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Friday, Feb. 19, 1999, 12:00 PM.
Podujevė neighborhoods struck in shelling
Podujevė, 18 February (ARTA) 2130CET --
The KLA positions in Llapashticė, Katunishtė and Obranēė were shelled during Wednesday
night. Witnesses state these shellings were the most intensive so far. "During the
shelling, grenades also fell on the neighborhoods of Podujevė, in the direction of
Obranēa", CDHRF sources in Podujevė inform.
The material damage caused is considerable. The workshop of Shaqir Potoku was destroyed as
well as the houses of Halim Halabaku, Vehbi Haliti, Hasan Dema and Sabit Haliti. Shaqir
Potoku suffered minor injuries to his face. The residents of this neighborhood fled their
homes seeking safer places during the night".
The scene was visited on Thursday by the OSCE Humans' Rights representative, Vladimir
Aleksandrov, who said: "I came to evaluate the situation, and I feel sorry that for
the time being I cannot offer you any other help", he said shortly for the
"KD".
Convoys from Serbia arrived on Thursday as well. This time it was, 4 terrain vehicles, 3
trucks and two APCs.
In the meantime, the majority of the villages of the Llap region have no electric power
for several days now.
One killed person was found today in Pestovė village of
Vushtrri
One killed person was seen on the main road of Pestovė village of Vushtrri, Albanian
sources in this town informed. His identity could not be obtained, but shooting with arms
were heard in this village around midnight, this source informed. OSCE mission was
informed about this case, whereas large Serb forces went in this village today.
One Albanian woman wounded by unknown persons in Shkabaj village of Obiliq
Unknown persons shot on the house of Hajrush Shkodra in Shkabaj village of Obiliq
yesterday, LDK sources in this town informed. On this occasion his mother Kadime Shkodra
was lightly wounded.
66 lorries of Serb army went today in the direction of Kishnica mine
Large Serb forces went in the direction of Kishnica mine today, Kosova information centre
informed, referring to eyewitnesses. 26 lorries went in this direction around 9 am,
whereas 40 other lorries of Serb army went around 11 am.
Movement of Serb forces from Ferizaj in the direction of Shtime
KLA's News Agency "Kosova Press" also informed on the movement of Serb forces. A
military convoy of backed up with 10 tanks, 3 lorries and other military vehicles went
from Ferizaj in the direction of Shtime around 10 am.
Kosova Guerrillas Smell a Rat at Rambouillet Talks
PRISTINA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - International mediators are angling to blame ethnic Albanians
if Kosova peace talks in France collapse, a senior separatist guerrilla officer said in an
interview published on Friday.
"With this stealthy manoeuvre the sponsors of this conference want to blame the side
which so far has been the most cooperative," said Hashim Thaqi, political director of
the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) and a participant in the negotiations at the chateau in
Rambouillet.
His comments were made on Thursday to Kosovapress, the KLA media outlet, and reported on
Friday in Koha Ditore, Kosova's leading Albanian-language daily newspaper.
Thaqi based his complaint on the most recent variant of a draft agreement on autonomy for
Kosova presented by the mediators, which he said "did not have any positive
amendments in it in comparison to the previous one."
"On the contrary," he added, "it includes all the main issues that the Serb
side insisted upon."
"We believe that this is an attempt to bring before the Kosova delegation an issue
that has already been settled in order to put the blame on the delegation."
Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegates have been holed up in a 14th-century chateau outside
Paris for nearly two weeks trying to agree on a form of autonomy for Kosova.
The six-nation Contact Group, sponsors and mediators of the talks, have given the parties
until noon on Saturday to conclude a deal or face the consequences, which in the case of
the Serbian side could include NATO air strikes.
Mediators have generally praised the ethnic Albanian side for seriousness in the talks and
blamed the Serbs for dragging their feet.
The content of substantive discussions have been kept private and many details of the
proposed deal remain a mystery.
Thaqi commands great respect within the ranks of the KLA and is regarded by some as first
among equals within the five-man KLA team that sits as part of the Albanian side at
Rambouillet.
The KLA is fighting for independence but will have to accept some form of internationally
agreed autonomy if it hopes to sign an agreement at Rambouillet.
The Serbian side has been raising the most serious and consistent public objections to the
proposed peace deal.
Thaqi, in his comments, may simply have been trying to ensure that no last-minute
concessions are made to Belgrade to secure a Serbian signature at ethnic Albanian expense.
The KLA leader insisted that his side was interested in peace but only if it were just and
equitable.
"Kosova is between two roads, between war and peace," he said in the interview.
"We are interested in peace, but a fair peace. The war road won't lead anywhere
good...but we are fighting a fair war and we will win."
Serbs Standing Firm Against Peace Plan, Despite International
Pressure
(Belgrade, Yugoslavia-AP) -- With a deadline for a Kosova peace deal fast approaching,
Serb leaders remain defiant against putting NATO peacekeepers in the troubled province.
American envoy Christopher Hill has arrived in Belgrade to make a last-ditch appeal to
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (sloh-BOH'-dahn mee-LOH'-shuh-vich), and to make it
clear that NATO will launch air strikes if a deal is not reached. Hill has been mediating
the Kosova peace talks in France.
Before Hill's arrival, Milosevic wasn't sounding like a man about to back down. The
country's official news agency has Milosevic defiantly rejecting a NATO force, saying
"We will not give away Kosova, not even at the price of bombing."
