US Arms Weaker Side for Bosnia After NATO

Still outgunned

Despite opposition to the program by Britain, France, and other European allies, the State Department has organized the delivery of $100 million in military equipment. Even with these transfers, the Federation army remains outgunned by its Bosnian Serb counterpart, whose arsenal exceeds slightly the arms-control limits set by the Dayton accords. Diplomatic and military sources in Sarajevo say the political and economic crises in the Bosnia Serb Republic, or Republika Srpska, have certainly weakened the Bosnian Serb army. But it is still believed capable of launching an offensive.

Mr. Jelavic says the federation army will only be used for defense. "Achieving a military balance is most vital to ensuring security in Bosnia once SFOR leaves," he says. "But we have not achieved that balance, and to do so we need continued material assistance from the outside world."

US involvement isn't new. In October 1996, the Clinton administration delayed preliminary shipments of US-supplied weapons until Sarajevo agreed to sack then-Defense Minister Hasam Cengic, an Islamic cleric with close ties to Iran. US officials say they are satisfied that the federation has severed ties to Iran. "Bosnia has legitimate security concerns," a US official says. "If we don't help them meet those concerns they will look elsewhere instead."

Today the US appears committed to strengthening the federation army. Washington has provided for the training of battalion commanders and brigade commanders through a private company, Alexandria, Va.-based Military Professional Resources International (MPRI), which is led by retired senior US military officers and Defense Intelligence Agency officials.

The company runs a school and battlefield simulations center near Hadzici, and is helping construct a large military firing range near Livno in Croat-controlled western Herzegovina.

Ammunition for stored weaponry is kept in Livno, apart from the heavy weapons. This is meant to enhance security, according to MPRI spokesman Joe Allred. It also was the logical place to store them, he says: The heavy weapons will be used for the first time at the training ground there.

"All of our training operations center on a 'deter-and-defend' strategy," says MPRI's Dick Edwards, who heads the simulations center in Hadzici. "It has gone very well because they are excellent students. We really don't see any tensions between the HVO and ABiH officers who work here."

The center is actually one of the few places where middle-rank soldiers of the two armies work together on a constant basis. The cadres who are trained here are from unintegrated battalion- and brigade-strength units, and a proposed joint brigade has yet to be founded.

"We are professionals," says ABiH Capt. Eis Bektas, who runs simulations at the center, as a HVO counterpart nods in agreement. "When our leaders tell us to fight, we fight. When they tell us to work together, we work together. There really are no problems."

Asked if any of them had fought in battles between the two armies in their 1994 war, the circle of soldiers became tense. "We don't talk about these things here," Captain Bektas explains. "Not ever."

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