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The new NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo on 15 and 16 January to meet with NATO-led peacekeepers and local officials.
The new NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo on 15 and 16 January to meet with NATO-led peacekeepers and local officials.
This was the first foreign trip by the new Secretary General, two weeks into his term of office. The NATO-led missions in Bosnia and Kosovo are NATO's two largest peacekeeping operations, and the visit reflected the Alliance's continuing commitment to the Balkans.
The visit began in Sarajevo, where Mr. de Hoop Scheffer met with the commanders and troops of the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR), the High Representative of the international community and Bosnia and Herzegovina's defence authorities. The Secretary General also assisted in the destruction of illegal arms and munitions confiscated by SFOR at the Zenica smelting plant.
Mr. de Hoop Scheffer praised the country's leadership for the recent adoption of a law creating a unified army and defence ministry for the country. He said that the implementation of this law and the arrest of indicted war criminals remained the two main preconditions for Bosnia joining NATO's partnership programme.
In light of the improving security situation in the country, NATO will reduce the peacekeeping force in Bosnia to approximately 7,500 by June this year. The Alliance is also examining options for a possible termination of the mission and handover to the EU by the end of this year.
The Secretary General then traveled on to Pristina, for talks with the commander and troops of the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force (KFOR) as well as the province's leaders. Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said that no considerable changes or downsizing of the peacekeeping force were planned.
The Secretary General subsequently met with the UN Special Representative, Harri Holkeri, and his team.
He also visited the town of Obilic, where Serb refugees have been able to return, but which saw the tragic shooting of Serb teenagers last year. Speaking there, he called on the people of Kosovo to work together to build democracy and to allow refugees to return. Any discussion of Kosovo's final status depended on progress in the implementation of the standards set out by the United Nations, he stressed.