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From the Telegraph
From the Wall Street Journal (need to register to see)
Strange, if true.
Serbs to fight beside US troops in Afghanistan
By David Rennie
(Filed: 06/10/2003)
Serbian troops are set to join American forces in Afghanistan in a deployment certain to spark fury across the Muslim world.
The prospect of 1,000 veterans of ferocious combat against Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo fighting in a Muslim country came after American military commanders were reported yesterday to have accepted an unexpected offer from Belgrade to assist in combat missions against al-Qa'eda and the Taliban.
Disputes have already emerged over reports that a powerful Serbian police chief, Gen Goran Radosavljevic, insists that he should lead the Afghan deployment.
Although he has never been indicted of a war crime, human rights groups say units under his command committed atrocities against Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war.
His leadership is likely to be viewed unfavourably by the Pentagon, but defence officials are desperate to ease the burden on overstretched American forces.
Serbian officials described the mission, which would see up to 1,000 battle hardened Serbian and Montenegrin troops and paramilitary gendarmes deployed near Kandahar, as a done deal.
But America would confirm only that Serbian and Montenegrin officials visited Washington and Central Command headquarters in Florida last week to discuss the mechanics of a deployment.
Military chiefs at Central Command swiftly approved the offer of Serbian troops when it was made "out of the blue", US officials told The New York Times.
Any political doubts were outweighed by the urgent need for more combat forces and the likelihood that Serbian troops would be on their "best behaviour".
By David Rennie
(Filed: 06/10/2003)
Serbian troops are set to join American forces in Afghanistan in a deployment certain to spark fury across the Muslim world.
The prospect of 1,000 veterans of ferocious combat against Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo fighting in a Muslim country came after American military commanders were reported yesterday to have accepted an unexpected offer from Belgrade to assist in combat missions against al-Qa'eda and the Taliban.
Disputes have already emerged over reports that a powerful Serbian police chief, Gen Goran Radosavljevic, insists that he should lead the Afghan deployment.
Although he has never been indicted of a war crime, human rights groups say units under his command committed atrocities against Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war.
His leadership is likely to be viewed unfavourably by the Pentagon, but defence officials are desperate to ease the burden on overstretched American forces.
Serbian officials described the mission, which would see up to 1,000 battle hardened Serbian and Montenegrin troops and paramilitary gendarmes deployed near Kandahar, as a done deal.
But America would confirm only that Serbian and Montenegrin officials visited Washington and Central Command headquarters in Florida last week to discuss the mechanics of a deployment.
Military chiefs at Central Command swiftly approved the offer of Serbian troops when it was made "out of the blue", US officials told The New York Times.
Any political doubts were outweighed by the urgent need for more combat forces and the likelihood that Serbian troops would be on their "best behaviour".
From the Wall Street Journal (need to register to see)
There were several reasons why the toppling of Slobodan Milosevic was a good thing, and now we have one more: Serbia and Montenegro are to send soldiers to Afghanistan, to help American troops there keep the peace and send off the remnants of the Taliban.
In July, Zoran Zivkovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, was in Washington where, at a meeting with Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, he startled his hosts by offering the U.S. an a la carte menu: 1,000 soldiers by March next year, to serve in Liberia, Iraq, or Afghanistan, wherever Washington wanted them most.
"Their jaws dropped," a State Department official told us. "It was as if Powell and Rice had seen a unicorn walk into the room." They accepted -- and eventually chose Afghanistan, the Kandahar region to be specific, where the Serbs will be under American command. Washington made clear there would be no quid pro quo on Kosovo, and Belgrade has been wise not to ask for one.
The offer is remarkable coming a mere four years after the fall of Milosevic and after U.S.-led NATO forces bombed Serbia for 78 straight days. Yet Mr. Zivkovic's offer is in audacious sync with present relations between the U.S. and Serbia-Montenegro, described by an American Embassy official in Belgrade as "the best certainly since 1991, maybe even since WW II." Sanctions on Belgrade have been lifted and the U.S. is now the single largest foreign investor in Serbia- Montenegro.
