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Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999, 5:00 PM.
Powerful explosion in town
Gjakovė, 17 February (ARTA) 2130CET --
There was a powerful explosion in the town of Gjakovė at around 0115CET on Wednesday, the
CDHRF notified. The explosion, which was heard in all Gjakovė, took place in the northern
part of town, close to the fire fighting station. It is still not clear who caused the
explosion and for what reasons. There were no victims, as the material damage was reported
great.
Serb investigating organs as well as the OSCE Verification Mission in Gjakovė, went to
the site in the morning.
On the other hand, Elmir Xhevdet Hoxha (31), from Gjakovė, was sentenced to 15 days
imprisonment at the Municipal Court for Misdemeanors. Elmir was charged for threatening a
local policeman, Naser Arifaj, who had asked on the whereabouts of some Albanians. This
occurred on 13 February, in the pool club owned by Elmir, "Top-Gand" in
Gjakovė. He was sent to serve his sentence immediately.
Larger-scale police crackdown on Llap
Podujevė, 17 February (ARTA) 2130CET --
Serb forces stationed in Tabet e Llapashticės, undertook yet another offensive against
the village of Llapashticė, as of 1030CET today.
There are claims that the Serb forces used heavy artillery, large-caliber cannons and
else, in the attack.
Field sources say that the KLA was successful in overthrowing the attacks. The same
sources assert that similar attacks were also evidenced against the Llap villages of
Godishnjak, Lupē, and Majac.
Serb forces enter Rigjevė
Klinė, 17 February (ARTA) 2130CET --
A truck, a terrain vehicle and an APC, filled with Serb soldiers, were stationed in the
village of Rigjevė on Wednesday. They, local sources claim, broke into most Albanian
houses, along the Klinė-Kijevė road, KLA sources said on Wednesday.
Military movements and repositioning, were also noticed in the region of Sferkė.
U.S. Rejects Yeltsin Kosova Warning, Readies Strike
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and NATO military planners stepped up preparations Thursday
for possible strikes on Serbian targets if peace talks on Kosova fail, as Washington
dismissed a warning by Russian President Boris Yeltsin against the use of force.
``We're aware that Russia has opposed the use of force in Kosova,'' said David Leavy, a
White House spokesman.
``But we've also made clear that should the Serbs refuse to comply and refuse to sign a
political settlement, that NATO has to consider military action in its own interests, in
the interests of the region and the interests of the United States, and we will do so,''
he said.
Joe Lockhart, the chief White House spokesman, said the United States was taking ``prudent
steps to be ready if military force is needed,'' and Pentagon officials said they were
studying a range of U.S. and allied strikes, including the possible use of ship-fired
cruise missiles.
This came as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she had spoken to Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic Thursday and again warned him of the threat of NATO air
strikes if a peace deal was not reached on Kosova.
``He (Milosevic) should understand that if air strikes occur he will be hit hard and he
will be deprived of the things he values ... I spoke with him this morning also and I
think he understands that this is a key moment in terms of the future of the former
Republic of Yugoslavia,'' Albright said.
Leavy's comments came after Yeltsin said Thursday he had told President Clinton that
Russia ``will not let you (the United States) touch Kosova.''
Although Yeltsin had previously warned NATO against military action, his comments Thursday
caused a new stir because the Kremlin had confirmed Russian news agency reports that
Clinton and Yeltsin had spoken Wednesday. The White House denied this, and said the last
substantive conversation on Kosova between the two leaders was weeks ago.
A Kremlin spokesman later said the two leaders had discussed the issue in ``recent
conversations.''
The Contact Group, comprised of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and
Italy, is pushing a Saturday deadline for a peace deal to end 11 months of fighting
between Serbs and independence-minded ethnic Albanians.
Although White House officials stressed they were working hard with Russia within the
Contact Group to reach a settlement, NATO has threatened military action if talks fail to
forge an agreement.
Germany, France and Britain issued new pleas to Yugoslavia Thursday to reach a settlement.
About 430 NATO strike and support planes -- including 260 U.S. jets - are on 48-hour alert
for use against Serb targets.
Most of the U.S. planes are already in the region. But 51 of them, including a dozen
F-117A stealth fighters, were put on alert in the United States Wednesday night and could
depart over the Atlantic Friday.
Pentagon officials said a need to avoid civilian casualties near military targets made
accuracy a priority in the military strike planning.
