale down its military
presence in Iraq, where it heads a 9,000-strong
multinational division.
"The overall military presence in Iraq will diminish in
2005 and the Polish contingent (some 2,400 soldiers) will
also be reduced," he told a news conference.
Kwasniewski said the situation in Iraq, and particularly
the prospects of contracts in the country for Polish
companies, would be the main topic of discussion when he
travels to Washington to meet US President George W. Bush
on January 26.
He said he would speak out in favour of a greater role for
NATO in Iraq "and we are going to discuss that with the
Americans."
Kwasniewski said a "propitious period" for Polish companies
was starting in Iraq, but complained that too few Polish
companies had so far been given reconstruction contracts
there.
He said he would also discuss with Bush the prospect of
compensatory investments in Poland which the United States
promised when Poland chose US Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter
jets in a contract valued 3.5 billion dollars (2.8 billion
euros) last April.
"It is time to review this investment programme in order to
make sure that goes as we planned," he said.
Kwasniewski said he would also raise with Bush the
contentious issue of US visa requirements for Poles, which
are becoming an increasing source of discord between the
two allies in Iraq.
"We will let them know of Poles's discontent at the US visa
regime, which is considered discriminatory in Poland, while
US citizens travel freely here," he said.
FRANCE, GERMANY OFFER TO HELP IRAQ AFTER U.S. OPENS UP
CONTRACT BIDS
AFP, 16 Jan 04, by Indalecio Alvarez.
France and Germany offered Friday to help bolster security
in Iraq, just days after the United States reversed its
decision to bar their firms from bidding on lucrative
reconstruction contracts.
In separate announcements, France said it could send a
mission to train Iraqi police, while Germany said it could
offer humanitarian aid.
Both missions however would take place only after a
transitional Iraqi government takes over from the US-backed
Governing Council on June 30.
"We are already working on the possibility of responding in
the area of security, in particular through the creation of
a school for gendarmes or by training police," Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin told journalists in Paris.
"We'll see what the Iraqi authorities are asking for in
terms of security" once sovereignty has been handed over in
June, de Villepin said.
"We will clarify our position once a government has been
formed in Iraq," he added.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that Berlin could
offer humanitarian aid involving the use of its military
planes, if it was asked by "an Iraqi, perhaps
provisional... government".
"We will make a decision when the issue comes up. In any
case, we stand by the position that we will not engage
militarily in Iraq," Schroeder said on ARD television.
"That of course does not mean that if aid for the wounded
is needed that we would not help."
If Germany was asked by the future Iraqi authority for aid,
"then we will not be able to refuse as long as it involves
offering transport of the wounded, such as victims of
terrorist attacks," Schroeder said, adding he expected a
final decision to be made by mid-2004.
Germany already said in October it would train an
unspecified number of Iraqi police officers as criminal
investigators. Interior Minister Otto Schily on Saturday is
to visit the United Arab Emirates to discuss that mission.
The announcements Friday were seen as an attempt by Germany
and France to shore up diplomatic ties with the United
States that were badly damaged by the rift over Iraq.
They follow on the heels of the US announcement on Tuesday
that France and other opponents of the Iraq war could bid
on four to five billion dollars worth of contracts to
rebuild the ravaged country.
President George W. Bush "said he wanted to recognize the
importance of contributions by Canada and others in Madrid,
and if France and others want to join our efforts in Iraq,
circumstances will change," US National Security Council
spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Relations between France and the United States have been
slow to recover from the bitter diplomatic feuding. But the
atmosphere has improved since France and Germany agreed in
December to help US efforts to restructure and reduce
Iraq's huge foreign debt.
After talks in Washington on Thursday with US Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, French Defense Minister Michele
Alliot-Marie said she believed there was a "real
willingness to turn the page on tensions between the United
States and France."
"I really had the impression that the situation had become
unfrozen and that there was a desire to resume normal
relations," said Alliot-Marie.
In Paris, de Villepin stressed that France was not offering
a military mission to Iraq, saying that the idea of
deploying troops was "not currently on the table."
But the French daily Le Monde quoted an unnamed aide to
French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday saying Paris
was mulling sending a military contingent to Iraq to serve
in a UN-mandated multinational force, but only after a
transfer of sovereignty.
According to a November 15 agreement between the United
States and the Iraqi Governing Council, a transitional
assembly selected by regional caucuses is to name a
provisional Iraqi government by the end of June.
