A NUMBER OF NATO SOLDIERS IN BOSNIA TO BE REDUCED GRADUALLY

SARAJEVO, Nov 20 (Hina) - About 45,000 soldiers are currently serving in the international peace implementation force, IFOR, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A number of troops should be reduced to about 30,000 by December 20, 1996 when the mandate of the IFOR expired, a spokesman for IFOR said in Sarajevo on Wednesday. The spokesman Bratt Boudreau said the current troops were continuing to implement fully their mandate. He added that the withdrawal of the NATO Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) from Bosnia, which had began on Wednesday, would not affect the course of the IFOR mission. IFOR troops were performing their regular duties such as the inspection of military facilities. During one of such inspections, IFOR troops discovered certain quantity of illicit weapons in a storehouse of Bosnian Croat armed force (HVO) in the Orasje area (northern Bosnia) on Tuesday. They confiscated 250 mines, 700 fuses and 15 kilograms of explosives and several rockets. All the weapons would be destroyed, the spokesman said. British soldiers, in cooperation with local police, on Tuesday found out a sniper who had opened fire at the IFOR base at the village of Ramici outside Banja Luka in the Serb entity. The arrested sniper is in prison in Banja Luka, and the Serb police started investigate him. (hina) jn mš 201508 MET nov 96