Friday, Feb. 12, 1999, 5:30 PM.

Serbian Forces Shell Llapashticë Village in Podujeva Area

PRISHTINA, Feb 12 (KIC) - Serbian forces started shelling Llapashticë village of Podujeva at 11:00 a.m. today, the LDK chapter in Podujeva reported.

Serbian military and paramilitary police forces were shelling from their positions at Tabet e Llapashticës, a couple of km southwest of the town of Podujeva, 30 km north of capital Prishtina.

Belgrade has massed tanks and troops in the northern Llapi region since the Christmas offensive, and has repeatedly violated last October's cease-fire.

Thousands of Albanians have been displaced from their villages in Llapi region.

Two More Albanians Go Missing in Peja

In the past couple of months, some 20 Albanians from Peja region went missing before being found killed in unsolved circumstances

PRISHTINA, Feb 12 (KIC) - Two Albanians went missing in the Peja area in the past couple of days, local LDK sources said.

Ibish Sadri Mujaj (47), resident of Nabërgjan village of Peja, has been unaccounted for since Wednesday. Mujaj was last seen alive when he got off the bus at Pavlan village, around 17:30 CET that day.

Meanwhile, Adem Rexhep Muçkurtaj (43), resident of Nakëll village, a TV mechanic, went missing on Thursday afternoon.

Muçkurtaj, father of four, was last seen near the train station, local LDK sources said.

In the past couple of months, some 20 Albanians from Peja region went missing before being found killed in unsolved circumstances.

Ten more days to invent peace

Beqë Cufaj & Augustin Palokaj \ Koha Ditore

Rambouillet, 11 February (ARTA) 2230CET --

The State Department spokesman, James Rubin, arrived in Rambouillet on Thursday, on an unexpected visit. "Koha Ditore" sources claimed that Rubin's visit has to do with preparations for the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright's visit to Rambouillet this Friday or Saturday. Albright intends to visit Rambouillet before the American, German, French, British, Italian and Russian Foreign Ministers, members of the Contact Group, meet. The US Secretary of State, Albright, has also appointed her envoy, who will be the future Ombudsman of Kosova. There are assumptions that diplomat James Dobis was chosen for this post.

Rubin met with all participants of the conference in Rambouillet, and particularly with the delegation from Kosova.

"Koha Ditore" sources confirmed that different high-ranked military and political officials will visit Rambouillet in the course of the next couple of days.

There are claims that the Serbian President, Milutinovic, who is said to be very close to the "Yugoslav" President, Milosevic, is currently visiting Rambouillet, because of the open disagreements and tensions between Robin Cook and the Serb delegation, yesterday. Serb sources notified that the American mediator on Kosova, Ambassador Christopher Hill, was on a brief visit to Belgrade on Wednesday. The talks held between Milosevic and Hill were focused on the significance of the conference and the Serb delegation's competencies in that aspect, Serb sources say. They claim that this resulted with Milutinovic's visit to Rambouillet.

According to "Koha Ditore" sources, the Albanian delegation, as it is already known, has its working groups. The Albanian delegation's work leadership is led by Hashim Thaçi, Rexhep Qosja and Ibrahim Rugova. Veton Surroi is the spokesman of the group in negotiations with Western diplomatic delegations. It has been confirmed that the chair of the group leadership is Hashim Thaçi. Ramë Buja, Dukagjin Gorani and Skënder Hyseni are in the working group for information to the press. Edita Tahiri and Bajram Kosumi are in the secretariat. Jakup Krasniqi, Fehmi Agani, Blerim Shala, Idriz Ajeti, Mehmet Hajrizi and Hydajet Hyseni, as well as Albanian delegation experts are enagaged in wording the political document. Azem Syla is responsible for contacts on the military level, between NATO and the KLA. Syla has so far been in contact with NATO representative named David Jagortenslarog. Xhavit Haliti and Bujar Bukoshi are believed to be in charge of contacts and work with experts and the Albanian delegation.

This weekend is expected to give the first stamp of seriousness to negotiations in Rambouillet, as next week is expected to be even more intense, with many surprises at hand. The Contact Group seems determined to see the first results of negotiations in Rambouillet. Events are expected to unfold slowly, as next week is expected to give way to the solemn signing of historic agreements, where the stars of the Rambouillet conference are also expected to take place, namely, Madeleine Albright and Slobodan Milosevic...

There will be attempts to achieve the acceleration of the process, which is evaluated as "unnecessary and damaging" by some of the mediators, by holding several meetings of high political level.

