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James P. Rubin, Assistant Secretary Excerpt From Briefing at Chesapeake College Wye Mills, Maryland October 19, 1998

QUESTION: Kosovo question. Can you bring us up to date? There's reports that the Serbs have sent troops back into Kosovo; that they've been shelling villages and that people are being, far from returning to their villages, or maybe some are but others are leaving villages.

MR. RUBIN: The compliance is certainly a mixed bag in Kosovo and let's bear in mind that NATO's trigger remains cocked and the use of force remains a very live possibility if President Milosevic doesn't comply. Our observer mission sent three teams into the field today to visit towns throughout Western, Central and Southern Kosovo. The teams did report hearing shelling, but none of the reports have been confirmed.

Three teams report seeing heavily armed columns, including tanks, moving apparently from assembly areas into the field. A specific report of shelling in Podejevo is being checked out this afternoon. A team visiting Istok reports a considerably more hostile attitude being exhibited by FRY personnel manning check points. They also note for the first time check points being manned by both army and police units.

We have no confirmation of continued shelling. We are concerned, however, about increased skirmishing between the KLA and Serbian forces, which we have observed in recent days. It is not clear to us who is at fault, but it does appear that in some cases the KLA fired first. It is unacceptable to us whether KLA or Serbian forces started skirmishes.

During the negotiations, Ambassador Holbrooke made clear to the Kosovar Albanian side the importance of abiding by a cease-fire. Continued fighting is unacceptable.

With regard to the broader question, of compliance, I don't have any new information as far as the IDP's are concerned. I'm trying to give you accurate information as it is provided to me. Clearly, it's a mixed bag. As I've indicated before--and perhaps I haven't indicated it as clearly as I should have--roughly half of the Yugoslav national army that moved into Kosovo earlier this year, had moved out in the time between passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1199 and this past weekend. Nevertheless, General Clark is heading for Belgrade. He is going to be providing a very detailed list of units that are not out of Kosovo or in garrison as they should be. Some of the units that he provided referenced earlier last week have moved out. But some have not. So it's clearly a mixed bag. We are very much cognizant of the fact that President Milosevic has not yet fully complied. We are trying to encourage the verifiers to get in there and be able to do their work. We had the first set of over-flights over the weekend, which will help us verify information that can be sketchy. That is what we will continue to do in the coming days.

QUESTION: There are reports of forces moving into Kosovo in last 24 hours.

MR. RUBIN: Well, you know, in and out are words that--it's very hard to know unless you have a very comprehensive view of where forces are located and where they came from, where they are normally stationed. I indicated to you that the observers had seen forces out of garrison, out of assembly areas. That's one thing. But when you use the term "out of" you have to distinguish between whether they were units that were there prior to February-March, or units that were brought in during the crisis, we believe units that were brought in during the crisis should move out of Kosovo. We believe that units that remain ought to be in garrison.

QUESTION: So General Clark is making a second trip to Belgrade with the new list?

MR. RUBIN: He's (inaudible) tomorrow--tomorrow.

QUESTION: Tomorrow?

MR. RUBIN: Yeah.

QUESTION: Have you all communicated recently directly to the KLA about--there are reports that some KLA fighters are moving to sort of fill in the vacuum left where Serb forces have left. Are you all telling them to cool it?

MR. RUBIN: Well, Ambassador Hill is in the region. I believe he is talking to both sides, and he would certainly be indicating to the KLA that they should not take advantage of the very real threat of NATO air strikes against President Milosevic to provoke clashes and consider the NATO its air force. That will not be tolerated by the United States. But if President Milosevic doesn't comply and we can judge that, then the reality of force is there.

QUESTION: Is President Milosevic's not justifying--are his troops not justifying defending themselves from attack by the KLA?

MR. RUBIN: We can distinguish between people defending themselves and people using provocations to conduct offensives. That's what the monitors and verifiers are for. So there's a difference.

[End of Document]

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