KFORMYASS!!!

Why KFOR is in Kosovo - Yugoslavia?

  PRESIDENT CLINTON is now ready to consider
  a full-scale land war against Serb forces
  in Kosovo, sending up to 90,000 combat
  troops from America, if no peace settlement
  emerges within the next three weeks.

  Although Nato is only officially planning
  for a peace implementation force of
  50,000-60,000 troops, there is a growing
  feeling in Washington and London that the
  alliance must prepare itself for a much
  bigger operation, involving 150,000-160,000
  troops.

  Mr Clinton's dramatic conversion, after
  weeks of apparent reluctance to send in
  ground troops, has emerged in the light of
  detailed briefings from General Wesley
  Clark, the Supreme Allied Commander, last
  week.

  A new sense of urgency has been injected
  into Nato's contingency planning because of
  a warning from the military that a decision
  will have to be made "by mid-June" if the
  alliance is to contemplate a ground
  offensive.

  The tight timetable is being dictated by
  the alliance's determination to start
  returning ethnic Albanian refugees to their
  homes in Kosovo before the winter.

  The huge number of troops required for such
  an operation will be a daunting challenge
  for Nato. However, alliance sources said
  that with Mr Clinton committed to defeating
  Mr Milosevic one way or another, the US
  would be expected to contribute more than
  half of the force.

  They estimated the US contribution could be
  about 90,000 troops who would be deployed
  from America, not from Germany. They might
  include the 12,500-man US 82nd Airborne
  Division, based at Fort Bragg in North
  Carolina, which was deployed in the Gulf
  War in 1991.

  Britain and France would also be expected
  to play a major part. Yesterday, George
  Robertson, the Defence Secretary, took the
  first step by announcing an extra 12,000
  troops and support personnel for the peace
  implementation force, called Kfor. This
  will bring the total British military
  strength committed to the Kosovo crisis in
  Albania, Macedonia, Italy and the Adriatic
  to more than 19,000.

  Although Mr Robertson insisted that it was
  not an invasion force, Tony Blair indicated
  in the Commons that the troops could be
  used for a combat role.

  The alliance sources said that the size of
  an invasion force would depend on the
  amount of damage achieved by the airstrikes
  against the Serb troops in Kosovo over the
  next few weeks. Last week, it was estimated
  that the Serb strength in the province
  remained at about 40,000 in spite of two
  months of bombing.

  However, Nato still hopes that the
  intensified bombing campaign combined with
  Russian diplomatic efforts will persuade
  President Milosevic to agree to the
  alliance's five conditions for stopping the
  airstrikes.

  It is also recognised that if Nato were
  seen to be preparing for a land offensive,
  while backing Moscow's peace diplomacy, it
  could seriously undermine the already
  strained relations between Russia and the
  alliance.

  Another key factor is that the alliance
  itself has to be held together, and any
  formal request made to the 19 member states
  for authority to plan for a ground war
  could damage the unity that has been
  maintained so far. Germany indicated
  yesterday that it would not veto a move
  towards a ground war, although its troops
  would not take part.

  One resolve shared by the whole of Nato is
  that Mr Milosevic must not win, and the
  alliance sources said that if the air
  campaign and diplomatic efforts failed to
  get the Yugoslav leader to back down within
  the next three weeks, there would be no
  alternative but to prepare a ground
  offensive.

  The alliance sources admitted that the
  operation would be difficult, "but not
  impossible", and that a number of ways into
  the province were being studied.