One official suggested an initial strike of perhaps 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles could send
a sharp message to Milosevic without immediately risking U.S. and allied warplanes.
The peace talks, already extended by a week, were in their 12th day Thursday with Serbian,
ethnic Albanian and international participants all waiting for a decisive word from
Milosevic, who opposes plans to send some 28,000 NATO troops to Kosova under a peace
agreement.
That force would include some 4,000 Americans if Clinton is satisfied that a peace
agreement would hold and that U.S. forces would not be any under fire.
U.S. officials were at a loss to explain how the Kremlin could have said Yeltsin spoke to
Clinton Wednesday.
The last time the two leaders spoke in person was at the funeral of King Hussein in Jordan
on February 8, although Leavy said he did not believe they spoke about Kosova.
Lockhart said Yeltsin may have tried unsuccessfully to call, or sent a letter that had not
yet been received.
Russia Warns U.S., Albanians Angry On Kosova
By Paul Taylor
RAMBOUILLET, France (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States Thursday against bombing
Serbia over Kosova as ethnic Albanian delegates to peace talks voiced outrage at new
concessions they said mediators had made to the Serbs.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin said he had given President Clinton a ``hands off Kosova''
warning Wednesday after Washington dispatched an extra 51 warplanes to Europe to prepare
for possible NATO strikes on Yugoslav targets.
But NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, speaking in Macedonia, rattled the Western
alliance's saber, declaring that air strikes could come very soon if Serbia blocked an
agreement by Saturday's deadline.
Underlining that threat, Canada and Britain said they would begin evacuating staff from
their embassies in Belgrade Friday as a precaution.
The British and French foreign ministers issued a joint appeal to the people of
Yugoslavia, saying bloodshed was no solution for Kosova and urged both sides to
compromise.
``We have realized that bloodshed is never a solution for ethnic and national hatreds,''
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said in a
statement sent to Yugoslav media for publication and also made available to international
news organizations.
On the 12th day of negotiations at a secluded chateau southwest of Paris, ethnic Albanian
delegates were seething after receiving revised proposals for a Kosova constitution they
said entrenched Yugoslav sovereignty and territorial integrity.
``They are distraught, upset, furious,'' an adviser to the ethnic Albanian delegation
said.
The proposals, strengthening the wording on Yugoslav rights over Kosova, were circulated
by U.S., European Union and Russian mediators after the Serbian delegation submitted
written responses to their original draft.
In Moscow, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Belgrade risked losing Kosova
altogether if it did not agree to autonomy for the province.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said after talks with Fischer that if a deal was
reached in France, Moscow might contribute troops to a ground force in Kosova to monitor
it.
The chief ethnic Albanian delegate at the Rambouillet talks, Hashim Thaqi, meanwhile
decided to make a surprise trip to Slovenia Friday for last-minute consultations with the
Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) 24 hours before the deadline, the sources said.
They said Thaqi would meet veteran politician Adem Demaci, the KLA's senior political
representative in the rebel Serbian province, in what was seen as a gesture of retaliation
after a senior Serbian delegate, Nikola Sainovic, flew to Belgrade this week for talks
with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
In Moscow, Yeltsin told reporters: ``I conveyed to Clinton my view, both by phone and by
letter, that this (military strikes) will not work. We will not let you touch Kosova.''
But in Washington, the White House played down the warning, saying the Russian position
was long known and denied the two leaders had spoken recently.
NATO has threatened to bomb Serbia if it blocks an accord, while the West has said it will
act to cut off KLA weapons supplies if ethnic Albanians stand in the way of peace.
Russia is one of the six Contact Group powers trying to persuade the Serbs and ethnic
Albanians to reach an autonomy deal that would be policed by a NATO-led peacekeeping
force.
Milosevic, who holds the key to a settlement, has so far opposed a NATO deployment in
Kosova, but Western mediators believe he is holding out for the highest possible price.
Serbian sources say Milosevic wants financial and diplomatic sanctions against Yugoslavia
lifted and an undertaking that he will not be indicted as a suspected war criminal.
Diplomats say the West could not guarantee him immunity from prosecution since that would
undermine the independence of the U.N. tribunal on former Yugoslavia, but some have
speculated that Western powers might privately make clear they would not offer prosecutors
evidence against Milosevic.
A Serbian source said Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, a trusted Milosevic aide, would
return to Rambouillet from Belgrade Thursday ``in good faith and fairly optimistic.''
