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West Signals Longer Bosnia Mission
Future peacekeeping force of 20,000 is mentioned
By Carol Giacomo
"The United States has said many, many times ... that we are there, our troops are there for roughly a year. And we have not changed our position," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told reporters. "We expect our troops will depart then, roughly 12 months after they entered, which would take us into December or January of next year. And that's our decision," he said. At the Pentagon, spokesman Ken Bacon said: "We anticipate that the IFOR mission will be over on Dec. 20 and that our troops will come out as close to Dec. 20 as possible, not just our troops but troops of other IFOR participants as well."
"The single most important task between now and then is to bring off the elections and to get democracy started in Bosnia ... IFOR will concentrate on accomplishing these tasks over the next six months and then leave," he added. But other statements left more doubt about what if any role allied troops might play after the IFOR mission is over.
President Clinton, fighting opposition in Congress last December, promised the 20,000-strong U.S. contingent in the
60,000-member Implementation Force would pull out in one year. Backing away could hurt him politically and fan a
divisive debate in the runup to November's presidential election, so U.S. officials have sought to play down any discussion about the future.
Earlier Tuesday acting assistant secretary of state John Kornblum said military troops may be asked to perform other tasks in Bosnia after IFOR fulfills its mandate. Speaking to diplomats and journalists, he said, "It is possible, maybe even likely, that there will be other missions there (in Bosnia)." But he said it was too early to speculate on exactly what those missions might be or whether military forces or civilians would be asked to carry them out.
Kornblum, chief coordinator for Bosnia policy, dismissed as "just speculation or private views ... not necessarily an official position" a Washington Post report that a consensus was growing among NATO officials that a substantial follow-on force would patrol the former Yugoslavia well into 1997. But he did not flatly rule out the idea, fueling a growing sense that allied troops could stay longer than planned.
That possibility was given additional credence when a commander of the NATO-led force, Gen. Sir Michael Walker, told reporters in Sarajevo: "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."
Last week Defense Secretary William Perry said it will be "appropriate" after Bosnia's elections "to look at what additional support NATO might be asked to provide." While the IFOR mission ends in December, "it is a separate consideration as to whether NATO will fulfill a requirement to provide any additional security to Bosnia on into next year," he said.
Bacon reinforced that, saying: "It is premature to sit down and hold a discussion about this now. There are too many variables."
Kornblum, at the breakfast hosted by Europe Magazine, stressed that the U.S.-brokered Bosnia peace accords specified IFOR has a "one-year mission ... very clearly delineated." But after that, "certainly there's going to be a mission for the international police task force, which is already on the ground," he said.
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Berserkistan, June 11 · NATO’s Michael Walker Sees Extended Bosnia Mission
Berserkistan, June 5 · Perry Considers Extended NATO Role in Bosnia
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