Nato denies plan for 50,000 troops

NATO yesterday denied reports that it had concrete plans to deploy 50,000 troops, including 20,000 Americans, in support of the plan to divide Bosnia-Herzegovina into three parts on ethnic lines, writes Christopher Bellamy.

The three warring factions have to decide on Monday whether or not to agree to the plan for a three-way split. If they do agree - although observers are privately sceptical - the mediators, Thorvald Stoltenberg and Lord Owen, would report to the UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in New York. He would then ask the UN commander in the former Yugoslavia, General Jean Cot, for an estimate of the number of troops required. The UN may then request them from Nato.

Nato sources said a report in yesterday's Washington Post seemed to have been based on earlier plans, which had nearly been completed, to deploy troops in support of the now defunct Vance-Owen plan for the division of Bosnia into 10 cantons. Nato reckoned 74,000 to 78,000 troops would be required to implement that plan.

Yesterday Nato sources said there were considerable differences between the Vance-Owen plan and the present Owen-Stoltenberg plan, and that the estimate of 50,000 troops to support the latter - which was much simpler - 'seemed reasonable'. But it is understood the UN's peace-keeping unit has not even begun detailed preparations for support of the later, three-way plan.

Any offers of more troops for Bosnia are contingent on all parties agreeing to a peace plan which also looks as if it will hold. This was the basis for Nato preparations to support Vance-Owen and also appears to be the basis for future offers to support Owen-Stoltenberg.

A US Defense Department spokesman also said he had no knowledge of the report.

President Bill Clinton said in February that he would send US ground troops to Bosnia as part of a peace- keeping force if an agreement were reached between Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats to stop the war. The new plan envisages three large areas coinciding, more or less, with the areas controlled by the warring factions and one area, Sarajevo, under UN control. That would require fewer troops, but still about six times as many as the present UN force.