Diplomats said the British and French foreign ministers were due to return Friday to crank
up pressure on the delegates, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was expected
Saturday for the climax.
Delegates cloistered at the 14th century chateau are considering a peace plan presented
almost on a take-it-or- leave-it basis by the big power Contact Group comprising the
United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.
Belgrade has given away little so far about a visit the chief mediator, U.S. envoy
Christopher Hill, made to Milosevic Tuesday to impress on him how determined the Contact
Group was about settling the 11-month Kosova conflict.
A Contact Group official said the meeting was ``pretty gloomy'' but added that no one had
expected Milosevic to back down until the last 48 hours, if he does at all.
Despite Milosevic's resistance, NATO is forging ahead with plans to send up to 30,000
troops to Kosova -- some 6,000 of them almost immediately once peace was agreed.
U.S. Beefs Up Kosova Force
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Dramatizing a threat to bomb the Serbs, the Clinton administration is
adding 51 U.S. warplanes to an already powerful attack force in Europe to pressure the
Yugoslav government to approve a self-rule plan for Kosova and
accept NATO peacekeeping troops.
``We want to be in a position to carry out an air operation, should it be requested,''
Defense Secretary William Cohen said on arriving in Seattle today on unrelated business.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the United States had begun planning for the
possible evacuation of U.S. embassies. While she did not say where American diplomats may
be withdrawn, a senior U.S. official said Belgrade was an obvious choice because the
diplomats could not remain during a NATO bombing campaign.
Also affected would be U.S. personnel in Kosova, said the official, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
Plans also were being made were for the possible evacuation of a multinational monitoring
group in Kosova, according to Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Volleback, who appeared at a
joint news conference with Albright. Norway is currently the head of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
NATO in Kosova with Five Commanding Zones?
Beqė Cufaj & Augustin Palokaj \ KOHA Ditore
Rambouillet, 17 February (ARTA) 2130CET --
"The American military paper" was handed over to Milosevic on Tuesday - the
Albanians will be handed it over on Friday
The same sources notify that the "American military paper" was handed over to
Milosevic, as early as last night, and that he has time until Saturday to say
"No" to it for a hundred more times, but not on Saturday noon.
The Albanians, on the other hand will be handed over this letter about 24 hours before the
finale of the conference, on Saturday. There are indications that the Americans, or at
least, certain senior military officials, do not want to drag the KLA out of the game, but
only to neutralize it. So, not to disarm it, but rather reach a consensus, in condition
that it be included in the political contest in Kosova.
For the curious ones, this "American military paper" does not foresee that
Prishtina be taken over by the French. In fact, Prishtina will belong to the British, the
border with Albania will be secured by the Americans, the Italian forces will own the
Northern part of Kosova, whereas the French will enjoy themselves in the deep south. The
same letter foresees the French senior officer as the commander of the "high NATO
command in Kosova", rather then the British one. It also needs to be mentioned that
the Russians have vividly given in. It is hardly believable, but they support not only the
deployment of the NATO troops in Kosova but also air attacks, if Milosevic does not give
in, this time. This Russian "bomb" - maybe even false - followed a statement of
Milosevic's man, Milutinovic, that Belgrade sees itself as a logic partner of NATO, within
the framework of the "Partnership for freedom". And, perhaps it is precisely
from this point, that from Sunday morning, Milosevic will launch a new, large media game,
but this time not with the enemy called NATO, but with the partner, called NATO!...
"Last night there came to the idea that at the end of the Conference on Kosova, there
are chances that there won't be any signatures on the agreement between the sides in the
conflict, but only a statement, according to which, the negotiating sides, or the sides in
the conflict, agree that they accept the agreement offered by the International Contact
Group", Western sources told "KD", during a long conversation on Tuesday.
The idea seems to have resulted from Washington, who refused last night to let the
Ambassadors Petritsch and Majorski, travel to Belgrade along with Ambassador Hill.
The Western sources notify that Hill, did not inform even the Serb and Albanian sides
about his journey to Belgrade, to visit Milosevic. Shortly said: the Serb and Albanian
negotiators received this news from the media who were running after Hill, at the European
airports.
Almost none of the Albanian comments or proposals will be accepted
Going back to the most recent idea, resulting from the West, about not signing but rather
giving an oral statement for accepting the agreement, it seems that this, from the
Albanian viewpoint, will be totally unacceptable. This also goes for the American experts,
of the negotiating Group in Kosova.