TIRANA, Albania--As NATO military muscle and machinery mount daily in the Balkans,
actions are speaking louder than words to make clear that a force is
massing around embattled Kosovo that could be mobilized to wage a ground
war against the defiant Serbs.
    From the 32,000-strong Stabilization Force patrolling
Bosnia-Herzegovina to the troops soon to number 50,000 near the Kosovo
border to enforce a still-elusive peace accord, the balance of force in
the region is quickly shifting in NATO's favor despite its insistence
that no land invasion is in the offing.
    An additional 7,500 NATO troops are deployed for humanitarian work and
Apache helicopter support here in Albania, the only Balkan nation to give
formal approval for preparing a NATO ground action from its soil. And in
Hungary, a new NATO member just north of Yugoslavia, 1,500 Italian troops
and 500 pieces of equipment began a month of military maneuvers Wednesday
that the alliance insists are unrelated to the conflict flaring just a
few miles away.
    Farther afield but still within military earshot, 2,200 combat-ready
U.S. Marines are afloat on warships in the Adriatic Sea and 800 more are
headed for Hungary to back up the deployment of 24 F/A-18 fighter
aircraft to the Taszar air base near the Yugoslav border.
    While the new troop deployments appear to testify to at least some
thought toward ground actions, more definitive signs of creeping,
multi-pronged preparations are visible on the rutted roads connecting
Tirana, the Albanian capital, and the nearby port city of Durres to the
mountain sites from which any push into Yugoslavia from Albania would
have to be launched.
    Small convoys of tanks, howitzers and mounted guns can be spotted
daily making the 145-mile, 12-hour crawl from Durres to Kukes, near the
Kosovo border. C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft that can carry troops and
hardware also have been making regular runs between Tirana and the border
since an airstrip was hastily built in Kukes by the United Arab Emirates
two weeks ago.
    Italian troops are at work widening and resurfacing the
Durres-to-Kukes road, ostensibly to make aid deliveries easier to the
mountain stronghold hosting more than 100,000 refugees from Kosovo. But
the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is pressing hard
for relocation of the displaced Kosovo Albanians to safer ground in the
Albanian interior, raising the question of why the infrastructure
improvements are being made now.
    Farther north from Kukes, around the town of Tropoje, which serves as
a staging ground for incursions into Kosovo by rebels of the Kosovo
Liberation Army, Danish troops from a communications battalion and
British special forces have been seen by journalists in the region, where
there is no declared NATO activity.
    With top NATO officials and President Clinton still formally insisting
that there are no plans for a ground invasion, alliance officers
stationed in the Balkans have had to refrain from comment on ground force
contingencies. But some acknowledge privately that all options, including
a land invasion from Albania, are being explored.
    "We'd be both stupid and irresponsible not to be planning for all
eventualities," said one Black Hawk helicopter pilot taking a smoking
break at Rinas Airport, the cluttered nerve center of NATO activities in
Tirana. "We're just soldiers taking orders, but you can see for yourself
that we're not all just sitting here idle."
    He referred to the unofficially grounded Apache helicopters that were
dispatched to Tirana in a blaze of Pentagon publicity in April.
    Since their arrival, they have been parked along Rinas' crowded
runway, awaiting resolution of the silent standoff between the White
House, which fears that the vaunted "tank killers" would be too
vulnerable to Serbian antiaircraft guns without supporting ground troops,
and NATO commander Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who called for the Apache
deployment but has been dissuaded from actually using them in combat.
    Two of the copters have crashed in separate training exercises in
Albania; in one of the accidents, both pilots were killed.
    In October, NATO planners estimated that 75,000 alliance troops could
take Kosovo if forced to invade to bring peace to the separatist province
and that up to 200,000 would be needed to subdue all of Yugoslavia. But
NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana has asked for updated assessments of
the forces needed since the start of the air campaign March 24.
    Pentagon officials say they expect the updated report to conclude that
NATO would need many more troops than first thought to invade Kosovo and
perhaps as many as 150,000. This is because the Serbian forces have had
an opportunity to dig defensive positions and mine roads and bridges to
fend off NATO troops, Pentagon officials say.
    NATO planners will also boost the estimate, they predict, because the
nearly 10-week-old air campaign has demonstrated that the Serbs have a
strong will to resist.
    One military strategist cautioned that defenders always have the
advantage of fighting on familiar territory and that the standard 3-to-1
ratio advised for any attack should be considered the minimum needed to
subdue the estimated 40,000 Yugoslav army, police and paramilitary troops
now in Kosovo.
    That would mean a NATO invasion force of 120,000 or more--requiring
even broader expansion than the buildup announced by the alliance in
Brussels last Tuesday.
    Beyond the numbers, the geography of the region poses problems for any
ground force. All of the Albanian territory bordering western Kosovo is
unrelentingly rugged, with towering mountains and rocky gorges presenting
formidable obstacles to tanks and other tracked armor that would be used
in a conventional invasion force.
    "My personal opinion is that ground operations from Albania to Kosovo
are not possible," said Cmdr. Domenico Passaro of the Italian military
contingent that has been helping to upgrade the Albanian armed services
for the past two years as well as assist with the 2,600-troop Italian
NATO contingent here.
    He and other Italian officers remember their country's failed push
toward Yugoslavia from the same region in the lead-up to World War II,
when the fascist forces of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini were trapped
and defeated in the mountains east of the Albanian city of Shkodra.
    But other NATO officers are of the opinion that modern technology and
conviction could overcome the geographic obstacles in the alliance's
path.
    "Where there's a will, there's a way," Maj. Andy Paine, a U.S. Army
communications officer at Rinas, said of the prospects for a successful
push by NATO into Kosovo from Albania's unforgiving terrain.
    Some U.S. military analysts have suggested that the main thrust could
come through Macedonia, with limited support from Albania.
    Like many other U.S. officers stationed at the sprawling tent cities
around Rinas, Paine insists that the NATO troops here are ready, willing
and able to convert themselves for ground assaults as soon as their
commanding officers give the orders.
    "That's what we came here to do, that's what we want to do, and that's
what we will do when we get the word," Paine said.
    NATO's decision last week to enlarge KFOR--the potential peacekeeping
contingent for postwar Kosovo--to as many as 50,000 troops appeared to
send a signal to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that the alliance
is keeping its options open in the event a ground action is needed.
    The new "KFOR Plus" will include some military units that could join
an invasion force. But to build an organization capable of seizing
territory, NATO would need many more troops, pieces of equipment and
weeks of preparation, Pentagon officials say.
    The forces earmarked for the first version of the Kosovo peacekeeping
force include German, French and British tanks, armored personnel
carriers, assault helicopters, self-propelled artillery and
combat-equipped troops. But officials said most of the troops to be added
to KFOR would be additional lightly armed military police, de-mining
specialists, engineers and the "civil affairs" people who can help create
a government.
    Only about 14% of the expanded force is expected to be made up of U.S.
troops, and alliance spokesman Jamie Shea said last week that NATO would
also be asking some non-NATO countries, such as Sweden and Slovakia, to
contribute to the buildup. Those forces would be unlikely to have any
part in an aggressive action should any decision be taken to convert the
NATO troops already in the Balkan theater for combat.
    "This is not an invasion force, so there would have to be a lot of
changes" to convert it to one, said one Pentagon official. "This force is
being constructed for the specific mission statement of KFOR."
    Converting the force "would take considerable planning--of which there
has so far been none," the official said.
    Converting KFOR to an invasion mission would take time because, among
other things, field commanders like to carefully synchronize and rehearse
such large troop movements before they begin them.
    The slow movement of the American Apache helicopter gunships also
hints at how much time could be required to bring the forces into the
theater. The gunships and associated equipment and personnel required
more than a month to reach Albania from Germany, though allied military
commander Clark had given the Pentagon notice of his intentions weeks
before the formal request was made.
    NATO is likely to give important hints this week about its intentions
for the Kosovo peacekeeping force. Alliance leaders are about to sit down
to decide which military units they will begin sending to the region.
    Senior officials acknowledge that there is little time to waste,
noting that the first preparations for a ground invasion must come within
the next two weeks or so if the invasion is to be carried out before the
fog and snow of winter.
    Macedonia is the chief site of the current NATO buildup in the
Balkans, although its leaders have repeatedly said they would not want
their country to be used as a staging ground for hostile actions against
neighboring Yugoslavia.
    Still, Pentagon officials insist that they are confident that the
Macedonian government won't be an obstacle to the assembling of a
peacekeeping force that might, sometime later, become an invasion force.
One asserted that the Pentagon views Macedonia as "solidly" in NATO's
corner despite its protests.

WASHINGTON, June 2 (AFP) - Promoting the arrest of war criminals
will be part of the work of any eventual peacekeeping force in
Kosovo, a top US official said Wednesday.
   "I can assure you that the responsibilities to respect the
investigation of war crimes and promote the apprehension (of war
criminals) is part of that planning," said David Scheffer, the US
ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues.
   "I don't think anyone perpetrating war crimes should feel
confident about that status (of indicted war criminal)," he added.
   The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
based in The Hague last week indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, and four of his top aides, for war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
   NATO's peacekeeping force in Bosnia was often criticised for not
having arrested similarly indicted Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and
Ratko Mladic.
   The indictment against Milosevic includes the death of 340
Kosovar Albanians and the deportation of another 740,000 this year.
   Washington is hoping the charges will be amended to include Serb
forces' crimes during the 1991-1995 war in Bosnia, Scheffer said.
   The United States "provides information about all these events
with the expectation that the tribunal can examine this," he said.
   Scheffer pointed out the tribunal would also investigate the
Kosovar Liberation Army, which did not have immunity for its actions
in the Kosovo conflict.

---

KFOR at work: Let's beat some Serbs!

By JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG, Times Staff Writer

BRUSSELS--"When we go into Kosovo," a NATO official
said Saturday, "it's going to be like the saints marching in."

British paratroopers, daggertoting Gurkhas from the
Himalayas, Royal Irish Guards in Challenger tanks, U.S.
Marines, members of the French Foreign Legion--all are poised
or on the move so they can enter Kosovo on the heels of the
retreating Serbs. NATO leaders say the troops will be equipped
to make peace--or fight.

"We are going to be going into a situation where Serb forces
have been very active, and it is necessary to have every single
part of this special force properly equipped for all eventualities,"
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

At North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in
Brussels, a high-ranking officer said advancing Western troops
could be as close as "a rifle shot away" as units from the
Yugoslav army, Serbian Interior Ministry special police and the
thugs of paramilitary groups like Arkan's Tigers begin leaving.

