Puerto Ricans fight U.S. presence

USA Today September 2, 1999
http://usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - About 300 university students on Wednesday protested U.S. military presence, disrupting operations at the University of Puerto Rico. ''Go to hell, Navy!'' shouted protesters, who called for the military to abandon its training ground on the island of Vieques. Others demanded the United States free 16 Puerto Rican nationalists jailed some 20 years ago in connection with bombings on the U.S. mainland. Students also urged support for former professor Jose Solis Jordan, sentenced to 51 months in prison in July for bombing an Army recruiting center in Chicago.

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Kyrgyz Fear Long Conflict, Await Russian Arms

Updated 6:34 AM ET September 2, 1999 By Mike Collett-White
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990902/06/international-kyrgyzstan-leadall

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan faced a drawn out campaign against guerrillas holding hostages in the country's remote southern mountains, First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Silayev said Thursday.

"We are preparing for (something) prolonged," he told a news briefing in the capital Bishkek, adding that military aid from Russia including helicopters, transport planes and arms was expected in the next few days.

Around 750 gunmen hiding in the south released a policeman overnight, taking to eight the number of Kyrgyz captives freed, a Defense Ministry official said.

In a separate development, the guerrillas, believed to be part of Uzbekistan's radical Muslim opposition, freed six Uzbek climbers seized on the Abramov glacier when the infiltration first began on August 21.

The Kyrgyz had not been aware of the incident involving Uzbek mountaineers until they were freed, amid continuing confusion as to how many hostages the rebels are holding.

What is known is that the remaining captives include four Japanese geologists and a senior Kyrgyz military official.

The gunmen crossed from their stronghold in northern Tajikistan, and the Kyrgyz government says they appear to be trying to cross its territory to get to Uzbekistan where they plan a terror campaign.

Their leader is said to be Uzbek rebel Dzhuma Namangani, who fled his country in 1992 and who is accused by President Islam Karimov of trying to assassinate him in a series of bomb blasts in the capital Tashkent in February.

In a transcript of an August 31 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation by a man claiming to represent the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, he said the group wanted to swap Japanese hostages for its members held in Uzbekistan.

"Our aim is to exchange them for several people who've been imprisoned and tortured by the Uzbek regime," the man, named as Zubair Ibn Abdurakhim, said.

He added it was the fighters' "clear aim" to cross north into Uzbekistan, which he said would happen "with the help of Allah."

Silayev saw their demands as a positive sign.

"Earlier we heard they were completely refusing to talk," he said. "Today the situation has changed somewhat. I think that the process has begun."

Kyrgyzstan's small and poorly-equipped army and police have failed to dislodge the fighters from their hideouts among peaks exceeding 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) and deep ravines.

Kyrgyz veterans from the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan, climbers and hunters have enlisted to fight the intruders.

The impoverished state of five million, facing its worst security crisis since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has enlisted the help of Russia and neighbors Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

They are all wary of the threat of an extremist Islamic revival in the vast Central Asian region, bordering China to the east, Afghanistan and Iran to the south and Russia to the north.

Uzbek air attacks, meant to flush out the fighters, were suspended over the weekend after they mistakenly bombed a Kyrgyz village, killing four people and injuring 16.

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev met Karimov in Tashkent Wednesday to discuss ways of containing the crisis.

Kyrgyzstan says the army has the situation under control, and has blocked the fighters' routes deeper into its territory.

But a soldier was lightly injured when a Kyrgyz position in the village of Karamyk came under fire late Wednesday, while Interior Ministry troops were taking "operative measures" around the village of Kan, a Defense Ministry statement said.

Silayev also said more gunmen would cross into Kyrgyzstan if the Kyrgyz and Tajiks failed to act.

"If we do not take adequate measures and if Tajikistan also does not do everything to close the border, then there will be a lot more of them," he said.

In addition to the security crisis, around 5,500 refugees have left their homes and are mostly gathered in the regional center of Batken.

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Indonesia Says U.N. Force May Go To E.Timor

Updated 4:19 AM ET September 2, 1999 By Terry Friel
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990902/04/international-timor-leadall

DILI, East Timor (Reuters) - Indonesia suggested Thursday it would almost certainly allow a U.N. force to go to troubled East Timor amid mounting violence.

