Reçak villagers, including eye-witnesses to the 15 January massacre, have found refuge in Godanc

PRISHTINA, Feb 1 (KIC) - Heavy Serbian special police forces have surrounded today (Monday) morning the village of Godanc i Epërm, municipality of Shtime, less than 30 km south of Prishtina, the LDK chapter in Shtime said.

There is fear Serb forces may move into the village and crack down on the defenseless Albanian population, it said.

Many residents of Reçak village, including eye-witnesses of the massacre of 51 Albanians on 15 January, have found refuge in Godanc i Epërm village, a local LDK leader in Shtime told the KIC.

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One Albanian Killed, At Least Two Wounded in Bomb Attack in Prishtina

Second explosive device, in separate incident, causes no injuries PRISHTINA, Feb 1 (KIC) - An Albanian students was killed, and six other young Albanians were wounded at 22:20 CET on Sunday when a bomb was hurled by unknown assailants in the "Beqa" grill bar in Vellusha street in downtown Prishtina, the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) said. The killed university student has been named as Osman Ibrahim Gashi (23), resident of Baran village of Peja ('Pec'), western Kosova.

Meanwhile, an eye-witness told the KIC a taxi driver, Fatmir Ramadani, was seriously wounded, whereas another young man received light injuries.

The explosion was very powerful, and a hole was created inside the grill bar, while furniture was hugely damaged, the eye-witness, a resident in the area who reached the scene soon, said.

Another eye-witness, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a tall man with a black overcoat was seen leaving the scene and being driven away by a waiting car a few meters away.

Meanwhile, a second blast occurred Sunday evening in the courtyard of the "Gëzimi II" cafe in front of the Radio Prishtina in the center of the city.

Unidentified people hurled the explosive device at 22:00 CET, Rrahman Ismaili, the proprietor of Gëzimi said, adding that there were no injuries and material damage.

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Albanian Found Killed in Western Kosova

PRISHTINA, Feb 1 (KIC) - The body of the sixty-two-year old Ali Visoçi (62), resident of Llukavc i Begut village, was found Sunday in a garbage dumping site by the Gjurakovc-Klina roadway, western Kosova, LDK sources in Istog said.

It was the Serb police who told the family about the whereabouts of the dead man.

The family said Ali had been shot dead with two bullets, and bore signs torture about the body.

The funeral of Ali Visoçi, father if six, will take place today (Monday) in his Llukavc i Begut village at 14:00 CET.

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Grave Situation in Isniq Village of Deçan

PRISHTINA, Feb 1 (KIC) - A highly volatile situation has been reported in the village of Isniq, municipality of Deçan, since last evening when arms shooting was heard near the village, on the Deçan-Peja roadway, LDK sources said.

Two Serb policemen were reported shot and wounded in the unsolved incident.

More than 6,000 Albanians, who have found refuge in Isniq, spent the night in anxiety and fear of possible reprisals by Serbian forces.

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21, out 25 Albanians Killed in Rogovë e Hasit Identified

PRISHTINA, Feb 1 (KIC) - 21 out of 25 Albanians killed by Serbian forces in the village of Rogovë e Hasit on Friday were identified by Sunday, the LDK chapter in Prizren reported. It gave the names of the slain people.

Local LDK officials in Rogovë said the Serbian forces had taken some of the Albanians from their houses in the village, while still in bed early in the morning on Friday, killing them eventually.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Kosova Liberation Army (UÇK) for the Pashtriku Zone known by his nom de guerre "Drini", called on the international community to call the carnage what it really was - "a well-planned massacre aimed at ethnic cleansing of Kosova".

The 25th victim of the Rogovë massacre was found hundreds of meters away from the site where most of the others were killed, the local chapter of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms in Prizren said.

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Bodies of Reçak Massacre to Be Collected from the Prishtina Morgue on Tuesday

PRISHTINA, Feb 1 (KIC) - The bodies of the Albanians slain in what has become known as the Reçak massacre will be collected from a morgue in Prishtina, capital of Kosova, on Tuesday, more than two weeks after their death, local LDK sources in Shtime told the Kosova Information Center (KIC) today (Monday).

The Serb regime authorities, in charge of the Prishtina hospital morgue, said they could only be picked up in the presence of family members or relatives, the KIC has learned.

The time and venue of the funeral of the 45 Albanian civilians killed on 15 January has not been yet set.

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Monday February 1, 12:40 PM

Kosova simmers with violence in run-up to talks

By Kurt Schork

PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb 1 - Violence simmered on in Kosovo on Monday as Yugoslav and ethnic Albanian leaders jostled for position ahead of peace talks called by the international community for the weekend.