Commanding NATO's KFOR, or Kosovo Force, is a lanky,
hatchet-faced British paratrooper, Lt. Gen. Sir Michael
Jackson, 55, whose rugged mien and fiery temper have won
him the nickname "the Prince of Darkness" among his officers.

Jackson's 30-nation contingent, which is still being
fine-tuned by NATO military planners, will face a daunting
laundry list of challenges as soon as it reaches Kosovo.

"There will be about a half a million internally displaced
persons in dire need of medical help and other assistance,"
NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said. "There are over 850,000
refugees in the region that clearly want to return home as
quickly as possible. We have to deal with destruction in 500
villages, towns and cities.

"We have to find out what has happened to the 220,000
missing men," Shea continued. "We will have a collapse of the
agricultural system to deal with, the restoration of the
infrastructure, assistance to the humanitarian organizations
and assistance to the setting-up of the civilian transitional
authority under the international community. And there will be
expectations of all of that happening quickly."

So far, NATO's 19 members and 11 partner countries have
pledged a total of 47,868 people for KFOR--from medics from
Iceland, which has no armed forces of its own, to soldiers of
the French Foreign Legion whose specialty is detecting and
clearing land mines.

As of now, a total of 13,000 British forces will take part, the
most from any country. From other NATO members, there will
be 7,000 Americans, 6,000 French, 6,000 Germans, 2,000
Italians, 1,200 Spaniards, 1,100 Belgians, 1,000 Greeks, 800 to
900 Norwegians, 800 Poles, 800 Canadians, 700 Dutch, 700
Danes and 120 to 150 Hungarians.

The vanguard of U.S. forces will be 2,200 Marines from the
26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, now aboard ships steaming
from the Adriatic into the Aegean. The Pentagon says they will
land at Thessalonica in Greece, take everything off the ships
and move into Skopje, Macedonia, positioning themselves to
move into Kosovo at the appropriate time.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon said the Marines
are an initial force to be "replaced by a much heavier, a larger
Army force that will come principally out of Germany."

At a news briefing in London on Saturday, British Armed
Forces Minister Doug Henderson said that "outline proposals"
drafted by alliance military planners divide the Kosovo Force
into troops for five zones, much the way a similar force in
Bosnia-Herzegovina was organized. NATO sources said the
zones will be under the control of Britain, Germany, France,
Italy and the United States.

As befits its role as the largest contingent, Britain will control
the sector around Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital. The
U.S. sector will be in the southeastern part of the province,
around the town of Gnjilane.

However, Henderson said: "We are absolutely determined
that there should be no political division of Kosovo as a result
of the geographical allocation of peacekeeping forces."

Nonalliance members, including Finland, Sweden, Ukraine,
Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Estonia, will supply about
10% of KFOR's personnel. The Russians once spoke of
furnishing as many as 10,000, but that is up in the air as the
Kremlin wrestles with what its relationship with NATO should
be. At any rate, NATO officials believe that the parlous state of
Russia's finances and armed forces would limit the erstwhile
superpower's contribution to between 2,500 and 3,500 troops.

Provided that the Serbs begin executing a full-scale
withdrawal, the only thing that could keep the vanguard of
Jackson's force in Macedonia would be lack of an authorizing
resolution from the United Nations. NATO sources said a
meeting of foreign ministers of leading Western democracies
and Russia, supposed to take place today to help secure that
authorization, will be held Monday instead.

The scenario is the following: Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright and the other foreign ministers gathering near Bonn
would finalize a draft Security Council document bestowing the
status of U.N. peacekeepers on KFOR. The draft for a Kosovo
settlement then would be sent to United Nations headquarters
in New York for approval later Monday. Jackson's first units
could be in Kosovo as early as Tuesday.

British sources said one plan is for British paratroopers to
helicopter in and secure the airport at Pristina, with a battalion
of Gurkha riflemen and the U.S. Marines now aboard ships in
the Adriatic following close behind.

NATO officials also maintain that the peacekeeping
operation, officially baptized Joint Guardian, must get underway
quickly to prevent separatist guerrillas from the Kosovo
Liberation Army from themselves filling the vacuum left by the
departing Serbian forces. The KLA is committed to disarming
itself under peace accords it signed earlier this year in France,
but some of its fighters now vow to keep up the battle until all
Serbs have been pushed out of the province.

"We don't want to watch the Serbs leave, then come in and
find that a Kosovo Albanian People's Republic has been
proclaimed," a senior NATO diplomat said. Shea said plans are
for the alliance-led force to be "in every village and on every
street corner."

To be ready for any challenge, KFOR will pack plenty of
weaponry, including such heavy tanks as British Challengers,
German Leopard-2s, American Abrams and French Leclercs.
Already, NATO has 22,700 soldiers in the vicinity of
Kosovo--15,400 in Macedonia, 7,300 in Albania--and thousands
more are on the way.

"We're going to be the baddest guys in the valley," a
European official of NATO said.

U.S. and NATO officials said Russia is welcome to join the
force. But one senior U.S. official said the Russians will not be
given command of a sector of their own.

An important part of the early deployment will be the two
British armored battle groups, led by the King's Royal Hussars
and the Royal Irish Guards, already under Jackson's orders in
Macedonia. A large group of Royal Engineers is also supposed
to help clear mines laid by the Serbs, as well as unexploded
bombs and missiles from NATO aircraft.

Jackson's permanent command, the NATO Allied Rapid
Reaction Corps, will be in overall charge.

As the possibility of peace in Kosovo rapidly approached,
some details of Joint Guardian were still being worked out
Saturday. Britain and France said they were loading tanks and
other equipment on ships and moving more troops to the
Balkans. NATO ambassadors in Brussels also need to
formally issue an activation order for Jackson's force and
approve its rules of engagement.

Moreover, KFOR's command structure "needs a few
changes, so at the same time there can be Russians with a
command of their own--that is, in any case, what they are
asking for--but perfect coordination" with NATO, French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington
contributed to this report.

   KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Feb 18 (AFP) - The leader of the
international peacekeeping force in Kosovo expressed concern Friday
about the delicate situation prevailing in this town after clashes
between his forces and ethnic Albanians on Sunday.
   "We did not come here to fight, and we were supposed to fight
only if the (Yugoslavian army) would come back," German General
Klaus Reinhardt, KFOR's commander in chief, said during a joint news
conference with UN administrator Bernard Kouchner.
   "So you should know, this is not a very nice situation which we
are in right now."
   On Sunday, KFOR troops exchanged gunfire with Albanian snipers
in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. Two French soldiers were
wounded, one Albanian gunman was killed and others were wounded.
   Since NATO's arrival in Kosovo last June, nearly 250,000
non-Albanians have fled the province. The Serbs who remain live in
enclaves and are the victims of almost daily attacks by Albanians.
   Nearly 1,500 ethnic Albanians have in turn fled Kosovska
Mitrovica, where members of the Serb majority led a series of
attacks against them on February 3 and 4. Mitrovica is divided into
a largely Serb northern section and an overwhelmingly Albanian
southern section.
   One of the keys to solving the crisis is "that the Serbs not be
afraid of being pushed out" of the divided town, Reinhardt said.
"KFOR will support them and will help them to stay here. I hope the
Albanian leaders will support this position."
   Ethnic Serbs in the northern half of Mitrovica say they fear
being expelled from the town by ethnic Albanians, as has happened
elsewhere in Kosovo.
   Kouchner stressed the importance of returning both communities
to their homes. "This process must be done in parallel. The
Albanians must return to the north and the Serbs to their homes,"
Kouchner said.
   Reinhardt noted that KFOR troops in Mitrovica were being
reinforced. "We have started to search the city for weapons and for
people who have no business to be here," he said. "And we'll
continue to do this and we'll increase it in the next couple of
days."
   Earlier, Reinhardt and Kouchner met separately with Mitrovica's
Albanian mayor, Bajram Rexhepi, and the city's Serb leader, Oliver
Ivanovic.

     Spokesman of Chief commander of NATO forces in Europe, colonel
Conrad Freithag, said that forces of KFOR has no intention, under any
circumstances, to get across of Kosovo borders and to intervene
against Albanian terrorists at south of Serbia.

     A new commander has been appointed to lead peacekeeping troops
in Kosovo.

     General Juan Ortuno has taken over from General Klaus Reinhardt
as head of the Nato-backed force.

     The change over will also place K-For under the direction of the
Eurocorps.

     General Reinhardt's departure was marked by a ceremony that
included singing, a piano sonata and flag bearers from each of the 39
nations that make up K-For.

     Nato's supreme allied commander, General Wesley Clarke, praised
him for his efforts to bring peace and stability to the province, and
most notably helping to reduce crime.

     With General Reinhardt's departure, K-For takes on a decidedly
European flavor.

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Yugoslavia -- The new commander of U.S. troops serving in
Kosovo pledged Tuesday a fair but firm hand in "maintaining a safe and secure
place" for all residents of the province.

Brig. Gen. Randal M. Tieszen replaces Brig. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez in a regular
rotation. The move comes at a time of new tensions in Kosovo, where ethnic
violence remains a prime concern a year after the withdrawal of Serb-led
forces and
the entry of NATO-led peacekeeping troops.

Peacekeepers are sometimes drawn into violence, like on Monday, when Russian
peacekeepers fired warning shots to disperse a rock-throwing crowd angry at
being
denied permission to affix a plaque to a monument that honored the Kosovo
Liberation Army.

The incident occurred at Kosovska Kamenica, 20 miles southeast of Pristina and
part of the U.S. zone of Kosovo. U.S. military police were also threatened
by the
rock-throwing crowd. One Russian peacekeeper sustained light injuries after
being
struck in the face by a rock. There were no other injuries.

Other problems indirectly affecting the nearly 9,000 U.S. troops stationed
in eastern
Kosovo include the threat of new ethnic violence in the Presevo region, which is
near their section of the Kosovo administrative border but located in Serbia
proper.

In recent months, there has been sporadic fighting in the area between Serb
police
and ethnic Albanian insurgents, and there are fears the unrest could destabilize
nearby areas of Kosovo because of concerns that the Presevo insurgents are using
Kosovo as their home base.

"I will make sure that my forces are firm and impartial," Tieszen told an
audience of
guests and troops from the United States, Russia and other nations lined up
on the
main camp parade ground at the U.S. Army's Camp Bondsteel. "But we are prepared
for anything."

Alluding to the ethnic violence - increasingly ethnic Albanians targeting the
remaining Serbs to get even for the earlier Serb crackdown - Tieszen, of the 1st
Armored Division, said: "I don't see any of this fixed in the near future.

"The solution is in your hands," he said, referring to Kosovo's Serb and
Albanian
residents. "We must find a way to begin to overcome the past."

Sanchez, of the 1st Infantry Division, paid tribute to his troops, saying
each had
been "willing to sacrifice his life to bring peace and stability to Kosovo."

He urged residents to "commit themselves to tolerance and maybe, someday, to a
multiethnic Kosovo."

Also Tuesday, chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte of the U.N. war crimes tribunal,
arrived for a two-day visit that will include trips to mass grave sites. The
sites are
being unearthed under tribunal supervision in order to identify massacre victims
and gather evidence against perpetrators.

               (c)(B Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

Zvecan, July 21 - The president of the Trepca joint-stock company board
of managers, Milos Milosavljevic, met in Skopje, Macedonia, with the
representatives of the U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) in Kosovo and
Metohija to discuss problems of the Trepca joint-stock company, a part
of whose property was taken away by ethnic Albanian extremists after the
arrival of KFOR in June 1999.
Milosavljevic told Tanjug that he had rejected groundless attempts by
UNMIK representatives to take over Trepca and put it under control of
the U.N. Civil mission's administration.
Claims by UNMIK officials that takeover of Trepca is aimed at protecting
its property are unacceptable because the part of the production
facilities seized by the ethnic Albanians, with the help of KFOR and
UNMIK, from the legal owners, has been seriously damaged or completely
ruined, Milosavljevic set out.
Trepca is a joint-stock company with legally elected bodies and only
those capacities available to the legally elected Trepca management are
operating in Kosovo and Metohija, Milosavljevic stated.
At the latest session, the Trepca board of managers demanded the return
of the forcefully seized mines and installations so that production
could be organized and staff employed regardless of nationality.

OSLO, Aug 8 (AFP) - Norwegian general Thorstein Skiaker
announced Tuesday that he would take over command of the KFOR
peacekeepers in Kosovo from April next year, the Norwegian news
agency NTB reported.
   Currently the chief of the Norwegian troops in the
UN-administered Yugoslav province, he is to fill the post presently
held by Spanish General Juan Ortuno in the regular rotation at the
head of the NATO-led force.
   "The challenges are many and important in Kosovo," Skiaker told
the agency. "I hope to be able to lay the foundations for the
development of this part of Europe."
   He added: "We must be ready in case the situation changes for
the worse in Kosovo."
   The multi-national peacekeeping force currently counts 50,000
soldiers from 30 countries.

.c The Associated Press

 ZVECAN, Yugoslavia (AP) - NATO-led peacekeepers took control of a Serb-run
mining complex in the northern part of Kosovo in a pre-dawn raid Monday.

British peacekeepers acting in support the U.N. mission seized the premises
of the lead smelter near Kosovoska Mitrovica. The United Nations said last
week the plant was spewing pollution into the air, raising lead levels to 200
times the accepted norms.

U.N. spokesman Michael Keats confirmed the operation was under way.

News of the lead levels sparked a rare moment of solidarity in the divided
city of Kosovoska Mitrovica, prompting Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders to
join U.N. personnel in publicly having their blood tested.

Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic claimed the lead scare was a ruse,
however, to be used as an excuse for the United Nations to take over the
Zvecan plant.

Kosovska Mitrovica has proved the most violence prone city in Kosovo in the
year since NATO-led peacekeepers took control of the province following a
78-day air war that forced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to pull his
forces out.

The city is one of the few in the province in which a significant Serb
population remains. Tens of thousands of Serbs have fled attacks leveled in
revenge for Milosevic's 18-month crackdown on ethnic Albanians and a decade
of repression.

AP-NY-08-14-00 0057EDT

www.tenc.net

Early Monday morning, squads of NATO troops seized Northern Mitrovica, the
only remaining multiethnic part of Kosovo.

Northern Mitrovica, where thousands of Serbs, "Gypsies," Slavic Muslims and
others driven from the rest of Kosovo lived side by side with local Serbs,
Albanians and others, was defended by mass, non-violent action from UN police
abuses and vicious armed assaults by Kosovo 'Liberation Army' forces trying
to take control.

This popular movement infuriated the NATO humanitarians; hence today's
invasion by French and British NATO troops.

The excuse: to curb 'violence' (that is, the unarmed, non-violent movement)
and, of all things, to limit pollution at a smelter. Amazing. The same NATO
that has dropped thousands of deadly cluster (time) bombs on Kosovo's
children, the same NATO, which, as Prof. Chossudovsky has proven,
deliberately created an environmental disaster at Pancevo (1), now is worried
about...a smelter.

These fabrications insult our intelligence. NATO's real goals: a) to crush
resistance to KLA fascism, which NATO and the UN have installed elsewhere in
Kosovo (2) and b) to position NATO troops close to the administrative border
between Kosovo and inner Serbia, an area that has for months been under
attack by NATO proxy troops of the KLA variety. (3)

Recently Al Gore announced that Sen. Joseph Lieberman will be his Vice
Presidential running mate. This is the same Lieberman who said, while
attending a pro-war rally in Washington last April:

"The "United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation Army stand for the
same human values and principles...Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human
rights and American values." ('Washington Post, April 28, 1999)
Recently, George Bush commented that if elected he will immediately issue an
arrest warrant for Yugoslav Pres. Milosevic. Amazing isn't it how casually
these men, even half-wits like little-Bush, how casually these men, no matter
how limited their abilities, assume Imperial Rights. Thus - poof! - and
little Bush issues his threat to arrest - arrest? - the President of a
sovereign country. How does one arrest somebody else's President? No problem,
didn't big daddy once pulverize a smaller country, Panama, supposedly to
arrest its President? This is Rome, complete with cruelty and greed. All
that's missing is brains.

The Lieberman announcement and the threat by Little Bush, as well as and
today's attack on Mitrovica, make eminently clear that the American
establishment is not through with Yugoslavia. It wishes to escalate the
attack. The Serbs, for a century the obstacle to Imperial conquest of the
strategic Balkans, must be crushed as a politically coherent force.

By sending British and French troops to seize Northern Mitrovica the United
States has positioned NATO troops close to the administrative border with
inner Serbia. This would make it easier for NATO troops (after a suitable
provocation is invented) to attack inner Serbia from the south and,
simultaneously, to support provocative actions by the weak, gangster-ridden
quisling regime in Montenegro, where British SAS (Special Forces) are
currently training whatever rifraff they can scrape together (they call it a
police force) to be used as provocateurs to a) assassinate Yugoslav officials
and b) provide some incident9s) to 'justify' NATO intervention.

The line, put forward by NATO, that it is Milosevic who wishes to destabilize
Montenegro and Mitrovica, etc., etc., is ridiculous on the face. Do they take
us for fools? Are we to accept a comic book vision of world politics in which
Milosevic plays "Super Bad Guy" to the US "Super Good Guy," where "Super Bad
Guy" does absurdly self-destructive things for no reason but irrepressible
malice.

In reality, it is Yugoslavia (its people AND government) who have suffered
NATO's cruel and unwarranted assaults. It was Yugoslavia which tried, prior
to last year's bombing, to work out some kind of peace accord and it was NATO
which presented Yugoslavia with an agreement (which would have legalizedthe
occupation of all Yugoslavia by NATO troops!) - a proposal designed precisely
to ensure Yugoslav rejection. It was only Yugoslavia whose parliament
actually discussed this (anti-)peace proposal. Not one of the NATO
democracies voted, by plebiscite or even in parliament, before initiating the
brutal 78 day bombing of Yugoslav civilians and infrastructure and the
subsequent invasion and ethnic decimation of Kosovo.

We are now attempting to get direct information from Mitrovica. We will post
whatever we find out as soon as possible.
-- editorial staff, Emperor's Clothes.

1) 'NATO Willfully Triggered Environmental Catastrophe In Yugoslavia' by
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/willful.htm

2) 'Save the families: The women of Orahovac speak' at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/misc/savethe.htm

3) On NATO's proxy attacks on inner Serbia, please see 'Boggling the mind
department - Report from a UN Website' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/kilibarda/boggling.htm

and see also: 'Terrorism in southern 'Serbia Proper'' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/fighting.htm

http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/surgical.htm
Emperor's New Clothes

by Richard Hugus (8-16-00)

www.tenc.net

[Richard Hugus has been active organizing folks to
fight the pollution caused by the US Army in Cape Cod,
Massachussetts (1) and has supported the fight against
the pollution of Vieques by the US Navy.]

It was predicted as far back as the beginning of the
US/NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in March 1999 that the
natural resources of Kosovo, particularly those in the
Trepca mining complex, was one of the unnamed reasons
for the war. Many Americans knew that US leaders'
"humanitarian concerns" were obviously not the reason
-- how could the United States begin a war for any
other than economic concerns? Now, sure enough, the US
and NATO have moved in to take over the Trepca mines.
And the press? The press has moved in to cover for
NATO, making sure the world won't understand the true
nature of this otherwise stark- naked imperialist
venture.

Below are some excerpts from 'Associated Press' writer
Alison Mutler's article on page 2 of the August 15,
2000 'Boston Globe' in which the 'news' and the
English language have been manipulated to put just the
right spin on this event. This is not an unusual
article -- its value is that it is highly typical and
sheds light on what Americans are used to reading
day-in and day-out in the mainstream press. The title
is "NATO shuts down Kosovo mine, quashing protest. UN
calls complex a hazard; Serbs allege repression."

"Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeeping troops wearing
surgical masks against toxic smoke swept into a
Serb-run metal smelting complex in Kosovo yesterday
and shut it down, then used tear gas and rubber
bullets to disperse protesters."
Hollywood must have been called in for the surgical
masks. A brilliant touch -- as if NATO troops couldn't
get near the plant without them. It emphasizes the
mine's smelting operation and NATO's concern for
environmental problems, the pretext for the takeover.

Of course, if the air pollution was that bad, you'd
expect everyone in Zvecan to be wearing masks. But,
no, only NATO has the masks. These well-equipped
troops were given the wrong masks, however.
Carbon-filter respirators are the appropriate masks
for the heavy-duty air pollution implied in the
article. Surgical masks are worn to protect others
from infection (perhaps they were appropriate after
all).

