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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Milk who wrote (13284)	7/3/1999 10:42:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 17770

NATO Nixes Russian Reinforcements Saturday, 3 July 1999 W A S H I N G T O N (AP) NATO THWARTED Russian attempts to fly reinforcements to its peacekeeping forces in Yugoslavia because the Kremlin wants to revise the agreement giving Russia a role in policing the peace, alliance and U.S. officials said Saturday. NATO's military headquarters in Belgium expects the Russians this week to continue talks on the requested revisions. They broke off Wednesday without agreement after three days. Russia wants to change an agreement reached in lengthy negotiations last month at Helsinki, Finland, that outlined Russian participation in a NATO-led peacekeeping force. NATO officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Russia wants to send some of its troops into sectors of Kosovo controlled by other NATO countries. Separately, Russia wants to water down NATO's command of Russian forces. "We continue to work with Russian military representatives on the arrangements" for its participation, a U.S. official said. "It is NATO's view that we should complete all of these arrangements before additional Russian forces deploy to Kosovo." German Col. Michael Kaemmerer, a NATO official at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, site of the talks, said they were to have lasted seven to 10 days, aiming to work out deployment details such as "a timeline, liaison procedures and so on." He said the Russians are invited to return this week. In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Ginger Blazicko said talks are scheduled. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took a break from a European vacation Friday and telephoned her Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, a U.S. official said. The official had no details of the call, but The New York Times said Albright explained to Ivanov NATO's objections to a full Russian deployment before all problems with the agreement are settled. Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic said Russia asked Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria late last week for corridors through which Ilyushin cargo planes could fly soldiers to join about 700 Russian troops and technicians already in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav republic Serbia. After consultation with U.S. and NATO officials, alliance member Hungary and Romania and Bulgaria, both of which want to join NATO, rejected the requests. "The nations (involved) have not granted overflight rights, and there is not an inclination to do so until all arrangements are completed," a U.S. official said. "We support that inclination." Still, news agencies reported in Moscow that two Il-76 aircraft were being loaded with military hardware and other cargo Saturday in preparation for a Sunday airlift of about 100 paratroopers, the first of an eventual 2,900 additional troops planned for the Russian contingent. They said another four Il-76s will fly Monday and Tuesday with 200 more soldiers. The Russian agencies said Hungary refused overflights, but they did not mention Bulgaria or Romania. Tanjug, Yugoslavia's government-run agency, reported from Moscow that all three rejected overflights but "lively diplomatic activity is under way." The Russians are at Slatina airport near Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital. Its first soldiers went there in an unexpected lightning move three weeks ago from nearby Bosnia, where they were serving with a Western-led peacekeeping operation. Lt. Gen. Victor Zavarzin, commander of the push into Kosovo, quickly became a hero at home and was awarded a third star by President Boris Yeltsin. In Boston, The Globe reported Saturday that Zavarzin was known to NATO commanders as a high-ranking spy. On that basis, the newspaper said, Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, rejected Russia's nomination of Zavarzin as the Kremlin's liaison with NATO.