Peace Plan Highlights | Photo Gallery | Strike Assessment | News Video Archive | Strike at a Glance | Who's Who | Roots of the Conflict | Story Archive | Links | Discussion

British Brig. Robert Baxter of NATO phones headquarters Sunday
MILITARY PLAN: RELATED VIDEO CNN's Richard Blystone explains why the Gurkhas have a reputation as fierce fighters (June 12) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Tom Mintier reports on the reaction of Kosovars to NATO's arrival in the province (June 12) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Nic Robertson reports from the Pristina airport (June 12) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Kosovo, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K INTERACTIVE: NATO rolls into Kosovo  ALSO: U.S. puts positive spin on Russian troops in Kosovo FBI to send forensic team to Kosovo Some Kosovo refugees return while others continue to flee  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Number, whereabouts of Kosovo refugees  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

June 13, 1999
Web posted at: 5:11 a.m. EDT (0911 GMT)

In this story: Urgent diplomacy in Moscow Reports of atrocities Concern for refugees' safety Cheers from ethnic Albanians RELATED STORIES, SITES

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- NATO troops in Pristina searched Sunday for a alternate base site around Kosovo's provincial capital after Russian troops denied them access to the city's airport.

NATO had planned to set up headquarters at the Pristina airport for its advance into Kosovo but will find someplace else with little difficulty, said Brig. Robert Baxter, a British officer at the airport.

"We have standbys, and we are now going around looking at all the alternative sites," Baxter told CNN.

A Russian column of troops unexpectedly beat the NATO peacekeepers to the city and blocked access to the airport Saturday by parking an armored troop carrier across a road.

Baxter described his talks with Russian officers as "friendly," though they firmly refused to allow his troops into the airport.

"They just told me we had no permission to go from his commanders," Baxter said. "I then asked him if he could speak to his commanders, and there were lots of shrugging of shoulders.

"He had an armored vehicle across the road. We had these Land Rovers. The wise thing was to go back for the night."

The incident occurred as British, U.S., French, German and Italian troops rolled into Kosovo on Saturday to begin Operation Joint Guardian. The peacekeeping mission, also known as KFOR, is one of the largest military undertakings in Europe since World War II.

The NATO peacekeepers are preparing for the return of hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees displaced during the Yugoslav conflict.

Western leaders were still trying to determine who ordered the Russian troops in, even as they sought to resolve the sensitive issue of finding a role for the Russians within KFOR.

Russian leaders have said they do not want their troops to serve under NATO command and that they want a separate sector of Kosovo to be placed under their control.

On Sunday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in Moscow to attempt to work out Russia's role in Kosovo.

Following the talks, Talbott said the discussions had been "productive" and that he said he was satisfied with progress of the talks.

President Bill Clinton was also scheduled to talk by phone with his Russian counterpart, President Boris Yeltsin.

Although Ivanov said on Saturday that the column of Russian troops which had entered Pristina, upstaging NATO troops a day earlier, had been ordered to leave, there was no sign that they were doing so.

And although Ivanov had characterized the move into Kosovo as a mistake, Yeltsin apparently did not agree. His senior international policy aide, Sergei Prikhodko, said the Russian president had ordered the troops into Kosovo to lead its peacekeeping force.

Prikhodko said Yeltsin left the timing of the deployment up to the military.

Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, said, "I think there's a lot of explaining that will have to be done on a lot of matters in time."

Meanwhile, more allegations of atrocities came from Kosovo.

Freelance journalist Juliette Terzieff reported that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army discovered 14 bodies in the central Kosovo town of Malisevo.

Among the dead, Terzieff said, was a decapitated woman. The ethnic Albanian KLA group also encountered dead animals: dogs, cats and horses.

Some Serb forces that pulled out on Friday apparently rolled over abandoned cars with their tanks and set fire to tractors and homes, Terzieff said.

Some of the homes were still smouldering as the KLA forces passed.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour reported Sunday that French troops in eastern Kosovo also saw homes burning.

NATO warned against further atrocities.

"Noncompliance will not be tolerated from whichever quarter it may come," said Britain's Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, speaking at the Pristina airport.

Jackson requested that "all the refugees and all those who are homeless within Kosovo ... wait a little while until we are ready to take them back to their homes. Their safety and their security are my most serious concerns."

Surrounded by troops, tanks and helicopters at the Pristina airport, NATO's peacekeeping force commander called on Serbs and ethnic Albanians on Saturday to comply with an international peace plan for Kosovo.

Some French peacekeeping convoys were halted for hours as roads were swept for mines.

And sporadic bursts of machine gun fire were heard as the convoy of French troops rolled through Kosovo.

As the peacekeeping mission continued, hundreds of paratroopers were dropped into Kosovo.

A large contingent of U.S. Marines and Army troops was preparing to move into Kosovo early Sunday.

As NATO troops rumbled into Pristina in tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks, many groups of ethnic Albanians greeted them enthusiastically, despite a sudden downpour of rain.

And although Serbs in Kosovo offered a subdued welcome to the KFOR troops, some ethnic Albanians chanted "NATO, NATO!" and "Tony Blair, Tony Blair." The British prime minister was one of NATO's most hawkish leaders during the Yugoslav conflict.

Rolling deeper into Kosovo, NATO forces at times passed departing Serbian troops. NATO reconnaissance photographs verified that the Serb troops were leaving, and showed the routes they took.

Tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers were shown in the reconnaissance photographs, said U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen.

So far, 7,000 Yugoslav army regulars and Serbian security police have left Kosovo under a withdrawal agreement reached Wednesday, Clark said.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.