SARAJEVO, Jan 15 (Hina) - NATO will not leave Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the possible transfer of command authority from the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in the country to the European Union will be carried out with utmost attention and
will not jeopardise the existing level of security, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Sarajevo on Thursday.
SARAJEVO, Jan 15 (Hina) - NATO will not leave Bosnia-Herzegovina, and
the possible transfer of command authority from the Stabilisation
Force (SFOR) in the country to the European Union will be carried out
with utmost attention and will not jeopardise the existing level of
security, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in
Sarajevo on Thursday.#L#
Speaking at a press conference during his day-long visit, De Hoop
Scheffer said he had not chosen Bosnia-Herzegovina by accident as the
destination of his first trip abroad after he took over the Alliance
as secretary general less than two weeks ago.
He said post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina was the best proof that
reconstruction and reconciliation were possible.
De Hoop Scheffer said Bosnia-Herzegovina's membership of NATO's
Partnership for Peace programme mostly depended on politicians in
Bosnia-Herzegovina who had to prove their readiness to carry out the
necessary reforms, at the same time cooperating with the UN war crimes
tribunal in The Hague.
The international community's High Representative to
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, said the country's authorities were
presented with very clear deadlines.
By February 15, a Ministry of Defence must be established and a
Defence Minister appointed, and efforts must be stepped up to arrest
war crimes suspects and legally regulate the establishment of a State
Intelligence Service.
Asked if Bosnia-Herzegovina was used by terrorists as a base, De Hoop
Scheffer said NATO had no such information.
If we had, we would immediately act on it, he said, dismissing
frequent media reports of terrorists being trained in the country and
then sent to crisis spots such as Iraq or Afghanistan.
The NATO chief confirmed that SFOR troops would continue searching for
suspected war criminals, particularly Bosnian Serb wartime leader
Radovan Karadzic, whose arrest he said was an essential precondition
for Bosnia-Herzegovina's admission to the Partnership for Peace
programme.
He added that this would not be changed by the transfer of command
authority to the European Union, which he said would probably happen
by the end of the year.
Scheffer said the Alliance would find a way of maintaining its
presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(Hina) vm sb