This can particularly be said due to the fact, that if Milosevic is to say a simple and a
festive "Yes", on Saturday noon, he would be able to avoid this agreement in a
hundred ways. This would virtually mean a total failure of the International Conference on
Kosova, because it is hard to believe that Albanians would fall for a simple
"Yes" of Milosevic's regime, blessed by the Americans themselves!
The same sources also inform that, almost none of the comments and proposals of the
Albanian negotiating Group and their experts, are to be accepted. This also goes for the
proposals of the Serb delegation.
"Albanians could organize the referendum after three or five years without asking
anyone"
The sole consolation for the Albanians will remain the fact that they were cooperative and
united and the fact that the old-new variant (which will be handed over to them again in
48 hours) is not so bad as a whole. This counts if Milosevic allows NATO forces in Kosova,
because the very presence of these forces will relativize to a certain degree the
political agreement, in particular if it enables the present leaders of negotiating team
headed by Hashim Thaēi to take part in the electoral campaign. It will be very
problematic that the American Congress will agree to send American troops to Kosova
without being persuaded by Clinton Administration that even without signing it Milosevic
will pledge to accept these forces, western sources evaluate.
The chances that Milosevic will accept the NATO presence in Kosova are the same as the
chance that Albanians will give up from the referendum. "But, Albanians could
organize the referendum after three or five years without asking anyone", a western
diplomat evaluated, close to the Albanian delegation in Rambouillet. Their referendum
would be accepted if conditions would be appropriate for it, and if they would prove to
the West they would not be a destabilizing factor in the Balkans, but on the contrary a
guarantor of peace in the Balkans, having in mind here in particular Macedonia.
The Americans grant amnesty to Milosevic?
But what will Milosevic gain from accepting NATO forces in Kosova, with no bombs or
violence? In a quiet manner, Americans in addition to Europeans who have sent him clear
signals are ready to secure him three priority things: a chair in the United Nations, OSCE
and a strong promise that "Yugoslavia" will be a quite normal state with
prospects to integration in powerful and stable international institutions.
Nevertheless, everything will develop in the last 24 hours. The Albanians have not yet
seen the American letter on "security and military issues". So far, the contacts
with western military officials were on the level of certain states, more specifically
with Americans. This is for the fact that the Frenchmen are still refusing the presence of
NATO officials in the chateau. However, the Americans are not insisting to be present in
the castle by any means. Be this the case eventually, this would be a low level presence.
This can be said for the moment at least.
Milosevic Rejects Foreign Troops
RAMBOUILLET, France (AP) - Slobodan Milosevic dealt a blow today to prospects for a Kosova
peace deal, rejecting a take-it-or-leave-it proposal that foreign troops enforce any
accord.
The Yugoslav president's defiance increased chances of NATO intervention, with only three
days remaining until a deadline set by world powers for Serbia and ethnic Albanians to
reach an agreement at talks in France.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, who met with Milosevic in the Yugoslav capital Tuesday night,
and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright both warned Milosevic that he will suffer
airstrikes if he doesn't accept an agreement by Saturday at noon.
But the Yugoslav leader showed no signs of budging.
In a statement issued in Yugoslavia today by the official Tanjug news agency, Milosevic
said ``our negative stand on the presence of foreign troops is not only the attitude of
the leadership, but also of all citizens of our country.''
A top Western diplomat at the talks in France, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
mediators were ``not surprised'' by Milosevic's defiance.
International mediators, led by the United States, brought Serbs and secessionist ethnic
Albanians to the negotiating table to end a conflict that has cost an estimated 2,000
lives and left hundreds of thousands homeless in Kosova, a province in southern Serbia,
the dominant of the two Yugoslav republics.
The deployment of an international force is the key element of the deal proposed by the
United States and backed by other powers at the conference outside Paris. As many as
30,000 NATO troops, including some 4,000 American soldiers, would be sent to Kosova to
police the agreement.
In an effort to forge a deal, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and his French
counterpart, Hubert Vedrine, today came to the 14th-century chateau where the talks have
been held since Feb. 6.
Albright telephoned Milosevic from Washington on Tuesday and told him the Kosova Albanians
appear ready to sign the agreement and she expects him to do the same, State Department
spokesman James P. Rubin said.
But Milosevic showed no more willingness to do so than the Serbian officials at the talks.
