Word: nato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...last week was a bit of progress on designing a new shape and government for war-ravaged Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead, when the American special envoy arrived in Belgrade, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic surprised him with a proposal to end the siege of Sarajevo in exchange for cessation of NATO's bombing campaign against Serb military installations...
...NATO promptly put its air strikes on hold and gave the Serbs three days--until Sunday night--to begin fulfilling their promises. If they did so, the bombing pause would be extended for another three days to complete and verify the pullback. The Bosnian government, for its part, pledged not to launch any attacks on the withdrawing Serbs in the Sarajevo area...
...Bosnian Serbs have reneged on so many similar agreements in the past that there could be no certainty about this one. "If there isn't full compliance," said Holbrooke, "the U.S. will urge immediate resumption by NATO of the air attacks." President Bill Clinton backed him up, saying the Serbs should have no doubt that "NATO will resume the air strikes if they fail to keep their commitments." But Karadzic vowed, "We will withdraw our weaponry," and said it would be hauled outside the U.N.-declared 12.5-mile exclusion zone around Sarajevo. The pledge was confirmed by General Dragomir Milosevic...
France and its new President Jacques Chirac show no overt indications of pique at Washington's sudden front-running role. In fact, officials in Paris take some credit for the development, pointing out that it was Chirac who pushed for a well-armed Rapid Reaction Force and urged NATO to show its muscle. "I am delighted," said Chirac, "that the Americans have become strongly involved for the past few weeks." The British were solidly behind air strikes until, as Defense Minister Michael Portillo said, "the threat to Sarajevo is lifted." Privately, London had been asking Washington to broker a local...
With a cease-fire in prospect for the whole country, the allies have begun to rethink how many troops will be needed to police an actual peace agreement. Last week Defense Secretary Perry scaled back previous Pentagon estimates. He said the so-called NATO Implementation Force may need only 50,000 rather than 70,000 on the ground, of whom 15,000, not 25,000, would be American. French Defense Minister Millon is to arrive in Washington this week to begin talks on how to provide political direction to the soldiers of the NATO peacekeeping force. France is leaning toward...