Staggering amount of weaponry given to Bosnian Muslim fundamentalists...

U.S. To Supply Muslim-Croat Army With
116 Large Cannon

The New York Times
May 12, 1997
By MIKE O'CONNOR

For fair use only
Published under the provision of
U.S. Code, Title 17, section 107.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The United States said Friday that it was sending the Bosnian [Muslim] Federation 116 large artillery pieces in an effort to bolster one of main weaknesses of the Muslim-Croat Federation and set the stage for the withdrawal of American peacekeeping forces from Bosnia by July 1998. [Good joke about "the withdrawal?"]

Currently the federation's military has only six of the weapons, 155-millimeter howitzers with a range of about nine miles and tremendous destructive power.

The federation army, made up of Muslim and Croatian elements that quarrel more than they cooperate, is the force in the half of the country not controlled by the Bosnian Serb army. Forging a unified Muslim-Croatian force strong enough to deter attack is a cornerstone of the United States exit strategy.

James Pardew, the American diplomat in charge of a $100 million program to train and equip the Bosnian army, announced the artillery shipment at the headquarters of the Bosnian Defense Ministry in Sarajevo and said the additional artillery would contribute to peace in Bosnia by giving the Sarajevo government more power to defend itself.

The Americans insist that the weapons and training are intended to bolster the federation's defensive ability, but they agree that in the recent history of this region the same kind of weapons have been used more often to take ground than to defend it.

Washington says it is seeking to create a level playing field in a region where the Bosnian Muslims were overwhelmingly outgunned (sic!) for most of the war. Europe, however, is very critical of the American program, and some European diplomats said pouring more weapons into an already arms-rich region would only help rekindle a war.

"This is going to make the Serb military very scared," a senior European officer said. "And that could really hurt their compliance with the arms reduction treaty."

The arms reduction program, part of the 1995 peace agreement, requires the armies to place their artillery, tanks, combat vehicles and aircraft in specific sites and then destroy those that exceed the limits to which the armies agreed.

Adding to the chance of conflict, Bosnian Serb officials said this week that they would more than double the size of their police force, to 50,000 officers, and might issue them military weapons. Foreign diplomats say they have little power to prevent such a violation of the peace agreement.

Even as the United States announced that it was giving additional weapons to the federation, foreign diplomats and military monitors say the Bosnian Serb army expects to receive modern artillery and tanks from Russia. [A blunt lie.]

The federation army's strength will increase markedly with the addition of those new weapons and training, but it is impossible to determine whether it would then be an equal match for the Bosnian Serb army.

Although the Bosnian Serbs still have more artillery pieces, their strength is difficult to measure, diplomats say, because of internal problems among their commanders and the political authorities who oversee them.

Along with the increasing strength, there has been a toughening of the stance of some Bosnian Muslim politicians, according to diplomats. In private meetings, the politicians have said they feel a responsibility to retake all the territory the Serbs captured.

Muslim "retaking" lands from the Serbs The Serbs "took" that territory when they settled in Bosnia more than MILLENNIUM ago. In seventh century. Ever since the Serbs were overwhelming majority in large swaths of Bosnia. See this ethnic map published by Encyclopedia Britannica, Edition 1990 (only a year before the civil wars started), Macropedia, Volume 29, page 1090. The triangle shape in the middle of the country is Bosnia. Just WHAT did the West recognize as a country? And why should people presented here in light brown (the Bosnian Muslims) control entire Bosnia? The Serbs (light blue) cover the largest portion of Bosnia. Sarajevo (find it on the map) is without ethnic majority. Why should Sarajevo today be controlled by the Muslims and be completely (thanks to NATO) cleansed of the Serbs? LEARN MORE

In fact, on all sides, the same parties and often even the same leaders who held power when the war began are in charge or exerting influence behind the scenes today.

The United States will also pay for 51 other slightly smaller artillery pieces to be manufactured in Bosnia for the federation. The new artillery is to arrive by October, but like the other equipment already delivered, including tanks and smaller artillery, it is not supposed to be under the control of Bosnian officers until American officials are satisfied that the federation army is sufficiently cohesive.

The American private company that is training the federation army is the same company that Croatia hired to train its soldiers in 1995.

Croatian "Retaking" of Krajina in 1995 The Croat army, with their WWII Ustasha insignia slaughtered a few thousand elderly Serbs in August 1995. Those are the same Serbs who survived the original Ustashas, Hitler's devoted allies and probably the worst monsters of modern history. The new Croat Nazis were trained by the American "private company" (MPRI). LEARN MORE

This enabled the Croatian military, especially its artillery, to assist the Bosnian government army in the offensive in the closing months of the war [in Bosnia] that recaptured about a third of the territory that had been taken by the Serbs.

