Cohen Recommends Withdrawal From Macedonia -- 03/17/1999

Cohen Recommends Withdrawal From Macedonia

17 March, 1999

By Scott Hogenson
CNS Executive Editor

(CNS) - American military actions in Macedonia, South America and Haiti "ought to be terminated," according to Secretary of Defense William Cohen.

The Washington Post and The New York Times reported last weekend that Gen. Charles Wilhelm, who heads the U.S. Southern Command, was recommending the withdrawal of about 500 American troops from Haiti, where a U.S. force landed in 1994 to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

But Cohen's testimony before a Capitol Hill subcommittee earlier this month raises further questions about American peacekeeping missions abroad, particularly the Macedonian operation, which lies in the same region as Kosovo, the site of bitter fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanians.

During his testimony before the House Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee, Cohen said that the U.S. mission in Haiti, "and some other peacekeeping missions," should be ended, according to a transcript of the March 3 hearing obtained by CNS.

Pentagon spokesman Bill Darley told CNS that the "other peacekeeping missions" Cohen was referring to included U.S. operations along the disputed border between Ecuador and Peru, and the presence of American troops in Macedonia, which lies between Greece and Bosnia. Darley said the secretary's recommendation to end those missions was tentative, and he gave no indication of when a final decision might be made.

Pentagon officials told CNS that decreased American involvement the Ecuador-Peru border region was the result of an accord signed last year by the leaders of the two nations. However, the size and future mission of the U.S. contingent in Macedonia, where about 500 American troops remain on duty as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force, remains uncertain.

"Because it's a U.N. mission, because there are so many players in the thing, it just has a lot of political labyrinths associated with doing anything with it," Darley told CNS. "It's being reviewed in terms of what our participation is and what will be its successor."

The future of the American mission in Macedonia is also clouded by fighting in nearby Kosovo, where efforts to forge peace have been thwarted by continued fighting between warring factions.

According to Cohen's testimony, much of the concern about American forces on peacekeeping missions centers around not only the expense, but the wear and tear on equipment and troops in the region. During his remarks, Cohen said it's an issue "that was raised to the president starting last summer," and the secretary predicted a "substantial reduction" in the number of U.S. troops in Bosnia later this year, according to the transcript.

Cohen noted in his testimony that the size of the American force in the region has "come down from our 20,000 deployment force in Bosnia," to around 6,200 today, a figure Cohen believed would continue to shrink by summer. "It is my belief that in the next four or five months, when the next six-month review takes place, we will see an even more substantial reduction on the part of everyone," said Cohen.

The Clinton Administration has been under pressure to bring American troops home from the region, and has already missed several self-imposed deadlines for doing so. The U.S. forces in Macedonia, Haiti, South America and other areas of the world were dispatched by President Clinton without congressional approval.

According to Raul Duany, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, about 24 American personnel remain active in the South American mission, which began more than four years ago. Duany told CNS that U.S. involvement along the Ecuador-Peru border never exceeded 100 troops, most of them from the Special Operations Command, which is comprised mainly of Army Rangers, Green Beret and Navy SEAL forces.

The leaders of Ecuador and Peru signed an agreement last October, in which they agreed to let regional arbitrators help resolve questions over their common border, decreasing American involvement in that region. Duany told CNS that 24 U.S. military personnel remain in the area, where they will "monitor and verify demarcation and de-mining in the border region." The boarder between the two nations has been the subject of dispute and periodic skirmishes since the 19th century.

The United States joined with forces from Argentina, Brazil and Chili in the South American mission, which Duany said cost U.S. taxpayers about $1 million per year. The relatively low cost of the operation, Duany said, was because the governments of Ecuador and Peru reimbursed the U.S. for most of the costs involved in the American action.

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