Kosova peace talks nearing deadline; NATO prepares to act
RAMBOUILLET, France (CNN) -- With peace talks heading toward failure, mediators launched a
last-ditch push Friday to persuade Serbs to sign a peace agreement with Kosova's ethnic
Albanians before a Saturday deadline expires.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was scheduled to return to France Friday to try
to persuade the Serbs to allow foreign peacekeeping troops onto Yugoslav soil to monitor a
peace agreement -- if one is reached.
The Serbs' refusal so far is threatening to derail negotiations in Rambouillet that are
aimed at ending the yearlong conflict in Kosova, a province in southern Serbia, one of two
republics in Yugoslavia.
Some 2,000 people have died in the fighting since Serbs launched a crackdown last year
against ethnic Albanian separatists seeking independence for Kosova.
The Serbs are refusing to agree to a Western demand that any deal for Kosova be policed by
30,000 NATO troops, including 4,000 American soldiers.
NATO has threatened airstrikes against Serbia if an agreement is not reached by noon
Central European time (6:00 a.m. EST) Saturday.
About 430 NATO strike and support planes -- including 260 U.S. jets -- are on alert. A
Pentagon official suggested an initial strike of 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles could send a
sharp message to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic without risking alliance warplanes.
Although negotiators in Rambouillet said progress was still being made, Albright said she
had told Milosevic he would be "hit hard" if the negotiations failed.
"Either he will see the Kosova agreement as a way to deal with the Kosova situation
or he can decide he will take his country into a desperate, chaotic situation," she
said.
Serbian President Milan Milutinovic pleaded with the United States and the five European
nations trying to work out a peace agreement for the Serb province to stop pressuring
Yugoslavia into accepting NATO troops and instead focus on political matters.
The Serbs have been told the presence of troops was not negotiable.
"Threats, pressure and ultimatums over the troops can only distance the participants
in the talks from the essence of the problem and a much-needed political agreement about
the problems in Kosova," the official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoted Milutinovic
as saying.
Sources close to the Serbian delegation at the talks said if the pressure continued, they
might consider allowing international troops in Kosova, but only if they did not include
soldiers from "unfriendly" nations such as the United States, Germany, Britain
and France.
When push comes to shove
International pressure on Milosevic reached a new height on Thursday. NATO
Secretary-General Javier Solana warned the alliance would strike fast if there was no deal
and Britain, France and Germany all issued new pleas to Yugoslavia to settle.
The White House dismissed a warning by Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday that
Russia "will not let you (the United States) touch Kosova."
"We're aware that Russia has opposed the use of force in Kosova," said David
Leavy, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council.
"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.
Some Western embassies in the Yugoslav capital have announced plans to withdraw staff
before the Saturday deadline.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, who is leading the peace talks, said "substantial
progress" was being made but acknowledged that there was more work to be done.
Hill made a dash to Belgrade Friday to push Milosevic into an agreement.
Warnings to Belgrade delivered by Foreign Ministers Hubert Vedrine of France and Robin
Cook of Britain, co-hosts of the conference, were unforgiving.
"Either end the conflict and bring Yugoslavia into the family of modern European
nations, or thrust it once again into a cycle of internal conflicts and isolation,"
the ministers said.
Allies Reiterate Threats to Serbs Albright to Join Kosova
Peace Talks
By William Drozdiak Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 19, 1999; Page A01
BERLIN, Feb. 18—With the clock ticking toward a noon Saturday deadline, the United
States and its European allies combined renewed threats of NATO bombing with last-minute
diplomatic maneuvering today to pressure Yugoslav officials and ethnic Albanian leaders to
accept a peace accord for the war-torn Serbian province of Kosova.
The principal stumbling block to achieving an agreement at the 12-day-old Kosova peace
talks outside Paris remains the opposition of the Serb-led Belgrade government to
accepting a NATO-led force of 28,000 peacekeeping troops on Serbian soil. In an effort to
break the impasse, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright plans to leave for France
Friday to make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the Yugoslav-Serbian side to drop its
opposition to the peacekeeping force.
Senior diplomatic sources said a final ultimatum to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,
who wields ultimate power over the Serbian delegation at the talks in Rambouillet, France,
would include a warning that 430 NATO aircraft, including F-117 stealth fighter jets and
B-52 bombers, are ready to launch punitive bombing raids if his negotiators block an
agreement. The NATO bombing would begin by knocking out Yugoslav air defense systems and
escalate into strikes against the bases of Serbian paramilitary forces that have waged an
offensive against ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas in Kosova for the past year.
Albright said she spoke by telephone today with Milosevic and described the grave risks he
was courting. "He should understand that if airstrikes occur, he will be hit hard,
and he will be deprived of the things he values," Albright said. "I think he
understands that this is a key moment in terms of the future of . . . Yugoslavia."
Kosova -- a province Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic -- has a population of about 2
million people, 90 percent of them ethnic Albanians.
Even as NATO warplanes within striking range of Yugoslavia were placed on 48-hour alert,
alliance defense chiefs were preparing for an alternative scenario if the two sides should
come to an agreement -- the immediate deployment of a vanguard peacekeeping force that
would hit the ground only hours after a peace deal is signed.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has committed a force of 1,855 Marines to become part
of the first wave of 7,000 NATO peacekeeping troops that would move into Kosova by way of
the Aegean Sea, Greece and Macedonia. In addition, U.S. Army troops in Europe, who would
compose the bulk of the 4,000-member American force that would take part in the
peacekeeping mission, began training for their possible deployment.
