Macedonian Media Monitor, May 6, 1999
Slavko Mangovski
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, The New York Times
cGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- With their families torn apart and their
homes turned to ashes, the first 453 of 20,000 Albanian refugees arrived
here from Macedonia Wednesday, taking the first step toward rebuilding their
lives away from the battlefield their homeland has become.
Arriving on a chartered Tower Air 747 jet Wednesday afternoon, the refugees,
many of them women, children and old people, were taken to a newly fenced-in
section of the neighboring Fort Dix, where they were expected to remain for
three to six weeks.
As the refugees filed past a receiving line on the runway, what they had
been through could be read in the way they clustered together, and the
missing generations: a young woman walked with an old woman; a man alone
carrying an infant; a mother shepherded a gaggle of children, but no
husband; teen-agers came with their grandparents. Though beginning a new
life, they carried no luggage.
They were welcomed to the gymnasium by Hillary Rodham Clinton. "We know that
your thoughts are thousands of miles away, with families or loved ones who
are in Kosovo or in refugee camps," the First Lady told them. "We will not
let Milosevic succeed in keeping you out of your home," she said, to the
sustained applause of the newcomers. Above her was stretched a banner.
"Mirsevini ne Amerike," it said: "Welcome to America."
Though the United States had pledged to take in the refugees nearly a month
ago, preparations to receive them here began in earnest only last Friday,
after a renewed exodus from Kosovo brought 200,000 more people flooding into
Macedonia over the last two weeks.
Since then, private contractors, reservists and soldiers have been working
round the clock to outfit Fort Dix with bilingual signs, medical clinics,
dormitories for families of varying sizes and children's playrooms. The
stairwells, with high metal banisters, have been lined with plexiglass
sheets to keep little children from falling, while gates now surround
basement steps, also for safety.
Wednesday, officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
fingerprinted the newcomers and issued them identity cards, and gave them
sweat suits and toiletries.
In the last 24 hours, some 8,000 Kosovar Albanians fled to Macedonia, said
Marguerite Rivera Houze, Undersecretary of State for Population, Refugees
and Migration. A main refugee camp at Stankovic was operating at triple
capacity, Ms. Houze added. "What we're trying to do is to get people moved
out very quickly," she said.
Under pressure of the new outpouring, the Clinton Administration scrapped
plans to initially restrict the refugees coming here to those with relatives
in the United States willing to sponsor them. Instead, it is accepting
refugees after only a preliminary screening in Macedonia, and allowed
nonprofit relief agencies to sponsor them for resettlement.
Ms. Houze said that those arriving here Wednesday had suffered neither more
nor less than the hundreds of thousands of other ethnic Albanians who
remained behind.
Perhaps they were just luckier, or more eager. Those arriving Wednesday
"were the ones who were already psychologically ready to move," said Roger
Winter, executive director of the Immigration and Refugee Services of
America, a private charity based in Washington.
He said that when the plane touched down here, ending a journey that began
in Skopje 13 hours earlier, the refugeees erupted in cheers and applause.
While here, the refugees will undergo security, medical and immigration
exams, which are usually conducted before refugees ever reach the United
States. Afterward, nine nonprofit organizations that resettle refugees will
channel the newcomers into apartments throughout the United States, said
John Fredriksson, who is overseeing the effort for the Immigration and
Refugee Services of America.
Brig. Gen. Mitchell Zais, head of the Joint Command for Task Force Open
Arms, the military's name for the resettlement effort, said he told soldiers
here to welcome the refugees with sensitivity, in sharp contrast to the
treatment that Cuban refugees had received just a few years ago, when they
crammed into Guantánamo Bay in an effort to force their way to the United
States.
"We want to welcome them to America as we would have hoped that so many of
our parents and grandparents were welcomed at Ellis Island," General Zais
said.
A second flight of about 400 Albanian refugees is expected to arrive here
Friday, while 100 Albanians with relatives who have agreed to take them in
will arrive Saturday at Kennedy International Airport. Those coming in on
Saturday will already have gone through immigration, security and medical
reviews in Macedonia.
Next week, two more planeloads of refugees are due to arrive at Fort Dix.
Ms. Houze said that Washington had promised officials in Macedonia that the
United States would take 2,000 refugees a week from the overcrowded camps.
But with Fort Dix only geared to accommodate up to 3,000 refugees, the
United States Government has opened discussions with officials in Greece,
Turkey and Bulgaria about the possibility of sheltering refugees there, if
only temporarily.
Eventually, she said, the Administration would like to conduct immigration,
medical and security screenings of the refugees outside the United States,
and to install them in homes found by nonprofit agencies immediately on
their arrival in the United States.
=================================================
Macedonia says border open to all -- UNHCR
04:04 p.m May 06, 1999 Eastern
GENEVA, May 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on
Thursday it had received assurances from the Macedonian government that its
border with Yugoslavia would be open to all refugees.
UNHCR officials and other witnesses had earlier said the border was closed
on Wednesday evening, and that ethnic Albanians had been forced back into
Kosovo.
On Thursday UNHCR, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees,
said it had received assurances at a meeting with Macedonian Interior
Minister Pavle Trajanov.
``They said that it would be open to all refugees trying to cross,'' UNHCR
spokesman Kris Janowski told Reuters in Geneva.
A statement issued by UNHCR headquarters added: ``UNHCR welcomes the verbal
assurances from the government and trusts this policy will be honoured on
the ground.''
Macedonia has made clear that it fears being politically and economically
destabilised by a torrent of refugees equivalent to almost a 10th of its
population of 2.2 million. Donor countries and international agencies on
Wednesday promised it $250 million with more to come.
Janowski said UNHCR was now waiting to see whether the latest guarantee was
matched by actions: ``The proof of the pudding is in the eating.''
UNHCR officials alleged that Wednesday's closure had denied access to around
1,000 refugees who were then forced back into Kosovo.
Aid workers and other witnesses said several thousand people had been seen
queueing on the Yugoslav side of the border on Thursday.
Macedonian Defence Minister Nikola Kljusev denied anyone had been forced
back into Kosovo but appeared to suggest refugees could only be admitted as
others were evacuated to richer nations.
``There can be a balance established between a number who are evacuated and
the number of refugees who are allowed into our country,'' Kljusev told
reporters in Macedonia.
