(10 Jul 1995) English/Nat
The first German soldiers to set foot on Croatian soil since the end of the Second World War arrived in the port of Split Monday.
The fifteen German Officers are part of a United Nations fact-finding mission sent to Croatia to discuss the setting up of a field hospital for UN personnel and civilians.
The advance party are preparing the way for a 500 strong medical team, part of the force the German Parliament promised to send to the Balkans - breaking with a 50-year policy not to deploy troops beyond Germany's borders.
The arrival of three Transvaal transport planes in Split Monday marked the end of German's self-imposed penance for atrocities carried out by its army during the Second World War.
There are particularly bitter memories in the Balkans and this is the first time that German soldiers have set foot here for 50 years.
But the troops that Germany is sending this time round bear little resemblance to the Nazi forces responsible for wartime atrocities.
The 15 unarmed officers who arrived Monday are here to help plan a field hospital in Split. Nevertheless, they are the first contingent of a German force which will include warplanes and more than a thousand support personnel.
German planes will overfly Bosnia, but there are no plans to deploy ground troops in the war-torn republic.
The German officer in command stressed that his team had no combat role.
SOUNDBITE:
"The job of the crew is to find facts, it's a fact finding team for this field hospital, and we have in this group experts of different tasks - yes we have logistics experts, we have transmission experts and so on. I think the hospital will have 50 or 60 bedrooms and two operational places."
SUPER CAPTION: Lt Col Helmut Wetzel
U-N plans to build a hospital in Split underline fears that the war in Bosnia is entering a new and bloody phase.
SOUNDBITE:
"I think the hospital will have 50 or 60 bedrooms and two operational places."
SUPER CAPTION: Lt Col Helmut Wetzel
A further 100-150 German soldiers are expected to arrive in Croatia in July with the rest of the 500-strong field hospital staff in place by early August.
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