bosnet-digest V5 #68 / Thursday, 15 February 1996

From: Davor <dwagner@MAILBOX.SYR.EDU>

Bosnia-Herzegovina News Directory

CONTENTS

[01] Glance at status of NATO troop deployment

Glance at status of NATO troop deployment

NATO's force for Bosnia will eventually include more than 75,000 troops from 20 countries - 60,000 inside Bosnia and about 18,000 based in the region, providing backup.

Currently, about 52,000 troops are in Bosnia patrolling confrontation lines separating the warring parties, in three sectors led by one of the main troop contributors. A look at the current status:

The American sector

About 21,000 troops are patrolling the northeastern American sector, out of a projected 27,100. Out of the 20,000 troops the United States - the force's largest contributor - plans to send to Bosnia, 14,829 have arrived, with the remainder expected from bases in Hungary, Italy and Croatia by mid-February. Based in the northeastern city of Tuzla, the U.S. contingent includes troops from the 1st and 2nd brigades of the 1st Armored Division.

Joining the Americans in their sector will be nearly 4,000 members of a brigade made up of Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Polish troops, due in place by mid-February.

Sweden's contingent of 870 soldiers is complete. Denmark has sent 807 troops, along with 10 German-made Leopard tanks.

Finland is dispatching a 450-member construction detail, of which 100 are in place. The rest are scheduled to be fully in place by Feb. 14.

Norway has sent 998 soldiers, with 50 still to come. Most are split between a logistics unit and a medical corps.

All 670 Polish soldiers are in place or now headed to Bosnia.

Patrolling another section are 1,522 Turkish troops, including one mechanized infantry company, one tank company, one artillery battery and one ammunition destroying team.

Russia has sent a 1,500-member unit.

The British sector

There are more than 16,000 troops in the northwestern British sector, out of a projected 20,500. Britain already had thousands of troops in Bosnia who had served as U.N. peacekeepers. Its 11,500 ground troops are now in place. They have a base in Sipovo, in Bosnian Croat territory, and a new command headquarters in the northern Serb stronghold of Banja Luka. Their headquarters is in Gornji Vakuf in central Bosnia. Britain also has 3,500 navy and air force personnel involved in the mission.

Britain's former colony, Pakistan, said last month it would send 3,000 troops to the sector. So far, 1,007 have arrived.

About 700 Canadians have arrived in the area, out of 1,000 expected by Feb. 11. The Czech Republic has sent 450 troops to the Bosanska Krupa area and the remaining 400 should arrive within days.

The 2,100-member Dutch contingent is complete. Belgium has sent 355 engineering and support troops to Visoko, 15 miles northwest of Sarajevo, and tiny Luxembourg has sent 31 transport troops.

Austria will send 150 logistical support troops - mostly drivers - to the sector by mid-February. A 68-member advance unit left last week. Another 150 Austrians will head for the French sector.

The French sector

There are about 14,750 troops in the southern French sector, out of a projected 16,000. The 7,500 French troops who served as peacekeepers in Bosnia will remain under NATO command. Based in Sarajevo, the force includes three infantry battalions with three dozen tanks, 20 attack helicopters, 16 155mm artillery guns, an anti-tank company and an anti-air contingent.

Italy has 2,560 soldiers in the French sector, deployed in Vogosca northeast of Sarajevo, with 640 more to be deployed if NATO requests them. Portugal sent 370 soldiers to Bosnia Monday, to complete the total contingent of 917.

Spain has sent 1,250 troops, mostly based around Mostar, scene of recent Muslim-Croat clashes. Another 546 were heading to Bosnia on Tuesday.

Some 300 Greek troops are stationed 19 miles northwest of Sarajevo, separating Muslim and Croat lines. Ukraine has sent 600 soldiers.

Morocco has committed 1,200 troops, and 650 Egyptian peacekeepers in the region since 1993 may remain there under French command. Malaysia will up its force of 973 to 1,533 by the end of this month.

Last month, reports said Jordan would send a force of 50. Recently, 27 Latvian soldiers and 24 of 150 promised from Estonia left for Denmark for training for the Bosnian mission.

Elsewhere

The United States has deployed over 6,600 troops to the southern Hungarian town of Kaposvar and the nearby Taszar air base to provide logistics and facilitate deployment of its troops to Bosnia. About 3,500 troops are in Croatia and about 1,000 in Italy.

There are an additional 4,500 French troops outside Bosnia, some based at sea, others at air bases in Italy.

Some 2,000 German troops - out of a planned total of 2,600 - are in neighboring Croatia as a backup force for the British troops in central Bosnia. Germany also has 550 air force personnel in Italy and 500 navy troops in the Adriatic.

Hungary has its complete contingent of 415 soldiers stationed in Okucani, central Croatia. Slovakia was reported last month to have committed 200 troops to Croatia.