One Albanian found dead

Istog, 11 February (ARTA) 2230CET --

30-year-old Haki Hoti, from the Istog municipal village of Dubravë, was found dead in the village of Zallaç on Thursday morning, local LDK reported.

According to local sources, his body was found in a brook, with his head in the water.

Hoti was last seen alive on Wednesday afternoon, on the Istog-Rakosh roadway.

Other details regarding his death were not made available.

Killed as going to work

Pejë, 11 February (ARTA) 2230CET --

Qerim Sykaj (50), an Albanian from the Novosella e Radavcit village of Pejë, was found dead on Wednesday evening, about 500 meters away from his home. There are claims that he was shot in the head, "KD" sources said on Thursday.

Sykaj was on his way to work in the Beer Factory in Pejë, when he was killed. There is still no information on the circumstances of his death.

British tanks are sent to Kosova

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

BRITISH tanks and armoured vehicles are to be loaded on to ferries next week for possible peacekeeping action in Kosova, George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, announced in the Commons last night.

Challenger tanks, AS90 artillery and Warrior armoured fighting vehicles will be placed on two Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, Sea Centurion and Sea Crusader, at the German port of Emden on Monday.

Mr Robertson said that although there was no peace deal yet and no decision on deploying Nato troops to Kosova, it was important to have a force ready in the region to act at short notice.

The equipment will take ten days to reach the Greek port of Salonika, where it will await a decision to move into Kosova.

Mr Robertson also announced that lead elements of an armoured battle group were being placed on notice to leave at any time. A week ago, 8,000 troops were put on 72 hours' notice. The first troops to fly out will also go to Salonika and then to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where they will boost the 2,400-man Nato "extraction force" which is already there.

Mr Robertson's announcement came as peace negotiations between the Serbs and Kosova Albanians at a chateau in Rambouillet, outside Paris, approached the first deadline set by the six-nation Contact Group.

The parties were given a week to make sufficient progress on reaching a deal. They will then have less than seven days to complete negotiations for a three-year interim arrangement.

If a peace settlement is reached, part of the deal will be that Belgrade agrees to the deployment of a 30,000-man Nato force in Kosova to implement the accord.

2,200 Marines Could Go to Kosova

By LAURA MYERS AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - About 2,200 Marines would be sent to Kosova in the first stage of any peacekeeping mission if there's a need to move quickly, a Pentagon official said today.

The disclosure came as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright prepared to go to Paris Saturday to assess negotiations Serbs and ethnic Albanians are holding on their conflict in Kosova.

Albright wishes ``to make her own on-the-ground assessment,'' the department said today in an announcement. Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Macedonia, heads the U.S. delegation, and Albright will discuss the situation with him.

A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Army soldiers and heavy equipment, which sometimes take weeks to deploy, would follow the Marines to Kosova as part of a long-term NATO peacekeeping operation that could include up to 4,000 U.S. ground troops.

The Marines, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., are deployed as part of an amphibious ready group afloat in the Mediterranean.

Leading with the Marines is a primary option, the official said, because of the inability of heavy Army units to move as quickly as might be necessary.

President Clinton hasn't yet made a decision to send troops to Kosova and Serbs and ethnic Albanians haven't yet agreed on a peace plan at their talks under way in Rambouillet, France. White House officials say a decision on U.S. forces is likely next week.

Britain and France are serving as co-hosts for the peace talks. A decision is due this weekend on whether to extend the negotiations into a second week. That would depend on how much progress the two sides were making on a self-rule plan for the Serbian province.

The NATO allies are moving ahead with plans for a peacekeeping force in Kosova in the event Serbs and ethnic Albanians agree on a settlement, the department said Thursday.

Risking a blowup on Capitol Hill, the administration says it has the constitutional power to send American ground troops to Kosova without congressional approval. Bosnia, where U.S. troops are on peacekeeping duty, is cited by State Department officials as a precedent.

Several Republican members of Congress have raised objections.

Several Albright aides who work on Kosova issues were sent to Paris in advance, but the State Department insisted until today she had made no decision on whether to go to the talks and to meet with European foreign ministers.

Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Sue Kelly, R-N.Y., headed to Paris with a group of Albanian-Americans to call for independence for the province. Of the 2 million people in Kosova about 90 percent are ethnic Albanians.

The Clinton administration says it does not support independence for Kosova. It is insisting any settlement provide maximum self-rule, though, for a three-year trial period.

