KFOR sets up HQ near Pristina after Russians block airport


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KFOR sets up HQ near Pristina after Russians block airport

PRISTINA, June 14 (AFP) - The British commander of the NATO forces deploying
in Kosovo said Monday that he was quite happy to leave Pristina airport to a
Russian battalion currently occupying it.

"I'm not in a turf war with them," Lieutenant-General Mike Jackson told a
news conference here.

"Frankly, now I've seen the grounds, it (the airport) is too far out of
town, I was a bit concerned about unexploded ordnance, so I'm very happy to
leave the airfield in Russian hands," he said.

His reaction drew chuckles from journalists who had seen how angry he was
when he arrived at the airport late Saturday after around 200 Russian troops
had arrived, beating NATO to the punch.

"No, it's true. If you think that's a feeble excuse, you're absolutely
wrong," Jackson said.

NATO earlier announced in Brussels that an advance headquarters had been set
up south of Pristina as the Russian troops remained in control of the
airport for a third day.

The advance HQ of the KFOR commander will be operational Monday, NATO said,
but it did not give details on the location.

Jackson had planned to set up his advance HQ at Pristina's Slatina airport,
but the plans were thwarted by the surprise arrival of the Russian troops on
Saturday.

British and Russian officers have held two days of apparently fruitless
talks over the airport, which NATO officers had stressed before the entry of
their troops into Kosovo was a strategic location for a forward tactical
base.

The matter, Jackson acknowledged, was a political one.

"In due course, greater numbers (of Russian soldiers) will come. I welcome
that," he said, after estimating the number currently at the airport at
around 200.

Jackson said the Russians' "area of responsibility" within Kosovo had not
been planned for and "discussions between the relevant capitals are still
going on."

The Russians, who arrived from neighbouring Bosnia-Hercegovina overnight
Friday, stole a march on NATO contingents of the peacekeeping force to
arrive in Kosovo hours before alliance troops began crossing the border from
Macedonia.

On the question of access to Pristina airport, NATO is leaving it up to
Jackson to negotiate with the commander of the Russian force, General Viktor
Zavarzin, diplomats said.

NATO appears resigned to giving Russia an area of responsibility in Kosovo,
in a deal similar to that which operates in Bosnia, alliance diplomats said
in Brussels.

NATO diplomats said Russia was likely to be given either a separate area or
one straddling the sectors already allotted to Britain, France, Germany,
Italy and the United States. A Russian general would also have a post in
Jackson's HQ.

Thousands of troops continued to pour into the Serbian province of Kosovo
Monday as the KFOR build-up continued, with 14,000 NATO troops inside the
province by early Monday.

At full strength, KFOR is expected to number some 50,000 peacekeepers.

Jackson said that the deployment of the NATO-led Kosovo Force -- known as
KFOR -- was "on schedule", although he regretted that NATO forces "acting
entirely in self-defence" had killed two Serbs as they moved in.
 
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