In his statement, Milosevic reiterated the Serb stand that there can be no independence
for Kosova and that all ethnic communities in the province should have the same rights.
Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population.
``Our delegation in Rambouillet is negotiating in good faith,'' declared Milosevic.
His statement, along with other defiant signals sent by his government, seemed to offer
little hope the Serb delegation would back down and sign the peace deal despite the danger
of NATO military action.
Milan Komnenic, Yugoslavia's information minister, told reporters today the Serbs are
willing to make ``major concessions'' to Kosova Albanians, but would never allow foreign
troops on their soil.
``If they bomb Serbia, there will be no more negotiations and a solution for Kosova would
be postponed for several years,'' Komnenic said in front of the Rambouillet chateau.
Tanjug quoted Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic as warning that NATO attacks on
Yugoslavia would mean the end of any negotiations on the province.
Serbian state television, which reflects Milosevic's views, aired defiant statements from
government officials and statements by ordinary Serbs saying the government should not
back down.
The Serbs had counted on Russia to back up their rejection of foreign troops. But a NATO
source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Russians have told the 16-nation
military alliance they are willing to go along with a NATO deployment as part of a
three-year interim peace deal.
The source also said Russians may eventually participate in a peacekeeping operation, as
they do in the NATO-led force in Bosnia.
But a senior Russian Defense Ministry official said NATO's insistence on sending troops
was the ``most crude and simplistic way'' of solving the conflict.
``There are no diplomatic, legal, political or especially economic levers in the
alliance's arsenal, just naked military force,'' said Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, one of
Russia's most outspoken critics of NATO.
Russian officials still oppose NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia in the event the peace
talks fail.
U.S. Presence in Kosova Would Be Open-Ended Balkans:
Citing troop deployment to Bosnia, Albright says 'artificial deadline doesn't work.'
By NORMAN KEMPSTER, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--Tacitly acknowledging that the Clinton administration blundered by setting a
deadline that it couldn't keep for getting peacekeeping forces out of Bosnia, Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that if U.S. troops are sent to Kosova, another
Balkan hot spot, the commitment will be open-ended. "We really learned a lesson, I
think, in Bosnia that setting an artificial deadline doesn't work," Albright said.
Three years after a peace agreement was reached, U.S. troops remain in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
But the administration faces opposition on Capitol Hill to an open-ended commitment of
troops.
A spokesman for newly elected House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said the House may
vote soon on a nonbinding resolution on the wisdom of sending troops to Kosova. Albright
insisted Tuesday that NATO peacekeepers must be part of any agreement to end the ethnic
violence in Kosova, a separatist province of Serbia that is predominantly ethnic Albanian.
She warned that unless Serbia withdraws its opposition to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization deployment, it will face a bombing campaign by the United States and its
allies. Albright's remarks escalated a war of nerves with Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic by spelling out Washington's bottom-line positions for the Kosova peace talks
now in their second week at a chateau near Paris.
Earlier, NATO had threatened a bombing campaign if Serbia blocked an agreement. "No
NATO force is a deal-breaker from our perspective, and if there is no agreement, then the
Serbs need to know that we have said earlier [that] whichever side cratered the talks
would be held responsible, and in the Serb case, that means that it would be followed by
NATO bombing," Albright said in an interview on ABC-TV. Milosevic was defiant
Tuesday. Associated Press reported that in a statement issued after a meeting with U.S.
envoy Christopher Hill in Belgrade, the Yugoslav and Serbian capital, Milosevic said that
"our negative stand about the presence of foreign troops is not only the attitude of
the leadership but also of all citizens of our country."
Albright had ordered Hill to go to Belgrade to deliver a warning in person to Milosevic
that Washington will insist on a NATO-led force. U.S. officials said there is no doubt
that Milosevic is calling the shots for Serbian negotiators now engaged in the peace talks
outside Paris even though he has not appeared at Rambouillet, the conference site. Serbian
President Milan Milutinovic, a Milosevic lieutenant and the leader of the Serbian
delegation, has said his government will never accept a foreign military force on its
territory.
The United States has agreed to contribute about 4,000 troops to a 28,000-strong NATO
force to police a Kosova agreement. Albright said the administration will not make the
same mistake in Kosova that it made in 1995, when it set a one-year time limit on a
peacekeeping force in Bosnia. Clinton's one-year deadline was extended for another year in
1996 and eliminated entirely in 1997. Today, there are about 6,700 U.S. troops in Bosnia,
down from a high of 22,500.