Jakarta's top military spokesman said such a move would be logical if Monday's ballot went against wide-ranging autonomy within Indonesia. The result, expected in the next few days, is expected to be strongly in favor of independence.

"Of course in the transitional period there needs to be the presence of a United Nations force because logically the Indonesian military and the Indonesian police have to leave East Timor," military spokesman Brigadier General Sudrajat told a news conference.

He added that this would not apply if the result went the other way. Most observers, however, say such a result is unlikely.

Massive international pressure on Jakarta, including the threatened withdrawal of much-needed loans, has followed mounting violence in the former Portuguese colony.

At least five people were killed Wednesday in clashes outside the main U.N. headquarters in Dili, prompting widespread calls for a U.N. peacekeeping force and condemnation of Indonesia's failure to rein in pro-Jakarta militias. One of the victims was hacked to death in front of television cameras.

A top minister said Jakarta might consider U.N. peacekeepers, a move Indonesia has stubbornly resisted up to now.

"So far we have not discussed it (foreign peacekeepers) deeply. But as far as developments have gone so far, automatically that is an alternative that maybe has to be considered," State Secretary Muladi told reporters.

Indonesia's brutal rule in East Timor since its invasion in 1975 has never been internationally recognized.

Hundreds have died as the militia embarked this year on a campaign of terror against independence supporters.

Thursday, Dili was very tense. There were, as usual, few signs of police on the streets though small groups of militiamen loitered around some areas.

About 100 people, including 25 journalists, were evacuated on a military transport plane out of Dili Thursday morning, following widespread rumors that the militia were going to make them their next target.

And in one Dili hotel where many foreign journalists stay about five armed militiamen walked in searching for pro-independence supporters.

International Red Cross officials said they were preparing sites across the border in Indonesia's West Timor for a possible flood of refugees, possibly as many as 20,000.

Contingency plans are also being made for refugees in East Timor itself for up to 50,000 people.

Many fear violence could explode after the results of the ballot are announced within the next few days.

The result of the ballot will still have to be ratified by Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly, which meets from October.

Indonesian military commander General Wiranto promised that his forces would deal with militia violence.

"He gave the guarantee that if there was trouble he would take care of it. He cannot guarantee that there will be no trouble because he doesn't make the trouble," Jamsheed Marker, the U.N.'s special envoy on East Timor, said after meeting Wiranto in Jakarta.

However, Wiranto described reports of the latest violence in East Timor as exaggerated.

Indonesia's security forces have been widely criticized for repeatedly standing by while violence flared. The military has clearly been giving support to the militia.

The military is deeply worried that independence in East Timor will incite rebellions elsewhere in the sprawling tropical archipelago where outbreaks of violence are already straining the resources of a demoralized military and weak central government.

Calls for independence are already growing in the resource-rich provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya where locals complain of persistent human rights abuses by the military and the grabbing of most of their revenues by Jakarta.

Indonesia rushed in more than 350 police reinforcements to East Timor Thursday.

It already has about 15,000 troops and police in the territory where the military has a long history of using East Timorese gangs to terrorize locals.

Exiled East Timorese independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta said it was increasingly clear the Indonesian military was incapable or unwilling to provide security in the territory.

"In fact the Indonesian army and police are part of the problem in East Timor and not part of the solution....(they) should withdraw from East Timor," he said in a statement.

---

Militiamen attack near U.N. headquarters

9/01/99- Updated 07:40 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed01.htm

DILI, Indonesia (AP) - Hundreds of anti-independence militiamen blocked the street outside the U.N. headquarters in East Timor's capital Wednesday, setting two buildings on fire and shooting cars driving into the U.N. compound.

At least 75 Indonesia riot police were reportedly dispatched to the scene about an hour after the violence erupted and were fanning out to clear the area directly in front of the compound.

One person believed to be a pro-independence supporter was killed, authorities said. No arrests have been reported. Unarmed U.N. civilian police were also moving in.

According to initial reports, several people were injured and taken to a local clinic for treatment. It was unclear whether U.N. personnel were among the injured. APTN reported that officials had secured the area.

The violence came as the United Nations was counting ballots Wednesday in East Timor's historic referendum, a vote that was expected to approve the territory's independence from Indonesia.

