AFP Newsbriefs, Kosovo, 6/14/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE KOSOVO/NATO/YUGO NEWSBRIEFS June 14 1999 US, Russian leaders step up talks over KFOR configuration WASHINGTON, June 14 (AFP) - US and Russian leaders stepped up talks Monday to seek a formula for integrating Russian troops into the Kosovo peacekeeping force without undermining KFOR's unified command structure. US President Bill Clinton spoke to his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, for the second time in less than 24 hours Monday, in what the White House described as a "constructive" conversation. And Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced she and Defense Secretary William Cohen would meet in Helsinki with their Russian counterparts in the next few days, "to work out the longer-term issues about the participation of Russians in KFOR," she said. "We welcome Russian participation in KFOR and we are in constant high-level discussions with Russia to work out an appropriate role" for them, Albright said. In the ground, KFOR's British commander, Lieutenant-General Mike Jackson and Russian commander General Viktor Zavarzin were "maintaining contacts" to "resolve the short-term issues," she said. Albright said she and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov had spoken twice Monday about Kosovo and the conflict was also discussed by telephone between Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and US Vice President Al Gore. Stepashin said he and Gore spoke of the "principle scheme of our future cooperation" in a Kosovo peacekeeping mission, Interfax reported. And in a continued damage limitation exercise, White House spokesman Lockhart dismissed the impact of the unexpected Russian deployment on KFOR plans. "We continue to work with them (the Russians) very intensively to develop an effective way to deploy Russian troops in KFOR," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said, downplaying the significance of the unexpected Russian deployment of Pristina airport Friday. "I think our assessment is that there was a general order given by President Yeltsin and that the military jumped the gun and they deployed earlier than anticipated," he said. "It is easy to make more of this than you should. This is not of military significance, it has not impacted in any way with the mission in the KFOR zone," he explained. But United States appears to be reluctantly accepting that the Russians will have control of an operational zone in Kosovo. "The key now is working with them sorting through an arrangement" that will allow the rest of the Russia forces to get into Kosovo, Lockhart said. However Albright, speaking Sunday to NBC television, made a clear distinction between sector -- as allotted to Britain, Germany, Italy, France and the United States -- and a zone which the Russians could work in. * Romania rejects Russian overflight request pending UN decision UCHAREST, June 14 (AFP) - Romania on Monday rejected a Russian request to use its airspace for flights to Kosovo, arguing that previous UN Security Council approval would be needed for such a decision. "Even if the United Nations give the green light, Russia's request must follow the same procedure as a previous request by NATO," said President Emil Constantinescu. Russia's request Sunday to use Romanian airspace came after Russian troops took NATO by surprise and entered Kosovo first, before taking control of Pristina airport where they are refusing access to western forces. "Moscow's request will be examined in line with the UN resolution on the creation of the KFOR Kosovo peace force," said ministry spokeswoman Simona Miculescu had said earlier. She added that the Russian request must be notified to Romanian authorities by the United Nations, which oversees KFOR operations, and by NATO which provides the bulk of KFOR troops. Under Romanian legislation parliament has the last word on any use of Romanian air space by other countries. Russia on Saturday asked Bulgarian authorities for access to an air corridor through which it may transport peacekeeping troops to Kosovo, which prompted Sofia to ask if the troops were armed. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nadejda Mikhailova told Moscow Monday that its request would not be granted until an accord was reached between Russia and NATO on a unified command for the peacekeeping force. "An accord on unified command and control between NATO and Russia will avoid any risk of division in Kosovo," the Bulgarian agency BTA quoted Mikhailova as saying. "It is only in this way the Balkans will not be Balkanised, will not be divided into parts and zones of influence, but will adhere united to European and trans-Atlantic structures," he added. An aide to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Andranik Migranian, on Sunday called the lack of an immediate Bulgarian reply a "hostile act" in an interview with the private Bulgarian radio Express. Migranian said the refusal "will intensify anti-Bulgarian feelings in Russia, and risked influencing economic relations" between the two