Western diplomatic sources said Milosevic was being offered some incentives to agree to a
peace accord, such as relief from political and economic sanctions, which include a ban on
participation in international financial institutions. Yugoslavia might also gain greater
flexibility on military matters included in any peace settlement, such as an increase in
the number of troops it would be allowed to position along Kosova's border with Albania.
If the final hours before Saturday's deadline produce signs that Milosevic is willing to
make concessions, senior Western officials said it is possible that the deadline might be
postponed by a day or two. But they emphasized that if Belgrade's intransigence thwarts an
agreement, it is almost a certainty that NATO airstrikes would begin by early next week.
NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, who was given authority three weeks ago by the 16
NATO members to determine when to launch airstrikes, indicated he would not hesitate long.
"It would be very soon," Solana said at a news conference today in Macedonia.
"If an agreement is not reached, if the negotiations fail, NATO knows very well what
to do."
As a precaution against Yugoslav retaliation, the United States, Britain and Canada
demanded that all nonessential personnel be evacuated from their embassies in Belgrade by
Saturday. They also advised all of their citizens to leave Yugoslavia.
Preparations to evacuate the 1,200 members of an international mission assigned to verify
a Kosova truce that has all but collapsed also are underway. Albright met today with
Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, who heads the 55-nation Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is responsible for the mission, to discuss
"the very real possibility" that its members would need to be removed ahead of
NATO airstrikes.
NATO diplomats acknowledge there are lingering anxieties among some European allies about
the wisdom of launching airstrikes, especially in the absence of any explicit authority
from the U.N. Security Council. Russia has been adamantly opposed to NATO bombing raids,
and President Boris Yeltsin expressed his opposition to the alliance's intervention again
today.
NATO diplomats said there were concerns within the alliance about whether airstrikes could
backfire on Western strategy. Even if the Serbs were bombed back to the negotiating table,
the attacks might embolden the main ethnic Albanian rebel group, the Kosova Liberation
Army (KLA), to fight on for independence. While opposing independence for Kosova, the
United States and its European allies have proposed a restoration of the province's
autonomy, which Milosevic, as president of Serbia, rescinded 10 years ago.
"The alliance has always said it did not want serve as the KLA's air force," a
senior NATO diplomat said. "But if we start bombing and the Albanians see the chance
to gain independence on the ground, there is little hope they would come back to
negotiations even if Milosevic had a change of heart."
The 1,855 Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit would join a French-led force
based in Macedonia and NATO rapid-reaction units based in Germany, all under the command
of British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, as part of the first wave of peacekeeping troops into
Kosova.
That "enabling force" would secure transport and communication routes between
Macedonia and Pristina, Kosova's capital. Troops and equipment would then begin moving
through Greece and Macedonia from the Aegean port of Thessaloniki.
Regardless of how the negotiations turn out, alliance military officials said they were
bracing this weekend for the biggest projection of military power since a NATO-led
peacekeeping force moved into Bosnia more than three years ago to supervise the truce
established by the Dayton accords.
"We're still hoping for a political agreement that will send in our troops in a
peaceful environment," a senior NATO diplomat said. "But if we are forced to
launch bombs instead, our aircraft are well-positioned to the job. We just hope it won't
prove necessary."
Western diplomats leaving Belgrade as Kosova deadline nears
Mediators present 'final version' of peace plan
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- With time running out for negotiators to reach an agreement
over Kosova or face NATO airstrikes, Western embassies and aid agencies in Yugoslavia
announced plans to withdraw staff before the Saturday peace deal deadline.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington on Thursday said progress
"was far too slow" at the peace talks in France, and that U.S. diplomats were
beginning planning in case they needed to evacuate staff from the U.S. Embassy in
Belgrade.
She said she warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that if airstrikes occur
"he'll be hit hard."
Meanwhile, mediators at the Kosova peace conference presented rival Serbs and ethnic
Albanians with a "final version" of a political settlement for the embattled
province.
Albright said she discussed with Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, who also heads
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the "very real
possibility" that if the current stalemate continues, the OSCE's verification mission
would have to be evacuated ahead of NATO airstrikes.
"The next two days will show whether such action is indeed necessary. I think I can
speak for (Vollebaek) in saying that we are both confident that the mission and NATO are
ready for any eventuality," she said.
The State Department announced late Thursday that Albright would return to France Saturday
"to urge both sides in the negotiations at Rambouillet to seize this opportunity to
achieve an interim settlement agreement for Kosova."
'Increased tension in the air'
The Canadian and British embassies also said Thursday they would start withdrawing staff
as the Saturday deadline approached.
The British Embassy advised British nationals to leave Yugoslavia immediately "in
view of the increasingly volatile situation."
"There is increased tension in the air," said one Canadian diplomat, who said 11
diplomats and their families would leave Friday, but that the embassy in Belgrade would
remain open with reduced staff.
Some aid organizations also said they planned to withdraw staff.
"We have 22 expatriates in the country, and we'll go down to a core staff of less
than 10," said Bob Turner of the International Rescue Committee.
Representatives of all the nongovernmental organizations operating in Kosova were to meet
Friday to review their evacuation plans.
Vollebaek backed Albright in demanding an agreement by noontime Saturday, the deadline set
by a six-nation Contact Group that has been mediating the talks in Rambouillet, France.
He said he had urged Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to put pressure on Milosevic to
accept NATO peacekeepers in Kosova as part of any peace accord.
"We are very concerned," he said on behalf of European governments.
