May 17 1999 BALKANS WAR: ALLIANCE
2,300 soldiers are added to the postwar peacekeeping force, reports Michael Evans
More British troops for Kosovo
BRITAIN is to contribute a further 2,300 troops to an expanded Nato force in postwar Kosovo. The alliance now hopes to be able to deploy the force in July or August, defence sources said yesterday.
The reinforcements, who will stay in Britain for the moment, training for a peacekeeping role, consist of 679 soldiers from the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, 680 soldiers from 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles, and 684 soldiers from 1 Royal Irish Regiment. The other 257 personnel will be gunners and engineers.
The Royal Irish Regiment is equipped with wheeled Saxon armoured personnel carriers and tracked Sabre armoured reconnaissance vehicles. The Paras and Gurkhas have Land Rovers and four-tonne trucks. The emphasis on a lightly armed force indicates that they will be among the first units to go into Kosovo if there is a peace settlement that needs to be implemented immediately. Deployment of the extra 2,300 soldiers would bring the total British contribution to the proposed postwar Kosovo Force (Kfor) to nearly 9,000.
Despite the perceived differences in approach between London and Washington over ground troops and the timing of Kfor's insertion into Kosovo, General Wesley Clark, Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, is expected soon to produce a plan that will call for a force of between 40,000 and 50,000 troops. This size of force is considered necessary whether there is a formal peace agreement or not.
Although there is no consensus in the alliance for an opposed intervention - underlined yesterday by John Spellar, the junior Defence Minister at the daily briefing - British defence sources said the expanded force could go into Kosovo without a peace agreement "after winning" the battle against the Yugoslav Army and paramilitaries.
The sources said that over the next two or three months the attacks on Serb forces in Kosovo were expected to cause havoc and that by late July or August, Nato would be able to make a judgment that it was safe to send troops across the border without facing opposition. "We anticipate that it will be like pushing at an open door," one source said.
It is agreed within Nato that it will no longer be sufficient to send 28,000 troops if there is a peace settlement to implement. This was the figure selected by General Clark for a post-Rambouillet peace enforcement operation. Yesterday the defence sources said that about 50 per cent more troops would now be needed to deal with a whole range of new problems. These would include clearing up mines laid by the Serbs and Nato munitions scattered throughout the province, as well as rebuilding bridges and houses and reconnecting water and electricity supplies.
Javier Solana, the Nato Secretary-General, insisted yesterday that the air campaign was on track. He told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost programme: "We are going to win, no question about that." Asked if the refugees would be home before winter, he said: "We are doing our best so they can return home as soon as possible, in any case before the winter."
Señor Solana said the plans for ground troops were being reviewed. "At this point the decision of the 19 countries that belong to Nato is that the force will be deployed in order to bring back the refugees but all the plans are being updated."
The RAF's 12 Tornado GR1s, currently based at Brüggen in Germany, are being moved to Solenzara in Corsica and will operate from there as of June 1.
May 17 1999 BALKANS WAR: ALLIANCE<Picture: Line>
Calls for ceasefire increase in Italy
FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME
Cypriot protest
LEADING members of Italy's centre-left coalition joined calls by Green and far-left coalition factions for a "unilateral ceasefire" by Nato as the search for cluster bombs jettisoned by US warplanes in the Adriatic widened from the Venice area to waters off the tourist resorts of Rimini and Ancona yesterday.
Massimo D'Alema, the former Communist Prime Minister, said that a United Nations resolution imposing conditions on Belgrade with Russian and Chinese backing might be enough to "stop the bombing".
Walter Veltroni, head of the ruling Party of the Democratic Left (PDS), said Italy should take the initiative at the UN "on behalf of its Nato allies" to see if a suspension of the raids might restart diplomatic
Signor Veltroni, a former Deputy Prime Minister, added: "We must make our voice heard." Signor D'Alema, who formed the PDS from the Italian Communist Party six years ago, was more cautious, telling La Repubblica that an unconditional unilateral ceasefire would only encourage "an interlocutor as untrustworthy as Milosevic" to continue persecuting the Kosovo Albanians, who would then "lose all hope of returning home". This would be "a nightmare".
But Signor D'Alema, trying to contain a growing tide of pacifism among his supporters ahead of a critical parliamentary debate on Nato and Kosovo on Wednesday, said a ceasefire was "conceivable" if Russia and China signed up to a UN resolution based on conditions set by the Group of Eight industrialised countries including Russia. These include the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and a return of refugees under an international force's protection.
This would be enough to justify a halt to the bombing, Signor D'Alema suggested, adding: "I have to say the air campaign has not so far had the results hoped for, and is producing repeated tragic episodes." He assured anti-war marchers at Assisi he wanted to make "an urgent gesture of peace". The Pope yesterday also called for an end to the bombing.
Italians have been dismayed by civilian casualties, including the deaths of 85 Kosovo refugees apparently used as human shields by the Serbs at a military camp at Korisa on Friday. The dumping of cluster bombs in Italian waters has brought the war even closer to home.
Enzo Fornaro, head of the Italian Adriatic Fishing Co-operative, was incandescent over injuries caused to three Chioggia fishermen last week when they hauled up bombs in their nets. Yesterday Vinzenzo Barbati, the Prefect of Venice, ordered the closure of beaches from the island of Pellestrina in the Venetian lagoon to the port of Chioggia, at the southern entrance to the lagoon.
Cypriot protest
Dhekelia: About 10,000 protesters marched on roads passing through a British military base in Cyprus yesterday demanding an end to Nato airstrikes on Yugoslavia.Greek Cypriots walked four miles in scorching sun past Dhekelia, one of two British military bases. They regard Yugoslavia as a traditional ally.
Policemen working for the bases walked with the protesters, who chanted "Nato killers" as British soldiers kept watch from a tower. The Yugoslav Ambassador also took part. (Reuters)