U.S. peacekeeping troops in Macedonia RELATED VIDEO President Clinton speaks about the end to the conflict in Yugoslavia Windows Media 28K 80K  MILITARY PLAN: Map: Serb troop withdrawal Map: Proposed NATO troop sectors  ALSO: U.S. won't help reconstruct Yugoslavia until Milosevic out of power, Clinton says Russia says relations with NATO 'frozen' Russians move into Yugoslavia ahead of NATO peacekeepers  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo

June 11, 1999
Web posted at: 8:59 a.m. EDT (1259 GMT)

In this story: 'The horrors you are going to see' U.S. not worried about Russian troop movement 'There may well be casualties' RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With an international peacekeeping force, including U.S. troops, poised to move into Kosovo after the suspension of NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia, President Clinton on Friday plans to personally honor some of the fliers of Operation Allied Force.

The president was to visit Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 Stealth bombers which flew from Missouri to Yugoslavia to hit Serb command bunkers and air defenses. The nonstop flights took more than 30 hours round-trip.

Meanwhile, about 4,000 U.S. Marines and Army soldiers were gathering in northern Macedonia -- at a staging area called Camp Able Sentry, near the capital city of Skopje -- to begin moving into the American peacekeeping sector in eastern Kosovo.

The initial U.S. "enabling" force will set up a headquarters, clear land mines and escort ethnic Albanian refugees home.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited the makeshift military camp on Friday during a one-day visit to Macedonia.

Albright visits a refugee camp in Macedonia

"I can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done and what you are going to do," Albright told the U.S. peacekeepers. "The people you are going to be seeing and the country you are going to be freeing has gone through some dreadful times."

"In fact," she said, "I don't even know all the horrors you are going to see."

Later, Albright spoke to Kosovars living at the Stenkovic refugee camp.

She also was in touch with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, discussing Moscow's movement of about 500 of its troops into Yugoslavia.

The Russian troops -- based in Bosnia as part of an international peacekeeping force set up after the 1991-1995 war in Yugoslavia -- crossed over into Serbia on Friday.

Ivanov said they were being "pre-positioned" along the border with Kosovo, but would not enter the Serb province until an agreement is reached with NATO on Russia's role in the Kosovo peacekeeping effort, sources told CNN.

Sound file: NATO stopped "horrendous brutality" 374K/23 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

Vice President Al Gore told CNN the Clinton administration did not view Russia's action as an alarming development.

"We believe what the Russians have told us, that they are not going to go into Kosovo until the arrangements are worked out under a unified command," Gore said Friday.

The first wave of U.S. peacekeepers is scheduled to be replaced in the next 30 days by 7,000 Army troops based in Germany.

The U.S. contingent will be part of an international peacekeeping force set to number about 50,000 troops.

Clinton says Americans must be prepared for possible casualties as the difficult, dangerous work of peacekeeping begins while Yugoslav forces withdraw.

"This next phase also will be dangerous," Clinton said Thursday night in an address to the nation from the Oval Office.

"Bitter memories will still be fresh and there may well be casualties." But he said the peacekeeping force "will have the means and the mandate to protect itself while doing its job."

Correspondent John King contributed to this report.

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