The introduction of more artillery to Bosnia comes at a time when an arms reduction program has already been undercut by mistrust and deceit among the three armies in Bosnia.

Western officials said Friday that the Bosnian Serb army had hidden away more than 2,000 weapons, more than half of them large artillery pieces, tanks or combat vehicles.

Intelligence estimates have varied widely over how many weapons the Bosnian Serbs have. In October, for instance, the Bosnian Serbs reported having 1,350 artillery pieces, while the French estimated that the Serbs had 1,374, the British reported 2,584 and the CIA's number was even higher.

Though American officials disagree, foreign military officers who monitor the program say the Bosnian Muslims and their nominal Bosnian Croat allies are also violating the agreement by concealing weapons.

The monitors say no one has more than a general idea of how many heavy weapons are held by any side in Bosnia, in part because they cannot rely on the inventories of the weapons conducted by soldiers under NATO command.

"On paper our program is working well," a senior foreign military monitor said. "Everyone is reducing, more or less, from the numbers they declared they have. But no one knows what the real numbers are, either the number of weapons in the inspection sites, or the ones that are hidden."

Under the agreement, either side can get weapons if it first destroys enough weapons to bring its army under the limits set in the arms reduction agreement. It can then use newer equipment to build its stocks back to the maximum allowed.

But since the armies may have concealed much of their equipment, even if they destroy most of their declared stocks, they could still have substantially more weapons than the numbers agreed to. Further, they will be able to destroy older or small weapons and then replace them with much better ones.

A senior American official in Washington said Friday that the United States believed that the Bosnian government had ended all official military intelligence cooperation with Iran, which was a condition for instituting the program of providing arms and training.

"We think there is a ways to go before the Bosniacs have a real self-defense capability, which is the best way to deter a war," the official said.

---

The United States found the way to spread brotherly love among the world Muslims:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Statement by the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 17, 1996
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

The original can be found at:
Clinton Presidential Materials Project

(Integral) quote:

President Clinton's Bosnia peace initiative took another important step forward earlier this week when key Arab states committed about $100 million to fund the U.S.-led train and equip program.

Presidential Counselor Mack McLarty and a senior interagency team met April 14-15 with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz Al-Saud; Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan al-Nuhayyan, President of the United Arab Emirates; Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmed al-Sabah, Amir of Kuwait; and other top officials. Counselor McLarty delivered personal messages from the President stressing the importance of the train and equip program to the success of the Dayton Accords.

The President is deeply gratified by the generosity and understanding of the response to the McLarty mission. The mission is one element in a broad and continuing U.S. effort to mobilize donors in support of the process of establishing a durable military balance in Bosnia.

The purpose of the train and equip program is to provide the Bosnian Federation the military capability it needs to deter attacks in the future and defend its people and territory should deterrence fail. The success of the McLarty mission will enable the training element of the train and equip program to move ahead in a timely manner. Combined with the U.S. commitment of $100 million in military equipment, the start-up training in Bosnia will provide a solid foundation for improving the military capability of the Bosnian Federation.

End of the official White House Press Release.

The same press conference was reported to by Federation of American Scientists report which carries the same date:

Jane A. Morse
State Department Correspondent
Federation of American Scientists
FILE ID:96041702.GWE
April 17, 1996
EXCERPT:

During a background briefing at the State Department April 17, a senior U.S. official said that McLarty, appointed by President Bill Clinton and National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, emphasized to key donor states "the priority of this project and the President's personal interest in its success." ...

The U.S. official said that the success of this presidential mission is "a critical turning point for the train and equip project.... This success has the direct effect of allowing the Federation to complete the process of hiring the contractor. Once that contractor is hired, the contractor can begin immediately assisting the Federation in setting up their management institutions, their command and logistics activities -- all those things that are needed to move the Federation defense structure forward.

"But most importantly, the contractor can begin the training so critical to developing the Federation's military capabilities."

The U.S. official said that the United States is urging the Federation to move quickly on contractor selection.

The next step, according to the U.S. official, is passage of a Federation defense law to create the institutions necessary to manage the Federation's military. U.S. officials will be working with Federation officials to help complete this law.

The U.S. official emphasized that the United States will "continue to seek funding and equipment from a variety of potential donors. But we are confident now with the actual implementation of this program -- getting it moving quickly -- other donors will be forthcoming."

