BOSNIA: NATO is to hand over command of the nine-year-old peacekeeping mission in Bosnia to the European Union in early December, the British commander of the new EU force said yesterday.
The 7,000-strong Bosnia mission - codenamed operation Althea - will be the biggest and likely the most challenging peacekeeping operation undertaken to date by the EU.
"Operation Althea will start on December 2nd," said Maj-Gen David Leakey, who in the past has served in the NATO peacekeeping force in Bosnia.
He insisted the transition would be seamless, as 80 per cent of troops serving under NATO's Stabilisation Force (SFOR) would simply change the insignia on their uniforms.
"You should not see much change on the ground," Maj-GenLeakey told a news conference.
The only previous EU peacekeeping operations have been missions in Macedonia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
NATO is to retain a presence after the handover in Bosnia, a nation still racked by ethnic tensions. The military alliance plans to set up a headquarters to help Bosnia with defence reform and also spearhead the hunt for war crimes suspects, including Radovan Karadzic.
Maj-Gen Leakey said however it was the primary responsibility of Bosnian authorities, especially those in Bosnia's Serb-run enclave, to go after the fugitives.
The United States will also keep a military base in the north of Bosnia but the number of troops that will be based there is not yet known.