NATO secret meeting discussed a 150,000-troop invasion force

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat May 29 22:26:33 PDT 1999


[I didn't even know Britain had 50,000 troops. This puts a whole new slant on Clinton's call for 90,000 -- the combined forces would be at least theoretically in the ballpark of what military planners have said is a viable force.]

[By the way, a couple of days ago German Greens accused NATO of having had a secret meeting with exactly this agenda, and they were angrily denounced by Scharping and Fischer for making baseless accusations.]

NATO ministers reportedly consider a 150,000-troop Kosovo invasion

force

Copyright © 1999 Nando Media

Copyright © 1999 Agence France-Press

LONDON (May 29, 1999 6:54 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A

secret meeting this past week of the five senior NATO defense

ministers included discussions of using a 150,000-troop invasion force

for Kosovo, including 50,000 British soldiers, two London newspapers

reported Sunday.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen flew to Bonn for the unannounced

meeting, also attended by British Defense Secretary George Robertson

and ministers from France, Germany and Italy, said The Sunday

Telegraph and the Observer.

Britain's Ministry of Defense confirmed the meeting had taken place

Thursday, on the margins of a gathering of European defense ministers,

but denied that any discussion had taken place about a 150,000-strong

invasion force.

A ministry spokesman said that the only discussions involving ground

forces were in relation to the proposed enhancement of the planned

international peacekeeping force from 28,000 to up to 48,000 agreed to

last week by NATO.

"There was certainly no discussion of figures in relation to options

other than that already agreed by NATO," the spokesman said.

However, The Sunday Telegraph quoted senior ministry of defense

officials as saying that Britain was now working on contingency plans

for sending up to 50,000 British personnel to the Balkans.

According to the newspaper, a spokesman for Robertson told it that the

defense ministers also had spoken about "other options" than an

international peacekeeping force.

They decided to intensify the air war but also looked at options for a

ground invasion, said The Sunday Telegraph.

The ministers were told that General Wesley Clark, NATO's commander in

Europe, estimated that a total force of 150,000 would be required to

eject the Serbs from Kosovo if Belgrade refused to accept NATO's terms

by late summer, it added.

Britain has been privately pressing other NATO members for weeks to

face up to the likely need to send ground troops into combat in the

Serbian province, said The Sunday Telegraph.

Another London newspaper, meanwhile, reported that the British army is

preparing to call up civilian doctors and nurses to serve in Kosovo as

it is faced with the mounting prospect of a ground invasion.

The Sunday Times said that Robertson wants call-up papers issued to

hundreds of state-employed doctors and nurses and other medical staff

with military ties.

A total of 390 medics were called up during preparations for the 1990

Gulf War. They complemented 700 reservist volunteers with medical

qualifications.

Robertson argues that larger numbers may be needed if British forces

enter Kosovo because they will have to tend to thousands of sick and

hungry Kosovars as well as caring for military casualties, said The

Sunday Times.

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Copyright © 1999 Nando Media



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