Defense Minister Says NATO Can't
Guarantee Bosnian Stability
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe Tuesday said NATO-led peacekeeping troops could not guarantee long-term political stability in Bosnia and should not extend their one-year mission there. Ruehe, who held talks with Defense Secretary William Perry, voiced support for statements by the Clinton administration and Western European officials that the 60,000 troops must leave beginning late this year. "I don't see any extension of the IFOR (implementation force) mission," he told reporters before meeting Perry at the Pentagon. The United States has 18,000 troops and Germany some 4,000 assigned to the operation."I think we agreed on the formula — one team in, one team out," he said of U.S. insistence that it will not keep troops in Bosnia after the IFOR mandate expires. The scheduled Dec. 20 IFOR departure has already slipped into January because of tactical concerns by NATO military officials.
Ruehe said NATO troops should remain over the next eight months to complete their mission of helping create a climate for political stability to take hold. He said he did not agree with predictions that civil war would break out again when the troops leave but added that only the former warring parties can guarantee stability. "I don't think it is likely," he said of further widespread conflict in Bosnia. "Clearly this political process is lagging behind and it cannot be created by soldiers."
Ruehe will fly with Perry Wednesaday to Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, to visit a large German Air Force facility being set up to train pilots and crews of Tornado and F-4 attack jets. Germany is to base 42 Tornados and 24 F-4 Phantoms at Holloman by 1999, along with more than 800 military and civilian personnel and their families.
Ruehe told reporters in response to questions that Germany was studying France's apparent decision last week to pull out of a four-nation plan to develop a medium extended-range air defense system (MEADS) for allied troops. The move left the United States, Germany and Italy to decide whether to continue development of an air-defense missile that would have more mobility than the U.S. Patriot system, moving with troops as battlefields shifted. The United States originally agreed to pick up half of the $3 billion-plus estimated research and development cost of MEADS, with France and Germany each taking a 20 percent share and Italy 10 percent. "It is possible that we may go ahead with the United States," he said. "We will have to study the French decision."
Ruehe also said Germany had no intention of dropping its mandatory rules on military service despite a plan by France to do so. He said conscription and the minimum 10 months of service guaranteed Bonn a peacetime force of 340,000 while developing a smaller volunteer-only military would make it difficult for Germany to respond to any calls from NATO for emergency military support.
Germany Net
Political Links for Germany
The Western European Union as NATO's Successor by Barbara Conry, the Cato Institute
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