July 3, 1996

Military Police Will Replace 1,200 Combat G.I.s in Bosnia

By PHILIP SHENON

ASZAR, Hungary -- About 1,200 American troops and their tanks will be removed from Bosnia by late this month and replaced by members of the military police intended to provide security during national elections there, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

The move would be the first major troop rotation since American peacekeepers arrived in Bosnia last year, and it carries some degree of risk, since the military police have nothing like the firepower of the armored units they will replace.

Defense Secretary William Perry, meeting Tuesday at an air base in Taszar with American military commanders involved in the peacekeeping operation, said the "mission that required the armored units has been quite successful -- we don't need them any longer."

"It's easy to forget now that when our forces came in here," he said, "many people predicted that we would be forced to fight a war, meet armed resistance, and we brought in a force sufficiently strong to meet that contingency. Fortunately that contingency never developed, and we're now restructuring our forces appropriately."

British, French and other Western troops in the 60,000-member American-led peacekeeping force are expected to make similar rotations, sending home many of their tanks and other heavy weapons.

Kenneth Bacon, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said that the military police would be sent to Bosnia from Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Polk, La.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Fort Bragg, N.C. He said they would be more useful than armored units in preparing for elections scheduled for September and for the resettlement of refugees. The military police are expected to provide security for election workers during the balloting.

"The MPs are a lighter, more nimble force," he said.

He said it was not immediately clear how many tanks would be removed from Bosnia, although he said there would be more than enough tanks and other armored vehicles to protect American forces.

The military police usually travel in Jeep-like utility vehicles known as Humvees, and they protect themselves with machine guns mounted on the roofs of the vehicles.

Gen. George A. Joulwan, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told reporters in Taszar that the United States would have to wait until after the elections to decide when to begin major reductions in the size of the American peacekeeping force, which is scheduled to pull out of Bosnia by early next year.

Although Defense Department officials are leery of discussing the issue publicly, it has become increasingly clear that NATO will retain some sort of peacekeeping force in Bosnia next year, and that American ground troops will be part of it.

NATO's efforts to rebuild Bosnia's war-shattered economy and heal divisions among its ethnic groups have largely failed, and Pentagon officials say that if the peacekeeping force pulls out entirely next year, Bosnia will almost certainly dissolve into civil war again.