Milosevic has flatly rejected the deployment of international peacekeepers in the Serbian
province, which Western mediators and NATO officials have said are necessary to enforce
any agreement.
Strikes could start 'very soon'
NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said in Macedonia on Thursday that NATO airstrikes
against Serbian military targets could start "very soon" if the talks failed.
The United States has ordered an additional 51 warplanes to Europe to beef up forces
already on standby for possible action in the Balkans.
The action prompted Russian President Boris Yeltsin to warn that Moscow "will not
allow Kosova to be touched."
Russia, which has adamantly opposed the use of force against Yugoslavia, is a member of
the Contact Group, along with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy.
Christopher Hill, the U.S. diplomat who is the chief mediator at the peace talks, said
Thursday that commentaries from both sides had been studied and amalgamated into a
document, and that both sides had been sent "a kind invitation to consider it as a
final version."
Hill said the document includes major compromises.
"There are people on both sides who are unhappy with it," he said. "We
intend to get this (signed) by noontime on Saturday."
U.S. prepares for war or peace in Kosova
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Whether it's war or peace in Kosova, the United States on Thursday was
preparing militarily for either possibility.
The Clinton administration again warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of the
threat of NATO-led airstrikes against Serb military installations if there is no peace
deal with Kosova's ethnic Albanian majority by noon on Saturday.
But, if an agreement is reached, other U.S. military personnel are set to join an
international peacekeeping force.
"There are these two paths that we are focused on," said Capt. Mike Doubleday, a
Pentagon spokesman.
The United States and its allies hope the threat of force will intimidate Milosevic into
accepting their plan to end a yearlong conflict between Serb troops and secession-minded
ethnic Albanians in Kosova, a province in the dominant Yugoslav state of Serbia.
Negotiations taking place outside Paris appear to be deadlocked over the Serbian refusal
to tolerate any outside peacekeeping force on Serb territory.
The plan backed by the six-nation Contact Group -- the United States, Russia, France,
Britain, Germany and Italy -- calls for Milosevic to pull most Serb troops out of Kosova
and replace them with some 28,000 NATO peacekeepers, including about 4,000 U.S. troops.
Here are the latest developments:
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is to return to France Saturday to encourage
both sides to hammer out a peace deal. Albright said Thursday she had spoken to Milosevic
by telephone, warning him that "he will be hit hard and he will be deprived of the
things he values" if Saturday's deadline is not met.
Albright gave credence to the warning by announcing that 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 the Yugoslav capital of
Belgrade was an obvious choice, because the diplomats could not remain during a NATO
bombing campaign.
The Pentagon was proceeding with plans, first announced on Wednesday night, to add 51 U.S.
warplanes to an already powerful attack force in Europe. (Full story).
Doubleday said the planes, including a dozen F-117 stealth fighters, would leave the
United States for bases in Europe within the next 48 hours.
With the additional planes, there are 260 U.S. aircraft available for any NATO strikes
against Serbia, Defense Secretary William Cohen said in Seattle.
The Pentagon also is studying the possible use of ship-fired Tomahawk cruise missiles,
said U.S. officials who asked not to be identified. Doubleday declined to confirm that
cruise missiles would be used, but added, "I would not rule out that particular
weapons system."
About 2,200 Marines aboard three Navy vessels continued heading toward Greece so some of
them can arrive in Kosova within days of any peace agreement.
Current plans call for 1,350 of the Marines to go ashore at the Greek port of
Thessaloniki, travel overland to a staging base in Macedonia, then proceed to Kosova,
where they would join other NATO troops that would eventually make up a force that would
stay for at least three years.
Within a month or two, the U.S. Marines would be replaced by about 4,000 soldiers from the
U.S. Army's First Infantry Division, based in Germany. They would fly in, while their
equipment was brought in through Greece and Macedonia.
Diplomats Leaving Yugoslavia as Kosova Peace Talks Near
Deadline (NY Times)
Western embassies began evacuating staff and NATO troops stood poised at Yugoslavia's
border Friday, ready to pull international monitors to safety as the deadline approached
for a peace agreement for Kosova.
Hopes for a last-minute breakthrough were dealt a blow as Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic insisted he would not back down over the province even if NATO goes through with
promised airstrikes.
The American mediator for the talks in France, Christopher Hill, arrived in the Yugoslav
capital for talks with Milosevic in a last-ditch bid to strike a deal before the Saturday
noon deadlline.
With NATO threatening airstrikes should the deadline pass without an accord between Serbs
and ethnic Albanians, some residents of Kosova's provincial capital, Pristina, started
stocking up on food, fearful of both airstrikes and retaliatory attacks by Serb forces.
About 2,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands been driven from their homes in a
year of conflict in Kosova. Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the province, and most
want independence from Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic.
NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana refused to say how soon airstrikes would come if the
deadline passed with no deal, ``but let me say this would be soon.''
Solana spoke Thursday from neighboring Macedonia, where he was simultaneously overseeing
plans for either deployment of peace troops to enforce any peace accord or for an
``extraction force'' that would help evacuate 1,300 international monitors ahead of NATO
bombing.
Yugoslavia has vehemently rejected the deployment of a NATO peacekeeping force, which the
United States and its European allies say is vital to enforce any peace deal.
Shortly before Hill's arrival, Milosevic defiantly rejected the NATO force, even in the
face airstrikes.
``We will not give away Kosova, not even at the price of bombing,'' he said, quoted by the
official Tanjug news agency.