Aside from their troops in the American sector, 51 Norwegians are manning three C-130 Norwegian Air Force transport planes in Rimini, Italy.

Greece has 700 troops serving on warships in the Adriatic Sea or manning NATO C-130 cargo aircraft supplying troops in Bosnia from air bases in Italy.

Some 1,200 Russian and Belgian troops patrol eastern Slavonia, to be handed back to Croatia after four years in rebel Serb hands. The U.N. Security Council this month authorized upping the force to 5,000, with NATO air backing.

There is also a Czech mobile hospital in Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

A peacekeeping force is deployed in Macedonia along the Serbian border. The force includes more than 700 Scandinavians and 300 Americans.

Other countries promising small logistical support are Slovenia, Albania and Lithuania. This week, 27 Latvian soldiers and 24 of 150 promised from Estonia left for Denmark for training for the Bosnian mission.

About 200 Romanian soldiers are awaiting a NATO decision on whether their help is needed to build roads and bridges for troops in the region.

Casualties

Ten soldiers have died and 46 have been injured since NATO troops started taking their places last month.

A U.S. soldier died in an explosion Saturday. A Belgian soldier died of a heart attack the same day.

Three British soldiers were killed the previous week when their vehicle hit a mine. Two Portuguese and an Italian were killed last week when an explosive went off in a NATO compound. A Swedish soldier died when his car slipped off a road and a British soldier committed suicide at Christmas.

Most of the wounded soldiers suffered injuries when mines went off, or in shooting accidents, but several soldiers have also been wounded by sniper fire in the Serb-held suburb of Ilidza.

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions.

Murat Erkocevic <ErkocevicM@aol.com>

Dzevat Omeragic <Dzevat@ee.mcgill.ca>

Davor Wagner <DWagner@mailbox.syr.edu>

Nermin Zukic <N6Zukic@sms.business.uwo.ca>

[02] Documentary on war crimes: Svjedol genocida - masakr u colopeku

Contributed by: Frank Tiggelaar <frankti@euronet.nl>

Cross-posted to TWatch and misc.news.bosnia.

===

svjedol genocida - masakr u colopeku - 1.6 MB RealAudio format

BHT Satellite Program 13-02-1996 22:30

This documentary on war crimes (of which a part was WEBbed at the end of 13-02-1996's BiH News file) will go on line this coming Saturday from our'War Crimes etc'-page (http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/crimeeng.html or ../crimebos.html)

Reactions to our prior posting about the BiH TV-news were overwhelming. Many people asked us for more programs from the satellite transmissions; few however stated what kind of programs they would like to see. Please let us know, so we can bring out what you really want.

Damir Tomicic Frank Tiggelaar

Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina Info Pages - Amsterdam (NL) - Erlangen (D)

130 MB of on line information in 6 languages

http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/indexbos.html (Bosanski)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/indexger.html (Deutsch)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/indexeng.html (English)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/indexesp.html (Espanol)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/indexfra.html (Francais)

http://cip2.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de:8080/..

../hyplan/damir/croatia/0ndexcro.html (Hrvatski)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/indexbos.html (Nederlands)

Mon trhu Fri we bring you TV-news about Bosnia in RealAudio format from :

Bosnia and Herzegovina - The Netherlands - Germany - Italy - Turkey

France - Croatia - The United Kingdom - Belgium - USA - Spain

- -----------------> http://www.xs4all.nl/~frankti/tv.html <---------------------

or click RTV-News on any Index page

Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions.

Murat Erkocevic <ErkocevicM@aol.com>

Dzevat Omeragic <Dzevat@ee.mcgill.ca>

Davor Wagner <DWagner@mailbox.syr.edu>

Nermin Zukic <N6Zukic@sms.business.uwo.ca>

[03] "Foolish" NATO And CIA's Own Internet

``We have our own classified Internet in the intelligence community, with home pages just like you do on the Internet,'' the senior intelligence official said... Ideally, the senior intelligence official said, ``we won't have a U.S. inspection team going into the middle of a fire fight they didn't know about because the intelligence didn't get to the right place.''

2/13: EDITORIAL: A MIXED MESSAGE ON WAR CRIMES c.1996 N.Y. Times News Service

The New York Times said in an editorial on Tuesday, Feb. 13:

The Bosnian peace agreement seems to have weathered its first serious challenge, a dispute between the Bosnian government and Bosnian Serbs over the handling of war crimes investigations. A sensible resolution outlined on Monday by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke offers hope that the commitments from all sides to end the Balkan war will nourish the peace accord in the difficult days ahead.

The dispute began two weeks ago, when the government arrested two top aides to the Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic, as suspected war criminals. Mladic, himself indicted for war crimes, reacted by ordering his forces to halt cooperation with the government and with NATO peacekeeping forces.