Albright said that any withdrawal of the NATO force in Kosova would depend on the
achievement of certain "benchmarks," including local elections and the
establishment of a police force that would be acceptable to both sides. Elaborating on
Albright's comments, State Department spokesman James B. Foley said, "The peace
implementation force would be able to withdraw when the Kosova institutions are up and
running and considered to be self-sustainable and that stability has itself become
self-sustaining." When a questioner suggested that it could take a very long time to
meet that standard, Foley said, "Well, theoretically you're right." But he said
the Contact Group, a six-nation consortium that coordinates Balkan peace efforts, will
insist that the institutions be created in a relatively short time.
"Maybe the benchmarks themselves can contain timelines, but that's different from
there being a specific timeline attached to withdrawal," he said. NATO has said it
will send peacekeepers to the embattled province only if the Serbian government and the
ethnic Albanian rebels agree to a cease-fire and actually stop fighting. The purpose of
the NATO force would be to disarm government and rebel troops and to keep order until an
ethnically neutral police force could be trained and deployed. The United States and its
allies in the Contact Group have ordered the warring factions to complete their work at
Rambouillet by Saturday.
Although differences remain on both sides, the ethnic Albanians have accepted the broad
outlines of the Contact Group's proposal to give them a large measure of self-rule short
of their objective of full independence. The ethnic Albanian side has also endorsed the
NATO peacekeeping force. "We take the deadline for agreement on Saturday very
seriously," State Department spokesman Foley said Tuesday.
NATO Troops To Be In Kosova 'Within Hours' Of Deal
By Ian Geoghegan
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO said Wednesday it would have up to 6,000 peacekeeping troops
ready to move into Kosova within hours of any peace deal.
The international community has set a deadline of noon (1100 GMT) Saturday for Serbian and
ethnic Albanian leaders to reach a peace agreement at talks that are midway through their
second week at Rambouillet in France.
If there is no deal, NATO remains on standby to launch air strikes against Serb targets.
``We really are into the critical end game now,'' a NATO official said.
``We're still hoping for a political agreement by Saturday. We always knew the main
business would be done in the last 48 hours, and international pressure (for a deal) is
enormous.''
``On the other hand...our other option, the use of force, is still on the table. Our
aircraft are still in place,'' said the official, who asked not to be identified. He
added: ``We hope it won't go that way.''
Authorities in Serbia, of which Kosova is a province, have repeatedly said they will not
accept a foreign peacekeeping force, whose deployment would probably have to enshrined in
any eventual peace agreement.
Nevertheless, NATO officials said military chiefs had approved Operation Joint Guardian
late Tuesday and NATO ambassadors, meeting on a daily basis at alliance headquarters in
Brussels, would give it the green light later Wednesday.
``This will give us a detailed plan ready for implementation,'' the NATO official said,
adding that the advance force would be sent to Kosova ``within hours'' of any peace deal
requiring NATO implementation.
That initial force would include the 2,300-strong, primarily French, extraction force in
Macedonia, a U.S. Marine expeditionary unit currently aboard the U.S.S. Nassau in the
Adriatic, and elements of NATO's German-based Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) under
British Lieutenant-General Michael Jackson.
``That's 5,000-6,000 people in total available for immediate deployment,'' the NATO
official said.
Alliance officials said ARRC men and equipment were already moving to the Aegean port of
Thessaloniki in Greece, from where most of the eventual peace force of 28,000 would be
deployed.
Serbia's sister republic, Montenegro, said earlier it would allow NATO forces to use the
Adriatic port of Bar to deploy peacekeeping troops into Kosova, a landlocked region.
NATO allies Britain, Germany, France and Italy were also shipping equipment to Greece for
four mechanized battalions to support the advance force within a few days, officials said.
``We want to limit to a minimum the time between the signatures on an agreement and K-day,
the beginning of NATO-led implementation,'' an alliance official said. ``We want to avoid
a vacuum that could be exploited by either party to undermine or unravel any peace
settlement.''
The advance guard would move swiftly to set up a secure communications route between
Macedonia and Pristina, which has the only airfield in Kosova, NATO officials said.
Responding to Russian Defense Ministry comments that NATO planning to send troops to
Kosova was ``a very crude and simplistic'' way of resolving the conflict, NATO officials
said Russia remained on board to play a peacekeeping role if needed.