FRANCE SAYS NO PLANS TO SEND TROOPS TO IRAQ YET
Reuters, 16 Jan 04, by Mark John
PARIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) - France said on Friday it was too
early to discuss boosting NATO's role in Iraq but, in a
sign of warming relations with Washington, left the door
open to sending troops there once a sovereign government is
established.
The comments by Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin
followed signals from Berlin that Germany - with France a
leading opponent of the U.S.-led invasion last year - would
not oppose a more robust role for the alliance in Iraq.
"This is not an issue at the moment," Villepin said, asked
by reporters whether France could back a NATO presence in
Iraq.
Villepin said France had no plans now to send troops to
Iraq but added: "We shall have the opportunity to look in
detail at this when a government has been formed in
Iraq...We shall see what their demands are as far as
security is concerned."
At present, NATO provides behind-the-scenes support to a
23-nation division of troops led by Poland in a swathe of
south-central Iraq, and 18 of the 26 current and future
members of the alliance have a military presence in the
country.
Diplomats said that although U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell urged his NATO counterparts last month to consider
taking the alliance into Iraq, the issue was not formally
on the table.
Any decision on an enhanced role for NATO is expected at a
summit in Istanbul at the end of June, when the United
States envisages handing over power to a provisional Iraqi
government.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said this week Germany could
help in Iraq after power has been handed back to Iraqis,
for example by offering army aircraft for medical
evacuations.
Berlin is now not expected to stand in the way of a
decision at the Istanbul summit for NATO to assume more
responsibility in Iraq, leaving France as the main
potential spoiler.
Paris says its position on Iraq is unchanged. President
Jacques Chirac said last September he did not see any
specific situation in which France would send troops but
did not rule it out categorically.
However, French officials acknowledge that contacts between
Paris and Washington are improving following the row over
the Iraq war. Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie met her
U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld in Washington on Thursday.
U.S. officials said this week Washington could reverse its
policy and let French firms bid for prime contracts on some
$18.6 billion in reconstruction projects for Iraq, with new
tenders expected in the coming weeks.
For their part, France and Germany have pledged substantial
debt relief to Iraq once sovereignty is restored. Paris has
also suggested it could help in police training in Iraq and
offer advice in the drafting of a new constitution.
FRENCH DEFENSE MINISTER, VISITING U.S., HOPES TO IMPROVE
TIES
Washington Post, 16 Jan 04, by Keith B. Richburg
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who arrived
in Washington Thursday on a mission to mend France's
tattered military relations with the United States, said
before her departure that the two countries have
wide-ranging cooperation and should not "let the trees hide
the forest."
"It's true that we had a disagreement with the United
States over Iraq," she said in written answers to questions
submitted by The Washington Post. Referring to the
invasion, she said: "We sincerely thought that it was not
the best way. But that represents such a tiny part of our
overall relationship. It is really a pity that it caused
some people to overlook the important military actions we
conduct side-by-side to fight such blights as terrorism or
drug-trafficking, to restore peace or reinforce stability."
She noted that French troops continue to operate alongside
Americans in Afghanistan and in the Balkans, and that the
two countries' navies operate together securing sea lanes
in the Indian Ocean.
She met in Washington with Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
There was no immediate sign whether the minister's visit
was accomplishing the goal of better relations that France
has been signaling it wants. But her visit comes as U.S.
officials are saying they are moving toward lifting
limitations on reconstruction work in Iraq by companies
from France and other countries that opposed the war.
In Paris, there is widespread speculation that France might
send troops to Iraq this year, most likely through NATO and
under U.N. auspices, once a transitional government is in
place in July, as is currently scheduled. The minister said
France is open to NATO taking a role there.
Alliot-Marie said France is not yet ready to consider
reentering NATO's military command structure, from which it
withdrew in 1966 in a gesture of independence. Analysts in
Paris have speculated that France would renew those ties,
which would bring it closer militarily to the United
States, NATO's dominant member. "Right now, it's not our
highest priority," she said.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, the
United States disinvited French military officials to a
conference of air chiefs in Washington last September, and
limited U.S. participation at last summer's Paris Air Show.
Rumsfeld was widely reported to have been particularly
incensed at President Jacques Chirac's concerted opposition
to the Iraq campaign.
While the State Department has signaled its intention to
move beyond the Iraq dispute, Pentagon officials have
remained cool. France was included on the Pentagon's list
of countries whose companies would be denied rights to be
prime contractors on the rebuilding work because of the
country's opposition to the war.
