Clinton Joins Allies on Ground Troops
NATO to Weigh Conditions of Kosovo Mission
By William Drozdiak and Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 23, 1999; Page A01
As NATO heads of government gathered for a 50th-anniversary summit
meeting dominated by the crisis in Kosovo, President Clinton yesterday
joined the leaders of France and Britain in supporting dispatch of an
international military force into Kosovo without the explicit assent of
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Conditions under which the alliance should consider sending ground troops
into Kosovo were expected to be a major subject of discussion in a
three-hour emergency session set for Friday morning by NATO's 19
heads of government seeking to define their options in the next phase of the
conflict with Yugoslavia.
The allies so far have insisted that ground troops would be introduced only
in a "permissive environment," meaning with the avowed consent of the
Yugoslav government. But with Milosevic still rejecting foreign troops
despite 30 days of bombing, the leading NATO powers have been
exploring ways an international force could supervise the return of ethnic
Albanian refugees to their homes in Kosovo even in the absence of
Belgrade's cooperation.
As the allied leaders gathered here to ponder their next moves, Russia's
special envoy and former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin held
extensive talks in Belgrade with Milosevic and later told reporters that the
Yugoslav leader is ready to accept an "international presence" in the
embattled Serbian province under United Nations auspices. But it was
unclear whether this meant Belgrade would budge from its refusal to
accept foreign troops or whether it only referred to unarmed observers.
With NATO airstrikes heading into a second month and Milosevic
showing no signs of backing down, allied leaders were expected to
consider fresh ways to augment an intensified bombing campaign now
being carried out by more than 1,000 aircraft, but which has nonetheless
failed to deter Yugoslav forces from pressing ahead with the mass
expulsion of ethnic Albanians.
After meeting Clinton at the White House, NATO Secretary General
Javier Solana expressed satisfaction with the air operation so far. He said
allied warplanes have carried out some 9,000 sorties over the past four
weeks, significantly weakening Yugoslav air defenses, command and
control systems and the capacity to produce fuel and ammunition.
But in many respects, the bombing campaign has fallen short of its key
objectives. NATO airstrikes have failed to prod Milosevic into calling off
his crackdown in Kosovo and accepting a peace settlement that would
restore autonomy to ethnic Albanians. While Yugoslav forces have
consolidated their grip over the province, the mass expulsions of refugees
have come perilously close to destabilizing the neighboring states of
Albania and Macedonia.
When Milosevic and his forces refused to buckle after the first few days of
bombing, NATO commanders declared that their strategy would shift from
coercion to attrition. They sought to degrade and destroy the Yugoslav
armed forces, saying that eventually would force a pullback from Kosovo.
Now, there is talk within the alliance about pursuing a sustained bombing
campaign to soften up Yugoslav forces and prepare the way for allied
ground troops to enter Kosovo in a "non-hostile environment."
When asked in Solana's presence if he could envision sending an
international security force into Kosovo without Milosevic's approval,
Clinton replied: "Well, that's a hypothetical question, but of course there
are scenarios under which that could occur."
British Defense Minister George Robertson said, "We will need more than
30,000 troops" to enter Kosovo without prior agreement from Belgrade.
Robertson, visiting U.S. defense facilities, recalled that Britain recently
committed an additional 2,000 armored troops to the 12,000 NATO
troops already in Macedonia.
"We will need to go in quickly when the circumstances are ripe," said
Robertson, although he declined to specify what "ripe" means. "That's a
military judgment" that he said is being discussed by NATO's planners.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the ground-troop planning that
Solana announced Wednesday will "review the assessments that were
done last fall from two perspectives." One involves "permissive entry
peacekeeping," he said, and the other involves "sending ground forces into
a non-permissive environment."
He said each should produce "an estimate of troops that would be required
to achieve certain goals," rather than "a firm plan as to what sort of
divisions you'd send in; the sequencing of how they'd get there [or] what
entry points they would use."
One result of last fall's estimates was to produce unanimity in the alliance
not to send troops into a "non-permissive environment." That unanimity
continues, all alliance officials who spoke publicly yesterday said. The
question now is the definition of "permissive environment" -- that is, when
would the alliance be satisfied, with or without Milosevic's specific, public
assent, that troops could enter Kosovo safely to escort returning refugees?
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, in a meeting with Washington Post
editors and reporters, said in effect that the allies will know that point when
they see it. It could come, British and French officials have said, when the
air campaign has sufficiently eroded Milosevic's will or ability to resist.
The U.S. view, however, is that Milosevic must assent, even if indirectly,
and that assent must be verifiable. One way that assent might be delivered,
U.S. officials said, could be through Russia. If Milosevic were to tell the
Russians he has had enough and the Russians then supported a U.N.
Security Council resolution authorizing the international force to enter
Kosovo, Washington might be satisfied, officials said.
The ground troop debate remains highly controversial within the alliance for
legal and political reasons. Many European governments are still
uncomfortable with NATO's first assault on a sovereign country in the
absence of United Nations authority and in contradiction of the alliance's
defensive military posture. And Macedonia, which is considered the best
place to launch a ground invasion, is vehemently opposed to seeing its
territory used as a launching pad for invasion of Kosovo.
Any decision to employ ground troops could also create intolerable
pressures on the German government. While Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder has strongly supported NATO's air campaign, a move to send
in ground troops would provoke fierce opposition from many of
Schroeder's fellow Social Democrats and probably cause the Greens
party, the junior partner in the "Red-Green" ruling alliance, to bolt the
government.
In another move to escalate pressure on Milosevic, the United States is
seeking to persuade the allies to impose a blockade against Yugoslavia that
would prevent oil supplies from reaching government forces from ports in
Montenegro. NATO claims to have destroyed nearly all of Yugoslavia's oil
storage depots, but Yugoslav forces in Kosovo still appear to have enough
fuel to persist with their "ethnic cleansing" drive.
France and other European nations have expressed reservations, claiming
that a blockade would be tantamount to a declaration of war that would
require U.N. approval. U.S. officials said their reluctance to go along with
the blockade has infuriated NATO's chief military commander, Gen.
Wesley K. Clark, who is said to believe that the continuing oil deliveries
through Montenegro have undercut the targeting strategy against
Yugoslavia's fuel supplies.
U.S. intelligence sources said Yugoslavia has been receiving oil deliveries
from Russia, Ukraine, Greece and possibly other countries through the
port of Bar, on the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in
the Yugoslav federation. The oil goes first to Koper, Slovenia, these
sources said, and is unloaded onto smaller vessels, including a tanker
named the Kaliope, which is registered under a Bahamian flag to a
company named Drawa Shipping.
Since the bombing began, U.S. intelligence officials have tracked eight to
10 shipments, totaling an estimated 50,000 metric tons, or about 366,000
barrels, the sources said.
Some NATO countries have been reluctant to interdict this traffic by
blockading the port of Bar, diplomats and U.S. officials said, either
because it would be an overt act of war or because it would undermine the
stability of Montenegro, which has a pro-Western, democratically elected
government that is not controlled by Milosevic.
The European Union agreed yesterday to ban petroleum shipments to
Yugoslavia and asked 12 countries seeking membership to join the
embargo. The ban, which EU officials said is to take effect Wednesday,
would presumably cut off shipments from Greece.
"We believe that additional steps can be taken," Albright said, "whereby
each country, in interpreting its laws, can in fact search and visit the vessels
that are on the Adriatic, which in no way would interfere with neutral
shipping. We are looking at a variety of other ways, but I am not prepared
to discuss any in more detail."
Staff writers Dana Priest, William Branigin and Charles Babington in
Washington and staff researcher Robert Thomason contributed to this
report.
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