Engel said in an interview that Bosnia was absolutely a precedent for using U.S. troops as peacekeepers without advance approval from Congress.

``I think once the troops are there, Congress will pass a resolution supporting our men and women over there,'' Engel said. ``The United States needs to grab the bull by the horns as we did in Bosnia after 200,000 people were `ethnically cleansed' and murdered by (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic and his people.''

``We cannot allow the same thing to happen,'' Engel said. ``The only long-term solution is self-determination and independence.''

The United States, meanwhile, is expected to provide the main sea and air power from forces based in the region, most likely from the Fifth Allied Tactical Air Force unit based at Aviano, Italy, and from the Navy's Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, according to Pentagon planners.

The White House is wary of sending too many troops to Kosova because of congressional criticism over the U.S. peacekeeping obligation for the past few years in Bosnia, where about 6,700 American troops remain on duty. Initially, the United States sent 30,000 troops to Bosnia.

In Kosova, a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, more than 2,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes in clashes between majority ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces.

The Washington Post first reported on the Marine Corps involvement in today's editions.

Albright Said Traveling To Kosova Talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has decided to visit Paris and Rambouillet this weekend to become directly involved in Kosova peace talks, U.S. officials said Friday.

``She's going to France Saturday. She wants to do her own assessment,'' one official said.

For days, the State Department has been playing coy with an official statement on Albright's travel plans, although officials said she was contemplating a trip to France and her spokesman James Rubin has been there for a couple of days.

The United States and other members of the Contact Group of major powers forced the warring Yugoslav government and ethnic Albanians in Kosova to hold talks at Rambouillet outside Paris with the goal of achieving a peace settlement by this weekend.

But European officials have predicted that the group -- which also includes France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia -- would give the parties another week to finish their work.

The peace plan on the table would give Kosova, a province of Yugoslavia, autonomy but not the independence ethnic Albanians have been fighting for.

Serbia Defiant On Kosova, Demands Albanians Sign

By Tom Heneghan

RAMBOUILLET, France (Reuters) - Serbian President Milan Milutinovic raised the stakes at the stalled Kosova peace talks Friday, insisting there would be no more negotiations unless ethnic Albanians signed a disputed declaration.

Spurning Western warnings that this tactic was a dead end, he accused the big power Contact Group of victimizing his country with threats of attack while protecting the ethnic Albanians seeking to break loose from Belgrade.

Belgrade stepped up its drumbeat of defiance as the Contact Group foreign ministers looked set to meet Sunday to assess the talks so far and decide if they should go on.

Luxembourg said European Union foreign ministers had been invited to Paris Sunday to discuss Kosova after a Contact Group session there. A newspaper report said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would arrive in France Saturday.

Back in Kosova, where fighting has gone on for the past 11 months, international monitors said two off-duty Serb policemen had been kidnapped by suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

``If they (the Kosova Albanians) sign, we will continue the negotiations. If not, no negotiations,'' Milutinovic told Reuters in the clearest statement yet of Belgrade's position over the stalled talks at Rambouillet castle southwest of Paris.

``We cannot start building a house from the roof and then reach the foundations and realize it will fall down,'' he said, stressing the principles should underpin any eventual deal.

NATO has threatened to bomb Serbia if the talks fail.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, co-sponsor of the talks with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine, said after meeting Milutinovic Thursday that Belgrade was wasting its time insisting on the principles.

Dropping diplomatic pretence, he also openly praised the ethnic Albanian delegates for constructive work at the talks.

Serbia sees one clause in the Contact Group's 10 principles for the talks as a guarantee of long-term respect for its existing frontiers. Fearing this would rule out independence, the ethnic Albanians refuse formally to sign the list.

Milutinovic said the principles were spelled out by the Contact Group -- the U.S., Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy -- when it summoned the two parties to the peace talks, which began last Saturday.

``They are protecting them (the Albanians) and attacking us,'' he said. ``These principles are theirs, not ours.''

Earlier, at a news conference in Paris, Milutinovic said the Serbian delegation had no intention of walking out of the talks: ``Why should we leave? We are sitting, we are waiting, we accept the Contact Group principles.''

With Western frustration toward Belgrade becoming more open, the International Herald Tribune quoted a U.S. official as saying Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would intervene personally this weekend to try to break the deadlock.

``She's going to roll up her sleeves and try to work through the security concerns that are the core of the Kosovars' concerns,'' the Paris-based daily quoted the official as saying.