International envoys were due in the province to try to convince ethnic Albanian leaders who have yet to commit to the negotiations outside Paris, called amid fears of widespread fighting if a political settlement is not reached soon.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said he was hopeful peace talks would take place but efforts to set the negotiations up "are extraordinarily difficult."

"I have not yet received any assurances," he told a television station. "At this stage nobody has said 'no'."

Western diplomats said they were surprised the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had not yet responded unreservedly to the talks invitation. A KLA spokesman reiterated on Monday that the guerrillas wanted a Serb withdrawal from Kosovo first.

"We don't think it should be necessary for six of the most powerful nations in the world to beg the KLA to come to a peace conference that is manifestly in its own best interest," said one diplomat, referring to the big power Contact Group.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has also yet to give his reply to the call to negotiate, which is backed by NATO threats to bomb Serbian military targets if he does not comply.

Diplomats say their biggest fear between now and the start of the talks is of an outbreak of violence in the southern Serbian province that may cause one or both sides to boycott the peace conference.

Government forces and separatist KLA guerrillas have clashed sporadically in the past two months in violation of a ceasefire agreed on October 15.

International verifiers said a Serbian armoured brigade, backed by heavy artillery, remained much in evidence at the site of some of the worst clashes around Podujevo, 32 km (20 miles) north of the Kosovo capital of Pristina.

A grenade thrown through the window of an ethnic Albanian cafe in Pristina and wounded two others on Sunday evening. It was the city's fourth grenade attack in 48 hours.

Three Serbian policemen were wounded overnight, one of them seriously, when their civilian car was hit by a rocket- propelled grenade in western Kosovo after they were stopped by a makeshift, barbed-wire barrier thrown across the road.

U.S. ambassador to Macedonia Chris Hill, the man who has been spearheading negotiations for a peaceful settlement, was due to arrive in Pristina early on Monday afternoon to meet ethnic Albanian leaders.

Wolfgang Petritsch, the European Union envoy on Kosovo, was expected to join Hill for the discussions.

"They're coming to speak to some of the leaders who have yet to commit to going to the talks, to listen to their questions and concerns," Phil Reeker, Hill's spokesman, said.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook met ethnic Albanian leaders from Kosovo in the Macedonian capital of Skopje on Saturday to deliver a Contact Group invitation to peace talks scheduled to begin in Rambouillet, outside Paris, on Saturday.

The invitation was backed by the threat of NATO air attacks on parties who refuse to cooperate. Britain, France and Germany have committed to deploy ground troops in Kosovo to enforce any peace deal finally agreed.

Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo's most popular ethnic Albanian leader and the man most associated with non-violent resistance to Serbian rule, has agreed to go to France.

Veton Surroi, publisher of Kosovo's top Albanian language daily newspaper, also signed on for the talks. Adem Damaci, KLA political representative, has pledged to respond in a few days.

The KLA's Kosova Press agency on Monday quoted KLA spokesman Jakub Krasniqi as saying the guerrilla group backed negotiations but Serbian security forces should first withdraw from Kosovo and release all prisoners.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has yet to make a final reply to the Contact Group injunction but said on Saturday the conflict should be resolved within Serbia, casting doubt on his willingness to send delegates to France.

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Ethnic Albanians United on Independence, Divided on Other Issues

AP 01-FEB-99

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Less than a week before Kosovo Albanians were expected to begin peace negotiations with the Serbs, U.S. and British diplomats were shuttling between hotel rooms, explaining plans to rival ethnic Albanians who won't even sit together.

Ethnic Albanian leaders may be united by the common goal of independence for their Kosovo homeland, but beyond that, they are divided by personality, philosophical differences, petty rivalries and the desire for power.

The United States and five major European powers have called for an international Kosovo peace conference Saturday. Its success may depend largely on whether these groups can speak with a single voice in negotiations with the Serbs.

NATO has authorized Secretary-General Javier Solana to launch military action in Yugoslavia if the diplomatic initiative fails.

"There is considerable pressure now for them to unite, and it's not only coming from the international community but from inside the Albanian community as well," Veton Surroi, an influential ethnic Albanian journalist, told The Associated Press.

Independence from the Yugoslav republic of Serbia is a goal agreed on by most Kosovo Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the province's 2 million people. Mahmut Bakali, the former Communist Party president in Kosovo, says international pressure probably will lead the rivals to overcome their differences.

"There is no difference in the goal of independence," he said. "These rivalries are irrational."

Still, animosities are strong and have sometimes exploded into bloodshed.

In September, moderate politician Sabri Hamiti was critically wounded in an unsolved ambush after expressing readiness to negotiate only self-rule -- the goal of the talks in Rambouillet, France.

