NATO ministers discuss 150,000-strong Kosovo invasion force

[Anonymous <nobody@drule.org>]

LONDON, May 30 (AFP) - A secret meeting between the five senior NATO defence ministers discussed plans for a 150,000-strong invasion force for Kosovo, including 50,000 British troops, two London newspapers reported Sunday.

US Defence Secretary William Cohen flew to Bonn for the unpublicized meeting, also attended by British Defence Secretary George Robertson and ministers from France, Germany and Italy, said The Sunday Telegraph and the Observer.


Britain's Ministry of Defence confirmed the meeting had taken place Thursday, on the margins of a gathering of European defence ministers, but denied that any discussion had taken place about a 150,000-strong invasion force.


A ministry spokesman said that the only discussions involving ground forces were in relation to the proposed enhancement of the planned international peacekeeping force from 28,000 to up to 48,000 agreed last week by NATO.


"There was certainly no discussion of figures in relation to options other than that already agreed by NATO," the spokesman said.


However, The Sunday Telegraph quoted senior ministry of defence officials as saying that Britain was now working on contigency plans for sending up to 50,000 British personnel to the Balkans.


According to the newspaper, a spokesman for Robertson told it that the defence ministers had spoken about "other options" than an international peacekeeping force.


They decided to intensify the air war but also looked at options for a ground invasion, said The Sunday Telegraph.


The ministers were told that General Wesley Clark, NATO's commander in Europe, estimated that a total force of 150,000 would be required to eject the Serbs from Kosovo if Belgrade refused to accept NATO's terms by late summer, it added.


Britain has been privately pressing other NATO members for weeks to face up to the likely need to send ground troops into combat in the Serbian province, said The Sunday Telegraph.


Another London newspaper, meanwhile, reported that the British army is preparing to call up civilian doctors and nurses to serve in Kosovo faced with the mounting prospect of a ground invasion.


The Sunday Times said that Robertson wants call-up papers issued to hundreds of state-employed doctors and nurses and other medical staff with military ties.


A total of 390 medics were called up during preparations for the 1990 Gulf War. They complemented 700 reservist volunteers with medical qualifications.


Robertson argues that larger numbers may be needed if British forces enter Kosovo because they have will have to tend thousands of sick and hungry Kosovars as well as caring for military casualties, said The Sunday Times.