Nato To Conduct Mediterranean Tests

NATO’s southern commander and a group of senior officers will test shipboard capabilities this week for overseeing a possible U.N. withdrawal from Bosnia, an alliance spokesman said Sunday.

The approximately 70 NATO officers and staff members will depart today from Naples, Italy, aboard the flagship USS Lasalle for the two-to-three day test in the Mediterranean, said Capt. Jim Mitchell, a NATO spokesman.

Adm. Leighton Smith, commander of NATO’s southern forces, will lead the group.

“This is only an exercise and does not mean that NATO forces are any closer to conducting a withdrawal of the United Nations,” Mitchell said. He noted such a pullout would require a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Ambassadors from the 16 NATO nations approved a contingency plan last month for withdrawing the more than 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers from Bosnia should that become necessary. The plan calls for as many as 60,000 heavily armed allied troops to execute the withdrawal.