Surpriiiiise, NATO has no choice now but to occupy another Balkan country to save it<g>
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NATO Bites Bullet on Troops for
Macedonia
By Douglas Hamilton
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO (news -
web sites) ordered military planners
Wednesday to ready a force for
Macedonia -- expected to number around
3,000 -- to collect arms from Albanian
guerrillas as soon as political agreement can
end fighting in the republic.
The offer to send troops, albeit in limited numbers for a specific task and
a fixed time period, signaled that the 19 allies now believe the risks of
going in are outweighed by the risks of standing aside, behind the
Kosovo border.
NATO said in a statement it was ready to act swiftly to facilitate the
voluntary disarmament of ethnic Albanian insurgents but stressed that a
peace agreement in Macedonia was ''an essential precondition for any
NATO assistance.''
Diplomats said NATO hoped the announcement would hasten the
conclusion of a political deal by Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian
party leaders, who have been negotiating for the past six days without
result.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski said the talks were ''totally
blocked'' by radical Albanian demands ``practically asking for
federalization offering a two-nation state.''
A political deal that would induce the guerrilla National Liberation Army
to lay down its weapons is seen as the best hope of avoiding a civil war,
which could ignite a regional conflict and undo years of NATO
peace-building in the Balkans.
It would improve the rights and status of the large ethnic Albanian
minority and offer amnesty to rebels in exchange for ending the
five-month conflict in areas bordering Kosovo, where NATO leads a
force of around 38,000 peacekeepers.
PLAN FIRST, THEN NUMBERS
A NATO official said the allies had not addressed the question of what
to do if the Macedonian talks failed.
He also said it was too early to cite numbers for the alliance force since
its task had not yet been defined, but there was talk of preparing ``a
brigade, or several thousand.''
Military sources said ``a brigade'' could mean anything from 2,000 to
14,000. Diplomats, asked to clarify, said NATO was probably looking
at around 2,500 to 3,000 maximum.
``It will not be an open-ended mission. There will be a date for the end,''
the NATO official told reporters. Diplomatic sources said a 30-day limit
could be fixed for the operation.
``They would be just coming to collect weapons and nothing else,'' the
official stressed, countering speculation that another big Balkan
peacekeeping mission was in the making.
NATO's announcement began by noting
that Trajkovski had formally sought
NATO's assistance with the demilitarization
process his peace plan envisages
``Allies reaffirmed the urgent need for a
successful outcome of the political dialogue
between the different parties in the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the
cessation of hostilities as an essential
precondition for any NATO assistance,'' NATO said.
``On that basis and in order to be prepared to act swiftly once this
precondition is met, Allies agreed on a concept of operations provided
by the military authorities and asked them to develop an operational plan
for Council consideration on an urgent basis,'' the brief statement
concluded.
TRUCE IN BALANCE
A fragile cease-fire has been in place for nine days. But a doctor in a
rebel-held village reported by telephone that two civilians were killed
overnight by Macedonian army shelling, underscoring the inherent risk to
NATO troops if an agreement broke down while they were deployed.
NATO sources said Britain, France, Spain, Greece, the Czech
Republic, the Netherlands and Norway were all possible troop
contributors.
The United States was understood to be ready to ``enable'' the
undertaking, perhaps offering to provide logistics, communications and
intelligence, but unlikely to send troops.
A diplomatic source said planning could be completed by the end of the
week, with approval next week. Troops could move in within a week to
10 days after a Macedonian peace accord.
The proposed mission would be a NATO operation, based on
Macedonia's request for assistance, the NATO official said. No United
Nations (news - web sites) Security Council mandate would be
required.
Despite calls from the guerilla National Liberation Army the 19-member
alliance had no intention whatsoever of mounting a third major Balkan peacekeeping mission alongside
those in Bosnia and Kosovo, NATO sources stressed.
Troops sent to guerrilla-held areas in mountainous border country on either side of the main routes
north to Kosovo would need to be protected by armor and heavy weapons.
NATO would also want to be sure the NLA delivers total disarmament and disbandment, as was
achieved last month in demilitarization of Albanian rebel-held land in southern Serbia, with NATO and
European Union (news - web sites) mediation.
There are already around 3,000 NATO troops in Macedonia as part of the supply chain for the
peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, but they belong to logistics units, not combat formations. |