``We believe Russia would not object to a peacekeeping force if a deal called for that,''
one said. ``NATO has been encouraged by the constructive solidarity Russia has shown in
exercising pressure on Belgrade.''
Kosova Talks Go On Despite Milosevic Rebuff
By Crispian Balmer
RAMBOUILLET, France (Reuters) - Mediators plowed ahead Wednesday with efforts to craft a
Kosova peace deal despite an apparent rebuff from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
over a NATO peace force on which the plan hinges.
U.S. envoy Chris Hill and two other mediators resumed work on the text of a 60-page draft
accord between Serbs and ethnic Albanians after Hill returned, reportedly empty-handed,
from a brief visit to Belgrade Tuesday evening.
The official Tanjug news agency said in the Yugoslav capital that Milosevic had stood firm
in his opposition to the deployment of a proposed 30,000 NATO peacekeeping troops in
Kosova to enforce an autonomy agreement if one can be reached.
``About the question of foreign troops, President Milosevic said a negative opinion was
shared not only by (Yugoslav) politicians but by people from the left and right of the
political spectrum,'' Tanjug said.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who sent Hill to see Milosevic, had earlier said
the issue of deployment of NATO forces was a ``deal breaker'' as far as Washington was
concerned.
The State Department had said Hill was to give Milosevic a stern warning that he must make
concessions or face the threat of NATO air strikes.
There was no immediate comment on the outcome of Hill's trip from officials in
Rambouillet, the small market town southwest of Paris where the talks aimed at ending
nearly a year of violence in Kosova went into their 11th day Wednesday.
``Chris hasn't characterized it at all,'' Phil Reeker, a spokesman for the mediators,
said. ``He went to take his message. He laid it all out to make sure there could be no
ambiguity in our position.''
Some Serb sources said Milosevic's words might not necessarily mean a final rejection of
the peacekeeping force.
Western diplomats observing the talks have repeatedly said they expect any serious dealing
to be done only in the last day or so before a Saturday mid-day deadline for an agreement
set by the big-power Contact Group.
According to Tanjug, Milosevic ``noted that he expected a successful and lasting agreement
to be reached, in line with the adopted principles of the meeting in Rambouillet.''
In Rambouillet, Reeker said the mediators were revising the text of the draft accord to
take into account written reactions to it from the rival parties, who have so far held no
direct negotiations with each other.
Officials described as ``an important step'' the fact that the Serbian delegates had
finally handed over written responses, as the ethnic Albanians had previously done.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and his British counterpart Robin Cook were
expected to travel to Rambouillet Wednesday to pile further political pressure on the two
sides to seal an agreement by the Saturday deadline.
Diplomats said they had now received detailed replies from both delegations to Contact
Group draft documents covering autonomy and economic redevelopment for Kosova, a mainly
ethnic Albanian province of Serbia.
But sensitive sections on police and military arrangements have not yet been formally
presented. Officials have said this part of the plan was essentially non-negotiable,
sparking bitterness in both camps which consider the security aspects to be among the most
important.
``For us Kosova is not an economic problem. It is a political problem and, above all, a
military problem. We must have a say in the way the military aspects are resolved,'' said
a source close to the ethnic Albanians.
The Kosova Liberation Army, which is strongly represented at Rambouillet, has been
battling Serb forces in a bid to gain independence. More than 2,000 people have died and
hundreds of thousands have been left homeless in the fighting.
Security annex unnegotiable?
Rambouillet, 16 February (ARTA) 2230CET --
No essential change seems to have been made in the twelfth day at Rambouillet. Serbs
continue not to cooperate with international mediators, not handing in any objections to
the drafts proposed so far.
The Albanian side shows readiness to cooperate, passing by several of the drafts and
annexes proposed. Annex 4 and annex 4A, which have to do with economy and reconstruction,
as well as humanitarian assistance, were discussed on Tuesday.
According to some claims from the Chateau, the most problematic issue remains the draft on
security issues. "Koha Ditore" sources say that this annex is unnegotiable.
There are even claims that this annex will be issued just before the conference in
Rambouillet ends, namely on Saturday noon.
In other words, this annex will not be given to the negotiating parties, despite requests
by the Albanian side, which is determined to know the fate of the KLA.
