Monitors Cancel Bosnia Vote Delay Will Keep U.S. Troops In Bosnia Past December

Complicating President Clinton’s promise to withdraw U.S. troops from Bosnia before the year’s end, international monitors on Tuesday canceled local elections set for Sept. 14.

It is unlikely that new elections can be held before spring, meaning that a significant NATO presence will be needed in Bosnia for several months beyond the mid-December target date for withdrawal set by the Clinton administration.

The reason for the cancellation was the “widespread abuse of the rules and regulations,” mainly by the Serb side, according to Robert Frowick, the American diplomat who heads the international commission that is running the Bosnian elections.

Balloting for a three-member federal presidency and a federal assembly will proceed as scheduled Sept. 14, Frowick said. But this vote is regarded as less significant than the now-postponed elections for local government officials.

That’s because, as one diplomat explained it, the local balloting “will give us the true political geography of the country. It will tell people where they can live and where they can’t live.”

The postponement is a disappointment for the Clinton administration, which had hoped the Bosnian elections could have been showcased as a major foreign policy triumph during the president’s re-election campaign.

Instead, the Dayton peace agreement looks shakier by the day, and some U.S. troops will almost certainly have to spend another long winter bogged down in the Balkans.

For its part, the Pentagon is preparing to temporarily bolster its forces in Bosnia with an additional 5,000 U.S. Army troops from Germany to provide security for the planned withdrawal of American peacekeepers in December.

Pentagon officials say there are now more than 15,600 American troops in Bosnia as part of the 45,000-strong NATO peace implementation force (IFOR), and officials say planning for their withdrawal is proceeding.

Administration officials have repeatedly said they will honor the year-end deadline but have left the door open for a “new” mission, known as IFOR-2, that might include about 20,000 troops. That would still carry a substantial cost and would keep American and European troops in dangerous territory.