The key ethnic Albanian players are Ibrahim Rugova, the twice-elected "president" of a Kosovo government that the Serbs have never recognized; and the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has rebounded from battlefield defeats last summer.

Although independence remains his goal, Rugova has accepted a plan for an "interim solution" to grant Kosovo sweeping autonomy for three years. After that, Serbs and ethnic Albanians could reconsider full independence. But Albanian state television quoted senior KLA official Jakup Krasniqi as saying "negotiations organized in a rush do not guarantee success for the solving of the Kosovo problem."

Krasniqi, who met last week with U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, was quoted by the rebel news agency Kosova Press as saying the guerrillas "remain open to negotiations with relevant international actors." Rugova, a French-educated poet, pacifist and symbol of Kosovo Albanian resistance, was for a decade the unchallenged leader of his community until the KLA emerged in November 1997 to launch a campaign of armed struggle.

Rugova is an unlikely leadership figure, especially in a region with a tradition of iron-fisted, charismatic rule. A soft-spoken, almost reclusive figure, he did not venture outside of Pristina for months last summer until Hill virtually dragged him out of the city to see the depth of suffering among the people he would lead. On the other side stands the KLA, whose attacks against Serb police prompted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to launch his massive crackdown on the ethnic Albanian community last February.

Only four months after being driven from most of their strongholds, the rebels have gradually slipped back, this time with more modern weapons, satellite telephones and crisp new uniforms.

No one has been identified as the leader of the KLA, but it has employed longtime political activist Adem Demaci as its spokesman and he represented the rebels at a meeting Saturday in Skopje, Macedonia, where British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Hill formally invited the ethnic Albanians to the Rambouillet conference. But longtime differences so divide Rugova and Demaci that the two insisted on meeting separately with Cook and Hill, who were forced to shuttle between rooms on the same floor of a Skopje hotel.

Rugova has accepted the demand for talks, but both Milosevic and Demaci said they would reply later. William Walker, the chief international peace monitor in Kosovo, has said he expects all the parties to attend the talks.

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Kosova Rebels Hint at Opposition to Peace Talks but No Firm

 AP 01-FEB-99

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Ethnic Albanian rebels are hinting at opposition to international peace talks on Kosovo this week, saying negotiations "organized in a rush" cannot resolve the conflict.

U.S. envoy Christopher Hill and Wolfgang Petritsch of the European Union were expected to press the proposal for talks during a visit to Kosovo today -- just five days before the peace conference is to open.

However, amid peace efforts and international demands to halt the fighting, violence erupted in Kosovo again Sunday. A small bomb was thrown into an Albanian-run cafe, reportedly killing one person and injuring two. It was the third bombing in as many days in Pristina, Kosovo's capital. On Friday, both an Albanian- and Serb-run cafe were bombed.

Also, police sources said three Serb policemen returning from the funeral of a slain officer were wounded late Sunday when ethnic Albanian rebels fired a grenade at their van in the southwestern village of Istinic.

And the Serb Media Center reported that three ethnic Albanians were wounded Sunday when gunmen broke into their home in a village near Stimlje, 20 miles southwest of Pristina. Fighting between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces in Kosovo has left at least 2,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The United States and five major European powers have demanded that both sides attend a conference this week in France to end the 11 months of violence and establish self-rule for the Serbian province where ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population.

NATO has authorized Secretary-General Javier Solana to launch military action in Yugoslavia if the diplomatic initiative fails to produce negotiations in a week and a settlement two weeks after that.

Neither Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic nor the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army has announced whether they will accept the demand, and told British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on Saturday they would reply within a few days.

In the rebels' first public statement since the demand was issued, a senior KLA official, Jakup Krasniqi, was quoted by Albanian state television Sunday as saying "negotiations organized in a rush do not guarantee success for the solving of the Kosovo problem."

Krasniqi, who met last week in Kosovo with Hill and Petritsch, was quoted by the rebel news agency Kosova Press as saying the guerrillas "remain open to negotiations with relevant international actors."

Kosovo's leading moderate ethnic Albanian politician, Ibrahim Rugova, accepted the offer Saturday, but the participation of the rebels is essential to the success of any agreement.

Under a U.S. formula worked out by the Contact Group -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- the talks would produce an "interim agreement" granting Kosovo substantial self-rule.

After three years, the Serbs and ethnic Albanians could take up the issue of complete independence -- the goal of most of the Albanian community. Milosevic has strongly opposed independence and has denounced the rebels as "terrorists."

The KLA has long refused to join any talks unless they would lead to complete independence for the province in Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia's two remaining republics. The rebels also insist that the Serb-led government first remove security forces from the province. However, the rebels have come under strong international pressure to accept the interim settlement and attend the talks in Rambouillet, France.

