NATO Said Planning 150,000 Kosovo Invasion Force

From Bill Oliver UFO*BC 5-29-99

LONDON (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.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 30, 1999

Answers

meanwhile...

India-Pakistan Nuclear War Potential Threatens A Billion People

From Jason Burke In Hunzi Ghund, Pakistan www.lineone.net/express 5-28-99

India and Pakistan's conflict over Kashmir could become a full-scale nuclear war threatening a billion people, it was claimed last night.

Chaudhry Sultan Mahmood, prime minister of the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir, warned: "The situation is getting very serious, volatile and dangerous. I think there is a very, very great chance of all-out war."

He added: "Unfortunately, both countries now have the bomb, and when it escalates to the extent of violating air space then you use more, stronger weapons. The time comes that you feel you better do it first, you attack first."

Pakistan claimed to have shot down two Indian fighters over its portion of Kashmir on Thursday, increasing tension in the region over which two wars have been fought in the last half-century. Kashmir is now divided by a ceasefire line accepted after the last war.

Yesterday Islamic guerrillas fighting Indian forces in Kashmir claimed responsibility for shooting down an Indian helicopter gunship. "The situation has escalated," said Mahmood. "I think this demands urgency. I think that the international community must intervene." Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he talked to his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee and told him that the Kashmir issue cannot be resolved without talks.

"I talked to Vajpayee today and asked him where is this leading to," Sharif told a public meeting in Karachi to mark the first anniversary of Pakistan's successful nuclear tests. "I told him and he agreed that there is no solution to Kashmir except talks."Pakistan urged India to halt its military crackdown on the disputed Kashmir border region, warning that hostilities threatened not only regional peace, but world peace. "The situation is very volatile, the two nuclear powers should not be in a state of confrontation," said a foreign ministry spokesman. In total, Pakistan and India have fought three wars since 1947.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 30, 1999.

you will hear of wars and rumors of wars...see that you are not terrified, for the end is not yet....Matthew...

Is the threat of nuclear war real? Of course...realistic? No. Why would India or Pakistan escalate a skirmish to a nuclear exchange? doesn't make sense...any good info on that...?

-- rick shade (Rickoshade@aol.com), May 31, 1999.