SFOR Transcript 06 March 2000

Transcript: Joint Military Commission News Conference 06 March 2000 Coalition Press Information Center Tito Barracks

COL Begines, SFOR PIO: Good afternoon, my name is Colonel Tom Begines, the Chief of the SFOR Public Information Office. Lieutenant General Sir Michael Willcocks, KCB, is here today to answer your questions about the Joint Military Commission meeting which he has just concluded. Afterwards, General Willcocks has agreed for a brief stand-up to take questions on any subject. Please restrict your initial questions to the subject of the Joint Military Commission meeting. This will be General Willcocks' last press conference as the SFOR Deputy Commander for Operations, or DCOMOPS. He has served as the DCOMOPS since late February, 1999. Previously, he served in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1995 to 1996 as the Chief of Staff of the Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps. Lieutenant General Ron Adams began the conference today by acknowledging General Willcocks' great professionalism, experience and expertise in the performance of his duties. He has made enormous contributions to peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Now, General Willcocks has an opening statement. LTG Willcocks, DCOMOPS: Thank you. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. As you just heard, this is my last Joint Military Commission, but it is the 29th meeting that we've had over the years. This particular meeting covered compliance issues, and it was reported…I reported that compliance has been very good. We looked at the issue of Brcko demilitarization which is absolutely complete and dealt with the issue of the transit through the Brcko Obstina of the VRS in the future. And, we looked at the instructions to parties. This is mechanism by which we give instructions to the armed forces of this country. And one of the things I've been trying to do is to move that process to a more consensus basis, as opposed to just compliance. And finally, we looked at the whole area of the reductions in the Entity Armed Forces, both the 15 percent achieved by December last year, and we hope another 15 percent in this coming year. And we discussed the long term future of armies in this country. But it is my farewell meeting to the….my farewell to the Entity Armed Forces as well, and I completed with a survey and my perception of the last year. And I think when we look at the situation from late February last year and see how bad it was, we had the whole demonstrations and indeed, civil disturbance linked to the Brcko award, and then of course, we had the effects of the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Many people thought with that background that we'd achieve no progress from this country in the last year. In fact, within eight months of the end of that Kosovo campaign, we had completely demilitarized Brcko with absolutely no problems whatsoever. The Standing Committee for Military Matters through perhaps the only joint institution that works in this country, had agreed the 15 percent reductions and had achieved those by the 31st of December. We have destroyed, with the Entity Armed Forces, the entire stock of anti-personnel land mines, over half a million. We have seen very many more instances of joint cooperation between the Entity Armed Forces, road clearing, demining, bridges, and despite everyone's predictions, double the number of refugees have returned to their homes in this year compared to last. So, I think in the military sphere, there has been genuine progress on both sides, and I would characterize the relationship between SFOR and the Entity Armed Forces is not just complete compliance, but also good cooperation. Now, I leave after my second year in Bosnia, and I wish everyone present, and indeed, I wish you all present the best of luck in the future. I hope that progress in the military field will start to be matched by similar political and economic progress. My final message, and I'd like to repeat it here, is to introduce my successor as DCOMOPS, General Phillip Trousdell, who is in front here, and if he'd just come up here so you can see him….Phillip Trousdell. And what I would say is what I've said to the Entity Armed Forces here, his presence here for the JMC, at which we've handed over command, shows that the SFOR mission continues with absolute continuity and no loss of momentum. And so let me just, in front of you, ladies and gentlemen, wish you, Phillip, good luck. And you can get at him the next time. Daria Sito Sucic, Reuters, Q: General Willcocks, can you please say more about what kind of problems do you expect regarding the 15 percent reduction this year? Is it feasible? What are the steps to be taken and so on? And, perhaps you want to answer this question, then I have another. DCOMOPS: One at a time? Yeah. The first thing that has got to happen is the SCMM must give the political direction for the reduction. Now, in all my discussions and all COMSFOR's discussions with the Presidents and Ministers of Defense and Army Commanders, we believe there will be that reduction. This will bring the Entity Armed Forces down in strength by 30 percent in two years. Now, you can't achieve that without a major restructuring of the armies. And in order to restructure like that, you need to answer some fundamental questions. What is the security policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina? What are the armies for? What should be their doctrine? How should they be constructed? Conscripts or professional soldiers? And then, when you've the series of very difficult questions can you start to actually restructure it and design the force. So you will see work in all those fields. The armies are already looking at it and working with SFOR, the OHR, and the OSCE. Those are the issues, and they will not be easy. Daria Sito Sucic, Reuters, Q: But do you think this further reduction is pending on military reductions in neighboring countries like Serbia or Croatia? DCOMOPS: No, I don't think it. There is a sub-regional, is what you're talking about, Serbia and Croatia. There is a sub-regional element here, of course. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot afford the armies it currently possesses, nor does it have the need for armies of that size, and so we do not believe that you have to wait for other neighboring states to agree reductions before this reduction can be carried out. Daria Sito Sucic, Reuters, Q: I have another question. This is just a follow up on your remarks, on your answer. I have another question. DCOMOPS: All right. Daria Sito Sucic, Reuters, Q: I wanted to ask about what is the progress and preparations of BiH military in possible contributions to peace keeping missions? DCOMOPS: Yes, the situation…this really is a question that starts with the United Nations. The idea of a peace keeping unit has been floated by the United Nations and has been agreed in principle by the Tri-Presidents. Now, there are many steps to go through to achieve this idea. The first is for the United Nations to state the requirement. Which peace keeping mission do they require this unit for? What size and type of unit do they want? And what sort of training does this unit have to undertake? When those questions have been answered, and they've not yet been presented by the United Nations, then SFOR will work with the Entity Armed Forces to design such a unit and indeed insure it is properly trained. I believe…I am delighted that the Presidents have accepted the idea, as indeed have the army commanders because it means they have accepted the principle of joint training. If you're joint training for a UN mission, why don't we joint train in this country? Jamila Milovic, Radio Mir, Q: General Willcocks, given your experience and what you've just outlined for us that there is a number of questions that still need to be answered, how would you see then, realistically, the future Entity Armed Forces of this country? DCOMOPS: I'm on record already as saying, of course, it's obvious that one country should have one army, but in this day, you deal with realities, not theories. It is unrealistic at the current stage of development to try and force the three components into a single integrated armies. What is needed is an incremental approach with small steps that can be agreed at each stage towards an overall aim in the future. I would not pretend that this would be quick or easy. It must be achieved by, as they say, transparent and confidence-building measures. For instance, what has been agreed is the establishment of a joint staff college. So, although you retain three components which meets the ethnic groups' concerns, you take steps to have joint training at the officer levels, the NCO level, the non-commissioned officers, sergeants. You can also look at joint recruit training starting with the Federation Army, the two components, and then bringing on the VRS as well. When you have sufficient young officers who have trained together at the staff college, you can look at a joint directorate above the army, the components. I won't go on, but they're examples of incremental steps which get people more comfortable with living and working together, and eventually, you arrive. But it will take a long time. And that is the reality. Gregory Piatt, Stars and Stripes, Q: General Willcocks, Gregory Piatt from Stars and Stripes. You say that much of this reform is not going to be quick and easy. Can you put a timeline on this, and can you kind of address what SFOR can do to help speed this along? DCOMOPS: I wouldn't put a timeline on it, just like how long is SFOR going to be here. It's sort of end state, not an end date that we're looking at. What SFOR does, what it did today, for instance, first of all, we make sure there is no question of any fear between the entities in terms of a return to conflict. Then we use a series of confidence-building transparency measures to get everybody quite familiar and relaxed with what's going on. Then we have immense experience in the force at army shape, size, structures and the like, and we can offer that to the Entities in their design work. But, I think you have to recognize, we are still only five years from the end of a very bloody conflict in this country. Politically, certainly, but even…I think more generally psychologically, not everybody is ready for a step of total integration. So, practical building steps towards the end state. PIO: Are there any more questions on the Joint Military Commission meeting? Sir, would you like to say anything else about the JMC? DCOMOPS: …My last one. I heard the first one in 1995 as well, so it's quite interesting to see the difference. The army commanders did not come and have lunch and share drinks with me in 1995, so there is real progress. PIO: General Willcocks has graciously agreed to a brief stand up. It will take a few minutes to set up your cameras, I know… Questions on any other subjects, please. No questions on any other subjects? Thank you very much.