World

U.S. Forces Hover Over Milosevic

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 26, 1998 / 5:26 PM EST / CBS

NATO's decision Tuesday to maintain the threat of military intervention in the Kosovo crisis, is the beginning of another longterm commitment for U.S. forces in the Balkans, reports CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Scott Pelley.

The move meant immediate air strikes threatened after a Tuesday deadline would not take place but the "activation order" authorizing military commanders to use force would not be cancelled.

For the foreseeable future, American spy planes and observers on the ground will monitor the cease fire in Kosovo. Late Tuesday, President Clinton said there was a chance for peace, not a guarantee.

"Hopefully, now the climate of fear and intimidation can be lifted and Kosovar Albanians can return to their villages," Mr. Clinton told reporters Tuesday.

Indeed, thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees began flooding back to their homes Tuesday after Yugoslav troops and Serbian police withdrew in large numbers overnight.

"We heard on the radio and from friends that the police had withdrawn from Malisevo. So I came back into town this morning for the first time since July 28 to see what had happened to my shop and my house," said Ibrahim Mazerreku.

"I had an auto and tractor parts shop, but the Serbs stole all my stock, about 80,000 German marks [$48,500] worth. My house has been vandalized too, but it's livable. I'm luckier than many others in Malisevo who were killed or wounded this year."

Hundreds of army vehicles and troops returned to barracks on Monday, and Western observers counted at least 4,000 military police withdrawing from the province overnight.

"We are at a hopeful moment," Mr. Clinton said, "but we should be under no illusion. There is still a lot of hard road to walk before hope can triumph over hatred in the Balkans."

Ninety percent of Kosovo's population is ethnic Albanian, most of whom want independence. The province was autonomous from 1974 to 1989, when Belgrade placed it under harsh direct rule.

Some 250,000 ethnic Albanians had been forced from their homes in fighting between government forces and guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) this year.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that NATO would move swiftly to use force against Yugoslavia if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic sent troops and special police units back to Kosovo to threaten ethnic Albanian civilians.

"I do not see any delay," she told reporters.

Also, Albright said the NATO allies were preparing to assemble a rapid-reaction force in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia to be ready to intervene if Milosevic sends troops against civilians again.

It will not take long to persuade the allies to renew their threat to attack Serb positions since all of them are "pretty much" in agreemnt Milosevic cannot be permitted to menace civilians again, Albright said.

On Tuesday, the trickle of refugees returning home became a torrent in some places. Malisevo, a town of about 5,000 some 20 miles southwest of the Kosovo capital Pristina and once a KLA bastion, was inundated with refugees arriving on foot, by tractor, and in cars.

However, two uniformed members of the KLA were posted just west of the town's main intersection, warning people that Serbian police were still in one of Malisevo's main buildings and at a position in Smonica, north of the town.

"Our orders are to stay out of the center of town, but to notify people that it is not completely free of police yet," one of the KLA soldiers said.

"People are being cautious. They're coming back to check on their houses and, if it looks safe, they'll bring their families back soon. We don't know if the last of the police will leave from here today. It would be better if they did."

Some 2,000 international observers will montior the cease fire. More than 100 will be Americans.