Over the past twenty years, the Americans have announced their troop withdrawal from Kosovo on at least five occasions. The reasons have varied – from the expiration of the lifespan of prefabricated structures making up Camp Bondsteel, to political pressure for the ratification of border demarcation with Montenegro and the establishment of the Special Court for KLA crimes, as well as the lifting of tariffs on goods from Bosnia and Herzegovina and central Serbia.
The latest “withdrawal” of around 600 American soldiers from Camp Bondsteel was hinted at by the German tabloid Bild, which reported that Western intelligence services and politicians feared that US-Russia negotiations could lead to the discontinuation of the American military presence in certain parts of Europe.
The newspaper stated that Italy was preparing for a possible American withdrawal from Kosovo, but NATO quickly announced that the US would continue to play a key and long-term role in KFOR forces.
In Kosovo’s dust
Until mid-June 1999, the village of Sojevo, near Uroševac, was virtually unknown. At that time, a convoy of American tanks and armoured personnel carriers parked by the roadside, soldiers jumped out, and they set up the first tents in fields covered with red dust.
Soon, along the dirt road leading from Uroševac to Gnjilane, a sign was put up reading “Camp Bondsteel,” named after James Bondsteel, a Vietnam War veteran awarded the Medal of Honour by Richard Nixon.
As soon as they pitched their first tents, the Americans also installed mobile phone antennas from Monaco, so Serbian journalists present at the scene immediately found themselves in roaming mode.
Essentially, this was the opening of a military base that, in the years to come, would be at the centre of numerous controversies, speculations, and diplomatic disputes.
Initially, Bondsteel housed around 7,000 members of elite US military units, including Marines, paratroopers, Rangers, and Green Berets. However, over time, both the number and the composition of the forces deployed to Kosovo changed.
When Bondsteel’s time was up
The idea of closing Bondsteel was first publicly mentioned by then-Senator Chuck Hagel, a key member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in mid-2007. He explained that the prefabricated structures at the base had exceeded their intended lifespan and that Washington had to allocate significant and costly reserves and logistical support in Germany to maintain the base in Kosovo.
According to Hagel, the buildings at Bondsteel were designed to last seven years. However, he also assessed that due to potential complications in the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations, where a solution was expected from Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari, the Americans would remain in Kosovo for some time.
For the next two years, no one mentioned the American withdrawal from Kosovo—until military bases in Romania and Bulgaria became the focus of global attention. These bases were envisioned as launchpads for US policy in the Middle East, as well as an opportunity to reduce the costly contingent of 55,000 US troops stationed in Germany.
Berisha seizes the base
By then, US officials had already announced that by the end of the 2010 fiscal year, only a minimal number of troops would remain at Bondsteel, which, in theory, would allow for a reduction in the US military presence in Germany.
At nearly the same time, then-Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha offered the Americans the opportunity to deploy the controversial missile defence shield somewhere in Albania—a system that had led to heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow during the George W. Bush administration.
With Barack Obama’s victory in the presidential election, the US abandoned Bush’s vision of the missile defence shield, putting an end to speculation about Bondsteel as a potential site for elements of that system, alongside Albania.
Despite lobbying efforts, by 2011, then-US Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell announced that the US would soon close Camp Bondsteel, as its continued existence was no longer necessary.
“The stories that Bondsteel was built and is being used to demonstrate the strength and power of the United States in the region are nothing but a myth,” Dell said at the time, stating that the large base near Uroševac had become a “financial burden” for America, and that the new military budget and regional strategy envisioned its closure.
Dell also said that while Bondsteel was highly valuable, the US was implementing forced austerity measures and did not want to “hold on to more than what is necessary,” especially in regions that were “no longer high on the list of American priorities.”
“Look at events in other countries, the situation in Afghanistan and the mass protests in the Middle East, these influence politicians to shift priorities and focus on more important matters,” Dell said.
Turkish soldiers instead of American troops
A year after Dell’s announcement about Bondsteel’s closure, then-commander of US forces in Kosovo, Colonel Jeffrey Laiten, stated that American troops would not withdraw from Bondsteel, despite the fact that the US military budget no longer included funds for the renovation and maintenance of the base’s facilities.
The strongest reactions to the potential closure of Bondsteel, it seems, came from Albanian lobbyists in the US, who requested that American officials delay the withdrawal until the situation in northern Kosovo was resolved.
They also requested that, if the Americans decided to leave Bondsteel, Turkish soldiers replace them, arguing that Ankara was a “reliable ally of both the US and Kosovo.”
Once again, in 2020, the US used the potential closure of Bondsteel as leverage – this time against Albin Kurti’s government – warning that they would withdraw troops from Kosovo if tariffs on products from Bosnia and Herzegovina and central Serbia were not lifted.
The Bondsteel controversies
Several unresolved controversies have been linked to this base, including a 2005 Council of Europe report that described Bondsteel as a “mini Guantanamo,” suggesting that suspicious activities involving individuals accused of radical Islamism had taken place there.
Essentially, the report by Dick Marty claimed that teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross had seen people wearing orange jumpsuits inside cages at Bondsteel during Muslim religious ceremonies. It was concluded that these were alleged Islamists whom the Americans, in their widespread paranoia after 9/11, had detained around the world. The US firmly denied these allegations, and visits by representatives of international humanitarian organisations were drastically reduced in the meantime.
In May 2001, Florim Ejupi, suspected of planting a bomb that exploded beneath a Niš Ekspres bus near Podujevo, killing 11 and injuring 40 Serbian passengers, escaped from Bondsteel.
Ejupi had been arrested after a cigarette butt found behind a tree stump near the explosion site yielded his DNA. However, he was later released due to a lack of evidence.
Ramush Haradinaj was also secretly transferred from Bondsteel to Germany after being wounded in a clash with the rival Musaj clan. During the incident, American police reportedly removed all evidence from the crime scene.
(RTS, 21.02.2025)
https://www.rts.rs/vesti/politika/5657101/kosovo-sad-kfor-nato-povlacenje.html
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Publish date : 2025-02-21 01:26:00
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