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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (September 16, 1999 8:41 a.m. EDT ) - The commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo on Thursday demanded proof for claims that Russians participated in a Serb-led crackdown on the province's ethnic Albanians.
Maj. Gen. Valery Yevtukovich said there was no evidence to back up claims by ethnic Albanians that Russians - traditional Serb allies - were involved in the oppression.
Even if that were the case, Yevtukovich said, Russian peacekeepers were not involved.
"One cannot connect the Russian (peacekeeping) contingent with volunteers who might have participated" in the conflict, he said. "Therefore, we are not responsible for the persons that (allegedly) took part in these activities, and these persons cannot be connected to the Russian" peacekeepers, he said.
The work of the Russian troops has been hampered by intense ethnic Albanian hostility. Ethnic Albanians barricaded a main road leading to Orahovac last month to keep out Russian troops.
Yevtukovich, who said the Russian contingent has reached a total strength of 3,600, expressed hope the standoff at Orahovac would be solved soon.
Bernard Kouchner, the head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, was in Moscow on Thursday to try to win Russia's support for the so-called Kosovo Corps.
The Corps is a new civilian organization that will recruit former fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army, once they meet a Sept. 19 deadline to demilitarize.
The Russians have warned they may reconsider their peacekeeping role in Kosovo because, they claim, Kosovo is slipping away from Yugoslav control. Both Russia and Serbia fear the corps is simply a new guise for the KLA, which fought to rid the province of Serb forces.
Russia insists on complete disbanding and demilitarization of the rebel army. U.N. and NATO officials have stressed that the Kosovo Corps will be civilian in nature, although members will wear uniforms.
The Serbs and Russians see the new force as part of international attempts to weaken Serbia's hold on the province and also complain that the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers have done nothing to protect Serbs and allied minorities from ethnic Albanian acts of revenge.
The violence is meant to avenge the Serb crackdown on the ethnic Albanian majority that claimed more than 10,000 lives before it was ended in June as part of a Kosovo peace settlement forced by a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
The International Organization for Migration, a group helping transform the Kosovo Liberation Army, will begin accepting applications for the Kosovo Corps on Monday.