Defense analysts in Paris saw the publicizing of that list
as vindictive; all that was needed, they said, was for
France to fail to win any bids, and publicizing a
"blacklist" was not necessary and seemed antagonistic.
But France has been sending conciliatory signals. Chirac
was quick to agree with President Bush's envoy, former
secretary of state James A. Baker III, that Iraqi debt
should be forgiven. He has invited Bush to attend this
summer's 60th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day
landings at Normandy, which would provide a photo of the
two presidents standing side-by-side.
Over the Christmas holidays, France quickly agreed when the
United States asked it to cancel several Air France flights
because of terrorism concerns. While other countries
criticized the United States for overreacting and not
sharing information with allies, the French called for calm
and said they understood U.S. concerns.
Alliot-Marie has close connections to Chirac. Before her
appointment as minister in 2002, she was head of the
president's Rally for the Republic political party.
Among other issues, she said she hopes to convince the Bush
administration that Europe's plans to establish its own
defense force -- which received the final go-ahead at a
summit in Brussels last month -- should not be seen as an
attempt to undercut NATO and the U.S. role in European
defense, but rather as a supplement.
The Pentagon has been cool to Europe's military ambitions,
seeing a separate defense force as, at best, duplicative of
NATO and, at worst, a French attempt to diminish the
Atlantic alliance.
"Our ambition has nothing to do with rivalry with the
United States," Alliot-Marie said in her written answers.
"We want to do our part to keep the peace in our multipolar
world, to assume the responsibility for Alliance operations
or when NATO does not want to get involved."
She cited examples of Europeans acting independently in
Bosnia, where the European Union is set to take over
operations from NATO, and in Congo. She added: "Where in
that is there a rivalry with the Alliance or the United
States? I sincerely don't see one."
SCHROEDER RULES OUT TROOPS IN IRAQ BUT OPEN TO HUMANITARIAN
MISSION.
AFP, 16 Jan 04, by Deborah Cole
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder softened Germany's refusal to
offer its assistance in Iraq Friday, opening the door to a
"humanitarian" engagement using military planes to evacuate
the wounded.
"We will make a decision when the issue comes up. In any
case, we stand by the position that we will not engage
militarily in Iraq," Schroeder said Friday on ARD
television.
"That of course does not mean that if aid for the wounded
is needed that we would not help."
The daily Die Welt reported this week that Schroeder had
told lawmakers he was ready to provide medical evacuation
planes from the Bundeswehr armed forces to Iraq.
Asked about the article, Schroeder told reporters Wednesday
evening that Germany had "no intention of changing our
policy in Iraq."
But he added: "We now intend to give humanitarian aid,
above all to those who are injured."
Schroeder said in the ARD interview that a final decision
on any assistance in Iraq would require the request of "an
Iraqi, perhaps provisional... government".
If such an authority asked Germany for aid "then we will
not be able to refuse as long as it involves offering
transport of the wounded, such as victims of terrorist
attacks," Schroeder said, adding he expected a final
decision to be made by mid-2004.
Defense Minister Peter Struck confirmed Germany could
provide "helicopters and planes to provide aid" if asked by
an interim Iraqi government.
"And if we were asked to fly out wounded Iraqis or wounded
soldiers from Baghdad to Germany, we would of course do
that," he said.
The provisional Iraqi Governing Council and the US-led
coalition in Iraq agreed in November to transfer power to
an interim Iraqi government through a transitional assembly
by June 30.
A decision about possible NATO operation in Iraq is not
expected before the summer.
Germany was one of the fiercest opponents of the US-led
invasion of Iraq and has repeatedly ruled out sending
troops to help stabilize the country.
Schroeder's new openness to lending a hand in Iraq follows
two further steps welcomed by the US government, which had
been angered by Berlin's strident condemnation of the war.
The first was a Franco-German decision in December calling
for a substantial reduction of Iraq's crippling debt burden
with the Paris Club of creditor nations in 2004.
Berlin and Paris made the offer during a visit by White
House envoy James Baker, who was on a tour of European
countries to encourage the cancellation of part of
Baghdad's total foreign debt of around 120 billion dollars.
In addition, Berlin has offered to supply German officers
to train Iraqi police as criminal investigators in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A government spokesman said Interior Minister Otto Schily
would travel to the UAE Saturday for a five-day mission to
discuss the logistics of such training.
