U.S. Sets Criteria for End to Bosnia Mission

The Clinton administration told Congress on Wednesday that withdrawal of U.S. and other NATO troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina will hinge on “benchmarks” such as the restructuring of the police, the peaceful return of refugees to their prewar homes and the surrender of indicted war crimes suspects for trial.

A senior administration official declined to predict how long the troops will have to stay but conceded that those goals won’t be met quickly.

The performance-based evaluation replaces the fixed deadlines for withdrawal of U.S. troops that President Clinton has twice set and twice missed. When Clinton acknowledged in December that troops would not be out of Bosnia on schedule by July 1, he said he would not set a new deadline.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization council, meeting in Brussels, voted last month to extend indefinitely the current 32,000-strong peacekeeping force. U.S. participation, now at 8,500 or so, will be reduced to fewer than 7,000, with European countries making up the difference.

On Wednesday, Clinton asked Congress for $1.85 billion to pay for the U.S. troop presence for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and $1.86 billion for the next fiscal year.

The senior official said that late last year, the mood on Capitol Hill was “dour” and that it appeared the administration would have a tough time persuading lawmakers to extend the deadline for troop withdrawal. But he said lawmakers have welcomed recent signs of progress and that, although there is still opposition to an extended deployment, the administration expects to win approval for its plans.

Referring to the 1995 Bosnia peace agreement negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, the official said the administration’s objective is to “get Dayton implementation to the point where it can continue without a heavy bodyguard” of foreign troops.

For instance, he said, police in both halves of the ethnically divided country are based on an East European model, with heavy concentrations of secret and other forces intended to suppress political dissent. He said the police must be reorganized to meet democratic standards, requiring the “retraining of each and every policeman.”

The Dayton accord promised refugees the option of returning to their prewar homes--in effect reversing brutal “ethnic cleansing” that drove out minority populations. So far, the pace of returns has been slow, and many refugees who have tried to reclaim homes have been attacked anew.

The administration official said Wednesday that there must be an established process for peaceful refugee returns before foreign troops can be withdrawn. Although he declined to set a target or to predict how long the process will take, he said refugees must be made to feel safe if they try to go home.

He also noted that before NATO troops leave, all indicted war crimes suspects must be turned over to the international tribunal in The Hague for trial.