KFOR is presumably protecting the citizens of Zvecan
from the danger of polluted air, but apparently it's
okay if they breathe tear gas and get shot with rubber
bullets.

What are the protestors protesting against? This isn't
explained. One can only assume they're in the streets
to demand the right to breathe polluted air. America,
the benevolent and misunderstood giant, has made yet
another mistake trying to help the people of the
world.

"Yugoslav officials called the closing of the
communist-era complex an 'anti-Serb' action, but the
chief of the UN administration that runs Kosovo,
Bernard Kouchner, said the peacekeepers were acting
against an environmental danger."
Notice the red-baiting of Yugoslavs and Serbs in
"communist-era". The idea is to suggest that the
Yugoslavs, stuck in the pollution-accepting commie
past, don't see the importance of clean air.

While we're at it, let's get Bernard Kouchner to come
to the United States to address a few environmental
problems here. Perhaps he and KFOR could visit one or
two refineries in northeastern New Jersey.

Notice the second consecutive use of the word
"peacekeepers." Would the term "invaders" or
"imperialists" have caused a slightly different
picture in readers' minds?

"Troops used bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds
that tried to interfere, said a NATO spokeswoman,
Captain Kath Hurley."
Did the reporter consult one of the protestors about
what was going on? No, the source is a NATO
spokesperson.

"About 900 peacekeepers cordoned off a 200-square-yard
area around the huge facility before swooping into the
mining complex, which is seen by some as vital to the
economic survival of Kosovo."
Peacekeepers again. First, why have 900 peacekeepers
invaded and brought to a standstill the operations of
an industry vital to Kosovo's economic survival?
Second, is it possible that the mine is of value to
the countries supplying the "peacekeepers" for this
middle-of-the-night massive stealth operation? Or,
taking it one step further, that these same countries
might have a reason for destroying the economy of
Kosovo?

"Soldiers from Britain, France, Belgium, and Denmark
gasped for air as clouds of black and white smoke
belched from aging chimneys."
Hollywood again. Over the top. Presumably the folks
native to the area can stand the awful smoke (after
all, they are just brutish south European Serbs) but
northern Europeans have a special sensitivity.

Was there any reporting of this sort about protestors
gasping after being heavily pepper-sprayed this past
year in Seattle and Washington while trying to call
attention to the same sort of military-corporate
robbery now being accomplished in Zvecan by KFOR
troops?

"Kouchner said 160 people had been hospitalized in the
past year because of lead poisoning."
First, I wouldn't take this on his say-so. Second, how
many have been hospitalized because of NATO bombing
and subsequent KLA attacks?

"He ordered the facility closed until repairs could be
made that would reduce emissions, which have been
measured at 200 times the accepted World Health
Organization norms."
Guess who will be in charge when the plant re-opens?
Are World Health Organization statistics ever quoted
for victim nations of the IMF and World Bank?

"We had to act,'' Kouchner said in a written
statement. 'As a doctor and as chief administrator of
Kosovo, I would be derelict if I let this threat to
the health of children and pregnant women continue for
one more day.'"
Just as he would be derelict if thousands of Serb,
Roma, or non-KLA Albanians were allowed to be
harrassed out of Kosovo, or murdered, since he took
office. Just as he was derelict.

"The smelter is part of the Trepca mining complex, a
collection of about 40 mines that produce gold,
silver, lead, zinc, and cadmium."
Gold? Silver? Come on down Wall Street!

"Recent studies said Trepca would need a large
injection of foreign cash to become viable and
environmentally sound."
Whose recent studies? The ones funded by George Soros,
perhaps? Why "foreign" cash and not, say, Yugoslav
cash? "Viable" for whom?

If the reader only knew, this sentence gives the game
of outside privatization and takeover completely away.
(2)

"Still, Serb leaders in Kosovo say the UN's
environmental concerns are only a ruse to get rid of
Serb managers with close ties to the Yugoslav
president, Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic's Socialist
Party said the takeover proves that the NATO-led
peacekeeping mission wants to expel Serbs and
non-Albanians from Kosovo.Yugoslav information
minister Goran Matic described it as 'robbery' and
violation of a UN resolution that allowed the
peacekeepers to operate in Kosovo. 'It is an anti-Serb
demonstration of power against unarmed people,' Matic
told the state-run Tanjug news agency."
This, at the end of the article, sounds like the
truth, but notice how it is discredited by being
quoted from a "state-run" news agency. As we all know,
the Associated Press is a news agency independent of
bias or outside influence of any kind.

"Trepca is an emotional symbol for the people of this
southern Serb province, who are struggling to rebuild
after last year's 78-day NATO air war aimed at forcing
Milosevic to end his repression of ethnic Albanians.
UN officials say that some 600 ethnic Albanians and
Serbs work at the mine."
The reporter is passing off as fact: 1) the idea that
NATO bombed Yugoslavia on behalf of ethnic Albanians,
and 2) the idea that the demon "Milosevic" was
responsible (3)

These are old lies. If enough 'Associated Press'
reporters repeat the same lies enough times (as they
have) people will eventually accept them as truth.
NATO bombed Yugoslavia in order to complete a crucial
part of invasion and occupation plans made by the
United States and its junior imperial partners long
ago.

But there is one small confusion in the final sentence
of the article: if the mines were being run directly
by Milosevic's Serb managers, and Milosevic and Serbs
are the demon repressors of ethnic Albanians, then how
could 600 ethnic Albanians and Serbs possibly have
been working side-by-side at the Trepca mines?

It's a funny thing about the truth. It has a way of
getting into even the best propaganda, surgical masks
and all. Further reading...

(1) 'Inequality of Destruction: Cape Cod and Vieques'
by Richard Hugus at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/inequali.htm
 

(2) On the link between KLA terror in Kosovo and the
exploitation of the province by international finance
capital, see 'State terror and the "free market"
Opening up Kosovo to foreign capital' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/opening.htm
 

(3) It is required for NATO-country mass media to
include at least one anti-Serbian remark, preferably
targeting Slobodan Milosevic, in every article, TV
news report, and so on. See Jared Israel's 'The
Obligatory Bash' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/obligato.htm

(4) The idea for cloaking the theft of the smeleter
plant by using environmental rhetoric comes from the
ICG, a pro-NATO think tank. This has been documented
in an ICG report which is discussed in Diana
Johnstone's 'Globalist Thinktank Conceived Excuse for
Today's NATO Assault on Mitrovica' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm

  BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- As the main Hague prosecutor is
 planning to complete "an impenetrable circle" around Yugoslavia to ensure
 that the Yugoslav president and other war crimes indictees remain "prisoners
 in their own country," NATO said Thursday it will arrest Slobodan Milosevic
 if he visits Kosovo as announced by a close aide.

