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| REPORTING FROM PRISTINA | |
 June 14, 1999 
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Greeted with cheers and flowers by ethnic Albanians, the KFOR peacekeepers rolled into Kosovo this weekend. Charles Krause reports from Pristina on the latest developments.
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COLONEL PAUL GIBSON: There is an awful lot of weapons in Pristina at the moment. And that's very difficult thing to judge. But, certainly, all the Yugoslav army units are still armed and all their policemen are still armed. You also have, of course, the Kosovo Liberation Army and they have several weapons. And on top of that, you have civilians, and we are armed. So there is potential friction there, which we have to reduce by sensible measures at the local level. CHARLES KRAUSE: How explosive is the situation right now?
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| Still can't go home. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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CHARLES KRAUSE: Today, for example, Nebe Zirici attempted to return
to his apartment in Pristina for the first time since he fled the city
five weeks ago. CHARLES KRAUSE: We were then ordered to leave. "Get out!" he shouted, a command reinforced by armed henchmen who rushed towards us to enforce the order.
CHARLES KRAUSE: Unable to enter his own apartment, Nebe invited us to his brother's house where he was reunited with friends and members of his family. Among them, Jackup Ismaili, a KLA commander who told us he'd been fighting for most of the past year in the mountainous area surrounding Pristina. After showing us his identification card, he also showed us his dog tag, further proof, he said, of his seniority among the guerrillas. CHARLES KRAUSE: Did NATO provide you with any of your weapons or any other support directly to KLA?
CHARLES KRAUSE: It was yesterday that U.S. troops finally joined the
British and French, crossing into Kosovo from Macedonia at Blace, the
same border checkpoint where just weeks ago, tens of thousands of Kosovar
refugees were crossing in the opposite direction. Despite pleas by NATO
and the United Nations,
CHARLES KRAUSE: So far tonight, Pristina is largely deserted and quiet. But the city is an armed camp, and there's deep concern that the Serbs will use the darkness for one last orgy of looting and violence. It's also feared that the Kosovars will soon begin their own belated round of reprisals and revenge. |
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CHARLES
KRAUSE: Kosovo's capital Pristina remained a potentially explosive city
today as several thousand KFOR troops sought to prevent the retreating
Serbs from one last round of looting and violence. By daybreak, the
mostly British forces in the capital had called in tanks and heavy armor.
Their mission: To establish security. 
This
morning, the city was relatively calm but by midafternoon, there was
again growing tension. Amidst reports of mass graves and new atrocities
out side of Pristina, in the city itself, a Serb suspected of looting
was shot and wounded in his car, apparently by Albanian gunmen. 
There
were also reports confirmed by British intelligence that Serb paramilitary
units are laying mines and planting other explosives in the city in
anticipation of their retreat from Pristina scheduled for tomorrow.
Colonel Paul Gibson is the British commander of KFOR troops responsible
for security in the eastern half of the capital. 
CHARLES
KRAUSE: How many people in this area do you think are armed on both
sides?
COLONEL
PAUL GIBSON: I think it's -- as you know, with the terms of the agreement,
the Yugoslav army and the Serbian police forces and all their paramilitaries
have to leave tomorrow at midnight. That's what we call EIF Plus Six,
six days after the treaty was signed. The concern, I think, here is
that people will take advantage of that withdrawal to settle some scores.
The other concern, of course, is that the Yugoslav army units, as they
leave, continue to do some of the sort of activities that they've now
become well renowned for.
But before he could even enter, he was stopped and threatened by a Serb
paramilitary. Angry and belligerent, the Serb drew a map of Kosovo on
the wall saying it is now and will remain a part of Serbia. 
CHARLES
KRAUSE: Serbs, they won't let you in your house. How do you feel? 
JACKUP
ISMAILI, KLA Commander: (speaking through interpreter) If we would have
been helped or armed by NATO, we would have a much better guns, not
like these that can be sent to museums.
over
the weekend a small number of refugees began returning home, many of
them on foot. And waiting to greet them at the border were KLA guerrillas,
who clearly expect to play an important political role in postwar Kosovo
and who have just as clearly earned the gratitude and respect of many
of their countrymen. 
The
border crossing at Blace will be controlled by U.S. forces. Yesterday,
the G.I.'s who will be on duty there got an immediate introduction into
the hatreds and passions of the Balkans when a group of returning refugees
burned a Serbian flag. Some of the G.I.s watched, while others reviewed
their orders, well aware that violence in Kosovo remains a very real
and continuing threat.
U.S.
ARMY SOLDIER: Anybody with weapons, take your weapon. They are going
to keep a kilometer on either side of the road. That was the agreement.
So if someone comes with a weapon, you take it from them. 
