High in the hills at Petrovec, overlooking Macedonia's international airport and near its capital, Skopje, Capt Michale Melchionna, of the Italian Brigadata Garibaldi company, explained his troops were doing riot-control exercises so they would be prepared were there a request from the Macedonia government for support in case of civil disturbances.
Macedonia has been the most reluctant of the three Balkan countries (including Montenegro) which border Kosovo to accept the staggering burden of thousands of refugees who arrive with nothing but the clothes they wear. At one stage in the early days of NATO's Operation Allied Force, the Macedonian government closed the border and said it feared that its own delicate ethnic balance would be upset by the influx of Albanians. Since then it has relented, but has still been enthusiastic for the refugees to be airlifted to other European countries.
Yesterday France took its first batch of more than 300 Kosovans, who flew to Lyons from Stankovac camp on the outskirts of Skopje.
Yesterday, above the airport, some of Capt Melchionna's troops had lined up in a phalanx holding transparent shields and wearing helmets and visors while others threw stones and rushed them. Behind the frontline of shield bearers further troops armed with batons formed a second line. With their front-line colleagues under pressure these emerged and attacked the "rioters" from both sides before dispersing the "crowd".
Cap Melchionna said the soldiers would not use weapons against rioters throwing stones or Molotov cocktails, but if they had guns then the soldiers would be armed and would have permission to use them.
He emphasised that NATO's role in Macedonia was purely defensive, and that now, as the soldiers left the refugee camps where humanitarian work was being taken over by international agencies, they were once again setting about preparation to enter Kosovo to implement whatever agreed settlement may arise from the present conflict.
His company of soldiers occupies a prime vantage point in the area, with a 360 degree view of surrounding plains. Below, cattle and sheep graze, while two helicopters fly in the distance. British soldiers at another NATO camp played football while some of their colleagues did running exercises along a distant road. There are many villages and towns in the area, including Idrizovo, where the country's largest jails and its police training college are located.
Capt Melchionna's men have blended tanks , tents and sandbag bunkers into the hills, using camouflage netting covered in false green leaves. He explained it was easiest to guard the site during daylight hours. At that time the largest number of men were on duty, when they used infra-red to scan the surrounding countryside constantly. Each tank also had infrared sights, he said.
Preparations ranged from such sophistication to lines of trip wire along the hillside with cans and tins hanging from them. His men, he said, passed the day doing training exercises such as the one we had just watched on riot control. They also did weapons and close combat training as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft exercises, and simulated an ambush in "mined" terrain.
Capt Melchionna, who has served in Sarajevo as well as other parts of Bosnia, and Albania, said that normally his company would be in such a location for four to six months at a time. "That is usual for NATO," he said. He was unable to say how long they might at Preschevo.
NATO has 12,531 troops in Macedonia currently, with 1,800 UK troops en route and as many French. It is unclear what the alliance's numbers plan is for countries in the region. But Col Konrad Freytag, spokesman for NATO's supreme commander in Europe, Gen Wesley Clark, said in Skopje on Saturday that up to 28,000 NATO troops had been planned to help implement the Rambouillet accord in Kosovo, had it been endorsed by all parties. Most of those would have been located in Macedonia and Albania.
To give an estimate of what might be required now would be "speculative" he said. Gen Clark was in Macedonia to meet President Kiro Gligorov and the Prime Minister, Mr Lupchko Georgievski. He did not speak to the media and went from there to Tirana to meet the Albanian leadership. Meanwhile, on Saturday night an estimated 3,000 people gathered at a rock concert in Skopje's Macedonia Square to protest against NATO's continued bombing of Serbia. Many wore the mock "target" strips which have been so popular across the border in Yugoslavia. Some carried the US star and stripes, with the stars replaced by small white swastikas, and placards compared Bill Clinton to Adolf Hitler. There were no disturbances.
Reuters adds from Washington:
US First Lady Ms Hillary Rodham Clinton is considering travelling to Albania for a first-hand look at humanitarian relief operations for Kosovo refugees, her spokeswoman said yesterday.
"Clearly she's very interested in what we can do to alleviate the refugee situation," her spokeswoman, Ms Marsha Berry, said. Ms Berry said Mrs Clinton will meet in New York today with the Pew foundation and other charitable groups to discuss the humanitarian needs of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians forced out of Kosovo since the NATO air war against Yugoslavia began on March 24th.
A trip to Albania would be in keeping with Ms Clinton's emphasis on humanitarian issues related to the campaign against Yugoslavia.
On Tuesday, she met two prominent ethnic Albanian women who said they were forced to leave Kosovo by Serb authorities, and who told her of atrocities being carried out by Serb forces.