Original U.S. estimates for funding the train and equip program came to more than $800 million, "but most of that we expected to be equipment in kind," the U.S. official said. The U.S. contribution in equipment "covers many of the critical items identified in that $800 million list." The Arab States have committed cash, he said.

The U.S. official noted at the March 15 Donors' Conference in Ankara, Turkey, here were seven countries that made commitments for donations of the 32 countries that participated.

Tanks, artillery, helicopters, laser sights, machine guns
for Bosnian Muslims

Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Mon, 13 Oct 1997

For fair use only
Published under the provision of
U.S. Code, Title 17, section 107.

---

SARAJEVO, Oct 13 (AFP) - Tanks, artillery and trucks are due to arrive in Bosnia in coming weeks for Croat and Moslem armies, as part of a controversial US-sponsored program which critics say could lead to a new war.

The United States says the 100-million dollar programme Train and Equip, co-sponsored by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, is designed to give the forces of Bosnia's Croat-Moslem Federation military parity with their former enemies, the Serbs.

A total of 400 ex-US army trucks began arriving last week, and are to be joined by ten Soviet-designed T55 tanks from Egypt, now on a ship waiting for permission to land in neighbouring Croatia.

Next month, 116 former US-army 155 millimetre howitzers - the largest calibre weapon in normal battlefield use - are due to arrive.

US M114 howitzer upgrades for Bosnia The US Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command's (TACOM) Armament and Chemical Acquisition and Logistics Agency (ACALA) at Rock Island, Illinois, is to serve as overall manager of the programme to provide the Bosnian Federation with 116 ex-US Army M114A2 155mm towed howitzers. The main difference between the A1 and A2 variants is the latter's barrel is some "minor inches" longer than its predecessor and features a 1-in-20 rifling twist, compared to the 1-in-12 twist used in earlier models. The howitzers will be ready for delivery from the US by the end of August. Jane's Defence Upgrades News Briefs 15 July 1997

Critics, including British and French officials, say the more equipment arrives, the greater the temptation for the Federation to use the "military option" to settle disputes with the Serbs.

The Federation has already received 45 US tanks, 85 armoured personnel carriers, helicopters, laser sights and machine guns.

And extra equipment is regularly added to the original list: In June the United Arab Emirates supplied 50 French-built AMX-30 tanks plus 41 armoured vehicles, and earlier this year Turkey gave ten tanks.

Federation troops now train in Bangladesh, Egypt, Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. [Nice US touch of adding Germany to the Muslim mix. Germany attacked and committed atrocities on the Serbian people three times in 20th century.]

This has set off alarm bells among the Serbs, who get no military help and fear a Federation attack across the tense former front line, the Inter-Ethnic Boundary Line (IEBL).

Training is organised by nearly 200 ex-US servicemen from Military Professional Rescources Incorporated (MPRI), a private company which trains armies approved by the US government.

MPRI trained the Croatian army prior to its routing [but not cleansing?!!!] of ethnic Serbs from the Krajina region in the 1995 Operation Storm.

The company's cigar-chomping instructors, sporting expanding waistelines and greying crew cuts, are a familiar site in the bars of Sarajevo, and they talk enthusiastically, in private, about their trainees having "aggressive" instincts.

But MPRI spokesman Joseph Allred insisted the emphasis is on defence.

"It's not a great leap from defence to offence operationally for these type of weapons, (but) the Federation force structure is being designed for defensive operations," he said.

European officials say the success of Train and Equip will force NATO to keep ground forces in Bosnia beyond its June 1998 deadline for withdrawal, because replacing them with a token 'tripwire' presence, with larger forces on standby in Central Europe, will not deter Federation attacks.

"The US says we'll have a tripwire, we'll be in Hungary if you need us, and we'll say no, because your Train and Equip has tripped the tripwire," said one senior European official.

If there is a new Bosnian war, some officials think the trigger will be refugees. The Serbs are refusing to let more than half a million Croats and Moslems they "ethnically cleansed" in the war, return home, and frustration is building among the refugees.

"We have a potentially explosive situation developing," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported in August. "Refugees are being concentrated along the Federation side of the IEBL. This could lead to 'ethnic re-engineering', and is a recipe for conflict."

US diplomats say cryptically that Serbs have nothing to fear - as long as they allow the refugees home: "We urge them to comply with this (Dayton) agreement," said US envoy James Pardew earlier this year. "If they do, there's nothing that's going on in this (Train and Equip) agreement that's going to be a threat to them."

A few times in this text it was mentioned that a "private" US firm (MPRI) hires retired US military to train Croats and Muslims. They train them to cleanse the Serbs. The whole venture is clearly geared against the Serbs. There is no doubt about it.

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