Milan Milutinovic, the president of Serbia warned that Western threats ``can only
distance'' the negotiations from reaching a deal.
With the deadline looming, Western embassies in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, prepared
to send nonessential staff and dependents out of the country. Canadian diplomatic families
were seen packing into cars today and heading out for the Hungarian capital Budapest.
Staff in the Dutch Embassy were also departing.
In London, the Foreign Office said the families of British diplomats planned to leave
today.
U.S. officials said the American Embassy was operating normally with full staff.
In Pristina, Col. Mike Philips said the monitors who are in Kosova to oversee an earlier
cease-fire were preparing for a quick evacuation if necessary. But he said the force
remains in place today.
Meanwhile, Serb military convoys were on the move across southern Kosova, in what monitors
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe suspected might be a show of
force ahead of the deadline.
Tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery rolled along the main roads, in lines up
to 30 vehicles long. The government in Yugoslavia's other republic, Montenegro, was
reportedly calling up reservists; similar mobilizations were rumored to be taking place in
Kosova.
Among Kosova's outnumbered Serbs, resistance only hardened with each passing hour.
``The Americans ask too much, so what the hell,'' said Dragan, a 25-year-old Serb in
Kosova Polje, a Serb-dominated town outside Pristina.
``If they bomb, we'll just finish off the rebels, and that'll be it,'' said Dragan, who
would give only his first name.
In Pristina itself, some started buying supplies as a precaution.
``There has to be some agreement,'' said Esat Dauti, talking with a friend on an icy
street. ``There's no other way.''
On a front line in the north, Kosova Albanian guerrillas kept government forces in their
rifle sights, fully expecting imminent bloodshed across the province, including Pristina.
``If they start to bomb Serbia, the police and army will burn the whole place,'' said one
rebel commander stationed at an outpost 600 yards from a Serb tank that stood sentry on a
snowy hill.
Kosova Deal Hinges on NATO Role
RAMBOUILLET, France, February 19 (Reuters) - With 24 hours to go, a peace deal for Kosova
hinges on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic grudgingly accepting NATO troops on his
soil.
The key to that question lies in Belgrade, not Rambouillet, which is why chief U.S.
mediator Christopher Hill flew to the Yugoslav capital on Friday hoping that the threat of
NATO air strikes would induce Milosevic to relent before Saturday's noon (1100 GMT)
deadline.
Despite misgivings among the province's ethnic Albanians about giving up their arms
without a guarantee of an eventual referendum on independence, diplomats say they are
convinced the Albanians will sign on Saturday.
But Milosevic is seeking a high price for his surrender, including the lifting of U.N. and
European Union sanctions, readmission to international bodies, financial aid and, perhaps
most awkwardly, an assurance that he will not be prosecuted for alleged war crimes,
Serbian sources say.
EU officials are willing to grant some of Milosevic's wishes on sanctions and aid, arguing
that if he accepts NATO-policed autonomy for Kosova, he will be complying with the will of
the international community.
The United States is much less keen to reward the man it now sees as the root of the
Balkans' problems for the last decade.
"This is not about carrots and sticks. It's about him complying or getting
bombed," a U.S. official said.
Some Yugoslav analysts wonder whether Milosevic does not need to endure some NATO air
strikes to show his people he is conceding only under extreme duress to spare further
damage. But Western officials are working on the assumption he wants to avoid bombing.
Even if there is a Kosova deal, they say several other obstacles to normalisation with
Yugoslavia would remain, including the absence of a free media and shortcomings in civil
and political rights.
A European diplomat confirmed there had been discussion of the war crimes issue, but there
could be no public undertaking to give Milosevic immunity since it would undermine the
independence of the U.N. tribunal on former Yugoslavia.
However, it was conceivable Western powers might give some private assurance that they
would not present evidence to the prosecutor against the Serbian leader, without which the
chances of an indictment would be slight.
"I haven't seen anything anywhere on paper or formally about that, but then one would
not expect to," one diplomat said.
"There will be accords that are made public and others that are not. No one is going
to acknowledge this," another said.
Other question marks remain over the outcome of two weeks of talks at this secluded French
chateau southwest of Paris.
The ethnic Albanian delegation was outraged when it saw changes in a draft constitution
for Kosova on Thursday that they said reflected Milosevic's demands. One adviser said he
was worried that Hill would make further concessions on Friday.
"The concern is that if Milosevic says 'I want immunity for war crimes, lifting of
sanctions and five extra changes in the constitution', the easiest thing to give him will
be more changes in the constitution," the adviser said.
Diplomats and advisers to the delegations are convinced the Albanians will ultimately be
satisfied with a NATO presence, the withdrawal of almost all Serbian forces and an elected
Kosova assembly and government for a three-year interim period.
"The military annex of the agreement is a huge, huge gain for them. I'm confident
they will sign on Saturday," said one diplomat in the six-nation Contact Group
steering the talks.
The ethnic Albanians, especially the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) delegates, complain that
the constitution has been amended to add a complicating second chamber of parliament
composed of all Kosova's myriad ethnic minorities. It also includes unwelcome references
to Serbia and Yugoslav sovereignty.
"Even if you get NATO troops in, if the constitution doesn't work there's a real
possibility of creating a failed state in Kosova," the adviser to the Albanian
delegation said.
Western officials play down the Albanian concerns, insisting most of the changes to the
draft constitution have been cosmetic and playing up the fact that within one year of a
deal, there would be no Serbian police in Kosova and only 1,500 Yugoslav soldiers guarding
the external borders.
