Review of European Security Issues -- A Look Ahead For 2006
US State Dept.: U.S.-NATO agenda; Envoy named for Kosovo talks; Montenegro independence referendum; Bosnian war death toll officially under 100,000; Mladic's ties with Serb military; U.S. troop cuts in Europe; NATO summit in November 2006; European Union forces in Gaza
Following are some recent U.S. government policy pronouncements, hearings and reports on security issues in Europe and Eurasia, as well as announcements by international organizations and nongovernmental organizations. In addition, this end-of-year report looks ahead to some significant events expected to take place in 2006.
For additional coverage of the topics listed below and related issues, see Europe and Eurasia.
UNITED STATES WANTS NATO TO EXTEND ITS GLOBAL REACH IN 2006
A senior State Department official says the U.S. agenda for the trans-Atlantic relationship in 2006 is to broaden NATO’s mandate and extend its global reach; to advance democracy in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia; and to cooperate with Europe in every region of the world through political, economic and security partnerships. R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, outlined U.S. goals for a European Institute audience December 15 in Washington. The State Department released his remarks December 27.
Burns characterized 2005 as the year Europe and the United States stopped the trans-Atlantic war of words, rediscovered each other and got back to work on the world’s problems, having recognized they are “wed together in a long-term marriage with no possibility of separation or divorce.” He cited a long list of U.S.-European achievements in 2005, ranging from Lebanon and Syria, where the United States and France led the way to “unprecedented and constructive U.N. action,” to Belarus, where the alliance is “delivering a united message for freedom against Europe’s last dictator.” (See related article.)
RICE NAMES U.S. ENVOY TO KOSOVO STATUS TALKS
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has named retired senior diplomat and corporate executive Frank Wisner to be the U.S. special envoy to the Kosovo final-status talks, set to begin in earnest in January 2006. Wisner is vice chairman of American International Group and is a former U.S. ambassador to India, the Philippines, Egypt and Zambia. He also has served as under secretary of state for international security affairs and under secretary of defense for policy.
Rice made the announcement December 19 after a meeting with former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N. special envoy for the Kosovo status talks.
On October 24, the U.N. Security Council endorsed the start of final-status talks for Kosovo. Secretary-General Kofi Annan posed two possible outcomes: independence for Kosovo, or some form of autonomy while formally remaining a part of Serbia. (See related article.)
MONTENEGRO MIGHT HOLD REFERENDUM FOR INDEPENCE FROM SERBIA
Serbia and Montenegro are the only two republics that kept an alliance when the six members of the Yugoslav federation broke apart in violent turmoil during the 1990s. However, the government of Montenegro is increasingly interested in holding an independence referendum in the spring of 2006. Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has called for a referendum between February and the end of April 2006, the Associated Press reported December 29.
In November, Under Secretary Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “the United States will support whatever solution the two republics agree on through democratic means, whether that is union or independence.” (See related article.)
The European Union is concerned that Kosovo status talks and a Montenegro referendum could create three countries out of present-day Serbia and Montenegro: Montenegro (population 650,000), Kosovo (population 2 million), and Serbia (population 7.5 million).
BOSNIA WAR OFFICIAL DEATH TOLL BELOW 100,000
The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) was Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, but newly released official statistics show that fewer people died than were previously reported. The BiH Research and Documentation Center has identified 94,000 people -- civilians and soldiers – who lost their lives in the war, the Defense Department’s Southeast European Times reported December 19.
The researchers presented their findings at a conference in Banja Luka, Bosnia, on December 16. Mirsad Tokac, the chief of the research center, specified that the figure refers to the number of victims whose identity is known, while the actual death toll probably exceeds 100,000. As recently as November, U.S. officials marking the 10th anniversary of the end of the war said the death toll ranged between 200,000 and 300,000 – a range that has been widely cited by government officials and media accounts for a decade. In 2005, the population of Bosnia was 4 million. (See related article.)
SERB OFFICIAL SAYS ARMY DID NOT HUNT MLADIC
Serbia-Montenegro’s defense minister, Zoran Stankovic, acknowledged December 28 that the country’s military has not obeyed orders to hunt down Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, according to local news reports.
Belgrade-based B92 Radio also reported that the Serbia-Montenegro army continued to pay a pension to Mladic until November, when the account was finally frozen. The funds were not withdrawn by Mladic himself, but by family members and two military officers, the station said.
Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The State Department’s Burns said in November that Serb authorities acknowledge Mladic was allowed to live on a military compound near Belgrade for eight years following the end of the Bosnian war.
