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NATO, Avoiding Confrontation, Creates Danger says Ambassador
SARAJEVO, Bosnia, May 27, (AP) - Indicted war criminals remain free and in power. Bosnian Serb mobs repel visiting war refugees, even stoning foreign troops to drive them away. Despite the “robust” response allowed under their rules of engagement, NATO forces in Bosnia generally are avoiding confrontation instead of implementing the Dayton agreement. Unlike some other members of the Bosnian peace force, Americans have not allowed themselves to be pushed around while escorting returning Muslim refugees.
But that’s as far as the force goes, and that’s not enough for some influential locals, who blame political considerations back home — particularly in an election year — in the United States, the largest contributor to the peace implementation force. “Force has become such a low priority that it’s been perceived to be unrealistic as an option, and that’s dangerous,” said Muhamed Sacirbey, the Bosnian ambassador to the United Nations. “The key issue for American politicians is body bags with Americans.”
NATO spokesmen say military and political factors determine the peacekeepers’ reaction to each situation. An aggressive stance, such as hunting down popular Bosnian Serb leaders accused of war crimes, could inspire further Serb resistance to the NATO-led force’s presence and the Dayton accord. “A factor which clearly has to be considered on all these occasions is the effect that it may have on the peace agreement as a whole,” British Maj. Simon Haselock said Monday.
Almost halfway through their yearlong mission, more than 50,000 NATO troops commanded by U.S. Admiral Leighton Smith have achieved significant goals such as separating warring armies and repairing previously impassable roads and bridges. But other provisions of Dayton, the complex military-political plan for ending the war, are unfulfilled.
One example is freedom of movement, which would allow hundreds of thousands of refugees to return to areas they inhabited before the war, often now controlled by the enemy. Some areas have opened up considerably. But fear prevents many people from testing the goodwill of rival ethnic groups. In particular, some Bosnian Serb strongholds are still no-go zones for Muslims and Croats who do try to cross.
On Sunday, a Bosnian Serb mob armed with rocks and clubs battered a busload of Muslim women. Shattering glass injured two of the women, who wanted to plant a tree in Kozarac, near Prijedor in northwest Bosnia where some of the most notorious Serb camps were located. NATO troops at the scene also got stoned, including those manning an observation post who withdrew “to prevent any further confrontation,” Haselock said. It was the fifth time Muslim refugees had tried to cross the NATO-patrolled boundary to visit the Prijedor area. Each time, Bosnian Serb police or crowds stopped them. Haselock noted that Prijedor’s mayor tried to block the visit, calling over local radio for resistance.
“They need to be gripped and they need to be persuaded that they must allow it to happen,” Haselock said of Prijedor officials. But asked who should do the persuading, he answered only: “The international community.” “It’s not our standing orders to take a robust attitude toward a crowd of civilians throwing nothing more than stones,” Haselock said.
Western officials say that hard-line Bosnian Serb leaders such as Radovan Karadzic foment resistance to the accords and that he should be arrested on war crimes indictments issued by an international tribunal in The Hague. The Dayton agreement demands that indicted war crimes suspects be removed from power and arrested. But nabbing Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, would likely prompt a violent backlash from Bosnian Serbs. So NATO’s policy has been to say it will arrest Karadzic only if he confronts NATO troops — by driving into a checkpoint, for example.
Sacirbey, the Bosnian U.N. envoy, said NATO powers put Dayton’s timetable ahead of reality in Bosnia. Without free movement and the arrest of war criminals, he said, elections would spark violence. “The elections are being pursued regardless of what the conditions are on the ground for the selfish political objectives of Western capitals,” he said. “That can certainly threaten NATO troops on the ground.”
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