But Janowski said UNHCR had been assured no such limit would apply.
In the official statement, UNHCR said it appreciated Macedonia's generosity
in receiving more than 200,000 refugees from Kosovo.
``UNHCR continues to urge accelerated humanitarian evacuation of refugees
from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and appeals for
international aid on scale with the current crisis,'' the statement added.
==================================================================
Border goes quiet after feud between aid groups and Macedonia
By Brian Murphy, Associated Press, 05/06/99 15:26
BLACE, Macedonia (AP) - With Macedonia's border all but closed to Kosovo
refugees, relief officials and government leaders squared off Thursday over
how to handle the influx of people into a potentially unstable country that
is already short of resources.
One of the few ethnic Albanians to cross into Macedonia on Thursday
estimated as many as 10,000 people were caught in a border bottleneck.
Macedonian authorities forced more than 1,000 people to turn back Wednesday,
and U.N. monitors said they had witnessed Serb forces beating some of them.
''We are extremely alarmed,'' said Paula Ghedini, a spokeswoman for the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees. ''What is the fate of these people?
Macedonia will have to answer to this.''
The feud between relief officials and the government had been brewing for
weeks, as the refugee influx swelled to more than 200,000 - almost one-tenth
Macedonia's population.
Macedonian leaders fear that the influx could upset the balance between the
majority Slavs, many of whom are sympathetic to the Serbs, and ethnic
Albanians, who constituted about a third of the population before the
crisis. Any serious controversy could tear apart the power-sharing
government and open a political tempest in a nation where more than 15,000
NATO soldiers are located.
Macedonia has blamed Western nations and major relief groups for allowing
the refugees to languish in sprawling camps, where overpopulation and
inadequate sanitation raised fears of disease and unrest.
The government also says the West has ignored Macedonia's calls to bolster
its struggling economy, which had relied on Yugoslavia as an important
trading partner.
''This is not an African country and we should not be treated as such,''
said the deputy foreign minister, Boris Trajovski. ''All the blame is on the
international community.''
Some aid officials have denounced Macedonia's call for more international
assistance.
''This is blackmail with people's lives,'' said Louis Gentile, a security
officer for the U.N. refugee agency, standing at the nearly deserted Blace
border post.
U.N. refugee officials have drafted a formal protest to demand the
government reopen the frontier.
On Thursday, Macedonian officials insisted the border was open and a new
one-for-one policy would be followed: The number of refugees allowed in
would correspond to the number taken out.
Ms. Ghedini, the U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman, said airlift departures
topped 2,000 on Thursday and several European nations pledged to take more
refugees. Albania agreed to host 6,000 refugees from Macedonia, and
discussions were under way to possibly send up to 60,000 more.
However, only a trickle of people arrived at the Macedonian border
Thursday - a few refugee families with Macedonian travel papers and retired
ethnic Albanian men coming to get pension checks in Macedonia.
Those crossing said thousands of refugees were stranded in the border
village of Djeneral Jankovic. Many were in homes, but some were forced to
sleep outside.
Xhemaj Salihu, 55, a pensioner from Urosevac, estimated that up to 10,000
people may be waiting to cross. More than 50,000 refugees have crossed into
Macedonia in the past week.
Refugee officials fear ethnic Albanians may strike out on their own and
wander over mountains dotted with minefields. At least three refugees died
last week after stepping on mines.
The break in the refugee flow did offer one small benefit: For the first
time in weeks, workers got a chance to empty and clean a border transit camp
for possible new arrivals.
======================================================================
FOCUS-Macedonia keeps refugees out, 4000 at border
01:55 p.m May 06, 1999 Eastern
By Elaine Monaghan
SKOPJE, May 6 (Reuters) - Macedonia said on Thursday it would only let
Kosovo refugees in at the rate less impoverished countries airlifted them
out and left a reported 4,000 ethnic Albanians stranded in Yugoslav
territory.
Government officials accused the international community of not caring
enough about the refugees or Macedonia and the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) of lying.
``There can be a balance established between a number who are evacuated and
the number of refugees who are allowed into our country,'' Defence Minister
Nikola Kljusev told reporters a day after Macedonia effectively shut its
doors to refugees.
``Our borders are open,'' the minister said. ``We will be able to receive
refugees in the event that refugees already accommodated in the Republic of
Macedonia are evacuated to third countries.''
Kljusev said it was not Macedonia but the inefficiency of other countries
which had led to the logjam at the border.
He denied a UNHCR report that police had ejected up to 1,000 refugees from
no man's land late on Wednesday at Blace, the main crossing point from
Kosovo about 30 km north of Skopje.
``No refugees have been turned back to Kosovo. What you have to take into
consideration is the time it takes to register all the incoming refugees,''
he said.
UNHCR's Astrid Van Genderen Stort told Reuters she stood by her version of
events, which was that Macedonia had sent military personnel into no-man's
land to push back as many as 1,000 refugees to a point behind the Serbian
border.
Some refugees had been beaten as they were rounded up by baton-wielding Serb
forces on the other side of the border, she said.
Macedonia already has more than 200,000 Kosovo refugees and says it is
politically and economically unable to take more.
Since the start of the refugee crisis in March, more than 34,000 ethnic
Albanians have been evacuated from Macedonia and talks are under way with
Albania to move out up to 60,000 more from the 200,000 Macedonia already
shelters.
The UNHCR said Serb authorities had sent a train packed with refugees back
from Blace border crossing into the shattered heart of the province of
Kosovo on Thursday.
Hundreds -- perhaps as many as 2,000 -- refugees were turned back having
arrived on the morning train from Pristina, according to U.N. officials. A
single elderly refugee who was allowed off the train because he had
Macedonian papers.
Aid workers and witnesses at Blace said some 3,000 other refugees who
arrived at the border overnight and in the morning joined the 1,000 had been
herded back into Serbia.
``Two families have crossed today,'' said one UNHCR worker. ``One of them
was from the 1,000 who were pushed back yesterday. They were allowed to come
through because of special connections.''
Van Genderen Stort said a heavily pregnant woman and her husband had crossed
over after pleading with Serb police.
Unlike the majority Slav and Orthodox Macedonia, Albania, which has already
accepted over 400,000 refugees, says it will take as many of its compatriots
from Kosovo as needed.