“There is no country in NATO or the EU that would allow an indicted war criminal to roam at large in a territory of that state,” said Burns in a November 8 news conference. “And in fact, Mladic has been at large for ten years and for eight of those years was protected fully by the Serb state, by the Serb military, by their own admission.” (See related article.)
U.S. TROOP CUTS UNDER WAY IN EUROPE
About 6,000 U.S. soldiers and 12,000 family members and American civilian employees are scheduled to depart Germany in 2006 for installations within the United States. This is the first phase of a multiyear plan announced by President Bush in August 2004 to bring home as many as 70,000 American service members stationed in Europe and Asia.
The U.S. European Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, plans to trim its military presence from 112,000 troops to about 68,500 over the next several years. Those forces remaining in Europe will focus on being able swiftly to deploy to temporary locations in the Balkans and southeast Europe, Eurasia and Africa. (For background, see the U.S. Army in Europe and U.S. European Command Web sites.)
2006 NATO SUMMIT IN LATVIA WILL FOCUS ON FORCE STRUCTURE
With European troops playing an ever-growing role in regional crises – from Pakistan earthquake relief to supporting the African Union in Sudan’s Darfur region – NATO heads of state plan to meet in Riga, Latvia, in November 2006 to discuss improving the alliance’s military abilities.“If we want to continue to effectively carry out the military tasks that all allies agree we should undertake, then we need the right forces to do so,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said December 19 in Ankara, Turkey. “What we need, in particular, are forces that can react quickly, that can be deployed over long distances, and sustained over extended periods of time. And we need the right mix of forces capable of performing both combat tasks and post-conflict stabilization work. … The next NATO Summit to be held in Riga in November 2006 will serve as a focal point for those efforts.” (See related article.)
EU'S SOLANA SAYS 1,000 PEOPLE A DAY USE GAZA BORDER CROSSING
A senior European diplomat says more than 1,000 people a day are now traveling between Egypt and the Palestinian Territories using the border crossing negotiated in November by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (See related article.)
Since the Rafah crossing opened November 26, “more than 20,000 people have been able to cross the border between Gaza and Egypt,” the European Union’s (EU) Javier Solana said on a December 18 visit to Gaza.
Solana is the EU’s senior representative for security and foreign policy. “That is now more than 1,000 a day in both directions,” Solana, a former NATO secretary-general, told reporters. The EU is deploying approximately 70 personnel to monitor the new “Philadelphia Road” crossing into Egypt. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for border control and customs. (See related article.)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Following are some recent U.S. government policy pronouncements, hearings and reports on security issues in Europe and Eurasia, as well as announcements by international organizations and nongovernmental organizations. In addition, this end-of-year report looks ahead to some significant events expected to take place in 2006.
For additional coverage of the topics listed below and related issues, see Europe and Eurasia.
UNITED STATES WANTS NATO TO EXTEND ITS GLOBAL REACH IN 2006
A senior State Department official says the U.S. agenda for the trans-Atlantic relationship in 2006 is to broaden NATO’s mandate and extend its global reach; to advance democracy in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia; and to cooperate with Europe in every region of the world through political, economic and security partnerships. R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, outlined U.S. goals for a European Institute audience December 15 in Washington. The State Department released his remarks December 27.
Burns characterized 2005 as the year Europe and the United States stopped the trans-Atlantic war of words, rediscovered each other and got back to work on the world’s problems, having recognized they are “wed together in a long-term marriage with no possibility of separation or divorce.” He cited a long list of U.S.-European achievements in 2005, ranging from Lebanon and Syria, where the United States and France led the way to “unprecedented and constructive U.N. action,” to Belarus, where the alliance is “delivering a united message for freedom against Europe’s last dictator.” (See related article.)
RICE NAMES U.S. ENVOY TO KOSOVO STATUS TALKS
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has named retired senior diplomat and corporate executive Frank Wisner to be the U.S. special envoy to the Kosovo final-status talks, set to begin in earnest in January 2006. Wisner is vice chairman of American International Group and is a former U.S. ambassador to India, the Philippines, Egypt and Zambia. He also has served as under secretary of state for international security affairs and under secretary of defense for policy.
Rice made the announcement December 19 after a meeting with former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N. special envoy for the Kosovo status talks.
On October 24, the U.N. Security Council endorsed the start of final-status talks for Kosovo. Secretary-General Kofi Annan posed two possible outcomes: independence for Kosovo, or some form of autonomy while formally remaining a part of Serbia. (See related article.)
