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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Sept. 13 (UPI) NATO's supreme commander in Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark, has sharply rejected growing pressure from Belgrade for the return of some Yugoslav security forces to Kosovo.
During a stop in Kosovo today, Clark said at a press conference in Pristina that those forces had gone out and would stay out.
"There would be discussions about a return for the purpose of de- mining, about a presence at (religious and cultural) monuments, perhaps a presence at the frontier, but no more than a presence," Clark said, adding, "But the return was explicitly banned."
Clark rejected Serbian accusations that chaos had prevailed in Kosovo since the arrival of KFOR.
He said there were indications that Serbs were deliberately undermining security in the province and cited as an example that one of the three Serbs killed by Russian KFOR soldiers on Sept. 6 was carrying a Serbian Interior Ministry identity card.
Speaking about an organization of members of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army to be set up after its demilitarization on Sept. 19, Clark described it as an unarmed and nonmilitary civilian service.
During his visit, Clark inspected the American KFOR contingent and had talks with the commander of Russian peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. He also met the KLA chief of staff, Agim Ceku. Earlier, KFOR spokesman Maj. Ole Irgens said in Pristina today that speculations in the Yugoslav media that the Yugoslav army would be going back to Kosovo after the demilitarization of the KLA was untrue.
Irgens said, "This can happen only with the consent of KFOR. When this will happen will be decided by KFOR in consultations with the United Nations administrator, Bernard Kouchner. This time has not yet come.
"Should this happen without an agreement, KFOR will do everything that is required and will use force if necessary under United Nations Security Council resolution 1244," Irgens told a press conference.
Demands for the return of a contingent of the Yugoslav army to Kosovo to defend the remaining Serb population against attacks by ethnic Albanians were made last week by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and two top Yugoslav generals commander of the third army corps, Nebojsa Pavkovic, and commander of the Pristina corps, Vladimir Lazarevic.
Irgens also said that international forces would start air exercises throughout Kosovo this week, which would be held twice a week outside populated areas. These flights would be used to train pilots and traffic-control staff, he said.