As part of the public relations battle swirling around the talks, Yugoslavia's Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic went on French breakfast television to say Belgrade wanted peace.

``We want to sign an agreement in Rambouillet. We came to Paris with this goal. But let us come to an agreement,'' he said.

``I think that some hope for a failure of the conference. I am not thinking of the Europeans. Some oppose a favorable outcome in order to impose their own solution,'' he said.

About 200 pro-Belgrade Serbs living in western Europe arrived by bus to cheer on their delegation. Banners at their rally had such slogans as ``NATO - Nazi Americans'' and ``Slobo - (Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic) don't give up Kosova.''

Kosova gloom as threat of airstrikes grows

FROM TOM WALKER IN RAMBOUILLET ROBIN COOK, the Foreign Secretary, and his French counterpart, Hubert Védrine, returned to the Kosova peace conference yesterday for the second time in 48 hours, amid speculation that the talks were in danger of collapse.

Despite objections from France and Russia, Nato intervention may now be inevit-able. A Nato representative was said to have been involved in the talks for the first time.

In Paris, Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, said in an interview broadcast yesterday that a decision had been taken to bomb Serb targets if the talks fail due to Serbian recalcitrance.

"If the Serbs are responsible for the fact that the talks fail, then it will be Serb targets that are hit," she told France 3 television in the interview, conducted on Wednesday. "Our diplomacy is backed by the use of force and that decision, to use force, has been made if the talks don't progress."

She told ethnic Albanians they also would pay a price if they undermined the talks. "If the KLA [Kosova Liberation Army] and the Albanians are responsible, then they will lose the support of the international community that they depend on in order to pursue their goals," she said.

The next week promises to make or break the talks. A Contact Group document will be discussed that demands both Albanians and Serbs substantially reduce their fighting units in Kosova.

The Serbs must withdraw all their Ministry of Interior special police, including the much-feared SAJ anti-terrorist squads. The Serb police presence should be reduced from about 20,000 men to about 2,500, and the Yugoslav Army should scale down its presence to leave no more than 1,500 troops patrolling a five-kilometre (about three miles) zone along the borders with Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

On the Albanian side, the KLA must disarm its fighters of all weapons larger than the 7.62mm Kalashnikov calibre. The KLA must withdraw to positions at least one kilometre from police stations and Yugoslav Army bases and move all its heavy weapons into cantonment sites open to Nato inspection. Up to 10,000 Nato troops could enter Kosova by the end of the month.

The prospects of either the Serbs or KLA willingly falling into line with such demands before the expiry of the seven-day deadline for completing the talks are slim. In a briefing yesterday Mr Cook said: "Most of the agreement will be made in the last 24 hours before the deadline."

The leading personality in the Albanian delegation at Château Rambouillet is Hashim Thaci, a political science graduate with Marxist leanings. Mr Thaci, 29, who heads the KLA's political directorate, is opposed to the youthful and rapidly developing force being disbanded. If the KLA is to disappear, the Albanians imagine it will be absorbed into a new police force for Kosova.

The Albanians are increasingly wary of the Franco-Russian bid to water down the scale of international intervention, and Mr Thaci has been demanding that Nato should be a signatory to any deal.

The Serbs yesterday countered this by staging a unilateral signing of the ten "principles" under which the conference was convened, which include the inviolability of Yugoslavia's current borders.

Mr Cook responded by regretting that Belgrade was still insisting that both sides should sign the principles.

Serbs Accuse Foreign Mediators

RAMBOUILLET, France (AP) - The Serbian president today accused foreign mediators of holding up the Kosova peace talks, saying they are playing ``games'' with Serb delegates.

In particular, President Milan Milutinovic criticized the mediators for refusing to allow direct negotiations between the Serb and ethnic Albanian delegations.

``So far for six days already there has not been a single meeting between the two delegations because the representatives of the international community do not allow it,'' Milutinovic told reporters in Paris, adding that the Serbs were not ready to ``walk out.''

He said Serbs have asked verbally and in writing for meetings with the ethnic Albanians.

One of the three mediators at the talks dismissed Milutinovic's criticisms. ``They live in the same castle and they can talk to each other whenever they want,'' the mediator, who asked not to be identified, told The Associated Press, referring to the chateau in Rambouillet where they two delegations are staying.

More than 2,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes in clashes in Kosova between majority ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces. The province is in southern Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

The talks opened in France last Saturday with a one-week deadline. But Britain's foreign secretary, Robin Cook, said Thursday that deadline will likely be extended.