Some observers said the Macedonian border closure was a means of pressuring
Albania and international aid agencies to speed up agreement on moving
refugees out of Macedonia.
Donor nations and international financial agencies on Wednesday promised
Macedonia $252 million in coming months with approximately another $150
million to follow to help it overcome the economic burden of the Kosovo
conflict and the refugee crisis.
=====================================================================
Greece to build refugee camp in Macedonia
01:50 p.m May 06, 1999 Eastern
ATHENS, May 6 (Reuters) - Greece said on Thursday it would build a refugee
camp in Macedonia to help its poor Balkan neighbour cope with almost 200,000
of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo.
``A small army force will create a camp to help the refugees,'' government
spokesman Dimitris Reppas told reporters.
He said Greek defence representatives and diplomats were meeting officials
in the Macedonian capital Skopje on Thursday to decide the location of the
camp.
About 50 Greek soldiers would build the camp, whose capacity had not been
determined, he added.
Nearly 200,000 Kosovo refugees have fled violence in the Yugoslav province
of Kosovo to Macedonia. Many have sought refuge among their ethnic kin there
and thousands are sheltered at refugee camps, strained by daily new
arrivals.
================================================================
KLA suspicious of Rugova role,says it won't disarm
01:08 p.m May 06, 1999 Eastern
By Costas Paris
TIRANA, May 6 (Reuters) - The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) said on Thursday
it was suspicious of peace efforts by ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova
and reiterated that it would not disarm even if a peace deal was reached
with Belgrade.
``Now that Mr Rugova is no longer held hostage (by the Serbs) we ask him to
make a clear statement of support for NATO's military operation,'' KLA
spokesman Jakup Krasniqi told reporters.
``Mr Rugova should also make clear that he supports the KLA's war aims such
as the full withdrawal of Serb forces in Kosovo and the deployment of a NATO
peacekeeping force,'' he said.
Rugova is a moderate who never openly backed the KLA's armed uprising
against Belgrade.
He has met Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on possible peace moves,
with Yugoslavia's state-run television showing footage of the two men
together.
Western officials have said they believed Rugova's movements were restricted
by Belgrade but he suddenly arrived in Rome with his family on Wednesday
with the consent of the Belgrade authorities.
On Thursday Rugova held talks with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema
and told a joint news conference in Rome afterwards:
``A clear and essential condition for the return of the refugees is an
international force in Kosovo including NATO and other countries and the
withdrawal of Serb forces.''
Rugova, who is due to fly to London for high-level meetings next week, said
the reason he met Milosevic in Belgrade was to ``try to create a climate of
trust.''
His party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, has not recognised the interim
Kosovo government of KLA leader Hashim Thaqi, which was formally announced
last month.
Krasniqi, speaking before Rugova made his comments in Rome, was asked
whether the KLA still regarded Rugova as ``a traitor'' and whether it would
put down its arms if peace was reached.
``Our position on Mr Rugova has not changed. The circumstances that will
disarm the KLA do not exist and will not exist in the Balkans for long a
time. We are open for cooperation with Mr Rugova but nothing will stop us
from fighting for a free Kosovo,'' Krasniqi said:
He said the KLA had recruited a total of 60,000 men with most of them
fighting Serb forces on the border with Albania or inside Kosovo.''
The KLA spokesman said a Thursday agreement between the seven main Western
nations and Russia on a strategy to resolve the Kosovo crisis through the
presence of an international force was positive but NATO should still call
the shots.
``NATO must control and command any troops in Kosovo. Partnership for Peace
countries can also participate but control must be with NATO,'' he said.
Albania has said it is not directly backing the KLA but is obviously
sympathetic to the rebel cause.
======================================================================
FOCUS-Macedonia slaps limit on incoming refugees
11:26 a.m. May 06, 1999 Eastern
SKOPJE, May 6 (Reuters) - Macedonia said on Thursday it would allow new
Kosovo refugees to enter only at the same rate as those already in the
country were evacuated elsewhere.
``There can be a balance established between a number who are evacuated
(from Macedonia) and the number of refugees who are allowed into our
country,'' Defence Minister Nikola Kljusev told reporters a day after
Macedonia effectively shut its doors to refugees.
``Our borders are open,'' the minister said. ``We will be able to receive
refugees in the event that refugees already accommodated in the Republic of
Macedonia are evacuated to third countries.''
Macedonia already has more than 200,000 Kosovo refugees and says it is
politically and economically unable to take more.
Since the start of the refugee crisis in March, more than 34,000 ethnic
Albanians have been evacuated from Macedonia to other countries and talks
are under way with Albania to accommodate up to 60,000 more.
Kljusev flatly denied a report by a UNHCR refugee agency official that
Macedonian police had pushed as many as 1,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees back
from the Macedonian border to the Yugoslav border.
``No refugees have been turned back to Kosovo. What you have to take into
consideration is the time it takes to register all the incoming refugees,''
he said.
UNHCR's Astrid Van Genderen Stort said the refugees had been beaten by the
Yugoslav forces who received them at the border.
She told Reuters she had witnesses and that she stood by her version of
events.
Kljusev and Trajkovski attacked the international community for not taking
more refugees and said they had only received compensation for a fraction of
the money they had spent on the crisis.
Kljusev said it was not Macedonia but the inefficiency of other countries in
airlifting refugees out which had led to the logjam at the border.
Donor nations and international financial agencies on Wednesday promised
Macedonia $252 million in the coming months with another $150 million or so
to follow to help it overcome the economic burden of the Kosovo conflict and
the refugee crisis
============================================================================
====
ANALYSIS-Macedonia rattles West by closing borders
10:09 a.m. May 06, 1999 Eastern
By Jeremy Gaunt
SKOPJE, May 6 (Reuters) - Macedonia has learnt how to get the West to do
what it wants as the Kosovo war has beaten a path to its borders -- simply
close the door to refugees.
Western analysts said on Thursday that Macedonia's abrupt closing of its
borders to Kosovo refugees was designed to speed up foreign aid to the poor
Balkan country and force a decision on evacuating tens of thousands of
refugees to third countries.
They suspected it would work.
``They want a back door open as well as the front door,'' one Western
diplomat said.
With a speed that shocked aid workers and took Western nations by surprise,
Macedonia effectively slammed the door on Wednesday evening.
