American combat troops arrive in Macedonia enroute to Kosovo
MILITARY PLAN: Timetable for Kosovo transition Map: Serb troop withdrawal Map: Proposed NATO troop sectors RELATED VIDEO Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic addressed the country after the peace deal was announced. CNN's Walter Rodgers reports. (June 10) Windows Media 28K 80K At the Yugoslavian-Albanian border Thursday morning, CNN's Mike Boettcher still hears gunfire in Kosovo (June 10) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Kosovo, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K  ALSO: Winners and losers: Analysis of the Kosovo conflict Milosevic proclaims victory with end to Kosovo conflict Clinton: 'Victory for a safer world' Russians push for separate sector in Kosovo peace force NATO, aid agencies gear up for Kosovo refugees' return House to weigh in on future of U.S. forces in Kosovo First U.S. Marines land in Greece Belgrade celebrates agreement Text of Kosovo military technical agreement  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Number, whereabouts of Kosovo refugees  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

June 10, 1999
Web posted at: 10:16 p.m. EDT (0216 GMT)

In this story: Milosevic: 'We survived' KFOR commander promises to be fair Britain warns of 'horrors' in Kosovo RELATED STORIES, SITES

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- With a U.N. resolution authorizing a Kosovo peacekeeping force in place, NATO ambassadors approved an order Thursday allowing tens of thousands of NATO-led troops to move into Serbia's southernmost province.

NATO said the first troops of the implementation force known as KFOR would probably enter Kosovo early Saturday.

The U.N. Security Council gave its backing to the Kosovo implementation force on Thursday, just four hours after the Western alliance announced it would suspend its 11-week-old air war against Yugoslavia.

The council approved the resolution 14-0, with China -- one of the most implacable critics of the NATO airstrikes -- abstaining.

About 18,000 NATO troops had been waiting just outside Yugoslav territories for orders to enter the strife-torn region. The Kosovo force will eventually grow to some 50,000 troops.

The commander of NATO's peacekeepers, Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, said his troops were ready to go.

"We shall be off quite quickly, and what we do in Kosovo, I assure you will be both robust and quite even-handed," he said.

The Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo began Thursday about 1 p.m. (1100 GMT/7 a.m. EDT). It was followed quickly by NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana's announcement that NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia would be suspended while Yugoslav troops pulled back. The airstrikes began March 24.

Solana submitted the news to the United Nations, and Shen Guofang, China's deputy U.N. ambassador, said his country would not use its veto to block the peace plan agreed to by the Group of Eight nations and Yugoslavia.

China has bitterly criticized NATO's attacks, particularly after a NATO bomb destroyed its embassy in Belgrade, killing three of its citizens. Shen said the war has been a political disaster for the alliance.

"It shows that in the future any use of force should get the authorization of the Security Council," he said.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov concurred, adding that he hoped the vote would deter NATO from acting on its own in the future.

"I hope this is a change not only on this, but on other issues as well," Lavrov said.

Milosevic: 'We survived'

In Belgrade, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic declared a sort of victory: He said Yugoslavia had preserved its existing borders in the face of massive aerial bombardment.

U.S. Marines step onto the beach Thursday at Litohoro, Greece

"The territorial integrity of our country can never be questioned again," he said. "We survived and defended the country and raised the entire problem to the pinnacle of world authority -- the pyramid -- the United Nations."

Milosevic said the question of independence for Kosovo -- which prompted more than a year of ethnic strife in the Serbian province -- was no longer an issue.

The leader said the Yugoslav army and special police forces in Kosovo lost fewer than 600 men during the fighting. That number is about a tenth of the estimates that NATO released last week.

"We demonstrated our army cannot be defeated," he said.

The alliance lost two fliers during the war -- both U.S. Army helicopter pilots who died on a training mission in Albania when their helicopter gunship crashed.