  The prosecutor Carla del Ponte will visit Bulgaria and Romania in
 September and Greece and Cyprus until the end of the year, her deputy Graham
 Blewitt was quoted by the Sense news agency Thursday as saying at a news
 conference in The Hague.

  She has already toured Italy, Hungary, Macedonia and Turkey for talks with
 their leaders and the visits were "not only diplomatic but of an operative
 nature," Blewitt said.

  All countries she had visited so far had promised full cooperation and
 elaboration of detailed operative procedures with the tribunal in case any
 of the accused of war crimes found themselves on their territories or funds
 belonging to them were found in their banks, according to the deputy
 prosecutor.

  With such a ring, the tribunal endeavors to "make the world as small as
 possible for fugitives from international justice and thwart any possibility
 of their escape or going into hiding," Blewitt added.

  The deputy prosecutor categorically ruled out any possible "bargain" over
 the Hague indictments against President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his
 closest aides for alleged crimes in Kosovo before the end of the conflict
 with NATO in June last year. There have been suggestions Milosevic may be
 offered freedom from prosecution in exchange for his leaving office.

  Blewitt said that despite a two-month pause in arrests of war crimes
 suspects he was confident NATO and the stabilization peacekeeping force
 (SFOR) in Bosnia were firmly resolved to take into custody and deliver to
 the Hague tribunal all fugitives from justice still at large.

  In Pristina, a spokesman for the Atlantic Alliance who asked for anonymity
 said Thursday that its troops would arrest President Milosevic if he visited
 Kosovo. Has responding to a statement by Nikola Sainovic, Yugoslav deputy
 prime minister and a top official of Milosevic's Socialist Party, that such
 a visit by the Yugoslav leader was planned as part of a campaign for federal
 presidential and parliamentary elections set for Sept. 24.

  The party's secretary general Gorica Gajevic, visiting a Serbian monastery
 in Kosovo Thursday, said elections would be held in some 500 polling places
 in the Serb enclaves in the province but the U.N. chief administrator said
 polls must be held throughout Kosovo and not just in Serb enclaves.

  Blewitt dismissed as politically inspired indictments issued in Belgrade
 earlier this week against 14 western leaders including U.S. president Bill
 Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their part in the war in
 Kosovo and the bombardment of Yugoslavia.

  He said that "the procedure initiated in Belgrade is politically motivated
 and represents part of Milosevic's electoral campaign.
 --
 Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
 All rights reserved.

                  PRISTINA, Aug 23, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslavia's UN envoy said on Tuesday
                  the takeover by NATO-led troops of the Trepca smelter in northern Kosovo was
                  reminiscent of a Hollywood-style western bank holdup.

                  Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic told a news conference he had called for a
                  Security Council meeting on the Aug. 14 closure by KFOR (Kosovo Force)
                  troops of a lead smelter that they said had been pumping 200 times the safe level
                  of lead into the atmosphere.

                  The smelter forms part of the vast Trepca mining and metals group, a collection of
                  pits and decrepit factories that straddle the ethnic divide between ethnic Albanians
                  and Serbs in Mitrovica. Control of Trepca's mineral wealth has long been disputed
                  between the two communities.

                  "That massive military action is unprecedented because it never happened in the
                  history of the peacekeeping operations that peacekeeping units are used against a
                  peaceful population without any provocation," Jovanovic said.

                  "The early morning massive military action reminds very much of the Hollywood
                  western-style of armed attacks against banks... This is a typical case of armed
                  robbery because that corporation belongs to the Yugoslav state and some foreign
                  owners," he added.

                  Jovanovic said 6,000 Serbs were now jobless as a result of the takeover, and the
                  "strategic goal" of Kosovo's UN administrator Bernard Kouchner and those
                  behind him was to force Serbs to leave Kosovo for good.

                  KFOR has said that Serb workers would continue to be paid even while the
                  smelter was shut for repairs.

                  The Yugoslav province of Kosovo has been under UN administration, backed by
                  KFOR troops, since June last year, when an 11-week NATO bombing campaign
                  forced Belgrade to stop oppressing the Albanian majority and permit the return of
                  hundreds of thousands who had fled, mostly to neighboring countries.

                  Jovanovic said that while Kouchner cited high air pollution as the reason for the
                  action, the Yugoslav government had denied this, saying the degree of pollution
                  complied with standards it set some seven years ago.

                  But even if the level was high, "it was not sufficient to justify such a crude use of
                  military force," he added.

                  There was no such large-scale KFOR troop deployment to prevent what he said
                  was the killing by "Albanian extremists and terrorists" of 1,000 Serbs and
                  non-Albanians and the abduction or wounding of a similar number.

                  The action at Trepca was "aimed at the intimidation and expulsion of the remaining
                  Serbian population in northern Kosovo" and extension of control by "Albanian
                  extremists" over that part of the province.

                  "We don't exaggerate when we say that Dr Kouchner and the international
                  presence in Kosovo is the right hand of the Albanian separatists and terrorists," he
                  added.

Athens, Greece (CNSNews.com) - The Yugoslav government says it is
 determined to return its troops and police to Kosovo, the war-torn province
 they vacated under NATO pressure after last year's air campaign.

 Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic told the Sunday edition of
 Thessaloniki's daily newspaper Macedonia that Kosovo was an integral part of
 Serbia and Yugoslavia, and that the present United Nations regime was
 temporary.

 "Serbia will return to Kosovo with its own authority, its own army and police.
 Serbia will return to its borders with all its neighbors, including Albania. Those
 who calculate differently do not take Serbia into account and misinterpret the
 history of Yugoslavia," he said.

 The agreement signed following the end of the NATO bombardment last year
 provides for the deployment of certain military and police forces in Kosovo for
 the safeguarding of the borders and of border crossings. However, the U.N.
 Security Council has not set a timetable for the move.

 Jovanovic stated: "The return of the Yugoslav armed forced is something
 non-negotiable and can happen at any time ... we insist and are ready to return
 even tomorrow to Kosovo."

 Last week, Yugoslav troops and police held exercises with live ammunition on
 the Serbia-Kosovo border, while Belgrade let it be understood that President
 Slobodan Milosevic was planning to visit Kosovo. NATO has threatened to
 respond by arresting Milosevic, who is wanted on charges of war crimes.

 In the interview, the Yugoslav foreign minister launched a stinging attack
 against international policy and the military command in Kosovo, accusing them
 of cooperating with terrorism. He claimed: "Kosovo has been transformed into a
 vault for crime and terrorism."

 Jovanovic also criticized Greece, a long-time ally of Yugoslavia, saying that
 Athens' policy toward Belgrade was dictated by the United States and NATO.

 Meanwhile, the Greek government raised concern about conditions in the
 Balkans and the wisdom of continuing European Union economic sanctions
 against Serbia at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in France on Saturday.

 Foreign Minister George Papandreou told his counterparts Greece was the
 member-state most heavily affected by the economic and social instability of
 the Balkans.

 He criticized the EU for portraying Yugoslavia as the "demon," saying this was
 not the best possible course of action. He also briefed the meeting of a planned
 visit to Belgrade.

