Portillo turns aside call for European Bosnia role

[Reuter / Jim Adams]

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - British Defense Secretary Michael
Portillo Monday turned aside Defense Secretary William Cohen's
call for Europeans to take over Bosnia peacekeeping after U.S.
troops leave.
``We went in together, we're working together and we shall
leave together,'' Portillo said during a photo session with
Cohen before a meeting between the two.
Portillo said the important thing was for NATO allies to
focus on what they can do ``to consolidate the democratic
institutions and to make sure that Bosnia does not return to
killing and to war.''
Cohen said at recent congressional hearings that he assumed
and international peacekeeping force would be needed in Bosnia
after the present 18-month NATO commitment ended in summer 1998.
But he said the United States was determined to withdraw troops
then and leave further peacekeeping to European allies.
Portillo also said Britain would work with the United States
on developing a separate police force to apprehend indicted war
criminals in Bosnia.
``I think it will be very difficult to have a settlement in
Bosnia while the people who have been indicted of war crimes
remain at large,'' Portillo told Cohen. ``And therefore we shall
be working very closely with you on that issue.''
Cohen said apprehending Bosnians indicted on charges of mass
killings and war atrocities was not a military mission but
``discussions are under way at this time on how a force can be
assembled that would carry out that particular mission.''
Portillo also said he would push for the U.S. purchase of
more British weapons because U.S.-British defense exports are
running about two-to-one in the United States' favor and the
trade should be an equitable two-way street.
Earlier, Portillo said a proposed new charter between Russia
and NATO should not become a political football for debate and
approval by Western parliaments.
He told reporters at a breakfast before the talks with Cohen
that the charter should be ``certainly something by which we
(NATO) would feel bound, but not something which we would have
taken to our parliaments.''
Portillo, who hosted Cohen at a dinner Sunday night, said he
was pleased that Russia had now accepted the fact that NATO will
take in new members from Eastern Europe and was engaged in
discussions with the alliance on a charter to ease its concerns
about threats to its security.
``I think it would be better as a government-to-government
understanding without all the complexities of having to obtain
ratification in each of the countries,'' Portillo said.
The United States has also said the charter should be a
binding document and not a treaty, but Russian officials have
warned it might have to be submitted to the Duma, the lower
house of parliament, for formal approval.
Portillo cautioned that a joint NATO-Russian military
brigade proposed recently by Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright was in the very early stages of discussion and should
not be a source of embarrassment to Russia because of financial
difficulties there.
``The brigade is a kind of a brand name, I think, at this
stage for an idea,'' he said. ``But whether the brigade turns
out to be a (smaller) battalion, or a headquarters, or a
planning group or whatever, I think that's all very much yet to
be decided,'' he told reporters.
``It certainly shouldn't be something which the Russians
find tiresome, overly demanding or embarrassing.''