Meanwhile France, an ally in opposing the Iraq war,
announced Friday it was willing to consider a possible role
in bolstering security in Iraq once sovereignty has been
fully handed over to the Iraqi people.
GERMAN PARTICIPATION IN NATO IRAQ MISSION "PREMATURE" -
SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
BBC Monitoring / Frankfurter Rundschau, 16 Jan 04
Excerpt from a report by German newspaper Frankfurter
Rundschau web site on 16 January:
Leading SPD [Social Democratic Party of Germany]
politicians have rejected CDU considerations on the
deployment of German staff officers in the event of a NATO
mission in Iraq as premature. Tens of thousands
demonstrated in Iraq, demanding early general elections.
Berlin, 15 January - If a NATO headquarters were to be
established in Iraq, "then German officers would certainly
take part," Volker Ruehe (CDU), chairman of the Bundestag
Foreign Affairs Committee, said on ARD television on
Thursday [15 January]. We could reach an agreement on such
a mission within the CDU/CSU [Christian Democratic Union /
Christian Social Union], he said.
From SPD circles, it was reported that people regard
Ruehe's emphasis on this topic as a manoeuvre to cause
problems for the red-green [SPD - Alliance 90/The Greens]
government. We will face this question "in the fall at the
earliest," when it becomes clear "whether and on what basis
NATO is making a commitment in Iraq," it was reported from
government circles. SPD politician Gernot Erler spoke about
a "somewhat premature discussion."
However, apparently, the core of the debate is rather
tricky: in the event that NATO were to lead an Iraq mission
from Brussels, the participation of German officers in
command staffs would cause no legal problems. This would be
regarded as an Alliance obligation, and not as a foreign
operation that requires a [Bundestag] mandate. However, if
NATO - which is to be expected for an Iraq mission - were
to establish a headquarters in Baghdad, the participation
of German soldiers would be subject to Bundestag approval,
which would run counter to the line that the red-green
government has adopted so far. According to information
from the SPD Bundestag Group, people have not been prepared
so far to advocate such a "staff action."
The opposition is also criticizing [German Chancellor]
Schroeder's announced possible deployment of Medevac
aircraft [airborne hospitals]. After CDU foreign policy
expert Friedbert Pflueger had welcomed the chancellor's
step, CDU/CSU defence policy expert Christian Schmidt
accused Schroeder of "discrediting" Defence Minister Peter
Struck (SPD): military protection would be needed for the
German medical team in Iraq - which runs counter to the
government's policy of not sending any ground forces, he
said.
Meanwhile, the planned training of Iraqi policemen by
German experts has begun to taken shape. Interior Minister
Otto Schily (SPD) is soon to fly to the United Arab
Emirates to discuss the details, it was reported from
government circles. France and Japan also intend to take
part in this initiative, it was reported. [passage omitted]
Source: Frankfurter Rundschau web site, Frankfurt/Main, in
German 16 Jan 04
FRENCH OFFICIAL CRITICIZES U.S. IDEOLOGY
AP, 16 Jan 04, by Barry Schweid
WASHINGTON - France's defense minister criticized "certain
radical neo-conservative ideas" in the United States as
harmful to U.S. relations with Europe.
While France remains a major partner of the United States,
Minister Michele Alliot-Marie singled out on Friday what
she called American aspirations for economic supremacy as
well as assertions of cultural and political supremacy.
The French official did not identify whom she held
responsible for asserting such views. "It is essential we
recognize others' positions" as part of a trans-Atlantic
discourse, she said.
In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, a private research group, Alliot-Marie emphasized
that Europeans had "a different sensibility" from the
United States toward the Arab-Muslim world.
Outlining the views of France, she said while terrorism is
a great threat, its causes must be addressed, which she
identified as "the sense of frustration in the face of
injustice and poverty."
"The humiliation is exploited by fanatics," Alliot-Marie
said, while urging "let us work together to eradicate blind
violence, but also its roots."
France is neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel, the defense
minister said, while implicitly holding Israel accountable.
"We should be listening more to the Arab-Muslim world," she
said.
"The sense of injustice and humiliation is really very
widespread," she said.
Overall, Alliot-Marie's message was one of working together
with the United States on international security.
"It is something of a paradox that France should sometimes
be stigmatized in Washington as a strategic adversary of
the United States," the minister said.
"To listen to some quarters, France is supposed to be
trying to develop a counterweight to the United States,
especially through European integration," she said.
