Germany Deploys Troops For Peacekeeping In Bosina

The German government has deployed troops with the European Union peacekeeping mission in Bosnia for the first time in a decade.

The deployment comes following concerns of instability from the Ukraine war which could spread to the Western Balkans.

Report says the first German troops to return to the country were greeted in a ceremony at the Sarajevo headquarters of the EUFOR force that marked the start of their mission.

According to a German military spokesman said that Germany will deploy 30 troops in total to Bosnia by mid-September.

During a visit to the northern town of Novi Grad, Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik said German troops are not welcome, referring to Germany’s role in World War Two.

Extension
Dodik said he regretted agreeing as a member of the state presidency to extend the mandate of EUFOR.

Report says EUFOR’s mandate runs out in November, and it is up to the UN Security Council to decide whether to extend it for another year. Concerns are growing in the West that Moscow might use its veto to prevent an agreement.

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in Bosnia has decried “unacceptable references” to the impact of events in Ukraine on the situation in Bosnia and said EUFOR itself had described the situation as peaceful and stable in its last report to the U.N. Security Council.

“The narrative about the need to expand the EUFOR military personnel, including the German troops, is unfounded,” it said.

The statement added that some Western states, primarily the United States and Britain, were preparing the ground for a “crawling NATO-isation” of Bosnia.

EUFOR replaced NATO peacekeeping troops in Bosnia in 2004.

The European troops are meant to stabilise the country after Bosnia’s Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks waged a war for territory in the 1990s in which 100,000 people died.

Only days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU decided to almost double the size of its EUFOR peacekeeping force to 1,100 from 600 troops by sending in reserves to stave off potential instability.

REUTERS/CO