That forced, by aid workers' account, about 1,000 ethnic Albanians back from
the Blace crossing point into Kosovo where they were herded together by
baton-wielding Serb authorities.
Macedonia, which is often opaque about what it is doing, eventually said the
border was open but that people would only be admitted in roughly the same
numbers that they are evacuated to third countries.
The effect was that the only people who were crossing on Thursday were a
handful of families who appeared to have the connections or money to slip
by.
By midday the number waiting across the border was said to have risen to at
least 4,000, triggering memories of the first time Macedonia closed is
border, in early April, stranding as many as 68,000 for days in a no-man's
land of mud and excrement.
That crisis was followed by a mass overnight deportation to Albania, for
which Macedonia was thoroughly condemned. But it also also jarred NATO and
Western countries into rushing to finish refugee camps and pledging to
airlift refugees out.
``They (the Macedonians) have used this tactic before and they know it
works,'' one analyst said. ``They get criticised for it ... but they know
they will be forgiven.''
Macedonia has become a key frontline state in the West's war on Yugoslavia,
a likely launchpad for any peace force agreed for Kosovo and possibly for a
ground attack if one is called for.
But it has been swamped by more than 200,000 ethnic Albanian refugees,
threatening its poor economy and its fragile political balance. Around a
third of Macedonians are ethnic Albanians and there have long been fears
that it could become another Kosovo.
Western officials said Macedonia's move was triggered by two concerns --
that neither financial aid to pay for the crisis nor plans to transport the
refugees out of the country, particularly to Albania, were moving fast
enough.
Aid workers liken the influx into the country of 2.2 million people as the
equivalent of 20 million Mexicans arriving on the border with the United
States and demanding entry.
On the financial side, a stream of politicians, from Britain, France, Japan
and Canada, pledged money over the last week and the Paris Club of creditor
nation said it was freezing debt interest payments. Donor nations also
promised $252 million in emergency aid over the next few months.
But Macedonia, which sometimes acts as if it expects a cheque to accompany a
pledge, says little money has been arriving and it needs it now.
Macedonia also has been furious that a planned airlift of refugees to third
countries has been running behind schedule.
Negotiations for Albania to take as many as 60,000 of Macedonia's refugees
have also moved slowly. Albania is said to be angry with Macedonia for the
way it has treated the refugees.
The government in Skopje blames the West and aid agencies for not caring and
says only Macedonia has been bearing the burden.
``We have been making appeals for months now for the international community
to deal with its responsibilities,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Boris
Trajkovski said on Thursday.
Such accusations do not endear Macedonia to the West, but threatening to
keep out the refugees does have its effect.
``Whenever they do close the doors, the allies spring into action,'' the
analyst said.
=========================================================================
Thousands of refugees turned back at Macedonian border
By Brian Murphy, Associated Press, 05/06/99 09:18
BLACE, Macedonia (AP) - Thousands of ethnic Albanians trying to flee Kosovo
were left stranded in a border village today after Macedonian authorities
blocked the refugee exodus in an apparent move to force more international
assistance.
U.N. refugee officials claimed Macedonia reneged on promises to keep its
borders clear. A formal protest was drafted to demand the government re-open
the frontier.
''This is blackmail with people's lives,'' said Louis Gentile, a security
officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, standing at the nearly
deserted Blace border post - the main crossing point for the estimated
200,000 refugees presently in Macedonia.
A trickle of people arrived from Kosovo: a few refugee families with
Macedonian travel papers and retired ethnic Albanian men coming to get
pension checks in Macedonia. Some pensioners alleged Serb police demanded a
cut of their money to be allowed to collect the checks.
Those crossing said thousands of refugees were stranded in the Kosovo border
village of Djeneral Jankovic. Many were in homes, but some were forced to
sleep outside. A trainload of refugees arriving early today at the border
were told to remain on board, they said.
''I deeply regret this step has been taken,'' Mary Robinson, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Tirana, Albania. ''We hope
it will be reopened soon. ... It's very important that the refugees be
allowed through safely.''
One person who passed through the village, Xhemaj Salihu, 55, a pensioner
from Urosevac, estimated that up to 10,000 people may be waiting to cross.
More than 50,000 refugees have crossed into Macedonia in the past week,
leaving camps severely overcrowded and vulnerable to disease.
Macedonian officials have complained that the small country of 2.1 million
people cannot cope with the refugee onslaught, which has overtaxed resources
and threatened to unravel the power-sharing balance between Slavs and ethnic
Albanians.
The government shut the borders Wednesday and announced a new policy of only
accepting as many refugees as are sent out. Members of Macedonia's special
forces - some using clubs - sent about 1,000 ethnic Albanians back into the
hands of Serb authorities, aid officials said.
''We then saw they were beaten back by the Serbian forces on the other
side,'' said Paula Ghedini, a UNHCR spokeswoman.
The Macedonian government said today it would not allow any new camps to be
built on its territory although it would adhere to a previous accord that
would expand three of the eight camps in Macedonia.
The border closure was a violation of international refugee rights
agreements that have been signed by Macedonia, Ms. Ghedini said. The closure
curiously coincided with stepped-up plans to ease Macedonia's burden.
Ms. Ghedini said airlift departures topped 2,000 for the first time
Wednesday and several European nations pledged to take more refugees.
Albania, meanwhile, agreed to host 6,000 refugees from Macedonia.
Refugee officials, meanwhile, fear some Kosovo Albanians may strike out on
their own over mountains dotted with minefields. At least three refugees
died last week after stepping on mines.
In New York, the head of the U.N. refugee agency warned Wednesday that
international organizations must begin preparing for the possibility of
refugees spending the winter in camps in Macedonia and Albania unless an
early solution to the Yugoslav crisis enables them to return home soon.
The warning by Sadako Ogata marked the first time a senior international
official had suggested publicly that the NATO air campaign may not succeed
in enabling the estimated 700,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees to return home
soon.
=========================================================================
Army Concludes Three U-S Soldiers Were Illegally Abducted in Macedonia
AP
06-MAY-99
(Pentagon-AP) -- The Army has concluded "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that
the three American soldiers held by Yugoslavia were illegally abducted.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon says the Army reached this decision after
questioning the three, after they were freed last weekend.
Bacon says the Army soldiers weren't captured in Yugoslavia -- but instead
were abducted inside Macedonia -- by people in Yugoslav military uniforms
who came across the border.
