Perry: New Force No Guarantee of Bosnia Peace

NAPLES, Italy (Reuter) - Defense Secretary William Perry cautioned Wednesday that a new NATO-led international force of 31,000 troops planned for Bosnia would not guarantee peace and stability in that shattered country.

"Fundamentally, the Bosnians themselves are going to have to make those changes," he said. "I think the key to whether they will want to do that is success in the economic restructuring."

Perry flew to Italy Wednesday at the start of a week-long globe-circling trip that will take him to visit U.S. troops in Bosnia on Thanksgiving Day Thursday and then to the Persian Gulf and Japan before returning to Washington Dec. 4.

He told reporters traveling with him he was not worried about the security of next year's new reduced Bosnia force, which will include 8,500 U.S. troops and replace the current NATO-led peace implementation force (IFOR) which is being withdrawn. There are 15,000 Americans in IFOR.

"I want to emphasize the most important point I can make on this is that these were not numbers that were conceived in Washington and handed to the field with a "see if you can make this work'," Perry stressed.

"These are numbers which came to us from military leaders in whom I have very good confidence and who understood quite clearly what task they (the troops) are to perform," he said.

In Brussels, NATO agreed Wednesday that the new force should stay in Bosnia for no more than 18 months, with reviews every six months to decide needed troop levels.

Sources said NATO ambassadors agreed in principle to a timetable outlined two weeks ago by President Clinton for the follow-on force to replace IFOR when its mandate expires Dec. 20.

Perry held meetings in Naples Wednesday with U.S. Navy Adm. Joseph Lopez, commander of southern NATO forces.

In Bosnia Thursday he will have a traditional Thanksgiving lunch of fresh turkey with American troops based at Tuzla. He will also hold talks with senior U.S. and allied commanders and with senior Russian officers.

Perry said last week he made a mistake last December in estimating it would take only a year for U.S. and other troops to bring stability to Bosnia. Wednesday, he expressed hope another 18 months of troop-enforced security would be enough.

But it is not a guarantee, he said.

"If we add to that 18 months the year that we have already been there, we are talking about two and a-half years of providing a security environment which in and of itself does not effect any political settlement," Perry said.

"Nothing that IFOR is doing. Nothing that SFOR (the new Bosnia "stabilizing force') will do will force that to happen. It will just permit it to happen," he added.

The United States has agreed in principle to send 8,500 U.S. troops to Bosnia next year within a new 31,000-member peacekeeping force expected to remain until June 1998.

Clinton this month defended the extension of a U.S. military presence beyond this year, as once promised, as necessary to assure continued peace in Bosnia.

He denied he intentionally delayed announcing the controversial decision until after he was re-elected.

NATO has in principle approved the new force although a final decision on its makeup is not expected for several weeks.