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NATO Reluctant to Extend Its Mandate After Rebels' Weapons Are Collected
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 7, 2001; Page A20
PARIS, Sept. 6 -- European diplomats and military planners have concluded
that some kind of foreign troop presence in Macedonia will probably be needed
after the NATO disarmament mission there ends late this month. Otherwise, they
fear, the Balkan country's shaky peace deal could unravel and civil strife may
resume. Officially, NATO is still committed to ending its operation based on a strict
30-day deadline, once weapons have been collected from ethnic Albanian
insurgents and Macedonia's parliament approves a new power-sharing accord. But in European capitals, the question has largely moved on from whether
there will be a post-NATO presence to what kind, under what flag, for what
duration, and with what mandate. Among the options is a force assembled by the
European Union or United Nations. The U.S. position on what could become a third long-term peacekeeping force
in the Balkans remains unclear. But a Bush administration official said today
that Washington might be willing to continue the logistical support it is giving
to the disarmament mission. "What is clear is that the European Union and the international community
will remain engaged in Macedonia," said a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the
EU's foreign policy chief. "The discussion of flags depends on what needs to be
done." She said that there was no European agreement yet on what to do. The 4,000 NATO troops now in Macedonia are led by a British contingent. The
force has already taken custody of about 1,100 of the 3,300 weapons the rebels
have declared they have. Today the Macedonian parliament, after days of divisive
debate, voted to begin constitutional changes aimed at increasing ethnic
Albanian rights; under the peace plan, the rebels are meant to respond to that
vote by handing over to NATO the second of three installments of 1,100
weapons. The end of the collection is supposed to set off a lengthy reconciliation
process to be monitored by observers from the European Union and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Those observers will be
unarmed in a potentially still dangerous country, raising the question of who
will provide for their security. This week the U.S. envoy for Macedonia, James Pardew, told BBC Radio that
under the peace agreement, the monitors "would not be armed, and that does raise
the question . . . whether there should be an extension of the military
mandate." The Bush administration official said the focus now is on ensuring that the
current operation is completed successfully. But there is no reason why the
intelligence, airlift and logistical support the United States is now providing
could not be continued if necessary, the official said. "I haven't heard anyone say -- absolutely no way, no how," the official said,
adding that consultations must take place with NATO to "see what's
required." A senior Defense Department official said that so far no one at the Pentagon
had been asked to consider a contribution to a peacekeeping force in
Macedonia. NATO remains publicly opposed to extending its operation, called Essential
Harvest. It is reluctant to be dragged into another open-ended stay in the
Balkans. NATO now leads 20,000 peacekeeping troops in Bosnia and another 40,000
in Kosovo with no prospects for an early exit. The guerrillas in Macedonia have let it be known they want NATO troops to
stay to help protect the minority ethnic Albanian communities from a feared
government assault, and one rebel leader threatened to remobilize if the Western
troops pull out. Macedonia's hard-line interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, has
hinted of a new crackdown after the NATO arms-collection mission. According to reports from Macedonia today, British troops intervened to
prevent a paramilitary unit of Macedonian Slavs from clashing with armed ethnic
Albanian civilians, following an incident in which an ethnic Albanian police
officer was fired on. One frequently mentioned idea is for forces from interested countries -- a
"coalition of the willing" -- to be deployed using NATO assets, so the mission
would not technically be a NATO operation. The most concrete proposal so far has come from the EU representative for
Macedonia, Francois Leotard, who was quoted during a visit to Moscow as calling
for a pan-European force of 1,500 troops and saying he had already suggested the
idea to several European countries. But a top EU diplomat cautioned that there
is no decision. Another option might be for the United Nations to replace NATO in a security
role. Francois Heisbourg, a French defense expert, recalled how the world body's
1,100-member Preventive Deployment Force helped keep Balkans violence out of
Macedonia in the 1990s. Foreign ministers will meet informally this weekend in Brussels to begin
talks on several possibilities. In the meantime, political leaders from NATO countries are hedging about what
will come next. Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, visited Macedonia
last week and said the plan was still for the troops to leave once the rebel
arms were collected. But he added: "Nothing, particularly in the Balkans, is
inevitable. If you are asking me whether that NATO decision may change, well, it
could change." "There's almost a consensus that there will be a need for a continuing
international presence -- the question is which one," said a Danish Foreign
Ministry official. Among the unknown factors weighing on any decision, he said,
was how the situation develops on the ground in Macedonia. A Danish general
commands the current mission. Col. Konrad Freytag, a spokesman for the Allied headquarters in Brussels,
said in a telephone interview that NATO was ready to do what its governments
decided. "We tell our political masters, 'If you want us to do something after
30 days, tell us soon.' " Staff writer Vernon Loeb contributed to this report from Washington.
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