The Serbian offer has set in motion a faintly bizarre train. Yesterday President Ibrahim Rugova of Kosovo told us that he'd been in touch with the State Department too: "I don't have soldiers," he said ruefully, "but we're happy to offer a police force for Iraq and Afghanistan."
There is need to guard against euphoria. Mr. Zivkovic, on his return to Belgrade, was accused of making the troop offer as an act of free-lance politics. The idea had not been "staffed out" before his departure, and even Serbia-Montenegro's Defense Minister hadn't been consulted. There were fears that if news of the offer leaked beforehand, and the U.S. turned its nose up at Serbian troops, the government would suffer a major loss of face.
Although it is dwindling fast, anti-Americanism persists in Serbia. But the popular clamor for a return to normal-country status means that public opinion is unlikely to force a withdrawal of the troop offer. The deal needs parliamentary approval later this year but such is the pace at which negotiations are proceeding -- rules of engagement are already being drawn up for the Serbian troops -- that legislators are likely to be faced with a fait accompli.
The U.S. needs to be picky about the troops that Belgrade sends. There can be no place for units with a history of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, nor for commanders who led such damnable operations. But the Serbians, weary of being everyone's pariah, are unlikely to balk at demands that their troops be "clean," and to switch off their first positive international spotlight in over a decade. Who'd have thought that the Serbs would turn out to be better friends of America than the French?
In July, Zoran Zivkovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, was in Washington where, at a meeting with Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, he startled his hosts by offering the U.S. an a la carte menu: 1,000 soldiers by March next year, to serve in Liberia, Iraq, or Afghanistan, wherever Washington wanted them most.
"Their jaws dropped," a State Department official told us. "It was as if Powell and Rice had seen a unicorn walk into the room." They accepted -- and eventually chose Afghanistan, the Kandahar region to be specific, where the Serbs will be under American command. Washington made clear there would be no quid pro quo on Kosovo, and Belgrade has been wise not to ask for one.
The offer is remarkable coming a mere four years after the fall of Milosevic and after U.S.-led NATO forces bombed Serbia for 78 straight days. Yet Mr. Zivkovic's offer is in audacious sync with present relations between the U.S. and Serbia-Montenegro, described by an American Embassy official in Belgrade as "the best certainly since 1991, maybe even since WW II." Sanctions on Belgrade have been lifted and the U.S. is now the single largest foreign investor in Serbia- Montenegro.
The Serbian offer has set in motion a faintly bizarre train. Yesterday President Ibrahim Rugova of Kosovo told us that he'd been in touch with the State Department too: "I don't have soldiers," he said ruefully, "but we're happy to offer a police force for Iraq and Afghanistan."
There is need to guard against euphoria. Mr. Zivkovic, on his return to Belgrade, was accused of making the troop offer as an act of free-lance politics. The idea had not been "staffed out" before his departure, and even Serbia-Montenegro's Defense Minister hadn't been consulted. There were fears that if news of the offer leaked beforehand, and the U.S. turned its nose up at Serbian troops, the government would suffer a major loss of face.
Although it is dwindling fast, anti-Americanism persists in Serbia. But the popular clamor for a return to normal-country status means that public opinion is unlikely to force a withdrawal of the troop offer. The deal needs parliamentary approval later this year but such is the pace at which negotiations are proceeding -- rules of engagement are already being drawn up for the Serbian troops -- that legislators are likely to be faced with a fait accompli.
The U.S. needs to be picky about the troops that Belgrade sends. There can be no place for units with a history of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, nor for commanders who led such damnable operations. But the Serbians, weary of being everyone's pariah, are unlikely to balk at demands that their troops be "clean," and to switch off their first positive international spotlight in over a decade. Who'd have thought that the Serbs would turn out to be better friends of America than the French?
Strange, if true.
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