MONTENEGRO MIGHT HOLD REFERENDUM FOR INDEPENCE FROM SERBIA
Serbia and Montenegro are the only two republics that kept an alliance when the six members of the Yugoslav federation broke apart in violent turmoil during the 1990s. However, the government of Montenegro is increasingly interested in holding an independence referendum in the spring of 2006. Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has called for a referendum between February and the end of April 2006, the Associated Press reported December 29.
In November, Under Secretary Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “the United States will support whatever solution the two republics agree on through democratic means, whether that is union or independence.” (See related article.)
The European Union is concerned that Kosovo status talks and a Montenegro referendum could create three countries out of present-day Serbia and Montenegro: Montenegro (population 650,000), Kosovo (population 2 million), and Serbia (population 7.5 million).
BOSNIA WAR OFFICIAL DEATH TOLL BELOW 100,000
The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) was Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, but newly released official statistics show that fewer people died than were previously reported. The BiH Research and Documentation Center has identified 94,000 people -- civilians and soldiers – who lost their lives in the war, the Defense Department’s Southeast European Times reported December 19.
The researchers presented their findings at a conference in Banja Luka, Bosnia, on December 16. Mirsad Tokac, the chief of the research center, specified that the figure refers to the number of victims whose identity is known, while the actual death toll probably exceeds 100,000. As recently as November, U.S. officials marking the 10th anniversary of the end of the war said the death toll ranged between 200,000 and 300,000 – a range that has been widely cited by government officials and media accounts for a decade. In 2005, the population of Bosnia was 4 million. (See related article.)
SERB OFFICIAL SAYS ARMY DID NOT HUNT MLADIC
Serbia-Montenegro’s defense minister, Zoran Stankovic, acknowledged December 28 that the country’s military has not obeyed orders to hunt down Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, according to local news reports.
Belgrade-based B92 Radio also reported that the Serbia-Montenegro army continued to pay a pension to Mladic until November, when the account was finally frozen. The funds were not withdrawn by Mladic himself, but by family members and two military officers, the station said.
Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The State Department’s Burns said in November that Serb authorities acknowledge Mladic was allowed to live on a military compound near Belgrade for eight years following the end of the Bosnian war.
“There is no country in NATO or the EU that would allow an indicted war criminal to roam at large in a territory of that state,” said Burns in a November 8 news conference. “And in fact, Mladic has been at large for ten years and for eight of those years was protected fully by the Serb state, by the Serb military, by their own admission.” (See related article.)
U.S. TROOP CUTS UNDER WAY IN EUROPE
About 6,000 U.S. soldiers and 12,000 family members and American civilian employees are scheduled to depart Germany in 2006 for installations within the United States. This is the first phase of a multiyear plan announced by President Bush in August 2004 to bring home as many as 70,000 American service members stationed in Europe and Asia.
The U.S. European Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, plans to trim its military presence from 112,000 troops to about 68,500 over the next several years. Those forces remaining in Europe will focus on being able swiftly to deploy to temporary locations in the Balkans and southeast Europe, Eurasia and Africa. (For background, see the U.S. Army in Europe and U.S. European Command Web sites.)
2006 NATO SUMMIT IN LATVIA WILL FOCUS ON FORCE STRUCTURE
With European troops playing an ever-growing role in regional crises – from Pakistan earthquake relief to supporting the African Union in Sudan’s Darfur region – NATO heads of state plan to meet in Riga, Latvia, in November 2006 to discuss improving the alliance’s military abilities.“If we want to continue to effectively carry out the military tasks that all allies agree we should undertake, then we need the right forces to do so,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said December 19 in Ankara, Turkey. “What we need, in particular, are forces that can react quickly, that can be deployed over long distances, and sustained over extended periods of time. And we need the right mix of forces capable of performing both combat tasks and post-conflict stabilization work. … The next NATO Summit to be held in Riga in November 2006 will serve as a focal point for those efforts.” (See related article.)
EU'S SOLANA SAYS 1,000 PEOPLE A DAY USE GAZA BORDER CROSSING
A senior European diplomat says more than 1,000 people a day are now traveling between Egypt and the Palestinian Territories using the border crossing negotiated in November by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (See related article.)
Since the Rafah crossing opened November 26, “more than 20,000 people have been able to cross the border between Gaza and Egypt,” the European Union’s (EU) Javier Solana said on a December 18 visit to Gaza.
Solana is the EU’s senior representative for security and foreign policy. “That is now more than 1,000 a day in both directions,” Solana, a former NATO secretary-general, told reporters. The EU is deploying approximately 70 personnel to monitor the new “Philadelphia Road” crossing into Egypt. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for border control and customs. (See related article.)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
posted by Marko at 1/01/2006 09:15:00 AM
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