At the request of Holbrooke, the Muslim-led government wisely agreed on Monday to limit future arrests to cases where the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague has had a chance to review the evidence in advance and has certified that the charges are well-founded.

This compromise preserves the principle of holding war criminals accountable for their actions. But it also builds in useful safeguards and ought to serve as a model for all sides.

Given the emotional scars of the war and the volatile conditions still prevailing in much of Bosnia, there is a danger that war crimes prosecutions and arrests could be motivated by retaliation and revenge. Letting the international tribunal evaluate the evidence submitted by all sides before any arrest can help the formerly warring parties build confidence in each other. That kind of confidence is a primary requirement for peace in the long term.

Mladic's orders to suspend communications with NATO, which violated the Dayton peace agreement, were never fully carried out. In an encouraging development, they were countermanded by the Bosnian Serb political leadership, with the tacit encouragement of Serbia's president, Slobodan Milosevic. Mladic loyalists, however, are still refusing to cooperate with the Bosnian Muslim-Croat federation.

This deference to the peace agreement by Bosnian Serb political leaders is especially encouraging, since it contrasts with their sullen attitude before the NATO mission began. The government's willingness to compromise is equally welcome.

While Holbrooke was resolving this problem, NATO foolishly decided its soldiers would not detain indicted war criminals encountered by troops in the course of their other duties. NATO need not commit its troops to hunt down war crimes suspects. But NATO does have an obligation under the Dayton agreement and international law to detain those already indicted by The Hague tribunal should its troops encounter them by chance. The NATO policy, which looks suspiciously like a trade-off for Bosnian Serb cooperation with Holbrooke, should be reversed.

The Dayton peace agreement can only succeed if NATO forces fully uphold its principles and all Bosnian parties begin to establish a level of trust that will permit them to live side by side peacefully within a single state after the NATO troops leave. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2/13: CIA TO GIVE U.S. DIPLOMATS COMPUTER ACCESS TO SECRET INFO By TIM WEINER

c.1996 N.Y. Times News Service

WASHINGTON - In a sign that it is re-thinking its role, the CIA will give American diplomats in Bosnia and other trouble zones computer access to secret information that may help them solve political and military problems.

Though the intelligence agency has always been expected to share its secrets with State Department officials abroad, the arrangement has sometimes been more honored in the breach, according to former ambassadors and Foreign Service officers. They say that the agency has been reluctant to share information, and at times has even concealed it.

But now, a senior intelligence official said, the agency is working on ``new and different'' ways of delivering information to senior U.S. diplomats, like buying commercially available portable communications gear and using it to deliver encoded information to remote locations.

What is emerging, he said, is a new way of doing a very basic job: telling the people who represent the United States overseas what is going on around them. While the new approach is technologically advanced, it is a back-to-the-future development at the CIA. At its creation in 1947, the agency was intended to be a source of information for those in charge of American foreign policy.

``We're sort of realizing that the traditional intelligence structures based in embassies in established countries are not enough,'' said the senior intelligence official, who would not be identified by name.

``Now we're in a new situation, and we have to figure out how to tailor the information and deliver it'' to American diplomats in the field.

This is an elemental task for the CIA, but one for which it has been faulted by the Pentagon and the State Department. For example, during the gulf war five years ago, military commanders were often enraged at the agency's inability to deliver timely information to the battlefield.

``The pain,'' said the senior intelligence official, ``was spending a lot of helicopter hours carrying pictures around to command headquarters, rather than sending them over the wires. There was a cultural lack of focus on the guy at the point end of the spear.''

Now the CIA is planning to buy commercial communications gear, put an encrypting scrambler on it, and give diplomats in Bosnia and elsewhere the ability to receive basic facts that it previously had been unwilling or unable to share.

In time, the diplomats will be up to speed with foreign correspondents, many of whom have portable communications gear combining satellite telephones and computer ports. These allow them to file articles from remote spots while receiving information from a commercial data base in the United States. The difference is the data base for the diplomats will be the CIA's.

``We have our own classified Internet in the intelligence community, with home pages just like you do on the Internet,'' the senior intelligence official said. The home page for the CIA's Bosnian task force will now be among the data bases available to a U.S. diplomat in a small town in Bosnia.

Ideally, the senior intelligence official said, ``we won't have a U.S. inspection team going into the middle of a fire fight they didn't know about because the intelligence didn't get to the right place.''

Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions.

Murat Erkocevic <ErkocevicM@aol.com>

Dzevat Omeragic <Dzevat@ee.mcgill.ca>

Davor Wagner <DWagner@mailbox.syr.edu>

Nermin Zukic <N6Zukic@sms.business.uwo.ca>