More than 800 British paratroopers are expected to leave Kosovo  MESSAGE BOARD: Rebuilding Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

July 30, 1999
Web posted at: 2:21 p.m. EDT (1821 GMT)

PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) -- Having dealt with everything from gun attacks to missing pets, the vanguard of NATO's advance into Kosovo began to pull out of the Serb province on Friday.

After policing the provincial capital for seven weeks, more than 800 British paratroopers are expected to leave Pristina in the coming days, as Britain reduces the number of its troops in the NATO-led KFOR force to about 5,000 soldiers

"We came in with large numbers because we weren't sure what we were going to find," said Gen. Charles Guthrie, British Defense chief of staff.

British, Canadian and Norwegian troops will take over from the paratroopers, who in the absence of a U.N. police force served as the city's crime fighters.

"Just expect anything and be prepared to deal with it," offered paratrooper Maj. Julian Davies. "We deal with everything from shootings to stabbings or helping someone who has lost their dog."

Experience in another region troubled by urban violence has proved invaluable for some of the British forces in Pristina.

"It's really hard. You are almost police here, so Northern Ireland training has helped quite a bit," Cpl. Greame Greaves said.

"It's really hard" - Cpl. Greame Greaves

Sporadic violence has plagued Kosovo since KFOR forces began occupying the province after NATO's 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia.

The alliance conducted the air campaign to compel Belgrade to accept a peace plan to stop persistent ethnic bloodshed in Kosovo.

In other Friday developments:

• Ibrahim Rugova, the president of Kosovo's Democratic League, returned to Pristina after weeks of self-imposed exile. U.N. and U.S. officials hope the presence of the moderate Kosovar Albanian leader will speed up the establishment of a local administration to make the province more stable.
• Denmark's High Court ordered a Danish mercenary suspected of killing ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo for the Serb army to remain in police custody until mid-August.
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair was expected to arrive in Kosovo later Friday after attending the international Balkans summit in Sarajevo.
• Remaining Kosovar Albanian refugees will be able to fly directly to Pristina from abroad starting Monday, said a spokesman for the International Organization of Migration. Most of the 860,00 ethnic Albanians forced to flee Kosovo have returned.

Correspondent Nic Robertson and Reuters contributed to this report.

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