Also, Bacon says that the Army soldiers were treated extremely roughly at
the time of their capture. The Pentagon spokesman says the bulk of their
injuries came during this period, although they also suffered more injuries
during their captivity.
Earlier today, the three former P-O-W's were honored at a ceremony in
Germany. Christopher Stone, Andrew Ramirez and Steven Gonzales each received
six awards, including the Purple Heart for injuries received in captivity
============================================================================
=========
The Little Nation That Wants To
Albania Sees Balkan Conflict as Means to a Brighter Future
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 6, 1999; Page A01
TIRANA, Albania-In the turbulent logic of its history, few recent events
have seemed quite as promising to Albania's future as the current war in the
Balkans.
A once dangerous and chaotic pariah state, quarantined from the prosperity
and security of Europe, Albania is fast becoming NATO's new best friend.
Nine months ago, the United States evacuated its embassy and withdrew its
diplomats for fear of terrorism; now Americans are streaming back, gradually
expanding a military and civilian presence. Cafes here in the capital fly
the Stars and Stripes; American helicopters traverse the sky.
NATO's 43-day bombing campaign against neighboring Yugoslavia has cast
Albania in the role of Western ally and fostered its most pivotal moment
since the collapse of communist rule in 1991. As a generous refuge for
hundreds of thousands of its ethnic brethren from neighboring Kosovo and a
hospitable staging area for NATO and Kosovo rebel attacks in the Serbian
province, Albania is musing aloud about becoming a beneficiary of a Balkan
Marshall Plan and an early entrant into NATO and the European Union.
"There is a great openness toward NATO," said Luljeta Minzhozi, head of the
economics department at the University of Tirana. "But there is also a kind
of feeling that you are using our territory and we should profit from this.
People have been hopeless, and they are reading very positive signs into the
buildup."
But beneath the optimism it is not clear how much has changed. Bandits
control much of northeastern Albania, and smugglers dominate some major
roads and city neighborhoods in the south. Government institutions remain
weak, and authorities struggle to project their power outside the capital.
Democratic practices have shallow roots, and the leading opposition party,
which attempted a coup last year, is boycotting parliament.
According to U.S. officials, the threat to Americans, including U.S. troops,
from radical Islamic groups here remains as real today as it was last
August, when the U.S. Embassy was evacuated because of terrorist threats.
"The problem the embassy faced last year has not gone away," said a Western
diplomat, adding that terrorism "remains a very real possibility." The U.S.
Embassy, a rambling Italianate villa, sits behind a nine-foot-high wall of
sandbags. Consular services have been suspended, and armed guards patrol its
internal and external perimeters.
Last summer, with the aid of U.S., Italian and German intelligence
officials, Albanian authorities uncovered a series of terrorist networks,
including one associated with Saudi expatriate Osama bin Laden and another
organized by radical Algerians. U.S. officials blame the Aug. 7 bombings of
the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on bin Laden's organization, and
intelligence officials said they found credible evidence that terrorist
cells based in Albania had targeted the U.S. Embassy here as well.
Albanian security forces continue to cooperate with U.S. and European
intelligence agencies, but the government has not been able to control its
borders since 1991. It is still rebuilding military and police forces that
were wrecked by nationwide anarchy in 1997; it took more than a year for
police to establish even basic control in most major cities, government
officials said. And some radical Middle Eastern groups, operating through
humanitarian fronts in the capital, remain within a few miles of U.S. forces
at Tirana's Rinas Airport, U.S. officials said.
As the threat of terrorism eddies in Tirana's back streets, U.S. troops land
at the commercial airport outside the city, which has become a military
base. U.S. Army attack helicopters, supported by the Army's 82nd Airborne
Division, are based there, and more soldiers, weapons and munitions seem to
land every day. Military cargo planes touch down one after the other; Navy
helicopters ferry men and materiel between the airport and ships in the
Adriatic Sea. U.S. forces also are moving by road into northern Albania, and
last Thursday U.S. Humvees fitted with large-caliber machine guns moved
north toward the border town of Kukes.
Prec Zogaj, a senior adviser to Albanian President Rexhep Mejdani, said
NATO's presence is a stabilizing force because the specter of its military
might can dampen lawlessness. And, he said, an international presence almost
demands responsibility from Albania's politicians, curtailing their penchant
for instigating unrest and accelerating internal reforms that will improve
policing and immigration controls.
Moreover, many Albanians believe the country's overwhelming welcome for
Americans will smother any threat from strangers in their midst. "This is an
opportunity for Albanians if they can catch this moment," said Fatos
Lubonja, a writer who spent 17 years in communist prisons for advocating
democratic rights. "Great words have been spoken -- a new epoch for the
Balkans. Albanians do not want to let it slip away, and they want a more
intense and constant presence from the West."
A new coalition government, headed by a 32-year-old prime minister, Pandeli
Majko, has led the embrace of NATO. Majko, who was involved in student
demonstrations that hastened the fall of communist rule, is regarded as
untainted by political corruption and free of the political hatreds of the
older generation.
After the chaos of 1997, the economy is growing again, and in Tirana -- a
ramshackle city that blends Mediterranean cafe life with the bustle of a
Middle Eastern bazaar -- new construction dots the skyline. But foreign
investment remains low, and U.S. investment is virtually nonexistent. Annual
per capita income in this mostly Muslim country of 3.4 million stands at
$830, the lowest in Europe, and less than half that of Yugoslavia.
Annual inflation, however, has fallen below 10 percent this year, and the
official unemployment rate, now around 23 percent, is showing signs of
improvement. "We have reason to be moderately optimistic," said Carlos
Elbirt, the World Bank representative here.
But Majko, who was seen initially as a caretaker when the previous prime
minister was forced to resign, has a weak base of support within his
Socialist Party, and for some Western observers the pace of change remains
frustratingly slow.
"In terms of security, they have made progress, but it's from A to C," said
another Western diplomat. "They have to continue to make progress. There is
an opportunity now, but it may be their best last chance."
Chance had not been kind to Albania. After breaking free of the Ottoman
Empire in 1912, it fell under the despotic rule of King Zog until World War
II. Zog was succeeded by Italian fascists who, unable to control the
country, were replaced by Nazi occupying forces. After World War II, the
communists came to power, and from 1945 to 1985 Albania was governed by
Enver Hoxha, who turned the country into an outpost of xenophobic Stalinism.
