United States Armed Forces Kosovo Yugoslavia

At dusk, leaf and branch fade to gray high in the rugged mountains on the border between Macedonia and Kosovo. The only sounds are distant cowbells, evening bird songs and, when night falls, gunfire--the audible sign of the nearby conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and the Macedonian military. One front line is even closer. Invisible in the bushes, three U.S. soldiers in camouflage crouch, their weapons cocked; a hundred feet away, three more soldiers take the same position.

At dusk, leaf and branch fade to gray high in the rugged mountains on the border between Macedonia and Kosovo. The only sounds are distant cowbells, evening bird songs and, when night falls, gunfire--the audible sign of the nearby conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and the Macedonian military. One front line is even closer. Invisible in the bushes, three U.S. soldiers in camouflage crouch, their weapons cocked; a hundred feet away, three more soldiers take the same position.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld praised U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo on Tuesday for helping secure peace there and made no mention of sentiment in Washington for reducing overseas troop deployments. On the first visit to Kosovo by a senior figure in the Bush administration, he spoke to a gathering of several hundred cheering army soldiers in a tent at the main U.S. base in the Yugoslav province, saying their job was "truly a noble calling."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld praised U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo on Tuesday for helping secure peace there and made no mention of sentiment in Washington for reducing overseas troop deployments. On the first visit to Kosovo by a senior figure in the Bush administration, he spoke to a gathering of several hundred cheering army soldiers in a tent at the main U.S. base in the Yugoslav province, saying their job was "truly a noble calling."

They were sent to Kosovo to keep the peace. But sometimes, these U.S. soldiers also kidnapped people, threatened them with knives and guns, beat them and spat on them. Sometimes, they made them lie on the icy ground and stepped on them if they complained. And once, they dug a hole in front of a man and told him it would be his grave--unless he did as they said.

Taking less than an hour to deliberate, a military court here sentenced a U.S. soldier Tuesday to life in prison without parole for killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl while on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo. "I don't know what went wrong that day," Army Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi, 36, of Niles, Ohio, said in an apology to the family of Merita Shabiu.

The enemy is rarely easy to see if you're a peacekeeper in Kosovo, especially when it is yourself. The U.S. Army's "rules of engagement" tell troops when they can shoot. But the soldiers are on their own when it comes to a more difficult choice: whether to care about the people they are assigned to protect. And compassion comes with many risks in Kosovo, where a tangled web of politics, ethnic hatred and deceit can trap those who get too close. By ordering a "top-to-bottom" review of the U.S.

The enemy is rarely easy to see if you're a peacekeeper in Kosovo, especially when it is yourself. The U.S. Army's "rules of engagement" tell troops when they can shoot. But the soldiers are on their own when it comes to a more difficult choice: whether to care about the people they are assigned to protect. And compassion comes with many risks in Kosovo, where a tangled web of politics, ethnic hatred and deceit can trap those who get too close. By ordering a "top-to-bottom" review of the U.S.

They were sent to Kosovo to keep the peace. But sometimes, these U.S. soldiers also kidnapped people, threatened them with knives and guns, beat them and spat on them. Sometimes, they made them lie on the icy ground and stepped on them if they complained. And once, they dug a hole in front of a man and told him it would be his grave--unless he did as they said.

Taking less than an hour to deliberate, a military court here sentenced a U.S. soldier Tuesday to life in prison without parole for killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl while on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo. "I don't know what went wrong that day," Army Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi, 36, of Niles, Ohio, said in an apology to the family of Merita Shabiu.