"If you think of where the Kosovars stood just a year ago, when Milosevic launched
his crackdown in Kosova, that will be an extraordinary achievement for them," he
added.
Next 24 Hours Should Settle Kosova's Fate
RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 19 (Reuters) - If all goes according to plan, the war-torn
Serbian province of Kosova should know within 24 hours whether it faces the nightmare of
more violence or a new dawn for its ethnic Albanian majority.
The stark options have hung over the peace talks between Belgrade and its Kosova Albanian
foes ever since the two sides entered Rambouillet chateau southwest of Paris on February 6
for two weeks of high-pressure "proximity talks."
At an arm-twisting session last weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned
delegates that they stood at a crucial junction in Kosova's troubled history.
"One fork leads to chaos, disaster and more killing," she said. "The other
fork leads to a rational solution that will achieve peace, democracy and human rights for
all the people of Kosova."
If there is a deal, the vanguard of a planned 28,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force would
be in Kosova within hours rather than days to begin securing a ceasefire.
But if the Saturday noon (1100 GMT) deadline for agreement brings failure and Belgrade is
blamed, NATO will switch to preparing its threatened airstrikes against Yugoslav targets.
The U.S. Navy could fire 50 or more Tomahawk cruise missiles from several surface ships or
two submarines already cruising in the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, defence officials
in Washington said. The first targets would probably be Yugoslav military communications
installations in Kosova.
About 430 NATO strike and support planes are on 48-hour alert for further attacks.
Fifty-one of the 260 U.S. fighters, including a dozen F-117A stealth bombers, were coming
from bases in the United States, probably on Friday.
The timing of any first assault remains unclear, but it could be days rather than hours
after a breakdown.
Albright and NATO Secretary General Javier Solana have warned of swift reprisals. But
other members of the Contact Group -- the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany
and Italy -- have raised doubts about how soon the bombs might fall.
Russia, long opposed to using force in former Yugoslavia, issued a "hands off
Kosova" warning on Thursday while France argued a failure would not automatically
trigger airstrikes.
French officials stress the attacks could start soon if Belgrade is clearly to blame, but
the situation would be far more muddled if both sides bear responsibility for a failure.
For example, some Western diplomats fear Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic might
accept a political agreement but reject a NATO military presence in a bid to split the big
powers.
With a less clear-cut outcome, French officials say, the Contact Group could spend days
debating whether Belgrade deserved enough blame to warrant any attack.
The ethnic Albanians would be harder to punish because they do not have fixed military
positions. If they torpedoed a deal, diplomats say, Western countries would try to cut off
their arms and money supplies and leave them to deal with Belgrade alone.
Diplomats in Rambouillet say the working assumption in the air-strike strategy is that
Milosevic would cave in after the first bombs fell and finally accept a NATO peacekeeping
force.
Since Milosevic has backed down several times before under pressure, diplomats say they do
not see him holding out very long against waves of bombing raids weakening one essential
pillar of his power, the Yugoslav military.
If the talks succeed, the initial reaction will also be military, but of a quite different
nature.
A vanguard of about 6,000 NATO troops is ready for prompt deployment to start taking up
peacekeeping positions for a three-year interim period as Kosova becomes autonomous within
Yugoslavia, holds elections and sets up its own government.
A French-led NATO force of 2,300, now stationed in Macedonia to evacuate ceasefire
monitors deployed in Kosova by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) if needed, would soon cross the border to join the force.
The rest of the force would arrive in the following weeks.
According to the latest draft of the peace deal, Belgrade would have to reduce its force
in Kosova to 1,500 troops along Serbia's external borders.
It would be allowed only 2,500 police in the first year and none in the second, by which
time an ethnic Albanian police force would have been raised.
Many local police were to come from the ranks of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), which
after a peace accord would be disarmed "in a staged but swift manner," as one
diplomat put it.
How effective this can be remains a moot point. The NATO force is to go door-to-door
collecting weapons from insurgents, but arms would be easy to hide in the rugged province.
Americans and Brits in 70 percent of Kosova
Garentina Kraja/ KOHA Ditore
Rambouillet, 18 February (ARTA) 2130CET --
The security annex issue seems to be the most delicate and problematic part of the
document to be approved in Rambouillet. Both parties expressed their scepticism and
concern with the issue. There are claims that this is the reason why the French and
British Foreign Ministers, Hubert Vedrine and Robin Cook, went up to the Chateau, on which
occasion they talked to the Albanians side, ensuring them that everything would turn out
for the better.
This issue was worked out in such detail, that besides operation plans for deploying
troops, the definition of zones where the troops are to be stationed has been foreseen as
well. "Koha Ditore" sources say that plans call for such troops deployment as to
reflect the engagement, trust, experience and approach that the troop-offering countries
had towards the Kosova problem.
American troops are assigned to patrol in the Eastern corner of Kosova, namely in the
Kamenicė-Viti-Gjilan line. Great Britain, with the largest number of troops - 8,000 - and
on-scene commander of the force, Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson, will have the central sector,
otherwise the largest part of Kosova, which includes Llap, Prishtina, Ferizaj, Malishevė,
Gllogoc and Skėnderaj. France will control Western Kosova, which means the
Pejė-Gjakovė-Deēan, and all the way up to Prizren. Italy will operate in the north, in
the Leposaviq-Istog-Zubin Potok-Klinė line. Germany, on the other hand, will control the
south, namely the Preizren-Shterpc-Shtime-Kaēanik-Han i Elezit line.
