Recap of Russian-NATO Agreement Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Russians to Serve with NATO Force with 3 National Forces; Russians to Remain at Airport and Control the Ground; Air Control at Latina Goes to US NATO. KLA Forbidden Weapons, Uniforms After Sunday Stratfor's Update on the Kosovo Crisis: http://www.stratfor.com/ June 19, 1999 990619 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said on June 19 the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Britain's Scotland Yard have started examining alleged war crimes sites in Kosovo. The ICTY said the number of suspected sites was larger than expected. The sites' locations or number of FBI and Scotland Yard personnel conducting the investigations was not specified. 990619 - Gennady Seleznev, speaker of the Duma lower house of parliament, said on June 19 the Russia-U.S. accord on Moscow's role in the Kosovo peacekeeping mission was "reasonable." Seleznev said the accord "should allow us to avoid a situation which recalls the partition of Germany." He said that the Russian troops would refer directly to the Russian defense ministry. 990619 - EU Commission Political Director Gunter Burghardt said at a press conference in Cologne on June 19 the EU would give 500 million euros a year over the next three years for humanitarian and reconstruction aid in Kosovo. Burghardt said the EU would distribute the aid to non-governmental organizations and local authorities through the European Agency for Reconstruction. Burghardt also said a meeting of donor nations to determine assistance to Kosovo would be held by the end of June. 990619 - Milovan Bojic, Serbian deputy premier and commander of the republic civilian protection headquarters, urged Kosovo Serbs in a radio address on June 19 to return to Kosovo in convoys, promising to secure aid to them. "The Serbian state will ensure for you complete logistics for the return, the food, medical aid and fuel," Bojic said. "You should use this moment to return to Kosovo in next 48 hours. Otherwise... the return will be more difficult," he warned. 990619 - Russian forces reportedly barred three British armored vehicles from Pristina airport on June 19. Witnesses said that the British, who told the Russians they had come to provide security, reportedly turned back without incident. Under an U.S.-Russian accord reached in Helsinki June 18, Russian forces were to retain command of Pristina airport. 990619 - Spokesman of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo, Louis Garneaum, said June 19 the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, planned to be completed by midnight June 20, was proceeding on schedule. Garneaum said the forces already left zones one and two. The withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from the final zone, in the north, could be completed before midnight June 20, Garneaum said. 990619 - French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine called a meeting of foreign ministers from France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy in Paris on June 19 to discuss urgent issues involving Kosovo. Vedrine, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and their German and Italian counterparts, Joschka Fischer and Lamberto Dini begun a working lunch at 1100 GMT. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is represented by the British Ambassador to Paris. 990619 - Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said June 19 in Cologne that Russian President Boris Yeltsin has approved the accord signed June 18 in Helsinki on Russia's role in Kosovo's peacekeeping force. 990619 - Belgrade expressed its satisfaction June 18 at the U.S.-Russia accord over the KFOR peacekeeping force. "The basis of the accord is that it comes in the mandate of the UN Security council and military-technical agreement between Yugoslavia and KFOR, signed on June 9," the state agency Tanjug said. Yugoslav authorities were describing the peacekeeping force as an "international force under the auspices of the United Nations." In the Kosovo capital Pristina, however, the accord was characterized by the Serbs as a compromise made by Moscow under pressure from NATO. "It is aimed to prevent an eventual partition of the province, which would be undoubtedly done if the Russians were given an independent operational sector," a source close to the Serbian authorities was quoted as saying. 990619 - Lirak Qela, KLA commander of the northern part of Kosovo said June 19 the rebels were not happy with the US-Russia accord on Russia's role in the Kosovo peacekeeping force but would accept it. Qela said the KLA would accept the deal "because NATO did this agreement and we believe in the NATO forces that they are going to keep them (the Russians) under their control and their command." 990619 - The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) said June 19 that it would no longer carry weapons in Kosovo's towns and cities. Lirak Qela, a KLA commander in charge of the northern region said the KLA wanted "to make (the NATO-led peacekeepers') work much easier so we decided to not go into the city in uniform and carrying weapons." A spokesperson with KFOR said: "The KLA, of its own initiative, said it will not carry arms in the streets of populated areas." A demilitarization agreement between NATO and the KLA is currently being negotiated by KLA leaders and KFOR commander British Lieutenant-General Mike Jackson. A NATO officer said a draft version of the agreement had already been sent to Brussels. ================================================================= 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-06.19.99-15:11:55-26955