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NATO Gives Green Light to Advance Troops in Macedonia
BRUSSELS, Aug 15 (News Agencies) - NATO on Wednesday approved setting up a command headquarters with 400 British troops in Macedonia to prepare a mission to collect weapons from Albanian activists.
The 19 NATO ambassadors voted unanimously to send advance troops after consulting with their governments, a NATO spokesman said.
The first units could arrive in Skopje, where the headquarters will be set up, as early as Friday.
In Skopje, NATO spokesman Major Barry Johnson noted that the weapons-collection mission itself had not yet received approval.
"This is not an order to activate [the entire mission]. This is an agreement that command and control elements can deploy," he said.
The NATO spokesman here said no timeframe had been set for a vote on full deployment, although there had been "strong consensus" in favor of it once a list of conditions had been met.
Britain has pledged to provide the bulk of the 3,500 troops from the 12-nation force that will comprise the mission code-named "Operation Essential Harvest".
Even as the ambassadors were voting to set up the Skopje headquarters, there were signs that the most powerful ally, the United States, was reluctant to move quickly to send in the full arms-collecting task force.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said in Washington: "You've got to do this in the right way. You do have to have a lasting ceasefire, one that has endurance and will hold over a period of weeks - not hours, but weeks."
The NATO spokesman said the headquarters vote was intended to "build on the momentum" accrued since the signing of a political accord Monday between the Macedonian government and Muslim Albanian parties.
Echoing the Pentagon official, he said a durable ceasefire was the key condition to implementing Essential Harvest, but added, "Deciding when a ceasefire is really durable is a tricky judgment call. If you wait too long, the ceasefire begins eroding."
Other conditions for implementation include setting out a precise plan, with the consent of the National Liberation Army (NLA), for the collection of weapons.
Under Monday's peace accord, NATO is to deploy the 3,500 troops at four sites in Macedonia to collect an estimated 3,000 weapons voluntarily surrendered by the NLA who have been waging a six-month uprising.
In Skopje, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski formally set in motion the process of implementing the agreement when he asked parliament to hold a session to approve its provisions.
"We are encouraged by what has happened [in Macedonia] thus far but we are in a very dynamic, fast-moving situation," said the NATO spokesman.
In London, British defense sources said the first troops could be in place in Macedonia by the weekend.
The NATO spokesman said the purpose of the British advance force would be "to facilitate deployment [of the full operation] once the activation order is given."
He said the Skopje headquarters would be tasked with setting up communications, laying the groundwork for weapons collection and establishing liaisons with local Macedonian authorities.
In Skopje, Danish General Gunnar Lange, assigned to command the NATO force, said a 15-strong team of NATO military advisers had already begun to arrive in Macedonia and was to "assess and report on the current situation on the ground as to the effectiveness of the ceasefire".
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