Rapid-Reaction Force Is Slow to Move Into Action

When Bosnian Serb troops began rampaging through eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina’s last Muslim enclaves last week, stopping them seemed like just the job for the new European rapid-reaction force.

The 12,500-strong team of heavily armed British, French and Dutch soldiers, created in the wake of the recent U.N. hostage crisis in Bosnia, was designed to give the beleaguered U.N. mission here the muscle it needs to defend itself from attacks and fulfill its duties of feeding and protecting Bosnia’s civilians.

But the rapid-reaction force has been slow to deploy and is mired in confusion over its exact role, mirroring in many ways the general disarray of the international community’s approach to Bosnia.

The force was conceived by the 16 countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during an emergency session in June to counter, among other things, the threat posed to U.N. peacekeepers by the Bosnian Serbs, who at the time were holding hundreds of peacekeepers hostage.

With another crisis unfolding, this time the assault on so-called “safe areas” in eastern Bosnia, major Western powers are again placing their hopes on the rapid-reaction force. France, especially, has proposed using the force to protect the eastern safe area of Gorazde and to open a supply route to the besieged capital of Sarajevo.

The senior military commanders of Britain, the United States and France convened in London on Sunday to debate proposals for Bosnia, where the Serbs appear determined to consolidate their control of the eastern half of the country.

Senior U.N. officials, however, have seemed reluctant to activate the force--and, ever mindful of offending the Serbs, they have been careful to downplay just how forceful the outfit will be.

At last count, the United Nations was working on the third draft of a “concept paper” defining what the new force will do, even as its participants arrived on Bosnian soil and trained in maneuvers.

The rapid-reaction force consists of three brigades, all of which have been reduced in size from original plans: a multinational brigade with a British-Dutch task force called “Alpha” and a French task force called “Bravo”; the British army’s 24th Air Mobile Brigade, and a reserve brigade on standby in France.

The United States, which has no ground troops in Bosnia, is supplying about 90 logistics troops to provide air- and sea-lift support for the force.

Bosnian officials initially feared that the rapid-reaction force would be used to withdraw the 23,000 U.N. troops stationed in the country if the peacekeeping force finally concedes defeat.

Public statements by the Western officials most involved have been contradictory, further muddying the waters about the new outfit’s role.

“I don’t have a task--I am waiting for a task,” French Brig. Gen. Andre Soubirou, commander of the multinational brigade, told reporters during a weekend tour of the headquarters of task force “Bravo” near the western Bosnian town of Tomislavgrad.

Military analysts say it would be difficult for the rapid-reaction force to embark on a mission to save one of the eastern enclaves before the air mobile brigade is fully deployed. Troops would need the helicopters to reach distant pockets surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces.

Although the air mobile brigade has begun to arrive, it will not be operational until mid- to late August, U.N. officials say.

French officials have suggested rescuing Gorazde because the safe area of Srebrenica is already lost and another protected enclave, Zepa, is likely to fall. The three were the most vulnerable of six safe areas established by the United Nations two years ago to give refuge to thousands of Muslim civilians driven from their homes by the Serbs.

A more promising task for the contingent is securing a road into Sarajevo. French troops are ready to tackle that mission and have already begun engineering work with the Bosnian government along a treacherous trail over nearby Mt. Igman.

Mt. Igman is the only access to Sarajevo not controlled by the Serbs, but even it is routinely shelled by the rebels, who have a clear view of some portions of the roadway.

Securing the Igman route will involve erecting barriers or shields to protect motorists from incoming mortars, as well as using combat troops to fire back at Serbian positions.

The French have established mortar positions on Igman and have used them with increasing vigor in the past two weeks to retaliate against Serbian gunners harassing aid convoys that bring desperately needed flour into the hungry city of Sarajevo.

The dilemma for U.N. planners is that securing the road benefits the United Nations, which will use the road, and Sarajevo civilians who will receive humanitarian aid brought in over the road--but the Bosnian government army also stands to benefit because it uses the road to move troops and its own supplies.

Deployment of the rapid-reaction force was delayed in part, and ironically, by resistance from the Bosnian government, which demanded a better explanation of the unit’s purpose. Croatia, through whose seaports and airports the new troops must pass, also slowed things down by demanding that large user fees be paid to its government, according to diplomatic sources.

Although the original designs for the rapid-reaction force were for a robust team of combat-ready men and women, the proposal was gradually tamed after the force was put under U.N. control. Emphasis was shifted to protection not of safe areas but of the U.N. peacekeepers themselves.