Ballots were being tallied at a counting center in western Dili. Militiamen reportedly had blocked off roads to the east and west of the center, but riot police were stationed at the center, and the roadblocks did not appear to pose an immediate danger.

The violence followed Monday's relatively peaceful referendum on independence. The outbreak raised fears that the territory could slide back into lawlessness as pro-Indonesian militias - sensing defeat - try frantically to take control of whatever they can.

The militias, believed to be backed by Indonesia's military, have accused the United Nations of rigging the vote to encourage independence. The referendum gave East Timorese the option of breaking away from Indonesia, or remaining part of it with autonomy.

U.N. officials said no one managed to enter the U.N. compound, but dark smoke billowed from a fire raging nearby. A taxi carrying journalists to the scene was fired on and its rear window was smashed by militiamen.

Witnesses said the melee began when pro- and anti-independence activists confronted each other outside the compound. Anti-independence activists had marched there following the funeral of a militant killed in a brawl with pro-independence supporters.

Indonesian soldiers stationed at a nearby barracks did not intervene when the melee first erupted, witnesses said.

Witnesses said dozens of militiamen fired weapons near the entrance of the U.N. headquarters in Dili. A U.N. security officer said 150 people - including U.N. officials and journalists - had taken shelter in an auditorium in the compound.

Several journalists said they were assaulted. BBC reporter Jonathan Head said he was attacked by one man who threw a large rock at him and pulled a knife on him before he was restrained by other militiamen.

Indonesia is rushing 300 more specially trained police officers to East Timor, trying to prevent further violence. Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar Sianipar said 300 officers from specially trained elite units would be flown Thursday to Dili.

Earlier in Dili, hundreds of armed anti-independence militiamen gathered in the capital's streets, and at least one person was killed.

Wednesday's attack was the first against the headquarters of the U.N. Assistance Mission in East Timor and the most serious against the United Nations since the world body took over organization of the vote in May. U.N. workers were attacked before the vote. One was killed Monday, and two are feared dead - victims of attacks just after the vote.

In the militia-controlled town of Hera, 10 miles outside Dili, police were checking reports that eight family members were killed. In Dili, police said a teen-ager was shot to death.

Outside the capital, pro-independence villagers armed themselves with sticks, knives and bows and arrows, fearing that the violence would escalate.

On Tuesday, militiamen carrying homemade guns, machetes and some military weapons set up roadblocks across East Timor's mountainous countryside and harassed U.N. staff - in one case shooting at a helicopter carrying ballot boxes.

Monday's landmark ballot asked the mostly Roman Catholic East Timorese whether they wanted to become independent or remain part of mostly Muslim Indonesia as an autonomous region. About 98.6% of registered voters turned out, U.N. officials said. The high turnout is believed to favor a vote for independence.

The outcome of the vote may not be known before Sept. 7.

The next step will be a vote in a 700-member special assembly to approve the results. While some lawmakers oppose independence for East Timor, the ballot results will likely be respected. President B.J. Habibie has promised to abide by the referendum.

The United Nations intends to supervise the change of power in the territory, whether to autonomy or independence.

Troops from Indonesia invaded a few months after East Timor was given independence from Portugal in 1975. Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976, triggering years of guerrilla warfare and human rights abuses.

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Four Killed In South Lebanon Attacks

Updated 2:54 PM ET September 1, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990901/14/international-israel-militia

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah guerrillas killed two pro-Israeli militiamen in a bomb attack in south Lebanon Wednesday, provoking shelling in which two civilians died.

The civilian deaths raised fears that Hizbollah would retaliate by shelling Israel's northern settlements on the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the Middle East.

"We are used to Israel upping the ante ahead of important visits to the (region)," Information Minister Anwar Khalil said after a cabinet meeting.

"The manner in which Israel threatens the Palestinians confirms our view that we should not be very optimistic about the (whole) peace process," Khalil added.

He said Israeli attacks would not weaken his government's backing of the Lebanese resistance movement in the south, which is led by Hizbollah (Party of God).

The party said this week it was "losing patience" as civilians continued to be targeted by Israel and its South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia allies.

"I say to the Israeli settlers: prepare to head to the shelters every time one (Lebanese) civilian is injured," Naim Kassem, deputy head of Hizbollah, told mourners at the funeral of one of the party's fighters this week.

Israel ordered its citizens in the north of the country to take to the bomb shelters Wednesday after heavy fighting in its south Lebanon occupation zone, witnesses said.

