NATO Leaders Land as Federal Triangle Closes

British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives at Andrews Air Force Base for the 50th anniversary summit of NATO. (AP) Related Links Summit Gives D.C. a Chance to Shine Plans Disrupted as NATO Hits Town D.C. Braces for the Unknown Summit Q & A Map of Closings

By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 22, 1999; Page A1

Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 19 members began arriving yesterday for a weekend summit that will shut down much of downtown Washington as the alliance debates the future course of the air war against Yugoslavia.

Police said security around the Federal Triangle area and the motorcades that will whisk more than 40 heads of state from their hotels to the Mellon Auditorium conference site will obstruct traffic throughout much of the city beginning this afternoon, and urged residents to not to drive into the city.

The event, which brings together the heads of state of the NATO countries and 23 partner nations in eastern and central Europe, was planned as a celebration of NATO's success in facing down Soviet power during the Cold War and of the recent admission to membership of three former Warsaw Pact countries, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

But the summit unfolds as the alliance is engaged in combat for the first time in its history, sending hundreds of warplanes to pound Yugoslavia in a bombing campaign now in its fifth week. The summit now seems certain to be dominated by discussions about how to carry out that campaign, which is aimed at reversing the drive by Yugoslavia's Serbian leadership to rid the province of Kosovo of most of its ethnic Albanian population.

In addition to the formal sessions at the Mellon auditorium, summit-related events will take place at the Ronald Reagan Building, the White House, the State Department and the Capitol, increasing the likelihood of traffic disruption.

At a news conference yesterday, a D.C. police official emphasized that "the city is not going to be closed this weekend but motorists should anticipate delays" coming and going from downtown Washington.

The traffic plan, designed by the Secret Service and Metropolitan Police, closes the Federal Triangle to pedestrians and cars but leaves most of downtown Washington open. Still, there is sure to be gridlock at different times of the weekend, officials said.

"We really don't want you to drive," said Cmdr. Michael Radzilowski, of the special operations division. "We would rather you use public transportation. There will be officers directing traffic at all intersections, but you will have to be patient because we can't make traffic disappear. There isn't one particular spot that is going to be affected."

Thousands of law enforcement officers will cover the streets, escorting and protecting the dignitaries, directing traffic and aggressively guarding against potential problems. There will be security checkpoints at the venues but none in the streets.

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams has launched a major effort to clean up the city, and in and around the areas where NATO meetings will be held, sidewalks are being scrubbed, trash picked up, and homeless people moved out.

The region's three airports and Andrews Air Force Base will be busy with the arrivals of many of the delegations, but travelers using the airports should not be affected, said Pete Dowling, special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office of the U.S. Secret Servie.

"Those traveling in those areas should expect possible delays but we are going to be sensitive to the time of day in our movement of people in and out of the District," Dowling said.

When asked to give an estimate of the best time to avoid driving downtown during the summit, Radzilowski responded: "That would be all weekend."

Traffic specialists said today may present drivers with the biggest headaches as commuters try to leave their jobs in the afternoon as dozens of heads of state are motorcading to hotels scattered throughout the city.

On Friday, thousands of workers will have the day off, relieving downtown of much of its traffic. Because those who have to travel are being urged to take public transportation, Metro is expecting thousands of first-time riders in the system on Friday, and is deploying extra personnel in stations to help them navigate Farecard machines and find their way.

Also on Friday, to help deploy trains where they are most needed, and to troubleshoot problems, Metro will open its fifth-floor command center where operations chiefs can keep an eye on cameras in the system and stay in contact with supervisors scattered around the 94-mile system.

The summit discussions are expected to center on how NATO can successfully conclude its campaign to break Yugoslavia's grip on the breakaway province of Kosovo. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said yesterday that the alliance was revising and updating plans for a possible invasion by ground troops if the current air campaign failed to achieve that goal.

Key NATO members, including France and Britain, have begun to argue that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will never publicly acquiesce in NATO's demand that he withdraw his security forces from Kosovo, no matter how long NATO warplanes go on bombing his country.

If that is the case, these countries suggest, it may be unrealistic for NATO to continue insisting that Milosevic agree to the deployment in Kosovo of a NATO-led international force to protect the province's ethnic Albanian refugees as they return home. That has been listed for weeks as one of the irreducible demands for halting the bombing.

Instead, these countries suggest, the alliance should carry out the air war to the point where Yugoslav forces in Kosovo are no longer capable of effective resistance, and then seek a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the alliance to escort the refugees home whether Milosevic assented or not.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine brought this thinking to the surface in an interview in the International Herald Tribune.

"No Western government is going to send troops there as an invasion," he said. "Ground forces would only be deployed in the context of a political solution. That 'solution' doesn't necessarily mean agreement. The Security Council has powers to impose solutions even against the will of a sovereign state.

"Our scenario centers on a Security Council resolution that lays out a political settlement for Kosovo and orders an international military force to help implement it. It would not require Mr. Milosevic's consent."

Diplomats said British Defense Secretary George Robertson was moving in the same direction yesterday when he said at a news conference in London that, "The arguments against a wholesale force-opposed invasion of Kosovo remain as valid as they were at the beginning of this campaign, but we are determined that an international military force will deploy in Kosovo once the airstrikes have done their job."

He did not define "done their job," leaving open the question of whether it would have to include public assent by Milosevic to an international deployment, diplomats said.

U.S. officials said that a scenario in which the Russians effectively wield Yugoslavia's proxy and endorse a U.N.-sponsored international force in Kosovo could satisfy the United States.

Staff writers John F. Harris, Nora Boustany, Maria Elena Fernandez and Alice Reid contributed to this report.