countries. Bulgarian legislation requires the government to make a written response to Russia's request, which must also be approved by the parliament. A similar request in April by NATO for planes taking part in raids against Yugoslavia required three weeks to be granted. * Mass graves, shootings, KLA come to the fore in Kosovo PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 14 (AFP) - The euphoria surrounding NATO's deployment in Kosovo gave way Monday to grisly discoveries of mass graves, shootings and a resurgence of the separatist KLA. About a dozen people were reported killed as the Kosovo forcebuild-up continued. German troops, US marines and British forces continued to fan out across the province while the Italians arrived Monday in the southwestern sector of Pec, bringing force strength to 14,000, NATO said. Russian troops, who were the first foreign forces to arrive in Pristina Saturday, retained control of Pristina's Slatina airport for a third day, forcing NATO command to set up its headquarters elsewhere near the capital. Five mass graves containing at least 85 bodies were discovered by British and German troops in southern Kosovo, giving NATO leaders their first glimpse at the ravages of the conflict. The "horrible discovery" is a "clear indication that much more is yet to be found," Defense Secretary George Robertson said in London. Information concerning the graves was being passed to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Ethnic Albanian refugees who streamed out of Kosovo over the past months have testified that men of military age had been rounded up by Serb forces or paramilitaries and executed. In the southern town of Prizren, more than 300 Kosovo Liberation Armyfighters swooped in, seizing weapons from the homes of Serb civilians and soldiers who had just departed. "We are in control of this district," said KLA brigade commander Beqir Ahmetas, adding that other KLA units were taking control of areas nearby. Ahmetas said the fighters would take over central Prizren "when the order is given, and after the go-ahead by the KFOR." The situation was particularly tense Monday in the south, with Yugoslav forces and Serb paramilitaries still numerous despite a deadline of midnight Tuesday for evacuating that zone. An agreement between Yugoslavia and NATO provides for a phased withdrawal of all Serb forces from Kosovo over the coming days, with all troops expected to have pulled out by Sunday. Humanitarian agencies said almost 15,000 Serbs, fearing reprisals from returning ethnic Albanians, had fled Kosovo during the weekend as Yugoslav forces began their retreat. German troops -- in charge of the southern sector which stretches from the border to Prizren, a town with a pre-conflict population of more than 100,000 -- reported Serb snipers holed up in buildings, while Yugoslav forces could be seen accompanying fleeing families. The body of a third German journalist, shot dead in Kosovo, was found near the town of Suva Reka, southwest of Pristina, one day after two German reporters from the weekly magazine Stern were killed in the same area. German Major Hans Christian Klasing said the journalist worked for ZDF-2 television but his name was not immediately released. Reporter Gabriel Gruener, 35, and photographer Volker Kraemer, 56, were killed by unidentified gunmen near the town of Stimlje, which is located on the same road as Suva Reka, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Pristina. The journalists were killed apparently while investigating reports of a mass grave in the region. The Serb Information Center in Pristina said three KLA fighters were killed by NATO soldiers in Prizren after they opened fire on KFOR units. British Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clissitt said Sunday two Yugoslav soldiers and one Serb policeman were killed in clashes with the KLA, while Serb sources put the toll at two policemen and two Yugoslav soldiers. British paratroopers also shot dead a Yugoslav reserve policeman, believed to be a Serb, after they were fired upon in Pristina Sunday and German troops shot dead a Serb sniper and seriously injured another in a shoot-out in Prizren Sunday. In Belgrade, the ultranationalist Serb Radical Party (SRS) quit the government to protest the NATO deployment but the move was not expected to jeopardise President Slobodan Milosevic's grip on power. Milosevic traveled to the site of a destroyed bridge in the northwest town of Beska Monday to kick off reconstruction of Yugoslavia's battered infrastructure. "Now that peace has prevailed, we have a new task, to rebuild the country," Milosevic said. Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his US counterpart Bill Clinton spoke by phone about the dispute over whether the Russian troops will be placed under NATO command. "Negotiations on this difficult matter are continuing almost non-stop, and there is every reason to believe that they will be successful," said Vladimir Putin, the director of the Federal Security Agency in Moscow. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nyteeu-06.14.99-23:21:57-3378