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: Timetable for Kosovo transition Map: Serb troop withdrawal Map: Proposed NATO troop sectors  ALSO: U.S. won't help reconstruct Yugoslavia until Milosevic out of power, Clinton said Thursday Russia says relations with NATO 'frozen' NATO peacekeepers told to delay entry into Kosovo  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo

June 11, 1999
Web posted at: 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT)

In this story: 'The horrors you are going to see' 'There are land mines' Russian troop movement in Yugoslavia... ...Catches U.S. off guard 'There may well be casualties' RELATED STORIES, SITES

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

The president spoke to pilots and support personnel at Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 Stealth bombers that 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 gathered in Macedonia, awaiting NATO orders to enter the American peacekeeping sector in eastern Kosovo.

The initial U.S. "enabling" force -- now positioned at a staging area called Camp Able Sentry -- 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 Friday during a one-day visit to 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."

Albright visits a refugee camp in Macedonia

Later, Albright spoke to Kosovars living at the Stenkovic refugee camp, a tent city that is home to about 25,000 ethnic Albanians, many of them children.

Albright counseled against vengeance, and said NATO's goal was a multi-ethnic democracy in Kosovo. But she also acknowledged the task was awesome and said many of the refugees may not be able to get home before the onset of winter.

In a statement to hundreds of refugees crowded behind a rope, Albright said, "We want you to rebuild. We want you to go home. But be very careful. There are land mines."

"All the world knows about your suffering, they know you want to go home and have a normal life," Albright said. "You will go home and be able to live a decent normal life and do it your way."

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

The secretary of state also was in touch by telephone 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 in 1995 after the 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.

Russia -- which is not a member of the 19-nation NATO alliance -- has insisted it will not put its troops under NATO command, something NATO has demanded.

The Clinton administration was caught off guard by Russia's troop movement.

Albright ordered Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to return to Moscow immediately. Talbott, who had been in Moscow discussing arrangements for the participation of the Russians, was en route to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Despite being surprised, Washington 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," Vice President Al Gore told CNN.

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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