A guarantee for Kosova's territorial wholeness
There are claims that there was some friction between the French and the Britts, although
it has been confirmed that this is the final deployment map.
"At first, the French, as hosts to the negotiations, insisted on deployment in
Prishtina and central Kosova. However, a compromise seems to have been reached, enabling
the British, the major US ally, to take the role of Americans, who have had the greatest
hand in the Balkans. The French, on the other hand, will be assigned to the border with
Albania, which is more acceptable for Blegrade. Italians, as Contact Group members that
are known for their more-or-less pro-Belgrade stand, will be assigned to north-west
Kosova, which borders Serbia and has a greater Serb population. Germans, which were
positioned around the Sharr mountains logistically, now have the other side of the Kosova
border, namely the region around Hani i Elezit. Americans were assigned to Anamorava, the
geaographical part of Kosova that borders with Macedonia and Serbia, with the probable
reason of serving as a guarantee for Kosova's territorial wholeness", Ylber Hysa, the
executive director of KACI in Prishtina, evaluated.
Analysts do not exclude the possibility of this careful division of Kosova having the
tendency to evade historical reflections of these countries in the region.
The rules of engagement will be the same as Bosnia, officials say. Commanders will have
full authority to take any action necessary to protect their troops.
Solana could order strikes without further consultations
Some 2,200 Marines aboard a three-ship task force headed by the USS Nassau are steaming
around Greece so they will be ready to go into Kosovo within days of any peace agreement.
Current plans call for 1,350 to go ashore at the Greek port of
Thessaloniki, travel overland to a staging base in Macedonia, and then on to Kosovo, where
they would join other NATO troops that will eventually make up a force of 28,000 that will
stay for at least three years.
Within a month or two the U.S. Marines would be replaced by 3,940 soldiers from the U.S.
Army's First Infantry Division out of Germany, who will fly in, while their equipment is
brought in through Greece and Macedonia. The Pentagon announced on Wednesday night that
Defense Secretary William Cohen has ordered 51 planes to move to bases in Europe to
prepare for possible airstrikes against Yugoslavia, if there is no peace agreement by
Saturday's deadline. A statement from the Pentagon says that 12 F-117 stealth fighters, 10
EA-6B Prowlers, 4 KC-10 tankers and 25 KC-135 tankers will leave for Europe in the next 48
hours. NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana could order strikes without further
consultations with the 16 NATO nations, if he is convinced the Yugoslav leader is the
roadblock to peace. NATO sources said the United States is arguing that a limited cruise
missile strike would not only show Milosevic that NATO's threats are credible but could
also make it easier for him to explain to his people why he had to make concessions to
reach an agreement with the Kosova Albanians.
Yeltsin Vows to Disallow Force in Kosova
By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 19, 1999; Page A19
MOSCOW, Feb. 18—President Boris Yeltsin said today he would not permit attacks by
NATO warplanes on Yugoslavia if the Kosova peace talks fail to settle the conflict there
by a prescribed deadline of noon Saturday. Yeltsin said he had conveyed his views in
writing and by telephone to President Clinton, but the White House said that the two
leaders had not communicated recently.
Yeltsin, making a rare public appearance for a one-day Kremlin meeting with leaders of the
European Union, was asked to comment on U.S. plans to move 51 additional warplanes to
Europe for possible airstrikes on Yugoslav and Serbian forces if a draft plan for a
peacekeeping force in Kosova is not accepted by the deadline.
"I gave my opinion both in writing and on the phone to Clinton that it won't
work," said Yeltsin. "This is all. This is our whole reply. We will not allow
Kosova to be touched." Yeltsin did not say how Russia might respond.
But soon after the ailing Russian leader spoke, the White House denied he had been in
touch with Clinton lately, either by telephone or letter. The last time the two presidents
talked was at the funeral of Jordan's King Hussein 10 days ago, and their last significant
phone call was on Dec. 30, when Yeltsin did communicate a similar message, according to
White House officials.
"Russia's views on this issue are well-known," said National Security Council
spokesman David Leavy. "In the end, NATO will have to make a decision on the use of
force based on its own interests and the interest of the region and the interests of the
international community. We'll manage the differences with Russia in a constructive
way."
U.S. officials played down the confusion over communications between the two leaders,
saying they sought clarification from Russia after Yeltsin's remarks and were told they
were taken out of context. "Clearly he's recovering from some serious medical
history," said an official who asked not to be named. "I wouldn't read too much
into it. Everybody makes a misstep here or there."
Such a discrepancy about a high-level communication between Moscow and Washington is
unusual. Yeltsin's spokesman, Dmitri Yakushkin, said the Russian president later
reiterated to the EU leaders "the thoughts that he had expressed in the message to
Bill Clinton that he mentioned in front of the journalists." Yakushkin did not say
whether it was a written or telephoned message.
Russia has expressed consistent support for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and has
warned repeatedly against the use of force in Kosova, a predominantly ethnic Albanian
province where rebels are battling for independence from Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant
republic. Milosevic has resisted a plan to deploy 28,000 NATO peacekeepers in Kosova once
a peace accord is signed, including 4,000 U.S. troops pledged by Clinton.
The negotiations between Belgrade -- capital of both Yugoslavia and Serbia -- and the
Kosova Albanians have been underway for nearly two weeks at Rambouillet Chateau, outside
Paris, under mediation of the six-nation Balkans "contact group," made up of the
United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.
