DAYTON PEACE ACCORD TO BE FULLY IMPLEMENTED BY JUNE 1998 - BRITISH

BRITISH $ GEN. SARAJEVO, Nov 18 (Hina) - The IFOR mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina was of great importance to the NATO, said British General Michael Walker, the IFOR ground troops' commander since the very beginning of the peace implementation force's deployment who is soon leaving that office. We have learnt many lessons. Most important ones are that such operations are possible only if they are carried out at multinational basis and if well-trained men are engaged. Equipment is the second important thing, no matter how it is perfect, Gen. Walker told a news conference on Monday at the NATO Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) command at Ilidza outside Sarajevo. The NATO rapid reaction force command is soon returning to Germany where it has the permanent base. On Wednesday the IFOR ground troops' commander General Walker will hand over command to British General Cordy Simpson, who had been in Bosnia in 1992 and 1993 as the then UNPROFOR headquarters chief-of-staff. Gen. Walker held that the entire operation of IFOR could be regarded as exceptionally successful. At the very beginning no one hoped that we would easily entered Bosnia and enforce the ceasefire and separation of forces without much difficulty, he said adding that so far 51 soldiers had died in Bosnia during the NATO mission. He said it was a comparatively small number as regards the volume of the operation. Gen. Walker said Bosnia's people welcomed well the NATO troops, but the problem was that everybody was expecting from IFOR force to solve all difficulties. It is neither feasible nor acceptable, he added and refused to describe any part of the mission as failure. However, he warned that problems of refugees' return and war crimes suspects' arrest had not yet been solved. Believing that this was the responsibility of civilian structures of authority, he said that the international community must define a clear mandate to be fulfilled in Bosnia in the future. Gen. Walker said he was confident that follow-up force of IFOR would be able to respond to every challenge, but it should not have the task to hunt down war criminals. He cautioned that NATO soldiers could not remain in Bosnia- Herzegovina for ever. There is fatigue in the international community with the Bosnia problem, the British general said and anticipated that the Dayton peace accords could be fully implemented in Bosnia by June 1998. (hina) mš 181453 MET nov 96