World

White House: No Bosnia Pullout

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 14, 2001 / 5:10 PM EST / CBS

The White House Thursday disputed media reports that the Bush administration will soon order the withdrawal of 80 percent of the U.S. peacekeeping force in Bosnia.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said that some troops who are in the Balkans will come home as part of a move to withdraw military equipment which the peacekeeping mission no longer needs.

CBS News reported Wednesday that a White House official who didn't want to be identified said the cutback of 80 percent of the 4,400-troop U.S. force was the result of a review concluded in December.

Based on talks with the European allies, some heavy equipment and tanks that were no longer necessary would be withdrawn, along with the peacekeepers that manned them.

Under the Bush administration plan, officials said, American troops would turn the labor-intensive job of conducting daily foot patrols to keep the streets safe over to civilian police and would only be responsible for preventing an outbreak of fighting.

Officials said that would allow the Pentagon to cut the number of American troops in Bosnia in half. That move would be followed by another cut — to roughly 1,000. The remaining American troops would serve only as monitors, watching for any signs of a resurgence of ethnic violence.

NATO must still approve the withdrawal, but administration officials said they do not expect any resistance. The Bosnia pullout plan does not affect the 5,600 American troops in Kosovo.

But the White House Thursday denied any major withdrawal was in motion.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer at a briefing Thursday said that, "the President has made clear that he will continue to consult with our allies in the region prior to taking any action, and that we will honor our commitments."

"We're not stepping toward withdrawal at this point," said National Security Council spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman. "The U.S. intends to review the force posture with NATO allies. It reviews it every six months."

Peacekeeping At A Crossroads

As the U.S. reportedly considers reducing its presence in Bosnia, American troops are building a new base there. And while calm prevails in Bosnia, troops in Kosovo are on a near war footing. Click here to read more.

"Right now, there is no plan fo a military withdrawal from the Balkans," she said.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craif Quigley said Thursday that after the most recent six-month review of the Bosnia force, "the United States had informed the NATO allies that it was removing what it considered excess equipment, and people to operate that equipment, from the forces that it had contributed to that area."

"When the change-out is all done, you're going to be down to a level of around 3,500," Quigley said.

In recent weeks, administration officials have voiced support for continued U.S. presence in Bosnia.

In a Feb. 6 press conference with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated the administration's intention to keep U.S. troops in the Balkans.

"We are both committed to finishing the job by ensuring that we build a stable peace and an open democracy in the Balkans," Powell said.

His pledge to stay the course in the Balkans remained in effect, but that commitment did not rule out some reductions, said a senior U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

President George W. Bush, in a round-table meeting Tuesday evening with regional reporters, said, "this administration will not precipitously withdraw from commitments that previous administrations made."

As recently as last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured NATO Secretary-General George Robertson that the U.S. would maintain its troops in Bosnia.

Six years ago, 20,000 U.S. soldiers went into Bosnia as part of a heavily armed NATO force to ensure a peace treaty brokered by the Clinton administration. The NATO troops put an end to the worst conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, though the ethnic hatreds that sparked that conflict continued to simmer.

The current mission of the 4,400 troops is to prevent armed conflict and to make the villages safe enough so that refugees who had been expelled in ethnic cleansing campaigns will feel they can return home and start rebuilding their lives.

Norwegian deputy foreign minister Espen Barth Eide Wednesday said European members of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo are troubled by what they see as the overly cautious approach of American troops.

"The level of (U.S.) activity is lower than we'd like it to be," Eide said. "There is a feeling in Europe that the Americans could do and should do more."