Supplies expected at Camp Bondsteel
as military works around roadblock
By David Josar, Kosovo
bureau
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — A second trainload of supplies — including food
— will arrive Friday at Task Force Falcon’s main camp as the military struggles
to find ways to cope with its main supply route being closed by Macedonian protesters.
Task Force Falcon spokesman Maj. Norm Johnson said the train that runs from Macedonia
will drop off supplies near Camp Bondsteel, the main base for Multinational Brigade East.
The first supplies from the train arrived Tuesday.
Camp Bondsteel operates as a distribution hub, sending supplies to Camp Monteith, to
another camp in Vitina and to several smaller outposts run by U.S. troops.
The periodic train runs will supplement several Chinook helicopters that have ferried
equipment and supplies from Macedonia, Johnson said.
Recent resupply problems have lead Task Force Falcon leaders to openly discuss plans to
cut hot lunches and to start requiring soldiers to eat Meals, Ready to Eat.
Two weeks ago, a group of activists calling themselves the Macedonian World Congress
blocked a road in Macedonia about 6 miles from the border crossing at Blace, Kosovo. That
road was the primary supply route for Task Force Falcon, which brings in most of its
equipment from Camp Able Sentry, near Macedonia’s capital, Skopje.
Protesters said they would open the blockade if NATO met their demands. One demand is
that NATO make reparations to Macedonian families displaced by fighting between the
National Liberation Army, made up of ethnic Albanian rebels, and Macedonian security
forces.
Although Turkish forces on Wednesday drove around the blockade, made mostly of dirt and
rocks, KFOR has not attempted to remove the barrier.
U.N. Mission in Kosovo spokeswoman Susan Manuel on Thursday said the blockade is out of
KFOR’s hands because it does not have authority in Macedonia.
"We can only stand on the side and hope it opens," she said.
So far, the Macedonian government has not offered to open the crossing, she said. The
U.S. military plans to get an additional pair of helicopters and a C-130 Hercules cargo
aircraft to transport more supplies, officials said earlier in the week.
In the meantime, the border closure has created problems for refugees returning to
Macedonia, said Philippo Papaphilippou, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner on
Refugees.
He said about 3,000 refugees have returned to Macedonia from Kosovo over the past three
days, many of them simply climbing over the mountains back to their homes.
However, Papaphilippou said, people are returning to find homes that were destroyed in
the fighting since February. The United Nations wants to start a program to ensure there
is adequate shelter once winter hits, he said, but they have had limited access to
Macedonia to determine what needs to be done.
"We’re hoping NATO will be successful — and in a very, very short time
— so we can start helping people," he said.
On Monday, NATO began a 30-day weapons collection and amnesty program called Operation
Essential Harvest, which is an attempts to disarm the rebels.
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