"Nothing strikes me as being further from reality."
France and the Bush administration have been at odds over
the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which France tried to block at
the United Nations with calls for more weapons searches in
preference to going to war.
But France has cooperated with the United States in
promoting economic recovery in Afghanistan. "Faced with the
difficulties the U.S. is encountering in certain parts of
the world, it needs the support of its European allies,"
she said.
On Thursday, in Paris, the French defense minister said
France, Germany and Japan could work together closely to
train Iraq's police and soldiers once Iraqis have control
of their government.
SPANISH REPORT FINGERS NATO OVER TURKISH PLANE CRASH
AFP, 16 Jan 04
A report commissioned by Spain's defence ministry into a
military air crash which killed 62 Spanish soldiers last
May has placed some responsibility on NATO, whose leasing
agency hired the aircraft, El Pais daily reported on
Friday.
The Spanish government confirmed the existence of the
report but a spokesman said it did not pin reponsibility
for the May 26 crash on anyone.
Government spokesman Eduardo Zaplana told a government
briefing that the internal report "is not devoted to
(establishing) the causes of the accident but is an
analysis of the process of adjudication" of military
transport leasing contracts.
Seventy five people in all, including the crew, died when a
Ukrainian-operated Yak-42 jet transport chartered by NATO
to take them home from Afghanistan crashed in fog near
Trabzon on the Black Sea.
The incident sparked fury in Spain and there was further
public anger last month when Spain's governing Popular
Party (PP) voted down a Socialist opposition motion to pay
state pensions to the partners of four of the victims.
The Socialists had hoped to annul a defence ministry ruling
from July that the four women in question were "not the
legitimate spouses" of their partners despite being
longstanding common law partners.
According to El Pais, the report establishes that Spanish
military officials made 14 complaints about 43 flights -
though some merely concerned delays - involving former
Soviet bloc aircraft leased by NATO and its internal
leasing agency NAMSA.
The report underlines the responsibility of NATO and NAMSA
to ensure there is "scrupulous respect" of surveillance
rules before a leasing contract is entered into.
Families of the victims have accused Spanish authorities of
failing to take due precautions in the belief there were
irregularities in the chartering procedure.
They have also accused Defence Minister Federico Trillo of
putting the lives of Spanish troops in danger by hiring
what they see as substandard aircraft and are taking legal
action.
FERRERO-WALDNER NO LONGER SUPPORTS AUSTRIA'S NATO
MEMBERSHIP;
THE FOREIGN MINISTER AND ÖVP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IS
CLAIMING THAT AUSTRIA?S SECURITY SITUATION HAS CHANGED,
GIVING PRIDE OF PLACE TO EU SECURITY AND DEFENSE POLICY
Austria Today, 16 Jan 04
Amid growing indications that the SPÖ intends to make
Austrian neutrality an issue in the presidential election
campaign, Foreign Minister and ÖVP presidential candidate
Benita Ferrero-Waldner has changed her line on Austrian
membership of NATO.
Ferrero-Waldner says in an interview in "Kurier" that she
no longer supports Austrian NATO membership. The Austrian
security situation has changed, she claims, and Austria has
not needed such membership since 2002. "Today, we have for
the first time a genuine perspective for a European
security and defense policy. I therefore no longer believe
that we should become a member of NATO."
On neutrality, the foreign minister says in an interview in
"Kronen Zeitung" that "Austria has benefited from
neutrality. Departure from it is not in question." In the
"Kurier" interview, she notes that a change in neutrality
would require a two-thirds majority of parliament and that
she would support a national referendum on the question
even though one would not be legally required.
Ferrero-Waldner also calls in the "Kurier" interview for a
pact with SPÖ presidential candidate Heinz Fischer
providing for "a fair election campaign." As for its cost,
she asserts that her party will provide financial support.
As for what she will do if she loses, Ferrero-Waldner is
quoted in "Kleine Zeitung" as saying that she will cross
that bridge if she comes to it. In "Kronen Zeitung," she
adds that she is "too young to retire. I have worked hard
my whole life."
NATO MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF POST-COLD WAR PARTNERSHIP
AFP, 8 Jan 04, by Leon Bruneau.
NATO on Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of its
Partnership for Peace programme, which was designed to
foster relations with the ex-Soviet bloc but is now turning
its sights to Central Asia as part of the US-led war on
terrorism.
