Information about the EU German troops of Military Police in Bosnia

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Request for Question Clarification by errol-ga on 20 Jul 2002 16:07 PDT

Hi Gogo,
Exactly which kind of information are you looking for?  Can you be a
little more specific?
Thanks,
errol-ga

Thanks for an interesting question.

You are probably aware that the EU has not yet taken over in Bosnia. 
See:
http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/feb02/hed4708.shtml
and an article confirming EU plans to start training a Bosnian police
force later this year:
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=311147

At the beginning of this month the UN mandate for the current
peacekeeping force was extended a little, but nevertheless the EU is
hoping to speed up its plans to take over. See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4455658,00.html

There is plenty of material on German troops in Bosnia over the last
couple of years - latest update 4 July:
http://www.nato.int/sfor/nations/germany.htm

The problems of the transition to an EU force from a German viewpoint
are discussed at:
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2002/07/03072002151229.asp

More on the problems of deploying German troops in Bosnia:
http://www.shape.nato.int/shapenews/2002/JULY/SA020702.htm

I think you will find the Balkan Peace and the Nato websites I've
already mentioned are good places to check for updates on the
situation.
You might also use the links to German newspapers and other media,
some with English versions, at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wess/wessnews.html

Hope this will help but please ask if you need clarification.

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Request for Answer Clarification by gogo-ga on 21 Jul 2002 13:37 PDT

Hei and thanks for answering
I've read the articles which, among other interesting facts, told that
there are 500 German Police officers in Bosnia for the time beeing.I'm
a writer searching the person(s) responsible for the
administration/organising of these German MPs. I need accurate and
detailed info about the MPs. I met a former police officer at the
airport in Brussels, who has been working with these matters  since
1994 but I didn't get his name. I think he was working for the German
Dept of Foreign Affairs. Is this the department in charge and
where/how do I get the e-mail adresses to this person for more
details? Do you know?
Thanks again for the enclosed articles.
Gogo

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Clarification of Answer by leli-ga on 22 Jul 2002 01:50 PDT

If you go to the German government site at:
http://eng.bundesregierung.de/frameset/index.jsp
and select options under 'ministries' and 'background information' you
will find that the Federal Foreign Minister who has acted as
spokesperson on these matters is Joschka Fischer.
His department's contact details are there, as are addresses etc. for
the Ministry of Defence where Rudolf Scharping has overall
responsibility for Bundeswehr military operations.
You will also find a statement on German policy re Bosnia and details
of  German troops on missions outside Germany.
There is also a search facility.

Hope this helps.

I found this cached tidbit from
www.auswaertiges-amt.de, it's old
April 2001, but does have some
info:

German contributions
Along with its EU partners, North America and other
countries Germany endorses the findings of the Brahimi
Report and will maintain its substantial contributions
also to UN peace missions.

This support takes a number of different forms:

Through its assessed contribution amounting to some 10%
of the UN's regular budget Germany provides substantial
support for every peace mission.
Currently (end of April 2001) Germany is directly
participating in 7 of the 18 ongoing UN
missions/UN-mandated missions (UNIKOM/Iraq, UNMIBH/
Bosnia and Herzegovina, UNMIK/Kosovo, UNTAET/East Timor,
UNOMIG/ Georgia and also SFOR/Bosnia and Herzegovina and
KFOR/ Kosovo), contributing some 7300 troops and 450
police officers and civilian specialists. Hence also in
terms of personnel Germany is one of the biggest
contributors to UN operations.
In addition Germany donates millions to specific
missions (e.g. UNAMSIL, ECOMOG, MONUC) in the form of
equipment and other material; for other UN missions it
has furthermore offered to make available capacities and
resources of various kinds, although these are not
always called on in the event (e.g. UNIFIL/Lebanon or
UNMEE/Ethiopia-Eritrea).
The steps taken to strengthen the UN's Standby
Arrangements System have significantly enhanced the UN's
crisis response capacity, even though the contributing
nations retain the right to decide on actual deployment
("2nd key" principle). Since 1998 Germany has offered
and also deployed medical, demining and stress treatment
capacities in the civilian sector and in November 2000
notified also considerable military capabilities ready
for deployment at short notice under the Standby
Arrangements System (land and aerial transport, army
medical and engineering components, telecommunications
and related security units, naval reconnaissance,
monitoring and mine defence components, military
observers, military police units and command support
personnel).
In addition Germany is actively developing an on-call
list of civilian specialists (currently around 500) as
well as a pool of police officers to enable it to
contribute also to these new and increasingly important
sectors. This personnel will also be available to serve
with other organizations (OSCE, in future also the EU).
In this area the Federal Foreign Office has established
courses of its own to train civilian personnel for peace
missions, which it plans to open increasingly to
participants from abroad.
In the field of conflict prevention and peace missions
Germany provides in addition substantial funding (a
2-digit million figure) for a large number of individual
projects.
Germany furthermore provides additional funding - beyond
that made available in the form of its assessed
contribution - for particular projects and groups/units
within the UN organization/system (e.g. Lessons Learnt
Unit in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations).
 
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I'm looking for more recent info

-AI