The two SLA members died in a roadside explosion at Zumrayah checkpoint, five km (three miles) southeast of Labbaya, a village in the western Bekka Valley bordering the zone.

Another militiaman was severely wounded and taken to Israel for treatment. Hizbollah said it planted the bomb.

Shortly afterwards, guns opened up from the zone killing two civilians and wounding five. Hassan Akel, 22, and Fatmeh Jabali, 25, were killed when shells hit a house in Labbaya.

Israeli warplanes fired two rockets at suspected Hizbollah targets. There were no reports of casualties.

Lebanese guerrillas and Israeli troops and their allies exchange small arms and artillery fire daily in and around the 15-km (nine-mile) deep occupation zone, although both sides are barred under a 1996 accord from shelling civilian areas or using them as cover for guerrilla operations.

The injuries brought the total casualties among Lebanese civilians in the fighting in the south this year to 20 dead and 140 wounded.

Israel has occupied parts of south Lebanon since 1978. It set up the present zone in 1985 saying it needed to protect its northern settlements from cross-border guerrilla attacks.

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http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990831/05/international-lebanon-israel

Eight Lebanese Wounded By Israeli Attacks (Aug 30 3:58 am ET)
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990830/03/international-lebanon-israel

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Hizbollah Fires Katyushas Into North Israel

Updated 1:50 AM ET September 2, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990902/01/international-lebanon-israel

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah (Party of God) guerrillas Thursday fired Katyusha rockets into Israel's northern territories in retaliation for the killing of civilians in south Lebanon, security sources said.

They said Hizbollah fired around 25 Katyusha rockets into Israel's northern settlements after an attack by Israel and its militia allies on a south Lebanese village killed two civilians and wounded five Wednesday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. Israel had ordered its settlers in the north to sleep in shelters in anticipation of such attack, which came on the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the Middle East.

Shortly after, Israeli warplanes attacked the outskirts of the town of Haris, bordering the central sector of Israel's south Lebanon occupation zone, the sources said, adding that there were apparently no casualties from this.

Hizbollah, which is fighting a war of attrition to try to force Israel out of Lebanon, said it fired the rockets on the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shemona.

"The resistance affirms its legitimate right to defend our people no matter what the sacrifices that need to be made and warns the enemy of the consequences of continuing to kill civilians and destroy their villages," a statement by Hizbollah said.

Lebanese guerrillas and Israeli troops and their allies exchange small arms and artillery fire daily in and around the nine-mile deep occupation zone, although both sides are barred under a 1996 accord from shelling civilian areas or using them as cover for guerrilla operations.

On Wednesday Hizbollah killed two pro-Israeli militiamen in a bomb attack, provoking shelling in which two civilians in the Western Bekaa village of Labbaya died.

In June Hizbollah fired Katyusha rockets into Israel to avenge a round of civilian deaths. Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then Israeli prime minister, retaliated by bombarding Lebanese infrastructure and killing nine civilians.

Lebanese official have warned that Israel might conduct further large-scale attacks on Lebanon despite the pledges by Ehud Barak, the new Israeli prime minister who took office in July, to withdraw from Lebanon in one year and seek peace with Lebanon and its political mentor Syria.

Israel has occupied parts of south Lebanon since 1978. It set up the present zone in 1985 saying it needed to protect its northern settlements from cross-border guerrilla attacks.

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Saddam secretly making weapons

By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES, september 2, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.html

Iraq is continuing secret work on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missiles that are banned under United Nations sanctions, according to a White House report sent recently to Congress.

"We are concerned by activity at Iraqi sites known to be capable of producing [weapons of mass destruction] and long-range ballistic missiles, as well as by Iraq's long-established covert procurement activity that could include dual-use items with [weapons] applications," the report said.

The six-page report, based on intelligence information and produced by the White House National Security Council, was required under a fiscal 1999 appropriations act and highlights the continuing problem caused by Iraq's expulsion of U.N. weapons inspectors in December.

The Clinton administration began air attacks during Operation Desert Fox in December, prompting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to expel all U.N. weapons inspectors and end all cooperation with weapons dismantling.

U.S. warplanes are continuing to fly thousands of combat aircraft missions over Iraq in order to enforce sanctions that prohibit the Iraqi military from flying its planes or driving tanks over large sections of the country.

