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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The British officer leading NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo defied the alliance commander and refused to confront Russian troops who burst into the province unannounced last June, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton said.
British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson opposed orders from NATO Gen. Wesley Clark, an American, to move tanks onto the Pristina airfield to block the Russians' arrival, Shelton said Thursday. Shelton detailed the confrontation during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his renomination for the top U.S. military post.
``General Jackson said, 'No, I'm not going to do that. It's not worth starting World War III.' I believe was the quote that was used,'' Shelton said.
Jackson appealed to senior British military and political authorities in London, who then convinced U.S. leaders not to press the point. Shelton, who favored NATO occupation of the airfield in the Kosovo provincial capital, said his British counterpart called him at 4 a.m. to lobby for Jackson's position over Clark's.
The June 12 showdown took place in the tense first days of peace in Kosovo after 78 days of NATO bombing. Most Serb government forces were leaving or en route out of the province, and NATO peacekeepers, with Jackson and the British in the vanguard, were moving in.
Shelton described the confrontation in response to a question from the committee's chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who said he was troubled by Jackson's insubordination.
``I goes to the very heart of NATO, its ability to function,'' Warner said.
Shelton said Clark and Jackson resolved the situation quickly, with the United States and NATO agreeing that there was no need to block the airfield.
The Russians did move in, embarrassing NATO, and later joined in the ongoing, NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. Russia disapproved of the bombing campaign, which was aimed at expelling Serb government troops from Kosovo and stopping ethnic violence there.
Many Serbs regarded Russia as a protector, and cheered the unexpected arrival of Russian troops.