[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; NSP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sorabia@Yahoogroups. Com <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; BALKAN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; SNN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: Sin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 3:09 PM Subject: Rumsfeld Worries Europeans On Bosnia [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rumsfeld Worries Europeans On Bosnia Allies Warn U.S. Against Withdrawal By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, May 23, 2001; Page A26 PARIS, May 22 -- European policymakers and governments have reacted with concern to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's comments in a Washington Post interview last week that he was "pushing" to have American peacekeeping troops withdrawn from Bosnia. The remarks fed European anxieties that the Bush administration has a penchant for taking actions and making statements unilaterally without consulting its allies. The statement came at a time when continuing fighting in Macedonia suggests to many Europeans that instability in the Balkans could spread and possibly require greater involvement by NATO allies, including the United States. Taking U.S. troops out of Bosnia "would be a very bad signal," Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner of Austria said she told Secretary of State Colin L. Powell during a meeting in Washington on Monday afternoon. Nationalistic extremists in the region "will think that the Americans are no longer interested," she said. Powell told her that the NATO allies went into the Balkans together and will come out together, she said. He has frequently expressed U.S. policy that way. Speaking today at a meeting with Washington Post editors in Washington, Ferrero-Waldner said that U.S. troops would be needed to stabilize Bosnia for at least another five years. The 3,300 Americans there are part of a NATO-led force that went into the country in 1995 at the end of four years of war and now numbers about 20,000. Another peacekeeping force deployed into the Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999; Rumsfeld did not say he wants to remove the U.S. troops there. Europeans have in recent weeks become accustomed to sometimes conflicting signals from the new administration, often taking the form of institutional differences between the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom. Some said they are waiting for President Bush to clarify the administration's position on the Balkans next month during his first trip to Europe. The Rumsfeld interview "doesn't contribute to having a clear vision of American policy toward Europe," said Spanish legislator Rafael Estrella, president of the NATO parliamentary assembly, which links lawmakers in the alliance countries. The Rumsfeld statement, he said, "drew my attention. That's something the secretary of state has already dismissed, and now it comes up again in a very strong manner." What is needed, Estrella said, is a full review through the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top policymaking body, for "a common exit strategy and a replacement for the military component." Some Europeans say they are puzzled that Rumsfeld seems to believe that the Bosnia operation is affecting U.S. military preparedness. "I don't think it's fair to say using 3,000 troops for that mission is weakening or affecting the overall posture of the American military," Estrella said. In Bosnia, the government expressed uneasiness over the statement. "We are definitely worried," an official from the country's foreign ministry told the Reuters news agency. "You know what America has done so far to protect peace and maintain a stable environment." Richard C. Holbrooke, one of the chief architects of the peace deal that ended Bosnia's civil war, also was critical of Rumsfeld's remarks. "It doesn't make sense to think about a withdrawal yet," he told reporters in Washington today. Still, in Western Europe, many officials appeared to take the statement in stride. Karl Kaiser, research director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said that many people believe that Powell settled the issue earlier with his assurances against a precipitous U.S. withdrawal. There was no immediate official reaction in France, which also has a contingent in Bosnia. But foreign policy analyst Dominique Moisi, of the French Institute of International Relations, said the Rumsfeld remarks are likely to sour the mood for Bush's maiden voyage to Europe. "It's exactly rubbing Europeans the wrong way," he said. "In a way it would destroy the positive impact of the Americans to present missile defense as something good for Europeans." Europe has been generally critical of U.S. proposals to build a system to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63341-2001May22.html 2001 The Washington Post Company Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