Pentagon officials have described the ongoing actions as "a low-level war."

The White House report runs counter to recent administration claims that there is no evidence Iraq is continuing to work on its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program and missile delivery systems.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told reporters in July that "we have no reason to believe there have been significant efforts to reconstitute their weapons of mass destruction program."

But the report said: "Some eight years after the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein's defiance of the international community, we are under no illusions that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, will comply with [United Nations Security Council] resolutions on disarmament, human rights, accounting for POWs, and the return of stolen property.

"Our policy of containment plus regime change is designed to secure the interests of the citizens of Iraq and its neighbors from an aggressive and hostile regime, while U.N. sanctions help prevent Saddam Hussein from reconstituting his military or [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities."

The report said that U.S. forces in the region are "robust."

The United States is prepared to use force "should Saddam cross our well-established red lines: should he rebuild his [weapons of mass destruction], should he strike out at his neighbors, should he challenge allied aircraft in the no-fly zones, or should he move against people living in the Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq," the report said.

David Leavy, a National Security Council spokesman, said the report outlines what is known about the Iraqi weapons activities.

"We continue to support an internal-monitoring program or mechanism to be in place in Iraq because Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction in the past, and there's no reason to think he won't again in the future," Mr. Leavy said. "That remains an area of concern."

The report was made public before debate at the U.N. Security Council on a resolution proposed by Britain and the Netherlands to set up a new weapons-inspection system.

"We have made clear to Saddam that one of our red lines is the reconstitution of weapons of mass destruction," Mr. Leavy said.

The report stated that as long as U.N. weapons inspectors are barred from working in Iraq, "our concerns about the potential meaning of these activities will persist."

According to the report, U.S. spy satellites and electronic eavesdropping on Iraq can provide only limited information on the Iraqi weapons programs so weapons inspectors on the ground are needed.

On Iraq's nuclear program, the report said the Iraqis did not have the capability to produce fuel for nuclear weapons in December, when inspection ended. However, "we cannot rule out continued Iraqi nuclear weapons research."

Questions remain about Iraqi nuclear weapons activities, the report said.

Discrepancies still exist about the amount of chemical weapons held by the Iraqis, and Baghdad has not fully explained the extent of its germ-weapons programs. "Iraq retains the industrial capability and knowledge base to develop [biological weapons] agents quickly," the report said.

As for long-range missiles banned under U.N. sanctions, the report states that the Iraqis may be hiding at least seven complete missile systems and major components.

The report states that priority issues include resolving concerns that Iraq still has banned warheads capable of delivering chemical or biological weapons, including warheads filled with the nerve agent VX. The Iraqis also may have "single-use liquid missile propellent and indigenous missile production" programs hidden from inspectors.

The report concluded that a long-term weapons monitoring method is critical to detecting Baghdad's efforts to rebuild its weapons of mass destruction.

Scott Ritter, a former chief inspector in Iraq for the United Nations, said in an interview that the report highlights contradictory policies by the administration. It appears to be aimed at bolstering the administration's covert efforts to oust Saddam rather than getting international weapons inspectors back inside Iraq, he said.

"This paper shows that we are not really serious about the issue of weapons inspections," Mr. Ritter said. "If we were serious, we would understand the requirement for a new approach to inspections that achieves as much as we can get in terms of a viable inspection process.

"This is purely a smoke screen on the part of the administration to legitimize its containment policy and the ultimate removal of Saddam."

One senior U.N. official told The Washington Times: "If we get back in, we may have to approach the inspections like starting from square one." He confirmed that the United Nations may be forced to engage in new searches for weapons facilities built since the inspections ended.

It could take a long time -- years, he explained.

Marine Corps Sgt. John Baker, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said U.S. and allied warplanes have flown more than 14,500 patrol flights over the southern Iraq air exclusion zone since December 1998, when the military launched Operation Desert Fox.

"There have been 51 strikes and about 120 targets have been fired on" since December, Sgt. Baker said.

The command, which is in charge of the 31,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region, has logged about 215 Iraqi "provocations" that prompted retaliation by U.S. and allied warplanes, Sgt. Baker said.

About 120 of the provocations were Iraqi aircraft penetrations into the air exclusion zone, which extends over most of Iraq south of Baghdad, he said.