The talks were organized by the six-nation Contact Group made up of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

Cook said Serbs were to blame for the lack of progress because they have demanded that ethnic Albanians sign a basic set of principles before negotiations begin.

The Serbs want to guarantee that Yugoslavia's borders would stay intact and that Kosova would never win independence.

International mediators, led by American Christopher Hill, contend the principles were agreed to by the mere fact that the parties turned up for the talks.

Milutinovic said foreign mediators are deceiving the public. He also complained that Serbs have not received a full draft of the U.S. peace plan at the heart of the talks.

``We have not received all the documents for this conference. It is clear ... there are games being played here and we don't know what these games are,'' he charged.

Kosova Albanians are unlikely to agree to abandon the idea of independence, their ultimate goal after a proposed interim period of three years. Albanian negotiators are calling for a referendum on independence, an immediate cease-fire and NATO guarantees for the eventual interim settlement.

The two sides came to the talks under NATO's threat to bomb the Serbs and take tough measures to cut off arms and financing for the rebel Kosova Liberation Army.

NATO has been making plans to send up to 30,000 peacekeeping troops into Kosova to police an eventual peace plan.

In Washington today, a Pentagon official said that 2,200 Marines could be sent to Kosova as the first stage of a peacekeeping mission if there was a need to move quickly.

Asked whether Serbia would allow foreign troops, Milutinovic said: ``No, No, No, No.''

Many Issues Still Unresolved Halfway Through Kosova Talks

By Charles Trueheart Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 12, 1999; Page A32

PARIS, Feb. 11—The Kosova peace talks are approaching their scheduled midpoint this weekend with virtually all the major issues of contention unresolved.

The Serb-led Yugoslav government and the secessionist ethnic Albanian Kosova delegations are negotiating near here with the aid of international mediators to end an 11-month war that has killed more than 1,500 people.

The ethnic Albanians seek independence for Kosova -- a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic -- while the government refuses to grant it. The Western-drafted peace accord calls for Belgrade to give significant autonomy to the ethnic Albanians -- who outnumber Serbs 9 to 1 in Kosova -- but would put off consideration of the province's final status for three years.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine returned to Rambouillet, site of the French village and castle where the talks began Saturday, for the third time today. They met with the two sides and with Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, who flew here to review the work of the government delegation on behalf of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

This weekend, foreign ministers of the six-nation Balkan "contact group" that organized the talks -- the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia -- are expected to gather here. They will determine if the two sides have agreed on an interim political settlement for the province -- or are close enough to warrant up to a week's more negotiations, with a Feb. 19 deadline.

After emerging from his meeting with Milutinovic today, Cook accused the Serbs of throwing up roadblocks to prevent the negotiations from advancing, although he said the six nations would likely grant the two parties more time to reach an accord.

In a French television interview broadcast today, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright also spoke about signs of Serbian intractability and reiterated NATO's willingness to launch punitive airstrikes against Serbian targets if progress is not achieved. Albright is expected to arrive in Paris Saturday or Sunday.

"If the Serbs are responsible for the fact that the talks fail," she said, "then it will be Serb targets that are hit. . . . Our diplomacy is backed by the use of force, and that decision, to use force, has been made if the talks don't progress."

At the same time, NATO is preparing to deploy an armed peacekeeping force of up to 30,000 troops, most of them European, to enforce any settlement. But sources close to the negotiations said today that the nature of that force, along with other likely points of contention, largely has gone unexplored during the 18-hour days of negotiations at Rambouillet castle. Among other difficult issues yet to be addressed are the terms of the withdrawal of Serbian and Yugoslav police and military forces from the province and the provisional disarming of the Kosova Liberation Army, which has been leading the independence struggle.

The two sides, which have yet to meet face to face, are still reviewing the more tractable elements of a political settlement, such as a Kosova constitution. "We're where we ought to have been Monday or Tuesday, but not because of any yelling or division," said one participant. "It's more because of wheel-spinning."

Two Western diplomats close to the negotiations put a more positive gloss on the process, indicating that the international mediators had expected far worse -- more grandstanding and contrariness, or threats of boycotts or walkouts, and not just routine "truculence."

"If we had had daily benchmarks [for progress], the talks would have failed," said one Western official.

The sources, all of whom requested anonymity, speculated that the foreign ministers could use their meeting to give the two sides more specific ultimatums to reach an agreement, including the use of force if they do not.