"You have Kazakhs in Iraq serving under Poles. That would
have been unbelievable without PFP," a senior official with
the transatlantic military alliance told AFP on condition
of anonymity.
One of the biggest successes of the PFP programme had been
to get non-NATO countries in shape for joint military
operations, the official said, "and it has also inspired
many countries and supported very significant reform of
defence institutions and concepts".
"Building democratic and responsible defence institutions,
that's really the challenge. The farther we move from
eastern Europe, the more we need institution building," he
added.
Created out of the ashes of the Cold War at a North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit on January 10, 1994,
PFP now embraces 27 countries - largely from eastern Europe
but also Switzerland, Caucasus nations and the five
ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia.
In 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined the
Atlantic alliance proper to take it to 19 countries, and
next year another seven eastern European countries are due
to become members.
In one of the programme's most notable achievements,
several non-NATO countries have contributed troops to a
NATO peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.
But its value as a symbolic bridge over the old divides of
the Cold War is also highly significant, a point
underscored by George Robertson when he gave his farewell
speech as NATO secretary-general last month.
He called the PFP one of NATO's "gold-dust assets" and "one
of the best investments ever for a future safer world", as
the alliance evolves from its old role as defender of the
West.
For the United States, Central Asia has emerged as one of
the key fronts of the war on terrorism launched after the
September 11, 2001 attacks. This year, NATO launched its
first operation outside Europe by taking over peacekeeping
in Afghanistan.
That front, encompassing the five "Stans" once part of the
Soviet empire - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - looks set to be reinforced at
a NATO summit in Turkey in June.
"The US is pushing for Istanbul that we agree on a major
new outreach to Central Asia," a high-ranking NATO diplomat
said.
But another NATO official said the alliance was less likely
to launch concrete new initiatives at Istanbul than to give
the PFP "more prominence and political visibility" in
Central Asia.
The summit will be dominated by the entry into NATO of
seven new members - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Their entry will leave "two holes on the map of Europe",
Bosnia and Serbia-Montenegro, the official said.
NATO would be happy to welcome the pair into PFP "but
whether they will meet these conditions is not entirely
clear", he said. "We will not bargain these conditions. The
ball is in their court."
EU ENVOY PLEDGES TO REMAIN FIRM BEHIND AFGHANISTAN'S
RECONSTRUCTION.
AFP, 14 Jan 04
An international meeting to discuss assisting Afghanistan
in its reconstruction was likely to take place soon,
European Union envoy Javier Solana said Wednesday during a
one-day official visit to the country to pledge on-going
European support.
Solana, who had a full day of meetings with top Afghan and
military officials in Kabul, said the EU was very engaged
in Afghanistan and would continue to be so as the country
entered a new phase following the adoption of a
constitution which ushers in democratic reforms.
"I think that people are coming to the conclusion.... that
what is needed now in a rather short period of time.... is
a meeting of an international nature where questions
pertaining to security, questions pertaining to
reconstruction and some analysis of how to get the added
value out of this situation" are addressed, he said.
The EU is the second-largest donor to Afghanistan after the
US, giving some 250 million Euros to the country in 2003.
This amount does not include the military expenditure of
the European countries which have troops here, including
France, Germany and Italy.
"We will continue to be engaged in the process of
reconstruction," Solana said.
Solana, who congratulated Afghanistan on its January 4
adoption of a new constitution, said he was pleased with
the implementation of the Bonn accords, agreed to as a
framework for rebuilding Afghanistan following the late
2001 ousting of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.
The EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and
Security Policy said he had a "very good exchange of views"
with President Hamid Karzai during a lunch at which they
discussed the upcoming Afghan elections.
The elections have been a source of some international
disquiet due to the slow registration of voters - with just
over three percent of the 10 million people eligible
registered at the last count.
Furthermore, spiralling violence in the south and southeast
of the country could prevent people from participating in
polls.
Solana said he favoured presidential and parliamentary
elections being held at the same time and that he was
confident they could go ahead as scheduled for the summer.
"I think with goodwill and a little bit of pressure the
elections will be able to take place, to be organised in
time. In time that means before the end of July," he said.
Increased support from NATO, which now oversees the
peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force in
Afghanistan, was also likely, Solana said.
"It is my conviction that it will be an increase, and it
will be an increase that will allow them to take
responsibility for the control of more PRTs," he said in
reference to the civil-military Provincial Reconstruction
Teams now operating around the country to build
infrastructure and enhance security.
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