Over northern Iraq, the combat picture since the U.S. bombing raids in December is similar. Air Force jets dropped eight bombs on northern Iraqi targets yesterday, a Pentagon official said.

Stewart Stogel contributed to this report from New York.

---

U.N. Allows Iraq's Donation of Oil to Turks

By REUTERS, September 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/iraq-turkey.html

UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council's sanctions committee Wednesday approved Iraq's donation of $10 million in oil to Turkey's earthquake victims, diplomats said.

The donation will not set a precedent, and Iraq's oil exports are still subject to the sanctions imposed in August 1990 when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait.

The United Nations formally approved the donation when none of the 15 members of the sanctions committee objected to it, according to a spokesman for the Dutch representative at the United Nations, Peter van Walsum, chairman of the committee.

Turkey is expected to sell the oil and donate the revenues to the Turkish Red Crescent to aid those made homeless in the devastating Aug. 17 earthquake, which killed at least 14,500 people according to the latest official count.

When Baghdad announced the $10 million donation last week, Iraqi officials suggested that they wanted to be seen as more generous to its neighbor than the United States was. A State Department spokesman, James Foley, said on Tuesday that Washington had given $8.8 million so far.

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Albanians tire of U.S. troops in Kosovo

By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY 9/01/99- Updated 10:26 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/index/kosovo/koso1098.htm

UROSEVAC, Yugoslavia - Sgt. Jeremiah Goodpaster has seen incredible change in the nearly three months since he arrived here in Kosovo with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Ransacked shops have reopened and now overflow with goods from jewelry to lingerie to chunky shoes that would be right at home in a California shopping mall. Cafes are crowded late into the night. Cars and trucks clog the main arteries.

But along with that prosperity, the troops have seen a growing resentment - toward them. Ethnic Albanians who once threw flowers at the U.S. convoys now rarely even wave.

The honeymoon is over.

"As time's wore on, you've seen people giving us dirty looks," says Goodpaster, 22, of Phoenix, as he stands guard outside a vandalized Serbian Orthodox church. Young, frustrated Albanian men come up and ask him, "Why don't you let us attack the Serbs?"

"I tell them the war's over. We're trying to prepare for the future," Goodpaster said.

But there are competing visions of the future at work in Kosovo. And the Western version of a multiethnic society where people of different religions live as neighbors doesn't necessarily square with that of Albanian Muslims bent on revenge.

The ethnic Albanians say that the Serbs helped Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in his attempt to remove all ethnic Albanians from the Yugoslav province. NATO stopped the ethnic cleansing effort by inflicting airstrikes on Yugoslavia for 78 days this spring.

Finally, Milosevic withdrew his troops from Kosovo. The Albanians began returning, and the Serbs began fleeing their retribution.

International peacekeeping forces, including Americans, moved in to try to resolve the ethnic differences between the Serb and Albanian populations. But old ethnic and religious rivalries mean little to the U.S. troops stationed here. Goodpaster and his squad don't even know the name of the church they're guarding.

The Albanians see the Cathedral of St. Uros as a symbol of the Serbian state and made several failed attempts to burn it before the U.S. troops began their vigil. While the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the dominant ethnic Albanian organization, has assured NATO of cooperation, the retribution against the Serbs continues with clear complicity from the general population.

All vestiges of Serb domination are targets, including the name Urosevac. The Albanians call the city Ferizaj and have painted over road signs that carried both versions. Beyond the symbolism is action. On one recent night patrol, American troops pulled up to a burning home near downtown. They said it was typical. The Serbs who lived in it fled weeks ago, and the Albanians are making sure they don't come back. A girl pointed at the fire as her grandfather chuckled. It was clearly arson, and no one tried to put it out. When the troops asked who started the blaze, a man pointed to a power line.

Two blocks away, Lubica and Angelko Stankovic are prisoners in their home, where they've lived for 38 years. U.S. soldiers guard the street around the clock, as they do at a dozen Serb sites around the city.

Serbs have long been a minority in Urosevac, but "before this war, it was not bad," Lubica Stankovic says. Now, she has told her two grown children to stay away. A few Albanian friends bring food and make it possible for her and her husband to remain, she says.

