By Jacquelyn S. Porth USIA Security Affairs Correspondent

Washington -- The U.S. military is moving swiftly to fill a request from the international relief community for 500,000 packages of daily food rations for refugees in the Balkans with the first shipment expected to arrive in Tirana, Albania, on April 5.

Lieutenant General John "Mike" McDuffie told reporters at the Pentagon April 2 that the military is also preparing to move tents, blankets, cots, and forklifts into the region to help international non-governmental and private voluntary organizations as they brace to provide food, water, and shelter to Kosovar Albanians who are massing in Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

McDuffie, director of logistics for the Joint Staff, had just returned from a meeting at the White House with President Clinton and key private organizations involved in Balkan humanitarian relief operations. He described the exodus of Kosovar Albanians as "a terrible situation" and a challenge for all who seek to provide humanitarian assistance to them.

Providing refugee statistics as of mid-day April 2, McDuffie said there were 138,500 refugees in Albania, 17,400 in Bosnia, 55,000 in Montenegro and 86,000 in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with the number in that country expected to double, perhaps as soon as next week.

McDuffie said the Albanian Army is carrying out many of the tasks needed to disperse Kosovar refugees away from the border to more hospitable areas. The daily ration packages that the United States is providing will be distributed from Tirana to areas where the need is greatest. They will be consumed primarily by refugees who are in transit; there are already large amounts of prepositioned food supplies in the region.

Asked about the possibility of air dropping food supplies to some of the internally displaced persons still inside Kosovo, McDuffie said the Yugoslav air defense system, which continues to exist in Belgrade and Kosovo, makes it too dangerous to consider such a proposition. "We don't see an air drop during this non-permissive environment," he said.

Apart from the danger, there is also the issue of what might happen to the food once dropped from the air. Some critics of such a plan have suggested the food would only wind up in the hands of Yugoslav Army and police units instead of the intended recipients. The officer said others have warned that air drops would only create a magnet for Kosovar Albanians and thereby place them at risk of more ethnic violence.

McDuffie also said the NATO forces that are in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia waiting to see if there will be a future peacekeeping mission to implement in Kosovo will be used in the short term to set up tents for refugees and to establish transit camps.

Meanwhile, at a Pentagon briefing prior to McDuffie's remarks, the Defense Department spokesman was asked about the three U.S. soldiers who are being held against their will in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Serb press reports had suggested that they would be court-martialed in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for allegedly waging aggression. "There is absolutely no reason for these men to be put on trial," he said. If they are tried, the spokesman said, there are "precise procedures" which must be followed, including allowing them to have legal representation.

The U.S. soldiers were on a routine patrol in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on March 31 and were not part of "Operation Allied Force" when they reported being abducted at gunpoint. A transcript of their last radio transmission made available at the Pentagon quoted one of the Americans as saying, "We're taking direct fire....We're trapped....They're all around us....We can't get out."

Bacon said the 1949 Geneva Convention specifies that individuals "cannot be tried or punished for carrying out their military functions." The U.S. military code of conduct allows uniformed officers to provide only their name, rank, service number, and date of birth should they become prisoners of war.

Asked if he thought a military trial in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would take on the trappings of a "kangaroo court," Bacon said "the concept of free and fair justice in Yugoslavia, today, is probably remote."

Asked if there might be a pause in "Operation Allied Force" while religious holidays are celebrated in the Balkans, the spokesman said it would be difficult to justify a suspension of the airstrikes "while the Serb Army and special police are continuing to attack the people of Kosovo."

On the longevity of the NATO military operation, he said, "We are prepared to stay the course." Bacon also said the allied air campaign is having "the desired effect."