 French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, presiding at the meeting, said the visit
 "could prove useful."

 The EU ministers decided to make no move to lift sanctions against Serbia for
 fear of helping Milosevic in elections scheduled for September 24.

 Vedrine said they wanted to send a message that a return to democracy in
 Yugoslavia would mean a massive influx of aid.

 Greek Prime Minster Costas Simitis said in a speech Sunday his government's
 policy in the Balkans is yielding results.

 He called Yugoslavia a "special problem" and a "source of tension," which
 "because of the policies it pursues does not aid a peaceful development" in the
 region.

 Meanwhile U.S. Ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns praised Greek policies
 in the Balkans.

 "Our troops serve together in Bosnia and in Kosovo. Both our countries support
 the development of democracy in Serbia," Burns said in a weekend speech.

 Because of its geographical location and religious links to the Serbs, Greece
 was the NATO country most bitterly divided over last year's military campaign
 against Milosevic.

 The 74-day NATO operation, aimed at ending Serbian atrocities against ethnic
 Albanians in Kosovo, ended with the installation of an interim administration
 under U.N. control. Although an internationally-run enclave, Kosovo remains a
 province of what is left of the Yugoslav federation - Serbia and Montenegro.

Kouchner says, "Resolving the ethnic woes of Kosovo will take at least a generation,
with a U.S. military presence required for years to come, the United Nations' chief
in the province said during a visit to Washington."

What he is not telling the American people is that our GIs will be the
prime target of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, now morphed into the
"peaceful" Kosovo Protection Force.   Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you.

Stella [email protected]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Times
Saturday, September 30,2000

Front Page

Kosovo mission end not in sight, U.N. official:  U.S. exit "years" away
by David R. Sands

Resolving the ethnic woes of Kosovo will take at least a generation, with a U.S.
military presence required for years to come, the United Nations' chief in the
province said during a visit to Washington.

Bernard Kouchner, who directs the U.N. administation in Kosovo, portrayed
the province as a state of "permanent conflict" between its ethnic-majority
Albanians and its embattled Serbian and other minority communities.

"This is not a post-conflict mission," Mr. Kouchner, 61, said in an interview
this week.  "This is an ongoing conflict."

He added:  "These communities have been living next to each other all their
lives, but they have been completely separate.  We are optimistic things will
change, but it will take a long time, probably a generatiion."

The international presence in Kosovo includes about 6,000 U.S. troops.

Pressed about when American forces could pull out, he replied:  "It will be
some years.  It is impossible to say but I think less than 10 years.  It is
impossible to say, but I think less than 10 years."

the Kosovo mission chief spoke as opposition demonstrations continued in
Belgrade against Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic in the wake of
the Sept. 24 contested presidential vote.

But even if opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica takes power in Yugoslavia,
Kosovo's troubles aren't over.

"The Kosovo Albanians' fight isn't just with Milosevic.  Their fight is
with the Serbs," Mr. Kouchner said.

Both Mr. Milosevic and Mr. Kostunica insist that Kosovo remain an integral part
of the Yugoslav federation.

The remaining 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo are concentrated in the north or in
isolated regions of the province and often require protection from the
international police and NATO-dominated military forces to move around.

Meanwhile, the U.N. resolution on Kosovo leaaves its ultimate status vague.

The province faces ground-breaking local elections of its own on Oct. 28, part of
a process to establish autonomy and self-government without specifying whether
independence is the ultimate goal.

Hashem Thaci, former head of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, the
ethnic-Albanian guerrilla force, warned Thursday that reintegration with Serbia
was not an option.

Any attempt to bring Yugoslav army or police units back into Kosovo, he said,
would "bring another war" that would trap U.S. and other international peacekeeping
troops right in the middle.

The Senate in May narrowly defeated a bill co-sponsored by Senate Arms SErvices
Committee Chairman John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, that would have pulled
U.S. troops out of the U.N. Kosovo mission by July 2001.

Bill supporters said the Kosovo mission showed little sign of ending and that
European allies had not followed through on economic and military assistance for
Kosovo pledged shortly after the end of last year's 78-day NATO bombing campaign.

Mr. Kouchner said the vote was based on a "misunderstanding in Congress"
about the U.N. mission.

Kosovo's reconstruction "is mainly a European affairs, and the Europeans
have delivered on their commitments," he said.  "But we need the Americans
there for the moment.  I do not think the United States is planning to leave."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned this week that violence, primarily
from hard-line ethnic-Albanian factions, could also undermine the upcoming
elections in Kosovo.

The comments of Mr. Thaci now head of the hard-line Democratic Party of
Kosovo, were aimed in part at his chief political rival among ethnic Albanians,
the moderate Ibrahim Rugova.

Given the deep distruct between Kosovo's ethnic communities, Mr. Kouchner said any
long-term solution to the problem must involve the entire region in a kind of
economic and political Balkan "confederation."

"There is no solution in Kosovo alone, nor in Serbia proper. Its bigger than
that," he said.

Despite the difficulties facting the province, Mr. Kouchner smiled at the
exit of Western news reporters.

"I looked around about a month ago and realized there were no international
journalists there, a desert," the French doctor and former humanitarian
activists said.  "I take that as a good sign of success."

BRUSSELS, Belgium (September 13, 2000 1:09 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - If Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic goes to Kosovo as part of his
national election campaign, NATO-led forces will
arrest him immediately, NATO Secretary-General Lord
Robertson said Wednesday.

A spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist Party said
recently the president would go to both Kosovo and
Montenegro, the smaller of the two republics in the
Yugoslav federation, during the campaign for the Sept.
24 presidential and parliamentary elections. That vote
is seen as the ultimate test of the autocratic ruler's
strength.

Polls suggest Milosevic could be pushed into a runoff.
 

"If anybody who is indicted by the International
Criminal Tribunal goes to Kosovo, then KFOR troops
will take the appropriate action," Robertson said. "If
President Milosevic, who has been indicted, goes
there, he knows what to expect."

Carl Bildt of Sweden, the special Balkans envoy of
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, briefed the North
Atlantic Council, NATO's top policy-making body, on
the overall picture in the Balkans in advance of
elections in several Balkan countries this autumn. The
two later met with reporters.

"There are of course already signs in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia that the elections will not be
free and they will not be fair," Robertson said. "A
general climate of intimidation against anybody
opposed to the Milosevic regime now exists.
Nonetheless, we expect the elections to show clear
political movement, as many opinion polls have already
indicated."

Robertson urged Milosevic and all the other parties to
allow peaceful, democratic change.

"Your future is as part of mainstream Europe and there
is a welcome for you there if you turn to democratic
values," the NATO secretary-general said.

"The road to the future is quite clear - democracy,
tolerance, respect for human rights, the rule of law
and the building up of true market economies that are
free and purged of corruption. As the recent example
of Croatia shows, we are prepared to help those
countries that turn away from the past and who seek to
build a new future on these core values."