She and other Serbs may soon be forced to leave. NATO commanders say they can't guard individual Serbs indefinitely. Instead, the troops might focus on those towns, including several in the sector of Kosovo that U.S. troops guard, where there are still major Serb populations.

Protecting the Serbs who remain in Kosovo is a central part of NATO's mission. Most of perhaps 200,000 Serbs in Kosovo before the war have left. Without intervention, the rest would follow, and Kosovo would become the all-Albanian Muslim state that NATO doesn't want. But it is a difficult and dangerous task.

If the only problem were the KLA, the allies say they'd have a better chance. The KLA, the rebel group that fought on the ground against the Serbs during NATO's air attacks, has agreed to a series of controls over its force.

"The biggest threat now is the sort of Mafia," says British Maj. Adrian Griffith, of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. "They get Serbs to leave, not because they don't like Serbs but so they can get their property.

"We're spending an awful lot of our reserves protecting them," he says.

But the Albanians have little appreciation for that mission. And as NATO increasingly gets in the way of drug smuggling and other criminal enterprises indigenous to Kosovo, its troops may be targeted. Gunfights already have occurred. Only luck and a good quality helmet deflected a sniper's bullet and prevented the first U.S. combat casualty a few weeks ago. The sniper was not caught.

Among the difficult milestones ahead is the Sept. 19 deadline for the KLA to put away its guns and uniforms. The KLA has been turning in dozens of weapons in good faith. But the flow of new weapons into Kosovo, especially across the porous border with Albania, continues at a busy pace. Some troops view the KLA as the enemy. Others have seen how dangerous the hatreds in Kosovo can be.

Sgt. Alexander Besch said that on his second day here, he saw a pile of bones and smelled the stench of death. "That was a reality check," he said. Yet he is optimistic. "You see the kids smile, you see the kids play. You feel good about what you're doing," he said. "Slowly but surely, this place will rebound. It may take a couple of years."

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Congress acts to get troops out of Haiti

9/01/99- Updated 09:13 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed05.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress is moving to ensure that the Clinton administration follows through with plans to withdraw the remaining 430 U.S. troops from Haiti.

A provision included in next year's defense authorization bill would block the spending of any money to support permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Haiti after May 31, 2000. "The handwriting is on the wall, and they at the White House know it," Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., says. Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the International Relations Committee, sponsored the provision that would end the Haiti mission.

Clinton administration officials said last week they had agreed in principle with a Pentagon request to pull out the remaining U.S. forces in Haiti and replace them with rotating National Guard and reserve units.

For almost two years, Pentagon officials have advocated withdrawing troops from the Caribbean nation. The officials said Wednesday that they support the withdrawal mandated by Goss' amendment to the defense bill, but oppose the amendment on principle as an infringement on the military chain of command.

House and Senate negotiators wrote the final version of the $288.8 billion defense bill on Aug. 6. That version, a compromise between separate House and Senate measures, is scheduled for final congressional action this month.

The provision mandating withdrawal from Haiti would become law upon President Clinton's signing of the defense bill. The $288.8 billion bill is about $8.3 billion higher than what Clinton has sought.

Deputy White House press secretary Jake Siewert says Clinton hasn't threatened to veto the defense bill, but he is concerned about the spending added by Congress.

"We think the president's request adequately meets defense needs," Siewert says. U.S. troops intervened in Haiti on Sept. 19, 1994, as part of an operation to restore deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to office.

An invasion was called off in the last hours after the junta that had deposed Aristide agreed to leave and permit his return. Aristide, who had been deposed in September 1991 after eight months as Haiti's first democratically elected president, returned in October 1994 and served until his term ended in February 1996.

The 430 U.S. troops still in Haiti primarily are based in the capital, Port-au-Prince. That is down from the peak force of 23,000 in 1994.

U.S. troops are mostly medical personnel and police for local security. Generally the U.S. troops are involved in public works and humanitarian and engineering projects. The cost to the U.S. government was $22 million in fiscal 1998.

The Clinton administration considers Haiti a foreign policy success. Goss, a longtime supporter of humanitarian aid to Haiti, says the intervention was well-intentioned but hasn't worked.

"We basically have been suckered and fell into the trap," Goss says. "Now $2 to $3 billion later, Haiti is in worse shape in every way with possibly one exception: the guys who are presently the thugs are not as blatant as the guys who were the thugs.

"But they still are thugs, and people still die."