_RA - Tha KAinhidon i'1ailu - Thitrerlar far.amhar 0 4OfIr. x - i ne miInanf i i ia - InuIaUy, uecemaIr 0, Niu*A W A GOP at odds with peace mission Republicans debate how to support troops without endorsing Clinton's policy WASHINGTON (AP)-Republicansstrugg- led yesterday with the wording of a Bosnia resolution supporting deploymentofU.S. peace- keeping troops without endorsing the policy. President Clinton tried to rally bipartisan back- Ong, saying: "Leadership isnotaspectator sport." The Republican majority in Congress was ,divided between those such as Senate Majority ,leader Bob Dole who, despite reservations, felt rthere was little choice but to support the Presi- --nt and those who were determined to vote gainst any deployment. The commander of U.N. forces in Bosnia, neanwhile, appeared on Capitol Hill and said -.'concerns about an attack on American forces !ere overblown. "I don't think your fears are of a very high or :.ven a very great probability at all," British ;men. Rupert Smith told the House International :Relations Committee. Smith said that Bosnia was a society that "recognizes very clearly force, it understands force." The greatest protection for the NATO peacekeeping force beginning to deploy in Bosnia, he said, "is its numbers, its mass and the weapon capabilities it has, none of which have I had until very recently." Congress is not expected to vote on the Bosnia deployment plan until next week, action being delayed by the problems drafting a resolution that would satisfy the widely conflicting views on Capitol Hill. The first sign of the difficulty Dole was encountering came when a Senate vote was put off until next week. The House planned to act only after the Senate vote. The peace agreement reached last month at Dayton, Ohio, will be signed in Paris on Dec. resolution, the early stages of the deployment already were under way. The first U.S. Air Force cargo plane arrived at Tuzla in northern Bosniayesterday, carrying communications gear and technicians to prepare the massive opera- tion to supply the American military headquar- ters in Bosnia. Clinton dispatched U.S. negotiators to the former Yugoslaviato meet with leaders in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, to discuss final plans for implementing the Dayton peace agreement. The President also sought to maintain mo- mentum in support of the deployment of 20,000 U.S. troops to Bosnia. Senior administration officials continued their round of appearances on Capitol Hill and-the president restated his case at a White House meeting. A cross section of supporters of the military mission met with Clinton at the White House. They included Alexander Haig, secretary of state in the Reagan administration, andZbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to fromer President Carter. "Today you have joined across partisan lines to make a strong case for America's leadership in Bosnia," Clinton said. "Europe's stability is threatened as long as this war burns at its center. We have to stand with the Europeans on Bosnia." Smith, the U.N. commander, said the greatest threat to the NATO force was not from orga- nized military units but when the deployment reaches "the stage where individuals or very small groups take matters into their own hands. I think the force is big enough and strong enough to deal with that." Smith also discounted the danger of the mil- lions of mines in Bosnia. "Just because of the large number of them doesn't mean they are a large threat," said the general, who pointed out his forces have been operating in the region for years. Smith saidthat since the firstofJanuary, U.N. forces have suffered eight killed and 119 wounded from hostile action. Norwegian United Nations peacekeepers At the Tuzie airbase watch a U.S. C-130 transport lift off yesterday after it had landed with 10 American liasson officers. 14, and congressional leaders hope to vote on a resolution before then. Dole (R-Kan.) and Sen. John McCain (R- Ariz.) were trying to muster support behind a resolution that would state a commitment to arm and train the Bosnian army, which has been out-gunned by the Serbs for nearly four years. In addition, the senators want to define the NATO mission as limited to military matters and not involved in refugee questions and estab- lishing a civil administration in Bosnia. Oppo- nents of deployment want to force a vote on whether to send the troops at all. While Congress worked on the wording of a AP PHOTO German soldiers simulate the rescue of a wounded comrade during a training session for Bosnia. The German parliament has authorized 4,000 soldiers to go to the Balkans. Flow of troops into Bosnia slows TROOPS Continued from Page 1A aircraft to fly into Tuzla in a year and a half. But Renuart said no more fixed- wingflights into the airfield are planned until Dec. 12,two days before the sched- uled signing of the peace accord. Ten flights that flew into Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, were delayed by a foot of snow that covered the moun- tainous city. By late afternoon, the planes had landed in the slush-covered city, continuing the buildup for the force that is eventually to number 60,000. Two British Royal Air Force C-130s landed shortly after noon, one carrying two Land Rovers and four British sol- diers and the other carrying two Land Rovers and six soldiers. Other flights landed throughout the day, U.N. officials said. NATO sol- diers, mainly British and French, are AP PHOTO expected to be stationed in Ilidza, a suburb of Sarajevo held by Serbs that is scheduled to revert to Muslim-Croat control as a part of the peace accord, officials said yesterday. The decision, hinging on whether suitable housing can be found for the hundreds of soldiers destined to arrive here, is another sign that authorities here are attempting to quell possible trouble in the most critical areas of Sarajevo. U.N. aid agencies said this week that they plan to open offices in Ilidza and Grbavica, anotherSerb-inhabitedneigh- borhood that Muslims fled in the early days of the 3-year-old ethnic war. None of the trains loaded with vans, trucks and communications gear be- longing to the 72nd Signal Battalion has departed from a staging area in Mannheim, Germany. More than 60 flatbed cars with 130 pieces of equip- ment sat parked yesterday in a holding area, awaiting orders to start rolling toward Croatia, as soldiers continued to load military items onto other cars. As for the Special Forces contingent,: which constitutes about balfof the U.S. contribution to NATO's advance party in Bosnia, only a few planning-team members have entered the country. Their forward-based headquarters is not due to start setting up outside Sarajevo until this weekend. The bulk ofthe U.S. troops earmarked for Bosniainthis initial phase arescbed- uled to arrive next week, in the finalffew days before the Paris signing. By con- trast, more than half of the 700 U.S. troops committedxt NATQ's advance party in Croatia are thoe, reflecting the lesser threat to U.S.Jorces in that coun- try. Immediately after the signing,' the United States intends to rush up to I500 airborne combat troops into Tuzla to secure the headquarters area. In the meantime, the small team of U.S. Logistics, intelligence, contracting and operations officers that arrived in Tuzla yesterday from the 1st Armored Division joined the handful of other American servie memtber there. . Bosnian soldier hurries past a begging gypsy woman and her children in downtown Sarajevo yesterday. a