Yugoslav soldiers laughed and flashed a victory sign as their armored vehicles began heading northward from Kosovo's provincial capital, Pristina. Hundreds of troops were on the move, along with ammunition trucks, communications gear and other equipment.

The cease-fire agreement outlines a strict timetable that Yugoslavia must follow, including a withdrawal from northern Kosovo within 24 hours. Yugoslav and NATO generals Wednesday agreed to details of the troop withdrawal from Kosovo, following hours of intense marathon talks along the Yugoslav- Macedonian border.

Under the terms of the agreement, the withdrawal must be complete by June 21.

KFOR commander promises to be fair

British or French peacekeepers were to be the first to enter Kosovo, their arrival expected within hours of the council's approval of their mandate. U.S. peacekeepers were to follow shortly afterward.

"NATO is ready for its new mission -- a mission to bring people back to their homes and to build a lasting and just peace in Kosovo," Solana said.

The war began after Yugoslavia rejected a peace agreement for Kosovo similar to one it accepted last week. Those accords were aimed at ending a year of ethnic conflict in the mostly ethnic-Albanian province of Yugoslavia's dominant republic of Serbia.

Solana warned that NATO could resume its bombardment if Yugoslavia reneged on its agreement to withdraw. And he added that separatist rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army must also stand down during the withdrawal.

"Violence or noncompliance by any party will not be tolerated," he said.

The peacekeeping force -- dubbed KFOR -- will be charged with protecting hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees who are expected to return home after fleeing during the conflict.

In an attempt to reassure Serbs in Kosovo who fear reprisals from returning refugees and the KLA, Jackson said KFOR would enforce a cease-fire "for all the people of Kosovo, no matter what their ethnic background."

But he cautioned that his troops could impose only "rather basic" law and order on the province at first.

Shinasi Rama, a representative of the KLA, said the guerrillas would observe the cease-fire.

"We have declared a unilateral cease-fire, and we will respect it all over Kosovo," he said. But he said the KLA would defend itself and civilians from any Serb reprisals.

Still unresolved Thursday was the issue of what role Russia would play in KFOR. Talks between U.S. and Russian special envoys on Russia's participation in KFOR continued in Moscow on Thursday as Russia's parliament condemned President Boris Yeltsin's point man on the Balkans.

The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, asked Yeltsin to fire Viktor Chernomyrdin, his special envoy on the Balkans. The vote has no legal force, but reflects the anger toward Chernomyrdin from communists and others on the political left, who accuse him of selling out to NATO.

Chernomyrdin and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott were trying to settle the peacekeeping issue. Talbott said it would not be possible for Russia to have a separate sector in Kosovo when peacekeeping forces move in.

Britain warns of 'horrors' in Kosovo

Yugoslav troops and Serb special police spent more than a year trying to suppress the KLA, and NATO repeatedly accused Yugoslavia of unleashing the army on ethnic Albanian civilians once the air war began. The reports of atrocities in Kosovo led to Milosevic's indictment by a U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo began Thursday

The international court also brought charges against four other Yugoslav leaders, including the president of Serbia and the chief of staff of the army.

When Jackson's force crosses the Yugoslav frontier, they will find not only a shattered land but "find horrors which nobody should have to face," British Defense Secretary George Robertson said Thursday.

"They'll have to work their way through minefields and booby traps. They'll have to face the risk of attacks by way of individuals who disregard their orders to leave," he said.

"They'll have to cope with human misery and starvation that has been left behind by the Serbs, and I fear that they will find evidence of atrocities, which will shock and sicken even them."

But evidence of war crimes beyond the testimony of refugees may be difficult to obtain. U.S. officials said Yugoslavia could be trying to conceal mass graves that NATO says it has spotted through aerial photographs.

"It's difficult to be completely clear about what happened, but it looks as if a bulldozer or other earth moving equipment has been run over where the original graves used to be," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said.

Correspondents Jim Clancy, Walter Rodgers, Steve Harrigan, Patricia Kelly, Richard Roth contributed to this report.

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