The landscape of Albania today -- from hotel lawns in the capital to remote
mountainsides -- is studded with several hundred thousand concrete bunkers
that Hoxha built to fend off invasions by Russia, NATO or both. Hoxha died
in 1985, and six years later the communist system collapsed. Albanians did
not immediately begin to rebuild; in the first post-communist year, rioters
burned down state factories and looted just about anything state-owned.
But by 1992, under President Sali Berisha, the country began to right
itself. According to the World Bank, virtually all farms and small
enterprises were privatized. Between 1992 and 1996, driven by agriculture
and the construction and service industries, gross domestic product grew
about 9 percent annually. Corruption, however, also flourished -- and
remains deeply embedded, Western officials said.
The country's relative economic success was matched by a growing engagement
with the United States, which was seeking strategic allies in the region as
the 1992-1995 Bosnian war raged nearby. By 1995, U.S. reconnaissance planes
were flying out of northern Albania to photograph potential targets in
territory controlled by Bosnian Serb forces and to monitor communications
there. U.S. military advisers sat in the Albanian Defense Ministry, and the
two countries began joint military exercises.
The relationship began to sour when Berisha balked at the increasing U.S.
presence and the political advice that came with it. The relationship
collapsed in 1997 when several nationwide pyramid schemes failed, sparking
nationwide anarchy. Tens of thousands of Albanian families lost their life's
savings, and the tens of millions of dollars were swindled. This occurred in
a country whose per capita income at the time was $735.
Military barracks and police stations across the country were looted and
destroyed as the citizenry went on a rampage; more than 700,000 weapons were
stolen, most ending up on the black market. After a new government came to
power and began to restore order, U.S. engagement with Albania was again
stepped up -- only to be halted anew by the threat of terrorism here.
The United States is back, in a sense, for the third time, and a slow,
steady NATO buildup is underway. It has been hampered not by security
concerns, but by difficult, mountainous terrain, a crumbling infrastructure
and Albanian military facilities that were gutted by rioters in 1997.
NATO, one diplomat said, must build its own roads and bridges if it is to
launch a ground war from here against Serb-led Yugoslav forces in Kosovo,
the focus of the current Balkan conflict. That may be costly and time
consuming. Even now, military and humanitarian trucks are tearing up an
already bad road from the port of Durres to Tirana. And the mountainous
roads from Tirana to northern Albania are in such bad shape they cannot
support the movement of heavy vehicles. Tanks, trucks and other equipment
would have to be airlifted to border areas within range of Yugoslav
artillery positions, compounding NATO's logistical problems.
With the open support of the Tirana government, sections of northern Albania
have become staging areas for the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic
Albanian secessionist group that has been battling Yugoslav and Serbian
forces in the province. And as NATO moves north, the alliance will find
itself cheek by jowl with the rebel force it has thus far kept at arm's
length. The Albanian government has openly allied itself with the rebels and
has called on NATO to supply them with modern arms.
Western officials say the Albanian government's solidarity with the
guerrillas is understandable and perhaps even a political necessity but that
it is not an affinity they wish to share.
With neighboring Macedonia reluctant to allow its gentler terrain to be used
for any offensive action against Yugoslavia, Albania -- not the Kosovo rebel
group -- is the ally NATO wants. "We're here for the long haul; we have a
long-term commitment in Albania," said one Western diplomat. "But that
commitment is still burdened by a whole host of security issues. We have to
be generous, but we have to be careful, too."
Albania at a Glance
COUNTRY
11,500 square miles, slightly larger than Maryland
PEOPLE
3.4 million
Religions:
Muslim 70%
Orthodox 20%
Catholic 10%
Ethnic groups:
Albanian 95%
Greek 3%
Other 2%
Work Force: 1.5 million; 60% in agriculture, 40% in industry and commerce
Literacy: 72%
Life expectancy: men 70 years, females 76 years
Infant mortality rate: 30 of 1,000 live births
ECONOMY
Gross domestic product: $2.88 billion (1998)
GDP growth rate: 10% (1998), one of Europe's fastest growing economies.
GDP per capita: $830 (1998)
Natural resources: Oil, gas, coal, chromium, copper, iron, nickel
Trade: Exports $343 million (1998), two-thirds to the European Union.
Imports: $1.09 billion; major suppliers are Italy, Greece, Macedonia,
Germany.
HISTORY
1912: Albanians rise against Ottoman rule; declare independence after the
First Balkan war. Albania remains independent after World War I.
1939: Italy under Mussolini annexes Albania, and Germany occupies it in
1943.
1944: Partisan bands, including the communist-led National Liberation Front,
gain control, and the country, under Enver Hoxha, becomes a satellite of
Yugoslavia until the Tito-Stalin split in 1948.
1940s-1970s: Hoxha's hard-line communist government imprisons, executes or
exiles thousands of landowners, rural clan leaders, Muslim and Christian
clerics, peasants who resist collectivization and disloyal party officials.
1961: Pursuing this harsh rule, Hoxha breaks with the Soviet Union under
Nikita Khrushchev.
1970s: Albania's close relations with China sour as Maoist thought fades;
relations are cut in 1978, and Albania sinks into extreme isolation.
1981: Hoxha withdraws into semi-retirement and turns over most functions to
Ramiz Alia, who succeeds him upon his death in 1985.
1991: Albania introduces some democratic reforms. Thousands flee, seeking
better lives in Italy.
1992: Free elections result in a victory by the Democratic Party. President
Sali Berisha begins a more deliberate program of economic and democratic
reforms.
1997: Progress stalls when riots erupt over an economic crisis spurred by
the collapse of several pyramid financial schemes. Elections in July 1997
produce a Socialist-led coalition government.
SOURCE: U.S. State Department, KRT
================================================================
Kosovo Rebels Send Family Members Out of Province
By Anne Swardson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 5, 1999; Page A27
BLACE, Macedonia, May 4-Ethnic Albanian guerrillas battling Yugoslav troops
and Serbian police forces in Kosovo have begun sending their wives and
children to safety in neighboring countries, refugees arriving here said
today.
The move by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), recounted here by new arrivals
from Kosovo and confirmed by a guerrilla official, seems to indicate that
the rebel force has decided to concentrate its resources on its struggle
against the Serb-led Yugoslav military rather than trying to maintain their
families on the land.
