Gaat de NAVO in oktober met NGO’s oefenen om Afrikaanse vluchtelingen tegen te houden?

Today NATO admits that only through military means you cannot create peace. In July 2015 the commander of the exercise, general Hans-Lothar Domröse emphasized that to create peace “and we know it by heart… it’s only possible with international organizations and big organizations like the Red Cross, humanitarian assistance, and the EU as a real powerbroker”. And because of that in new ways of NATO to fight its war the civilian institutions will have a key role. In a first version of the information about Trident Juncture published on the NATO website, NATO said “The aim of IO/NGO/GO participation in the exercise is to improve NATO’s ability to interact with essential civil actors”. The list of organisations that had been public in the past included the European Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and various UN agencies, and a list of NGO’s and state humanitarian agencies: “Save the Children, Assistência Médica Internacional Foundation (AMI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID – SPA) and World Vision (WV) were approved to participate in the White Cell of the exercise. African Union (AU) was approved to observe it.” (…) In fact, the great majority of Spanish military interventions took and are taking place on the continent, or in the Middle East. The principal themes of many of these missions are the “fight against jihadism”, the control of illegal migration and – less openly – the access to natural resources, either directly or via securing the transport routes of these resources (Red Sea and the Horn of Africa). But the State of Spain is also one spearhead due to its proximity to the continent, and because of its military and civilian infrastructure. For example, the port of Las Palmas on the Canary Islands did transform itself into “a strategic base for humanitarian aid” to Africa for organisations such as the Red Cross, the UN World Food Program and USAID. Two of these three agencies take part in the NATO exercise Trident Juncture 2015.

Andreas Speck in Spain as spearhead for military interventions in Africa (War resisters international)