'Our mission continues and the
next eight months will be critical'
BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuters) — NATO Secretary General Javier Solana left the door open on Monday for a possible extension of the deadline for the end of the international peacekeeping force mandate in Bosnia. "At this point we think we will comply with the mission as given to us in Dayton... that means one year. But of course we will be evaluating, as any sensible organization does, the events as time goes by," Solana told a news conference.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization diplomats and military planners built the one-year deadline for withdrawal of the 60,000-strong international force into the mission's plans. Without such an escape hatch the United States Congress would not have approved the participation in the force of 20,000 U.S. troops.
Both Solana and Supreme Allied Commander Europe General George Joulwan praised the success to date of the alliance-led peace Implementation Force (IFOR) which is now 120 days old. They said that roughly 90 percent of the military aspects of the Dayton peace agreement had been complied with by the three formerly feuding factions and that the next key deadline was elections to be held in September.
Under the Dayton peace deal the armies in Bosnia should have been back on a peace-time footing by last Thursday, with the remaining troops back in barracks and heavy weaponry in approved depots. Joulwan said the number of troops had dropped to about 130,000 compared with the 300,000 under arms when IFOR began its mission on December 20. He said there had been 80 to 95 percent compliance with the Dayton terms as far as air defense weapons were concerned, 90 percent for tanks and 85 percent for artillery. He identified shoulder-fired air defense weapons and mortars as problem areas.
Joulwan stressed the key role that elections would play in cementing the peace in Bosnia, but he was equivocal about extending the peace mission. "Our mission continues and the next eight months will be critical," he said.
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