HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
NATO plans substantial cuts in the size of its
Balkans peacekeeping missions, including a reduction by nearly a third in the
security force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping
said yesterday.
Mr. Scharping, in town
this week for meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other
administration and congressional leaders, said ministers from the 19-nation
alliance are ready to sign off by the end of next month on a 20 percent to 30
percent cut in the NATO-led security force in Bosnia, while streamlining the
companion mission in Kosovo.
U.S. and NATO
troops have been stationed in the volatile region since the outbreak of ethnic
conflicts in the mid-1990s, climaxing in NATO's 11-week air war against
Yugoslavia over Kosovo.
Facing the demands of
the post-September 11 global war on terrorism, the Pentagon has been eager to
free up U.S. forces for the fighting in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but Mr.
Scharping said at a breakfast meeting with reporters yesterday he was confident
the United States was not pulling out of the Balkans
mission.
The principle of "in together, out
together" for the region "still holds from everything I was told, both publicly
and privately," Mr. Scharping said.
Discussing
another peacekeeping mission, Mr. Scharping argued it was essential for the
international security force now in Afghanistan to remain for an extended period
as the interim government in Kabul struggles to assert its authority beyond the
capital.
Germany is taking a lead role in
building up the new government's police force, but the government of Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder quashed early speculation that Germany would take over the
command of the international security force as a
whole.
Mr. Scharping called Afghanistan a
"complex case," where the allies are trying to "support the process of nation
building and fight terrorism at the same time in the same
country."
But, he added, "if Afghanistan is not
a success story, who will be encouraged? It will be all the wrong forces, of
radicalism, Islamic fundamentalism and
terrorism."
NATO will hold a major summit in
November in Prague, a gathering that is expected to include a new round of
enlargement into Eastern Europe, while charting a new core strategic mission and
redefining relations with Russia.
The German
minister said he expected the alliance to accept new members in Prague, but
added NATO had to face several fundamental questions even as it
expanded.
A more important question than who is
accepted will be strengthening the decision-making procedures for the alliance
as it exists now, he said.
"We cannot make NATO
into an institution that is always debating its own enlargement," he said. "NATO
is not a social club."
He declined to say which
of the nine NATO hopefuls Germany will support for membership, saying that both
military capabilities and political factors will play a role. He noted that the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) already provides a
broader forum in which the continent's security issues can be aired, while NATO
has a more defined military role.
"We already
have one OSCE. We do not need a second one," he said.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020426-28680269.htm
--------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST
==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
blackline-small.gif
Description: GIF image