About 5,000 refugees crossed the Macedonian border here today, their numbers
swollen by guerrillas' families and others who had sought shelter at the
rebels' mountain strongholds. On Monday, 11,000 refugees crossed into
Macedonia, more than on any single day since early April. Most have found
shelter in overcrowded refugee camps, although a few are sleeping without
tents, officials said.
The flow of refugees into neighboring Albania also was heavy today, news
services reported. About 6,000 people had crossed from Kosovo into northern
Albania by early evening, many of whom told reporters they had been on the
move for weeks, hiding in the mountains or in villages until told to move on
by security forces.
Accounts by refugees arriving here appeared to indicate that Yugoslav and
Serbian forces in Kosovo were stepping up attacks on civilians. One convoy
of as many as 5,000 people and 150 tractors, making its way toward Macedonia
from the northern mountains of Kosovo, was stopped by Serbian police in the
village of Prugovc, several refugees said. They said the police took about
200 male refugees -- accounts vary -- and sent the rest of the convoy on its
way.
Among the men seized were the two brothers and an uncle of Myrvete Berisha,
18. The last she saw of Famid, Elez and Fadic Berisha, she said, they were
walking away from the convoy flanked by Serbian militiamen. "They picked
them out and said,'Come here.' They didn't say why," she said.
Refugee Sabit Kastrat, 56, said the number of men taken at Prugovc was 183.
"I used to be a policeman, so I counted," he said. "I'm afraid they were
killed. They were in a garden, standing in a line. They were very afraid."
Kastrat was released from the group -- because of his age, he believes --
and told to drive a tractor in the convoy. Everywhere, according to
refugees, old men and women who had never driven tractors were told to get
the convoy moving. Other refugees here corroborated the story of the convoy,
and several said men, women and children had been beaten with sticks.
Paula Ghedini, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said that more and
more refugees are reporting government atrocities in Kosovo. "We're seeing
that the conflict is intensifying," she said. "We are hearing about more
mass killings, mass graves."
The agency also has been told that ethnic Albanian women and children are
being put into military uniforms and housed in Yugoslav military barracks.
Ghedini said that as the agency identifies specific locations where this is
being done, the information is passed to NATO to try to prevent the bombing
of those sites.
A member of the Kosovo Liberation Army command structure in one region of
the province confirmed by telephone that the guerrillas were sending away
their wives and children. "We are more relaxed now that the women and
children are gone," he said, speaking through an intermediary.
Sitting in a tent set up by the aid group Doctors of the World at the
crammed transit camp here, Xhevire Gashi, 34, and Hamide Gashi, 28,
sisters-in-law, acknowledged that their husbands were guerrillas.
The women had been in the mountains of Kosovo, Xhevire Gashi said, but they
left because, "the KLA told us it would be better" to do so. Added Hamide
Gashi: "They didn't want women and children."
The two women said they were in the convoy stopped by government security
forces at Prugovc. "They said, 'Where are your men? Are your men KLA?' "
said Hamide Gashi. Then they took "lots of people" -- she said didn't know
how many. "The old men and the women had to drive the tractors."
Interviewed separately on a bus waiting to take them to another camp, two
men told a similar story. Kadri Thaqi, 49, and Tefic Berisha, 48, had fled
their native village, Maya, and joined a refugee tractor convoy. Although
the convoy they spoke of was similar in many respects to that described by
the other refugees, it could not be established with certainty that they
were identical.
First, Thaqi and Berisha said, three men leading the convoy were shot -- two
fatally -- by snipers. Then, they said, some kind of gas was thrown at the
convoy, which was being escorted by ethnic Albanian rebels. Later, when
government forces stopped the convoy, Thaqi and Berisha were among scores of
men taken and held at gunpoint in a garden; they put the figure of those
detained at 230 or 240. Troops beat many of the men they were holding, some
until they were unconscious, they said.
Thaqi and Berisha were taken out of the garden and told to drive the
tractors, they said. They drove as far as Pristina, Kosovo's capital, where
they boarded a train to the Macedonian border. Each left sons behind in the
garden -- Ftim Berisha, 20, and Kujtim Thaqi, 21 -- as well as Thaqi's two
brothers, Hilim and Gani.
"We would like to know, have they been executed? We just don't know,"
Berisha said.
============================================================================
=
The Place for Celebrities to Be Seen
By Anne Swardson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 5, 1999; Page C01
BRAZDA, Macedonia, May 4-Today was an unusual day in the Kosovo refugee
camps: No world-class celebrities came calling.
Virtually since the first tents were erected in the Macedonian mud in late
March, they have attracted high-profile tourists. Four U.S. congressional
delegations have trooped through, and Queen Noor of Jordan and Republican
presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole also have stopped by.
But in the last few days, the roster has been positively glittering. The
prime ministers of France and Britain, movie star Richard Gere, the Canadian
foreign minister, the most recent congressional delegation and some
prominent Greeks all have toured the sprawling tent cities housing thousands
of displaced Kosovars.
The hot, dirty, latrine-short camps offer their residents few diversions. In
this one, there is one ping-pong table for 30,000 people, plus a basketball
court, a small patch of dirt used for playing soccer and an irrigation ditch
that kids swim in. People spend most of their days waiting in line for food,
water and the chance to make a phone call. So slow is life in the camps that
reporters interviewing Kosovars quickly find themselves surrounded by
polite, curious onlookers.
The refugees have been delighted with their uninvited guests. Rather than
feeling they are being used as a backdrop for televised attention-grabbing,
the inhabitants of the camps--at least those who were interviewed and who
were aware that a big cheese was in town--believe such spectacles help their
cause. And brighten their day.
When British Prime Minister Tony Blair raced through Brazda camp here in 25
minutes Monday, visiting one tent and shaking volunteers' hands, children
crowded around the circle of his security guards chanting "Tony, Tony."
"It's fun. It's entertainment," said Lindita Gollaku, 21, as she trailed a
100-person gaggle of security men, briefcase-toters, TV camera people,
diplomats, reporters and other refugees following French Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin around the Stenkovec camp for an hour last Saturday.
Jospin kicked off this round of celebrity visits the same day 21 members of
Congress were touring Brazda camp just down the road. As Jospin left, his
15-car motorcade passed that of Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy
headed the other way, with far fewer cars in his wake.
