US to pull last troops out of Bosnia by December

US to pull last troops out of Bosnia by December

They stayed on after a European Union Force (EUFOR) of about 6,000 assumed peacekeeping duties two years ago, some of them deploying at the partly vacated US camp.

"The assessment was that we don't need US forces on a permanent basis, but that doesn't imply we couldn't bring forces in if we would need to," NATO headquarters commander General Louis Weber told reporters.

"I pick up the phone and I get what I want very quickly," said Weber, who will be replaced by another US general next month. "We have a lot of resources still dedicated to this mission and we don't take it lightly."

The United States has about 1,600 troops stationed close by in Serbia's southern U.N.-run province of Kosovo, and about 100 mostly US intelligence officers will remain in Bosnia, attached to NATO headquarters in Sarajevo.

Bosnia is peaceful, with no active threat of political violence. The main unfinished business for NATO in the country is capturing war crimes fugitives.

NATO apprehended about 30 Bosnian war crimes suspects in nine years but failed on several occasions to snatch Bosnian Serb wartime leader and genocide suspect Radovan Karadzić.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal' chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has accused NATO of not trying, but Weber said the allies were constantly searching for Karadzić, his wartime military commander Ratko Mladić and four other Serb fugitives

Of the six, only Karadzić has been reported to be sometimes hiding in Bosnia, in remote mountains near Serbia.

Weber refused to say if Karadzić had been sighted recently, suggesting he may not be in the region at all. Several recent arrests of fugitives took place in countries such as Spain, Argentina or Russia, he said.

"The evidence is not clear that he is here. I can't state categorically that he isn't ... You draw your own conclusions."