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NATO Official Sees Extended Bosnia Mission
Closed door debate on withdrawal must be
By Jovan Kovacic
SARAJEVO, June 11 (Reuters) - A senior NATO oficer on Tuesday said part of the currently 60,000-strong peace implementation force will stay in Bosnia after a pullout deadline in December. "I suspect there is going to have to be something around to show that the international community is still determined to prevent the war from breaking out again," General Sir Michael Walker, commander of IFOR gound troops in Bosnia told reporters.
The British general said military stability is one of the key ingredients of continuing stability in Bosnia if it is to be a genuinely democratic country.
"So what is going to have to happen is that at some stage the international community is going to have to allow a debate, which I suspect is going on privately behind locked doors, to come out into the open and a decision is going to be made."
U.S. President Bill Clinton, fighting opposition in Congress last December, promised the 20,000-strong U.S. contigent in the IFOR would pull out within one year of its deployment last December. Bosnian rivals and their Serbian and Croatian patrons hammered out a peace deal in Dayton Ohio, last November ending the 43-month war and enabling IFOR to deploy along separation lines.
Diplomats fear rival factions could return to war if IFOR pulled out before a lasting peace had been established. Prime ministers of Canada and France said on Monday it might be necessary to extend the terms of the international peace forces in Bosnia.
"My personal view is that probably there will be a need for some participation (in Bosnia) after the end of the year," Canada's Jean Chretien said after talks with Alain Juppe. "In my personal judgment there will a need for some troops to be left behind."
The belief is increasingly shared by European diplomats but many insist that the Americans must stay on as well. Juppe said: "If we decide to stay in Bosnia after the end of the year, everybody must stay. If we decide to leave, everybody will leave."
On Tuesday British members of parliament said Britain, which has 10,500 troops in Bosnia, should take part in any follow-on force only if it continued under NATO rather than UN command and if the United States remained "substantially involved." One of the reasons why American troops must stay on is the faith in them by the mainly-Muslim government and the fear they inspire among the Serbs, diplomat said. The other reason is their continuing deployment would prove to Western governments Washington will not drop Bosnia from its foreign policy agenda once its own presidential elections are over late this year, he said.
Privately other senior IFOR oficials also doubted that the U.S. troops would pull out as scheduled. "It would be very strange for them to pull out after committing themselves to such an extent," one said.
Walker refused to discuss the size of the follow on forces saying it depended on too many factors, including the intention of the former foes, to assess the needs now. "What we need is not to think in terms of force size but its capability and purpose," he said.
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Berserkistan, June 5 · Perry Considers Extended NATO Role in Bosnia
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