U.S. Presence In Bosnia Goes Far Beyond Military Consultants, Businesses Are Part Of $300 Million Rebuilding

When Muhamed Salihbasic and his family were forced from their homes during the Bosnian war, they dreamed of opening a canning factory like the one they’d left behind.

Thanks to U.S. loans, their new company, which employs Muslims, Serbs and Croats, has been one of the big successes of postwar Bosnia.

It also is one sign of the large U.S. presence in Bosnia - from business and construction consultants to diplomats and military advisers - aimed at gradually putting the country back together.

President Clinton’s one-day visit today to Bosnia to greet U.S. soldiers and build support for a prolonged U.S. troop deployment there also is an indication that American policymakers are unlikely to lose interest in the region any time soon.

Since U.S. troops began arriving in Bosnia two years ago as part of a NATO-led force, the American presence has grown to a roughly $300 million investment. Some Bosnians joke that their land has become the 51st state.

The 8,000 U.S. soldiers in Bosnia perform jobs such as patrolling areas around the former front line to make sure refugees can return home.

Despite the military presence, the emphasis of the United States is on civilian issues, U.S. officials say, adding that they are trying to create conditions for economic development.

Many international officials and Bosnians alike see economic prosperity as the most secure way to create a permanent peace. U.S. government aid programs require employers to hire members of all ethnic groups.

The U.S. Agency for International Development says that so far, 140 loans worth a total of $68 million have been approved. The funds are expected to help provide more than 11,000 jobs.

The Salihbasic family has received more than $2.3 million in U.S. loans to develop the Vegafruit factory, located three miles from the former front line.

The new facility has enabled Salihbasic, who ran a cannery in nearby Doboj before the war, to expand production and begin exporting to the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia.

The factory turns out jams and juices, jars of pickles and pickled peppers. There are plans to produce baby food and cultivate mushrooms as well.

Consultants visit each month to lead management workshops and explain marketing tactics.

“The most important thing was the introduction of the working discipline, cash flow discipline and the organization of business based on economic and market possibilities,” said Fadil Salihbasic, Muhamed’s cousin, the company’s financial director.

The factory employs 350 people, 80 percent of whom are Muslim refugees. The rest are Serbs and Croats who live in the area. Another 400 families grow cucumbers, strawberries, plums and peppers for the company.

Meanwhile, U.S. consultants are still in Bosnia teaching the MuslimCroat army how to use the weapons it receives under a U.S.-sponsored program to create parity with Bosnian Serb forces.

And in the past eight months, the U.S. Embassy has more than tripled its U.S. staff. Many of the new employees are involved in an expansion of the embassy facilities, a sign that the Americans plan to stay.

U.S. facilities also have opened in the shattered southern city of Mostar and in the Serb-held city of Banja Luka, the headquarters of Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic.

Earlier this year, Plavsic broke with supporters of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. As a result of her more moderate policies, more international aid has been flowing into the half of the Serb republic she controls.