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Rumsfeld Convinced of Kosovo Need for U.S.
Troops
Wed Jun 6 08:29:45 2001 GMT
THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday that his visit with U.S. peacekeeping troops in Kosovo this week convinced him of the need to keep an American military presence there. "Oh, certainly," he told reporters when asked if U.S. troops should remain in a 43,000-member multinational military force maintaining stability in the troubled southern Yugoslav province. The secretary flew into Kosovo on a military helicopter on Tuesday, received classified briefings from U.S. commanders and met with dozens of the 6,000 U.S. troops there before flying to Thessaloniki for a meeting of Southeast European defense ministers. "There is no question but that the SFOR and KFOR forces in the Balkans are making a very valuable contribution to stability in the region," Rumsfeld told a press conference with Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos on Wednesday. President Bush has said that the U.S. military is stretched too thinly by non-combat tasks around the world and that its participation in such tasks should be reduced. But Rumsfeld reiterated that no cutback of U.S. peacekeepers in the Kosovo force (KFOR) or from the more than 3,000 American troops in a stabilization force (SFOR) in Bosnia would be made without close consultation with allies. "WITH FRIENDS AND ALLIES" "The Bush administration's policy is that we are engaged in the Balkans with our friends and allies. We have always worked closely with them with respect to any adjustments or changes that have taken place over the years with respect to the force levels and force deployments and organizations," he told reporters. "And that will continue to be our policy and our full intention," the secretary added. "Obviously, the hope and goal and intention of all of the nations that have troops in the Balkans is that, over a period of time, the parties on the ground will sort through their differences in a peaceful way and find the kind of civil structures that will enable them to have the stability that would be necessary for them on a more durable basis." Rumsfeld praised U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo on Tuesday during a visit to Camp Bondsteel for helping secure peace there, but made no mention in his talk to troops of sentiment in Washington for reducing overseas deployments. On the first visit to Kosovo by a senior figure in the new U.S. administration, he spoke to a gathering of several hundred cheering army soldiers in a tent at the main U.S. base in the Yugoslav province, calling their job "truly a noble calling." Rumsfeld, on a six-day European tour, did not refer to the debate over the role of U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo, a de facto international protectorate since NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to halt Belgrade's repression of its ethnic Albanian majority. U.S. reports last month that Rumsfeld was pushing to withdraw troops from Bosnia caused concern in a country struggling to heal the ethnic divide after its 1992-95 war. But the Bush administration has toned down its pre-election rhetoric, assuring NATO allies recently that the United States would not unilaterally withdraw peacekeeping troops and would consult them carefully on any drawdown. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content or maintenance releases or similar, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters Sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. |
