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The United States has accepted an offer by Serbia and Montenegro to send as many as 1,000 combat soldiers and police to Afghanistan to work with U.S. forces. The Serb-Montenegrin force, which will have to be trained to function under U.S. command, will be based in the Kandahar region near the Pakistan border, the officials said. The troops are expected to be ready by March. Afghan officials have not reacted to the plan.
The deployment raises the question of whether it will include Serb troops or officers who may have been involved in atrocities against Muslims during the war in Bosnia or the more recent war in Kosovo. The U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for overseeing foreign military participation in Afghanistan, swiftly approved the proposal but told the Serbs that the United States wanted infantry troops rather than lightly armed peacekeepers.
They do have to weed out the Serbs who committed atrocities in the Balkans. I’m not sure that will leave the Serbs with a company. |