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U.S. Peacekeepers To Deploy in Bosnia
FORT POLK, Louisiana, June 27 (News Agencies) - Tomorrow Serbs will riot in Vlasenica, and afterwards, Bosnian Muslims will try and return to Srebrenica. But U.S. soldiers will be able to contain the clashes without resorting to force, says General Charles Swannack, commander of the U.S. Army training center here.
The peacekeeping exercises, staged by former Yugoslav residents show that despite Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's reluctance to keep U.S. troops in the Balkans much longer, the U.S. Army is taking its peacekeeping missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo very seriously.
About 3,350 troops, often from the National Guard, are preparing for their future deployments. In October, they will head to northern Bosnia on a six-month tour to replace U.S. soldiers serving as part of a NATO-led stabilization force.
British and French troops are deployed in two other sectors of the country under the 1995 Dayton peace accords that brought an end to a three-year war between Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
"Go home!" shouted a motley group of civilian "Serbs."
"Killers, we are back," retorted angry "Muslims," who, according to the scenario, entered the town in droves to retake "Serb-occupied" homes.
The conflict takes on a realistic tone as angry words are exchanged. Rubber bullets rain down on the mayor's office, which is promptly taken over by the invaders. U.S. paratroopers are forced to intervene, urging the civilians to stop throwing stones and to disperse.
They ask Muslims to return later.
The scenario unfurls in a town modeled after Srebrenica, a former Bosnian Muslim safe haven where thousands of men were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. Observers are videotaping the role-playing operation to analyze the would-be peacekeepers in action.
Another scenario is being played out in a makeshift bullet-scarred town called Vlasenica, where Hollywood pyrotechnics have been employed to add a note of realism.
Both military and civilian participants wear shields that emit signals each time they are hit with laser beams from enemy guns. National Guard Captain Bill Howell, 35, a businessman in civilian life, rehearses for possible future conversations with a Bosnian city mayor, asking for cooperation and the names of "agitators."
The mayor, played by Serb refugee Dusan Djudic, feigns ignorance. "I saw nothing," he insists. "It was a peaceful demonstration."
Djujic, 53, was chased from Knin by Croat forces, first towards Belgrade then Romania, where he was granted asylum from the United States. "I am a cosmopolitan, not nationalistic," Djujic said, dismissing any notions of emotional suffering from acting out a conflict that remains vivid in his mind.
His deputy, Kamer Baca, an Albanian from Kosovo whose in-laws were killed in 1999 in Kosovopolje, said even though the two were on opposite sides in the Balkans, in the United States "we live like brothers."
The exercise will continue for up to a month, costing as much as five million dollars, Swannack said. Troops heading for Kosovo are also being trained at Fort Polk.
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