U.S. START DELIVERING ARMS TO BH FEDERATION MILITARY FORCES

SARAJEVO, Aug 29 (Hina) - The government of the United States decided to start delivering its military equipment intended for the military forces of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and in accordance with the "Equip and Train" plan, U.S. special envoy for issues on military stabilization in the Balkans, James Pardew, on Wednesday told reporters after a meeting with the highest Croatian and Bosniak officials in Sarajevo. Pardew said that 1016 M-16 guns and 200 M-60 machine guns with ammunition and some 200 communication devices would be delivered on special planes, the first of which arrived in Sarajevo today. Pardew said that arms and equipment would be stored at the joint logistics centre of the Croatian Defense Council and the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Visoko, 25 km north of Sarajevo, from where it would be deployed to units on the ground. The rest of the arms and military equipment would be delivered on ships by the end of October, and it would include 45 M-60 A3 tanks, 80 M-113 A2 armoured personnel-carriers and 15 UH-1 H helicopters, said Pardew. He also pointed out that the Egyptian government had decided to take part in the delivery of arms, with 12 cannons among else, which would be of particular importance since the lack of cannons was one of the weaknesses of the Federation army during the conflict. This delivery of arms did not question the peace process, Pardew said, because it only established military balance, in accordance with the Dayton Agreement. He added that deliveries were fully supervised by the NATO-led Peace Implementation Force. Experts of the MPRI company, which implements the "Equip and Train" programme and has currently some 1000 employees in Bosnia, yesterday completed a series of meetings with the Federation's political leaders discussing assumptions for a fast realization of the set goals. USD 140 million have been provided so far for the training and equipment of the Federation's military forces, which should be fully integrated within the next three years, mainly through donations from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. (hina) ha 291843 MET aug 96