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

August 23, 1999
Web posted at: 11:24 a.m. EDT (1524 GMT)

ORAHOVAC, Kosovo -- Mistrustful ethnic Albanians blocked Russian peacekeepers from entering a Kosovo town Monday and vowed to stand their ground until the Russians leave.

A Russian contingent was to relieve Dutch troops in Orahovac as part of the KFOR peacekeeping mission in the Serbian province. In Moscow, a senior officer said the Russians would try again Tuesday to enter the town.

Moscow's historic ties to Serbia -- and its opposition to the NATO air war that pushed Serb authorities and the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo -- have left Russian troops facing a hostile ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo. Protesters blocking a Russian advance party's way into Orahovac carried signs that read "Russians killed us" and "We don't trust Russia."

Some said Russian mercenaries had taken part in Serb atrocities in the area, and others feared the Russian troops would let Serbs suspected of those attacks slip away.

"We will stay here until someone comes to tell us that Russians are not coming to Orahovac," a Kosovo Albanian spokesman told Col. Andrey Serdukov, second-in-command of Russian troops in Kosovo. But Serdukov told them that won't happen.

"There is an international agreement that the Russian army will come to Orahovac," he said. The Russian force withdrew after Serdukov urged the Albanians to discuss the handover with them, but the Albanians refused.

Dutch and German troops, who are in command of the sector of Kosovo that includes the town, tried to let the Russians in. But they were turned aside by the Albanians, who used tractors, cars and buses to barricade the road into Orahovac.

In Moscow, the commander of Russia's airborne troops commented Monday on the Russian troops next attempt to enter the town, on Tuesday.

"We shall find a way to fulfill our task," Col. Gen. Georgy Shpak told the ITAR-Tass news agency. "We shall methodically and calmly occupy our positions."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.