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| Ex-foe Serbia to Boost NATO's Kabul Peace Force |
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2003-09-17 17:39:12 |
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Four years after their war over Kosovo, Serbia and NATO are cooperating on the Afghanistan peace mission with Serb forces destined for Kabul by the end of the year, a senior Serbian official said on Wednesday.
He said Serbia was prepared to contribute "several hundred" troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which numbers 5,000 and is seeking to expand its mission beyond the limits of the Afghan capital.
"We are readying troops for the mission in Afghanistan," said the Serb official, who requested anonymity. They would leave for Kabul before the end of the year.
In March 1999, NATO launched a war to force Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces from the province of Kosovo and cease the repression of ethnic Albanians there.
Serbia was bombed for 78 days before Milosevic buckled, with over 1,000 troops and civilians killed. Milosevic was toppled by reformers in 2000 and the country's reconciliation with the Western alliance has progressed rapidly since.
The Kabul government and the United Nations have appealed for more peacekeepers to police Afghanistan, where warlords defy the central authority and Taliban guerrillas are attempting a comeback after they were scattered by U.S. and allied Afghan forces in 2002.
The official said the Serb force would be professional soldiers. Serbia expected the United States to supply them with special military equipment required for Afghanistan's tough conditions.
/Source: Reuters/
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The Event: SEEF 2004
