WASHINGTON -- Trouble in the Balkans may not be over,
according to U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark. Four years after
NATO forces first crossed the Sava River Bridge to enter
the Balkans, NATO's supreme allied commander says regional
tensions persist.

At a Dec. 9 Pentagon press conference, Clark highlighted
growing tension in Montenegro and recapped NATO's progress
to date in restoring stability in Bosnia and Kosovo. SFOR,
NATO's stabilization force of 30,000, is deployed in Bosnia
and KFOR, made up of 43,000 international forces, is
deployed in Kosovo.

New trouble is brewing in nearby Montenegro, a pro-Western
Yugoslav republic, south of Bosnia and west of Kosovo. In a
move toward independence, the republic has taken steps to
split from Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic.

Montengro's president, Milo Djukanovic, "is doing as much
as he can do to democratize and westernize Montenegrin
institutions," Clark said. "He is trying to better the lot
of his people." Djukanovic has declared the deutsche mark
as an alternative currency and taken other steps to help
Montenegro develop its economy for the benefit of his
people, Clark noted.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has responded with
pressures, intimidation and most recently, with military
action. The Serb leader sent armed troops to seize control
of the Montenegro's main airport. Yugoslav military trucks
blocked the runway at Podgorica, Dec. 8, and troops took
over the control tower, banning all flights.

"The situation is very tense in Montenegro," Clark
declared. The airport incident "certainly sent a message,"
and "is indicative of the tensions and potential
instability in that region," he said.

"We are seeing a whole series of low-level but worrisome
developments as we watch the pattern of Serb activities in
this area," Clark added. ""We are watching this very
closely. We don't pretend to know what Mr. Milosevic's
final intent is."

"It's been made very clear to Mr. Milosevic that he should
not, and must not, interfere in the Montenegrin processes,"
Clark said. The general would not discuss any NATO planning
that may or may not have been done in response to these
developments.

Switching to Bosnia, Clark said most of the military tasks
have been done, but not sustained, and civil implementation
tasks have not been completed. "The military can't do the
civil implementation tasks," the commander noted, "but the
civil tasks can't be done without the secure environment
the military provides."

Clark described military stability in Bosnia as "good." The
Dayton accord divided the country into two entities, the
Serb-dominated Republic of Srpska and the Bosniak
(Muslim)/Croat-popluated Federation. Armed forces from both
entities are now working together in a more cooperative
manner than ever before, Clark said. "They just agreed on a
15 percent reduction in their armed forces, and the initial
reductions toward that have been taken," he noted.

"Remarkable progress" has been made in the area of minority
refugee returns, Clark added. "We've had about 60,000
return this year. It's a 40 percent increase over where we
were in the past."

Individual, spontaneous refugee returns are underway, Clark
explained. Stabilization force troops serve as observers
and people now feel secure enough to return to their homes
and get on with normal life four years after the peace
accord was signed. "This is a real indicator of progress,"
Clark said.

NATO forces have taken 28 war criminals under detention and
more have surrendered. Police reforms have been made, but
there are still public security problems. Elections have
been held, but difficulties remain in some of the hard-line
part connections with other states and other elements.

"Economic development and illegal institutions are two
areas that are of the greatest concern right now," Clark
pointed out. "The unemployment rate's over 40 percent...
[Bosnia] need security, it needs investment, but it needs
institutions and laws that will enable this investment and
development to occur. That's underway, but it just hasn't
happened as rapidly as we'd like it to."

About 60,000 international troops entered Bosnia after
warring factions signed the Dayton peace accord in December
1995. Since then, NATO authorities have reduced the force
to 30,000, and plan to go down to 20,000 by spring 2000.
About 6,200 U.S. service members remain in Bosnia. This
number is slated to drop to 3,900 by spring 2000.

The 30,000 international troops in Bosnia are assigned to
three multinational divisions -- north, southwest and
southeast. Their primary role is to maintain a secure
environment, support refugee returns, conduct area security
and presence missions, monitor entity armed forces
compliance with the peace agreement, support war crimes
tribunal investigations and monitor the borders with
Yugoslavia.

On Kosovo, Clark responded to a reporter who asked if more
intense raids early on in the bombing campaign would have
made Milosevic 'cry uncle' sooner. "I believe that whenever
we cross the threshold from diplomacy into the actual
employment of military power that we should do so as
decisively as politically feasible," the commander replied.
"That's what we did in this case.

"Obviously, we were pressing to do more in the way of more
effective, more widespread, more intense operations." He
continued. "But we're an alliance of 19 nations. This was
what the alliance agreed with, and ultimately it was the
alliance cohesion which was perhaps the critical factor
along with other elements in convincing Milosevic that he
had not choice but to comply with NATO conditions."

Now that the fighting in Kosovo has stopped, and
international stability forces are in place, Clark stressed
that the United Nations now has a significant
responsibility to "assume an increasing burden for the
public security function." U.N. officials have called for
several thousand more police than are present on the
ground, he said. A police infrastructure with
communications, vehicles and stations also is needed. "Step
by step," Clark said, "this is being put in place."

The United Nations needs more resources, more programs and
staff on the ground in Kosovo to do the job, Clark
stressed. "This is the first line effort of the
international community in dealing with the Kosovo
problem."

Clark also responded to questions regarding the C-4
readiness ratings of two U.S. divisions, the 10th Mountain
and the 1st Infantry Division. Both have elements deployed
in the Balkans.

These units are accomplishing challenging missions in
Bosnia and Kosovo, Clark said. "It's not a full war-
fighting mission, but it's a very challenging mission under
potentially hostile conditions, especially in Kosovo," he
said.

"They're doing a very good job there," he continued. "They
are also conducting a number of low-level exercises at crew
level, squad level and individual level to maintain their
war-fighting proficiency in other tasks that they're not
routinely doing."

U.S. forces get a lot out of the peacekeeping missions,
Clark added. They get small leadership and communications
training. They get to exercise the intelligence, logistics
and security systems. "By no means are these missions that
don't have benefits that are directly related to combat
requirements," he said.

When will U.S. forces pull out of the Balkans? Clark said
NATO has moved away from a time-based exit strategy. "We
believe we have to have a success-based exit strategy," he
said. "It's best to recognize that this is a demanding
mission. It's really a regional focus that we are
interested in now."

In July, Clark said, regional heads of government met in
Sarajevo and set up the Balkans Stability Pact. "We need
economic development," he emphasized. "We need
democratization and, above all, we need democratization in
Serbia."