German Lawmakers Approve Stationing Troops in Bosnia
German troops will participate in a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia, giving a new role to a military that is gradually shedding restraint rooted in its Nazi past.
Legislators decided Friday that about 3,000 German soldiers will be part of a 31,000-strong mission replacing the international force twice that size that has policed the peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the last year.
Until now, German troops have had only a supporting role in the force led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A total of 4,000 soldiers have been based in Croatia, running convoys into Bosnia and helping repair war damage.
Friday’s decision allows Germans to join other European troops in enforcing peace on Bosnia’s former front lines, where they could be drawn into hostilities in a region fraught with memories of Nazi brutality.
The 499-93 parliamentary vote and the lack of major public debate on the deployment illustrate Germany’s rising self-confidence in international affairs.
The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, joined Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s governing coalition in approving the mission.
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