THE MILITARY QUESTION

	June 10, 1999
	Excerpts from today's Pentagon briefing by Defense Secretary Cohen and Gen. Henry Shelton on keeping the peace in Kosovo.

JIM LEHRER: Keeping the peace in Kosovo will be the job of an international military force under the command of NATO. Defense Secretary Cohen and General Henry Shelton, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, spoke of its mission this afternoon at a pentagon briefing. WILLIAM COHEN, Secretary of Defense As a result of the magnificent job that our pilots did -- suppressing the air defenses and other activities, we flew for 78 straight days with no fatalities and only two planes lost. This reflects the talent, the training of our pilots, the power of our technology, the readiness and repair of our equipment, and the skill of all those who planned and supported these sorties. All Americans should be very proud of this team, which was so ably led by General Shelton, General Ralston, General Clark, and so many others. We achieved our goals with the most precise application of air power in history. For the next minute or so I'm going to show a film from a U.S. Predator, an unmanned aerial vehicle, that shows Serb troops leaving Kosovo. General Wald, perhaps you can just comment and tell those who are here what is taking place during the course of this brief video. GENERAL WALD: Film from this morning of an unmanned air vehicle, predator, over northern Kosovo. This is the first convoy at 11:29 Kosovo time-- several civilian vehicles in this one. Some of the vehicles -- this has a road grader on the back of it, I think, to improve the road as they depart in areas they need to. These are mainly civilian vehicles. Some have mortars on the back of them. There's another road grader on this one. This truck here has a large truck behind it with a mortar on the back of that one. REPORTER: What would you say to those who are concerned that the U.S. contingent of peacekeepers might remain in Kosovo for as long as a decade and also worry that the U.S. military is going to be stretched thin with Kosovo and was that and Iraq and Haiti, and also to the Defense Secretary, what would you say to your former Republican colleagues in Congress who chose this day to take up a measure that would cut off funds for Kosovo? WILLIAM COHEN: I'll let the chairman answer first. GENERAL HENRY SHELTON: Let me say that I think as we are just in the process now of getting ready to go in, one thing is, I think, very clear. Unlike the Bosnia operation, which was 60,000, of which we provided 20,000, in this one, our European allies will be carrying a rather heavy portion of the load, with the U.S. only providing 15 percent, or 7,000, as I just indicated. I think this is considerably different in terms of our ability to move in and be able to, with the civil implementation, to be able to start the process of normalizing back in Kosovo-- easier than we were able to do it in Bosnia. But I want to say that a very heavy load now will have to be carried by the international community, by the governmental and nongovernmental organizations in the civil implementation piece of this, because putting the government back together, getting the police force back in place, getting the justice system there, making this a system that operates again, will rely very heavily on them. In the meanwhile, our 7,000 will be part of the force that adds to the peace and stability and the secure environment that will enable them to carry out their duties. REPORTER: Has the entry of the enabling force into Kosovo been delayed because the U.S. troops are not ready or not yet in position? GENERAL HENRY SHELTON: This will be a NATO force that's going in. And as you know, Jamie, there are about 16,000 NATO forces already in Skopje itself. REPORTER: It appears that they appear to be ready to go in right now. And the U.S. forces are still assembling in Macedonia and don't appear to be ready, at least for another day or so. GENERAL HENRY SHELTON: There was never any plan to move in instantaneously. Again, General Jackson will have to assess when he feels that it is the right time to move in. That will be when the passageways have been cleared going in, and also when the Serb forces have commenced their withdrawal. There was not a plan to start in instantaneously, although the forces are there positioned and ready to go. And our forces will be there and ready to go at the time in which they would be required to start moving under the current plan. REPORTER: One of the big worries is that some of the refugees that are now outside the border, and even some of the displaced persons within, may try to return to their homes too soon, before we've done any de-mining. What actions are we taking in conjunction with the NGO's, the host countries, and our allies to try to dampen that enthusiasm of rushing back in before it's actually safe to do so? GENERAL HENRY SHELTON: There is a concerted effort there by NATO in specifically working with the NGO's and the other governmental organizations to make sure they understand that it is not safe yet to go back in, and that the KFOR will need time to move back in. The Serbs, part of the agreement was to start clearing some of the minefields in some of the areas. KFOR will have a chance to go in and conduct a reconnaissance, make sure that it is in fact safe for them to go back into. And if they do not follow that, then, of course, the potential for casualties will go up considerably. REPORTER: When do you think the redeployment will start? When will we start moving forces back from the area? WILLIAM COHEN: We will only start moving forces back when we're satisfied that there's going to be full compliance with the agreement. REPORTER: In other words, after the withdrawal is total, or before it's - WILLIAM COHEN: Well, it has to be total within 11 days, and so we're only looking at a very short period of time. I would not recommend that we move any force until we're satisfied that either the operation of withdrawal is complete or nearly complete, and then we'll evaluate at that time.