http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10284
EU takes over NATO's Bosnia mission A Bulgarian peacekeeper sporting the outgoing SFOR Sarajevo badge of NATO. (NATO) NATO ISN SECURITY WATCH (02/12/04) - The EU has begun its biggest-ever military operation, taking over peacekeeping duties from NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some 7'000 soldiers from more than 30 countries, including non-EU states Canada and Turkey, will be deployed in the new force (EUFOR). The mission, code-named "Althea", is much larger and more complex that the EU's previous military deployments to Macedonia and Congo last year. The force commander, British Major-Gen David Leakey, says his top priority is to maintain the safe and secure environment that NATO has worked to establish. NATO's mission, which began with 60'000 troops, has gradually been scaled down to 7'000 as the situation in Bosnia has stabilized. "Bosnia is still recovering from a very bloody war. The ethnic tensions which started that war, in a way, are still here," he said. Leakey said EUFOR is here to help the war-torn country create a level of stability that would help Bosnia in its bid to enter NATO and the EU. EUFOR will focus on fighting organized crime and corruption, which EU officials say is a greater threat to the country's security and stability that renewed conflict. EUFOR will inherit most of the NATO troops, which are largely European, though 1'000 US troops serving in NATO will be replaced by EUFOR. On the ground, the public will see little change, other than EUFOR badges replacing NATO badges on the uniforms of the international peacekeepers and insignia on peacekeeping vehicles. European leaders view Bosnia as a good, low-risk place to start a large mission. If the EU military mission proves successful, European leaders are hoping to use it as a model for what the EU could do in Kosovo, where it intends to replace UN and NATO-led KFOR forces. Washington has agreed to leave some 150 US soldiers and officers at a NATO base in Sarajevo. The US forces will focus on hunting war crimes suspects, most notably Bosnian Serb wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. The two indicted for war crimes by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have managed to evade NATO's grasp for eight years. Many agree that despite more than nine years of successful peacekeeping in Bosnia, NATO's record here has been blackened by its failure to arrest Karadzic and Mladic, both wanted for genocide. Earlier this week, ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte harshly criticized NATO for failing to catch Europe's most-wanted war criminals, saying that the alliance had enough intelligence to find all the court's fugitives. NATO officials said del Ponte's comments were unfair. "This is a complex situation, it is a complex country, and they have become very sophisticated at hiding themselves, but that doesn't mean no one has been trying," NATO spokesman James Appathuray told the BBC. (By Bakir Rahmanovic in Sarajevo) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
