Canadian commandos in Yugoslavia, MP says

An elite, super-secret Canadian commando unit is operating covertly inside war-torn Yugoslavia, according to a Conservative member of Parliament.

Responding to an allegation from MP David Price, Defence Minister Art Eggleton flatly denied yesterday that any Canadian Armed Forces personnel are in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo gathering intelligence for the NATO air campaign or helping the Kosovo Liberation Army.

But he would not rule out the possibility that members of the Joint Task Force 2 unit are conducting covert operations elsewhere in the Balkans, including the rest of Yugoslavia.

"In Kosovo? No, there are no Canadian forces or personnel in Kosovo," Mr. Eggleton told reporters after Mr. Price made the claim in the Commons.

Moreover, Mr. Eggleton said Canadian soldiers would not aid or abet the KLA:

"The KLA is part of the problem. I don't believe we should be helping them."

But asked whether JTF2 members may be operating elsewhere in the Balkans, Mr. Eggleton dodged. "I can't tell you that for security reasons," he said.

Asked specifically whether they might be elsewhere in Yugoslavia, he said: "I'm not going to tell you they are, and I'm not going to tell you they're not."

Mr. Price said a "very, very solid" military source with "direct involvement" in JTF2 operations told him that some members of the unit are in Kosovo and Yugoslavia working with the KLA, gathering intelligence and providing information to NATO about bomb targets. He "guesstimated" that about 50 JTF2 members are involved in the operation.

It has been widely reported that members of the British Special Air Services and U.S. Special Forces units are active in Yugoslavia, spotting targets for allied air attacks and providing other intelligence to NATO.

Few Canadians have ever heard of JTF2, which was formed in 1992 as a secret anti-terrorist force and based at Dwyer Hill outside Ottawa. The group is believed to number about 250 and its commando teams wear black ski masks during their anti-terrorist training.

Despite the blanket of secrecy thrown over the unit, the commandos have already been in action in the Balkans. During the Bosnian civil war they were deployed to infiltrate behind enemy lines, hunt down snipers who were shooting at Canadian peacekeepers, and conduct surveillance missions. They also had planned to rescue 55 Canadian peacekeepers held hostage by the Serbs, but the hostages were released before the rescue could be attempted.

According to a book by journalists Brian Nolan and Scott Taylor, JTF2 also planned an ambush of Peruvian guerrillas who seized hundreds of hostages, including three Canadians, during an attack on the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1996.

The group was also deployed during the Oka crisis and trained Haitian SWAT teams as part of the Canadian peacekeeping mission to that country.

While he didn't deny that JTF2 was deployed in Yugoslavia, Mr. Eggleton was clearly miffed at Mr. Price's bringing up the matter.

"He's been quite irresponsible of late in some of the things he's said É he has very faulty research, very faulty information," he said.

Mr. Price said he didn't think that there needed to be a parliamentary vote before the commandos were deployed. However he said Parliament should have been informed.

"I'm not saying any more about it," he said, "I'm just saying they're there and I'm sure that Mr. Milosevic knows they're there also."

During a day-long debate in the Commons, the Bloc Quebecois called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien to promise that Parliament will vote before any Canadian combat troops or peacekeepers are sent into Kosovo. Mr. Chretien repeated earlier comments that such a scenario is hypothetical. He did promise to hold a debate if Canadian ground forces should prove necessary but he would not commit to holding a vote.

Meanwhile the war in the air enters its second month today with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic still unbowed, a full-blown humanitarian crisis defying solution, and no clear road to victory in sight.

"It took six years to defeat fascism in the middle of the 20th century," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said yesterday in Brussels. "I think we can take two months or three months to defeat President Milosevic, quite frankly."

After another night when "severe weather" curtailed much of NATO's air assault, Mr. Shea predicted Mr. Milosevic will eventually feel the cumulative effect of Operation Allied Force.

"At the end of the day this will have a snowball effect," he said. "Once the system starts to crack, it will crack quickly."

One of the first "cracks" NATO hopes to see in Mr. Milosevic's force is in its gas tank. Every night, allied missiles and bombs have been targeting the Yugoslav fuel supplies, refineries and fuel distribution systems. Mr. Shea said the Serb military access to fuel has been cut by 70 per cent, so far.

But fuel is still getting into Yugoslavia through tankers docking at the port in Montenegro and an oil pipeline from Bulgaria. It's not illegal, either, since United Nations sanctions prevent trade only in weapons.

Still, the United States wants NATO to mount a naval blockade to intercept oil deliveries, government officials said yesterday.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the administration was looking at "a variety of things" to loosen Mr. Milosevic's vise-like hold on power.

The New York Times reported yesterday that the U.S. had asked the 19-member alliance to consider a blockade last week, but that France objected, citing the need for endorsement by the United Nations Security Council. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she would not rule out a naval action to block Yugoslav ports.

"We're taking all kinds of steps to limit the ability of outside powers to ... deliver oil," Mrs. Albright said.

"The Croatians have turned off their oil pipeline. And we are talking with our NATO allies about taking stricter action in order to limit the amount of oil that goes in," she added.

Asked if those steps might include a blockade, she said: "We're looking at a variety of ways to tighten the screws on (Mr. Milosevic) economically."

Yesterday also saw another break in the exodus of refugees from Kosovo after Belgrade broke off diplomatic relations with Albania and Serb soldiers closed the borders.

NATO spokesmen said that Yugoslav forces were pushing about 850,000 ethnic Albanians -- victims of what some are calling the "second wave" of Serb "ethnic cleansing" -- toward the borders of Kosovo, but the flood of refugees who crossed into Albania and Macedonia during the weekend ended yesterday.

In the 24 hours leading up to yesterday afternoon, Mr. Shea said, 40,000 ethnic Albanian Kosovars fled to safety outside their province before the borders were sealed.

No one is quite sure why -- or if -- Mr. Milosevic had turned the refugee "tap" on again after closing it more than a week ago.

Mr. Shea speculated that it could just be that the "internally" displaced Kosovars were finally coming out of hiding in the mountains and forests and making the trek to safety.

U.S. officials fear that as many as 100,000 ethnic Albanians may have been killed by the Serbs.

"You're actually looking at the possibility of tens of thousands of Kosovars who not only are at risk, but who may actually have perished by this stage," U.S. war crimes ambassador David Scheffer said. "We have upwards of about 100,000 men that we cannot account for. We have no idea where those men are now."

U.S. President Bill Clinton has asked Congress for $6 billion in emergency funds for the U.S.-led NATO air strikes in Kosovo and to help ethnic Albanians fleeing the province.

"There are literally lives hanging in the balance," Mr. Clinton said yesterday. "I hope that the Congress in the spirit of bipartisanship will pass the package right away. "

Mr. Clinton said that the funds would "ensure that we have the resources to sustain the air campaign to ensure that we achieve our goals while maintaining our high level of general military readiness."

Mr. Lockhart also said that Mr. Clinton was calling Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who is highly critical of the NATO air strikes.

"We believe the Russians could have a very constructive role to play diplomatically," Mr. Lockhart told reporters.

At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan said he wanted to travel to Moscow next week to discuss the Kosovo conflict after Belgrade rejected his peace overtures last week.

With files from Julian Beltrame