BOSNIAN SOLDIERS SENT TO IRAN FOR INFANTRY TRAINING.

Byline: Chris Hedges The New York Times

The Bosnian government has sent soldiers to Iran for training as part of an effort to revamp its military, senior Western and Bosnian government officials say.

Two Bosnian officials who confirmed the training but who spoke on condition of anonymity refused to say how many Bosnian troops were in Iran or when they had arrived there. But European countries with embassies in Iran say there are probably a few hundred Bosnians who are being trained, or have recently been trained, in light-infantry tactics.

"Our Foreign Ministry has received steady reports of Bosnians going to Iran for training," said a senior European military officer who spoke on the condition that he and the country he represents not be identified, "but we do not have any precise numbers. What we worry about is not the level of military expertise that will be achieved in Iran by these Bosnians, but the indoctrination of Islamic ideology that is also part of any training program."

The training, combined with the presence of 150 to 200 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Bosnia in violation of the Balkan peace accord, is likely to anger and alarm Western backers of Bosnia. It underscores the effort of Iran's militant Islamic government to forge close ties to the Muslim-led Bosnian government.

The presence of Bosnian soldiers in Iran does not violate the peace plan, although it could cause tensions between the Bosnian government and Washington, which hopes to curb Iranian influence in Bosnia.

"The Dayton agreement does not prevent any country from going and seeking training and assistance," said Vigleik Eide, a retired Norwegian general who heads the arms-control talks taking place here between the former warring factions. "We will see this effort to seek assistance in the future. All countries have programs where they send officers abroad for training."

The American government has promised to help train and equip the Bosnian army once the arms talks here, aimed at achieving a balance of forces in the Balkans, end in June.

But American officials have warned the Bosnian government that its failure to remove from Bosnia "several hundred" foreign soldiers, mostly Iranian and other Islamic units that assisted the government during the war, could jeopardize any military assistance program. An intensive program to train officers and troops in Iran will make it even more difficult for the Pentagon to carry out an assistance program, NATO officials said.

Gen. Rasim Delic, commander in chief of the Bosnian army, and Gen. Zivko Budimir, chief of staff of the Bosnian Croat forces, who ended a weeklong visit to the United States on Saturday, said their forces, allied in the Muslim-Croat Federation, would require extensive retraining to operate the new weapons systems they hope to acquire. These include surface-to-air missiles, which the Bosnian military said would be set up for "defensive purposes."

The generals met Gen. John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; President Clinton's national security adviser Anthony Lake and other senior State Department and Pentagon officials. They also toured military bases in Georgia, Kansas and Louisiana.

Iran was one of the first Muslim countries to come to the aid of the Bosnians when the war began, sending clandestine arms shipments and helping organize units of Muslim volunteers known as Mujahedeen. An arms embargo by the West during the war on all the former Yugoslav republics made the Iranian assistance vital in the effort to build up the Bosnian government forces.

NATO troops recently uncovered a training center outside Sarajevo that was run by Iranians and contained material for classes in bomb making and kidnapping. The Iranians were expelled from Bosnia after the NATO raid.

Iran and militant Islamic groups run some four dozen Islamic charities in Bosnia. NATO officials contend that the charities are used as a cover to bring in military equipment and soldiers. When the Balkan peace agreement was signed the Bosnian government allowed many of the Iranians and Mujahedeen to register as aid workers and civilian teachers, according to these officials.

The Iranians hope to gain influence in the Bosnian military, NATO officials say. They say that the 150 to 200 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Bosnia are assigned to military units, mainly the all-Muslim brigades that often have a conservative Islamic orientation.