In a separate meeting here today with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer said Milosevic is "a catastrophe for his country" and
is making it difficult to reach a solution that would keep Kosova part of Serbia. If
Milosevic continues on his present course, he added, "in the long run this will bring
about a secession of Kosova." If Kosova is not given some autonomy now under
international control, he added, a "bloody war" is likely, and "Kosova will
most certainly break away . . . whether the West likes it or not." The real issue, he
said, "is how many victims it will take."
Ivanov said that if a peace deal is struck in the Kosova negotiations, Russia would
consider contributing troops to a peacekeeping force. If the talks fail, he said, the only
alternative is for another meeting of the contact group to look for a political solution.
"There can be no other way of settlement in Kosova," he said.
The visiting EU delegation said that Yeltsin, who has been out of public view for weeks
recovering from a bleeding ulcer, appeared healthy. "Today he was in very good shape,
and therefore I was very surprised and very encouraged," said EU Commission President
Jacques Santer. He was joined at the summit by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose
country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Ready for Trouble in Yugoslavia
By Nora Boustany
Friday, February 19, 1999; Page A18
"The pressure is mounting. . . . We are negotiating the final stage," Knut
Vollebaek, the foreign minister of Norway and chairman of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said yesterday about concerted efforts to subdue
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into accepting a peace process for Kosova under
threat of a NATO military strike. Vollebaek was getting ready to meet Secretary of State
Madeleine K. Albright at mid-morning and worrying about the possible need to evacuate some
1,200 OSCE "verifiers" in Kosova in case a warning by NATO Secretary General
Javier Solana to Milosevic went unheeded.
Vollebaek has been jetting around the globe, fielding calls from Solana and comparing
notes with French counterpart Hubert Vedrine and German opposite number Joschka Fischer.
The OSCE chairman said he and Albright saw "eye to eye" on the need not to
involve too many other groups in Europe and to "keep a lean structure with a clear
line of command" in seeing through a three-year transitional period in Kosova that
would lead to elections and the formation of democratic institutions -- with the backing
of a military force to keep the warring factions apart.
The Russians, he said, have indicated they are willing to be part of this ground force,
and added: "We would like to see an endorsement [for the force] by the U.N. Security
Council and to have a clear mandate to be able to use force to defend ourselves."
Despite the intensity of his travel schedule and the maddening trill of cell phones
popping out of his aides' pockets, the dapper Norwegian said he is enjoying his job.
"It's a challenge. What I like is that it is an important job for Europe," he
said. "It is a sign that the OSCE is more viable than widely believed and that there
is a larger role for it. A successful outcome in Kosova is essential."
Lunch for Women Who Made It
Singapore Ambassador Heng-Chee Chan hosted a power lunch Wednesday for some formidable
uber-ladies. Some showed up in pearls and silks, others in tight black leather pants and
stiletto heels, but the conversation was not about frippery. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor;
former congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, president and CEO of the Association of American
Publishers; Phyllis Elliott Oakley, the State Department's assistant secretary for
intelligence and research; Rose E. Gottemoller, the Energy Department's director of the
Office of Non-Proliferation and National Security; Paula Dobriansky, vice president and
Washington director of the Council on Foreign Relations; eight of Washington's nine female
foreign ambassadors as well as other moverettes and shakerettes traded historic anecdotes
about their first forays into the world of means and men.
O'Connor said she was offered a secretarial job when she interviewed at a law firm fresh
out of college, a position she turned down, thank you very much. But her main plug to
everyone was the importance of keeping the judiciary free. True economic development was
only possible with an independent judicial system, she advised the foreign envoys.
The best tale came from Judith Richards Hope, senior counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky
and Walker, whose first Wall Street job was the lowest on the totem pole. She was promptly
sent to fetch coffee by a male lawyer. She politely complied, headed for the elevator,
crossed the street and lined up at the nearest Chock Full o' Nuts. When she returned, Hope
was asked what she was owed. "Fifty bucks," she said dryly. "What?"
exclaimed her exploiter. "I'm a lawyer," she snapped, "and that took half
an hour." Hope is now a member of the small executive committee that runs Harvard
University, known as "the corporation."
A question raised over lunch was whether Albright should have stayed away from King
Hussein's funeral, as she did, because of a Muslim tradition prohibiting women from
accompanying men to a burial. Should she have gone anyway to make a point? What if she had
been president? Two queens, from Greece and Norway, got swept up with mourners to the
grave just the same, Jordanian officials explained later to State's chief of protocol, Mel
French. Nobody complained.
That Mysterious Cypriot Passport
Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said yesterday that his government is
investigating reports that a Cypriot passport was used in Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah
Ocalan's journey to Turkey after his mysterious capture in Kenya. If Turkey's Prime
Minister Bulent Ecevit were Iraqi President Saddam Hussein or Milosevic he "would
have received thousands of bombs," Kasoulides added, noting, however, that he was not
calling for the bombing of Turkey.
Kasoulides said the international community wants to solve the Cypriot question but is
"unable to do anything about it." He said Cyprus may join the European Union
eventually without its breakaway Turkish portion, if the dispute over the divided island
is not settled by 2003. Kasoulides said that in talks with Albright on Wednesday, he
revived a proposal for a military force from NATO and other sources to replace Turkish and
Cypriot forces on the island. "Cyprus would become a demilitarized zone, and the
force would stay there until confidence is restored," he said. "We want to
demonstrate that what we want in Cyprus is peace and stability, not confrontation."
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. |
