World News 23-08-2001 More British Troops Head For Balkans who: British troops what: Leave Britain for Balkans where: BRIZE NORTON when: This morning snippet: "Britain has been forced to provide double the number of troops planned for the mission to disarm rebels in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," reports The Times this morning, "because other Nato countries have not offered enough specialist units for the potentially dangerous operation." Nato secretary-general Lord Robertson gave the go-ahead "despite the fact that there is little sign of the lasting ceasefire that Nato said was a precondition for sending the full task force," reports The Independent. "Fighting has continued on an almost daily basis." Operation Essential Harvest is a joint 30-day mission by British, German, French and Czech soldiers to collect weapons from the rebel Albanian National Liberation Army with the intention of averting civil war between the minority Albanians and the ethnic Macedonian majority. The precise number of troops involved is unclear, depending on the source. The Independent says 700 troops are today joining the 400 who have already arrived and "the final force will include up to 1,800". The Times says that the Ministry of Defence has "approved the deployment of 2,000 troops" while The Telegraph says 680 paras from Colchester are joining the 400-strong advance force but at some point a further 800 will be needed "to make up for Canadian and Polish units that were not going to be ready in time." ITN`s reporter wisely hedges his bets with the phrase "hundreds of British paratroopers". [... more]

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