(Axworthy did have more money in his wallet; he promised to give $35 million
to cash-strapped Macedonia, compared with the $8 million laid on by Jospin.
Two days later, Blair trumped them both with $65 million.)
It would be easy to say that the distinguished visitors--Jospin, for one,
did his walkabout in full suit and tie--presented a stark contrast to the
ragged refugees. The refugees are indeed ragged at the moment.
But in fact, many of them were teachers, business people and professionals
back in their homeland. They know they are at the center of world attention
and behave with dignity. Many refugees from urban corners of Kosovo just
don't happen to have their business suits handy because they were hanging in
the closet when the Serbs burned the house down.
Not all the big-shot visitors have worn suits among the tents. Actor Richard
Gere preferred jeans, T-shirts and baseball caps. Gere, known for his
activism on behalf of Tibetan refugees, spent six days in Macedonia, a lot
longer than Blair's few hours.
"It's always the people who suffer in these situations," Gere told reporters
at the end of his stay. "It's not a simple situation. You can't do it in a
day; you can't do it in two days. I'm in my sixth day and I'm barely
scratching the surface. The politics are so labyrinthal, it's doubtful
anyone who hasn't been here for years could unravel it." (Actually, Gere
spent two of those six days at a lakeside resort 100 miles from here.)
Gere was able to provide a little context for some of the refugees. Sitting
on the ground with a Kosovar professor in the camp of Cegrane--so new that
the man had not yet been issued a tent--Gere disagreed with the professor's
statement that the place was like a concentration camp. Gere has been to
refugee camps in Tibet and they were much worse, he said.
In contrast to the usual aristocratic French distance from the common folk,
Jospin genuinely dug into his camp experience, spending more than an hour
ducking under tent lines, dodging hanging laundry, jumping over ditches,
touring field hospitals and talking to refugees.
At one point, he diverted from his path to pat a baby being bathed outdoors
in a plastic tub; suddenly the startled baby was being filmed by seven
television cameras.
"I met several families who want to go to France," Jospin said, without
saying whether they would be allowed to.
Not surprisingly, these humanitarian missions have not been free of a little
political jockeying. Told Blair was coming a few days after Jospin, press
secretary Manuel Valls said: "He always imitates Jospin. Quote me on that."
Blair's visit was quite different from that of his French counterpart,
however. The media were kept farther away and it was a lot shorter, at least
the part that was open to public eyes. Later, Blair talked more at length
with refugees several miles up the road just after they had crossed the
border.
For now, though, he visited only the tent of cute, blond, English-speaking
Suzana Nazifi, who, though she had been told two hours before that Blair
would come to see her, said: "I was really surprised when he entered my
tent. He promised us we'd go home soon."
Some were blase about Blair. Walking down one of the main dirt paths between
the rows of tents, one man in jogging pants said to his friend: "Did you
hear he was here?"
"Who?" asked his friend.
"Tony Blair."
The second man just grunted as he stepped over a drainage ditch.
=========================================================
NATO Readies Plan to Resettle Kosovo Exiles
By William Drozdiak
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 6, 1999; Page A25
BRUSSELS, May 5-Even as NATO warplanes escalate their bombing assault on
Yugoslavia, allied military commanders are preparing a major expansion of
ground forces to handle the enormous tasks involved in resettling hundreds
of thousands of displaced ethnic Albanians in Kosovo once hostilities cease.
NATO's supreme commander, Gen. Wesley K. Clark, said today that the
"enabling force" deployed in Albania and Macedonia to serve as the vanguard
of a projected Kosovo peacekeeping operation will be "further enhanced and
modified" for the new effort. NATO defense planners said up to 60,000 troops
will probably be required.
The alliance originally planned to send up to 28,000 troops to Kosovo to
supervise an interim peace settlement that would include the withdrawal of
Serb-led Yugoslav forces from the province and the disarming of secessionist
ethnic Albanian rebels there. But NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said today that
a much larger force would be needed if ground troops go into Kosovo.
,3 At a meeting with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana here today,
President Clinton emphasized the need for NATO forces to be ready to move
quickly into Kosovo once a "permissive environment" has been established.
"He stressed that we must have plans ready to ensure that the Kosovar
Albanians can return to their homes in safety and security," Shea said.
Clark noted the devastation visited upon Kosovo in the six weeks since NATO
airstrikes began and Yugoslav forces mounted a major offensive to expel the
majority ethnic Albanian population from the province. He said this means
that NATO must be prepared to undertake tasks that were not necessary when
plans were drawn up for the peacekeeping force. "That's the review that's
hot on our plate right now," Clark said.
He noted that since crops were not planted in Kosovo this year, NATO would
have to maintain food distribution programs into next spring. With hundreds
of villages destroyed, a massive rebuilding campaign will be needed. In
addition, NATO forces will have to remove the threat of mines planted by
Yugoslav forces.
Solana directed Clark nearly two weeks ago to assess how many ground troops
it would take to conduct ground operations in Yugoslavia, from fighting
their way into Kosovo to entering peacefully. Clark said today that he had
not yet completed the assessment. Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, vehemently denied that an invasion is being
contemplated and said that any peacekeeping force would enter Kosovo in a
peaceful environment.
NATO has 16,000 troops in Macedonia and 11,000 in Albania -- including about
5,000 Americans, mostly in Albania. Those levels will escalate, NATO
officials said, as the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and
the Netherlands send reinforcements.
Meanwhile, senior NATO intelligence sources said the air war is finally
producing serious signs of morale problems among Yugoslav forces. They said
the Yugoslav 3rd Army occupying Kosovo has been "living in the rough" for
more than 30 days, without the kind of food and shelter troops are
accustomed to in their barracks. Many conscripts have refused to show up for
mobilization calls in the last 10 days, and a growing number of soldiers are
deserting, NATO officials said.
In addition, the Yugoslav forces have been forced to disperse into smaller
units to avoid detection by NATO aircraft. But as they move into rural
areas, they are encountering Kosovo Albanian guerrillas who have stepped up
harassing operations, NATO officials said.
Clark said it is clear that even though the rebels have been forced to
abandon key strongholds, they have "become stronger and more numerous" over
the past six weeks as a result of the Belgrade government's brutal expulsion
campaign.
============================================================================
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