The pat position, which the Serb side imposed by not cooperating with the mediators,
resulted with Ambassadors Hill, Petritsch and Mayorsky, travelling to Belgrade to meet
Milosevic. Sources say that this is an effort to evade the negotiation stalemate. NATO, on
the other hand, is now finalizing operation plans.
U.S. Negotiator at Kosova Talks Visits Milosevic
By JANE PERLEZ
PARIS -- The man who is most likely to make or break the Kosova peace talks, President
Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, was visited in Belgrade on Tuesday night by the chief
American negotiator, who brought him an account of the proceedings so far.
Clinton administration officials said the negotiator, Ambassador Christopher Hill, was
also instructed to repeat to Milosevic privately what he has been told publicly by the
West: Agree to a NATO-led ground force in Kosova or NATO planes will bomb Serbia.
With a Saturday deadline for the end of the talks approaching, the pressure was increasing
on Milosevic, who has ruled Kosova with an iron hand in the last 10 years and in the last
year has turned it into the site of another violent Balkan conflict.
Hill, who negotiated with Milosevic at the Dayton talks that ended the war in Bosnia, left
the meeting without comment after nearly four hours with the Yugoslav leader. After Hill's
departure, Milosevic's office issued a statement reiterating his "negative
position" on allowing foreign troops into Kosova.
However, diplomats are expected to continue pressing Milosevic. The Yugoslav leader, a
master at finding cracks in Western expressions of unity and at tactical maneuvers, is
expected to keep the suspense mounting on his final position until the last minute, and
Tuesday's meeting was the first of what some diplomats believe are likely to be several
visits to Milosevic as the countdown to Saturday rolls on.
The State Department said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had phoned
Milosevic earlier on Tuesday and asked him to see Hill, who is the ambassador to
Macedonia. The other two negotiators at the Kosova talks are Wolfgang Petritsch of
Austria, representing the European Union, and Boris Mayorsky of Russia.
Because Milosevic declined to attend the talks himself, Hill was left with little choice
but to fly from Paris to Belgrade to see him.
The Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegations to the talks remain at Rambouillet, 30 miles
south of Paris, where they have been staying since the talks began at a 14th-century
castle there 10 days ago.
NATO has authorized its secretary general, Javier Solana, to order air strikes against
military targets in Kosova and in Serbia if Milosevic does not accept a settlement that
has at its heart a force of 28,000 NATO-led peacekeepers.
The bitterest pill for Milosevic to swallow is the presence of foreign soldiers in Kosova,
which is a province of Serbia and has been described repeatedly by Milosevic as sovereign
territory.
At the castle in Rambouillet, the ethnic Albanian delegates, whom Albright praised during
a visit there on Sunday for their readiness to sign a peace deal, expressed uneasiness
about some aspects of the plan. They were still waiting, two of them said, to see the most
important documents. These included the plans for how the Serbian security police, who
have been held responsible by the United States for the massacre of ethnic Albanian
civilians, would be dispersed from Kosova and for how peacekeepers would be deployed.
Vertan Surroi, a newspaper publisher and a key delegate for the ethnic Albanian side, said
the Kosova Liberation Army, which has been fighting an insurgency against the Serbs for
the last year, should be allowed to keep some kind of "officer structure." One
of the demands of the peace plan is that the guerrillas give up their weapons.
Speaking by phone from the castle, Surroi said of the demand to demilitarize the
guerrillas: "It is my feeling you cannot go from an existing stage to expect the
whole thing to disband. There should be a midway."
But Surroi said everything depended on Milosevic's agreeing to the 28,000 troops in
Kosova.
Hashim Thaci, political director of the rebel Kosova Liberation Army, said the ethnic
Albanian delegation was prepared to sign an agreement that "guarantees peace and that
the people of Kosova are free to have a democratic state."
Asked whether he was insisting that the ethnic Albanians, who make up more than 90 percent
of the population of Kosova, should be allowed to call a referendum on their future after
three years, Thaci said as much but without using the word "referendum."
"It is the right of the people of Kosova that at the end of the interim period they
be allowed to decide their own fate," he said.
The notion of a referendum has been pushed by the ethnic Albanians -- and is anathema to
the Serbs -- because the Albanians would easily win a referendum on whether Kosova should
become independent. But independence is opposed by the Serbs and by the West.
Under the terms of the agreement that has been put to both sides at Rambouillet, Kosova
would become autonomous with the right to develop its own parliament, police, courts and
other institutions. The future of the autonomy would be decided at the end of three years. |
