THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 6, 1995 TAG: 9506060268
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
About 3,500 U.S. Army troops and 100 helicopters are being dispatched from Germany to Italy to prepare for possible rescue of U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia, Pentagon officials said Monday.
The force is being put in place as a ``precautionary'' measure to enable the United States to contribute part of its promised aid to any overall withdrawal from Bosnia, Pentagon officials said.
The aircraft include heavily armed Apache attack helicopters, as well as Black Hawk and Chinook transportation helicopters, and an array of tanker and fuel and administrative vehicles.
``It's purely a precautionary measure,'' a spokesman said, ``and positioning of these forces is being done so that we're able to comply with NATO's operational plan to withdraw'' the U.N. protection force.
Word of the deployment came as a glimmer of hope emerged regarding the fate of a U.S. fighter pilot shot down by a rebel Serb anti-aircraft missile over Bosnia last Friday.
U.S. officials reported receiving beeper signals that could be coming from the pilot.
``The signals alone aren't enough for us to conclude that the pilot is alive, but it is encouraging,'' a senior Pentagon official said. ``We are doing our utmost to locate these signals.''
The jet fighter, whose pilot has not been identified, crashed after being shot down by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia.
The emissions are intermittent and could be coming from a pilot attempting to beam a position ``covertly,'' one source said. The transmitter is designed to help locate and rescue crashed aviators.
But officials were cautious about the transmissions.
``It isn't only the pilot who can turn it on,'' one officer said. ``Anybody who gets it can turn it on. We can't confirm that it's the pilot doing this or someone who's picked it up.''
Another source said that if the pilot was captured, his rescue gear may have been captured too.
The signals are being tracked by NATO air and intelligence units and were emitted over a period of 20 to 24 hours, as of Monday evening Washington time, officials said. The pattern indicates the pilot - or whoever is sending the signals - is making the communication deliberately.
There was also a glimmer of hope concerning fate of the more than 250 U.N. peacekeepers being held hostage in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The president of Serbia announced Monday that he had persuaded fellow Serbs in Bosnia to release the peacekeepers.
Slobodan Milosevic, in a statement from his Belgrade office, said his chief of security reported that Bosnian Serb leaders had ``responded positively'' to his demands to quickly free the hostages.
It was not known if or when the releases would occur.
Sources in Pale, the Bosnian Serb capital nine miles from Sarajevo, said the hostages were being gathered from detention points in preparation for departure. A similar procedure occurred Friday before 121 hostages were freed.
As early as today, elements of the U.S. force could begin preparations for moving into several bases in Italy, according to several officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
``This is not an exercise; this is positioning'' in case the U.N. peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia need to be withdrawn, one said.
The reinforced aviation brigade was expected to be drawn from the 11th Aviation Regiment now training in Germany. Units will move south by air, rail and bus.
Officials said the aviation brigade would be part of the U.S. contribution to a NATO force that would help evacuate U.N. peacekeepers from the former Yugoslavia. Up to 25,000 U.S. troops, roughly half the force, could be involved in such a mission.
However, the aviation brigade needs to be in place early in the event that pockets of peacekeepers need to be evacuated quickly by air at the start of a full-scale overland evacuation.
The officials refused to say exactly where the U.S. forces would be based, but one official said their headquarters would be in Vincenza, Italy, where paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division are located. ILLUSTRATION: Color map
ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
A French U.N. peacekeeper scans the hills surrounding Sarajevo
Monday for potential redeployment of Bosnian Serb heavy weapons.
About 3,500 U.S. Army troops are being dispatched from Germany to
Italy to prepare for possible rescue of U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia,
officials said Monday.
by CNB