Milosevic has resisted talks outside Yugoslavia or any formula that limits the participants to Serbs and Albanians without the province's other ethnic groups, including Gypsies and Turks.

In a statement Sunday, the Yugoslav Left -- led by Milosevic's influential wife -- said "pressures exerted on our country regarding Kosovo are aimed at its destruction or destabilization" and transforming Yugoslavia into "a colonial state with a puppet government."

But the statement stopped short of recommending the government reject the peace talks ultimatum. Despite the negative signals, the chief international peace monitor in Kosovo said Sunday he expected all the parties to attend the talks.

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Monday February 1, 9:55 AM

Kosova Albanians urge leaders to unite

By Colin McIntyre

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France Sees Hope for Kosova Talks but No Replies yet

Reuters

01-FEB-99

PARIS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said on Monday he saw hope of Kosovo peace talks taking place but that neither side had yet replied to the proposal.

"I believe there are still real chances that things can get moving but we must not conceal that things are extraordinarily difficult," Vedrine told French television station LCI. France wants to host the talks -- proposed by the major powers of the Contact Group to bring an end to months of clashes between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas -- this week at a castle in Rambouillet southwest of Paris.

The two sides had neither rejected nor accepted the peace talks, Vedrine said. "I have not yet received any assurances," he said. "At this stage nobody has said 'no'." The leader of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, has accepted talks but separatists have not answered fully. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has requested time to consider the proposals. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook carried the Contact Group's February 6 deadline to Belgrade at the weekend. Milosevic told Cook he would reply shortly but hinted he might not attend the Paris talks by saying the issue should be resolved in Serbia.

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Monday February 1, 11:23 AM

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Sunday January 31, 8:55 PM

Belgrade paper publishes Kosova peace framework

BELGRADE, Jan 31 - Yugoslavia's leading pro-government newspaper Politika published a framework autonomy plan for Kosovo on Sunday which the international community has proposed as a basis for talks.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook presented the plan, alongside a summons to negotiations in France by February 6, to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and leaders of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians on Saturday.

Diplomats say it is meant to be a starting point for negotiations, which they want concluded with a detailed autonomy deal for Kosovo within two weeks.

Some analysts say its publication in Politika is a sign Belgrade is positive about the talks, although Milosevic has yet to respond to the summons.

The following is a translation of the text of the plan:

PRINCIPLES AND CHIEF ELEMENTS

Below mentioned are principles that cannot be subject to talks and the main elements the Contact Group agreed on:

GENERAL ELEMENTS

- Necessity of an immediate end to violence and abidance by the ceasefire.

- Peaceful solution through dialogue.

- Interim agreement: mechanism for a final settlement after an interim period of three years.

- No unilateral alteration of the interim status.

- Territorial integrity of the FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and its neighbours.

- Protection of the rights of all ethnic community members (preserving identity, language, education; special protection of their religious institutions).

- Free and fair elections in Kosovo (municipal and provincial) under OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) supervision.

- No side will criminally prosecute anyone for acts of crime related to the Kosovo conflict (exceptions: crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious international law violations).

- Amnesty and release of political prisoners.

- International involvement and the sides' full cooperation in implementation.

KOSOVO ADMINISTRATION

- The Kosovo population will be administered by democratically responsible Kosovo institutions.

- High degree of self rule achieved through independent legislative, executive and judiciary bodies (with competence over, among other things, taxes, finances, police, economic development, judicial system, health, education and culture (with the respect of the rights of ethnic community members), communication, roads and traffic, ecology).

- Legislative body - assembly

- Executive body: president of Kosovo, government, administrative bodies.

- Judiciary: Kosovo's judiciary system.

- Clear definition of competences on municipal level.

- Members of all ethnic communities should be fairly represented at all levels of administration and government.

- Local police should reflect the ethnic composition, with coordination on the provincial level.

- Aligning the Serbian and Federal legal framework(s) with Kosovo's interim agreement.

- Necessity of Kosovo's agreement in case of altering Kosovo's borders or proclaiming a state of emergency.

HUMAN RIGHTS

- Judicial protection of human rights incorporated in international conventions and rights of ethnic community members.

- Ombudsman chosen under international auspices.

- Role of OSCE and other relevant international organisations.

IMPLEMENTATION

- Conflict resolution mechanism.

- Setting up a mixed committee overseeing the implementation.

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Reuters 01-FEB-99

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton and his senior advisers on Monday discussed the possibility of U.S.

troops enforcing a peace deal in Kosovo and Defence Secretary William Cohen said any U.S. commitment would be small.

Clinton and his foreign policy team met for over an hour at the White House to review efforts to bring the two warring sides in Kosovo together for peace talks, amid a NATO threat to use military force against the Serbs if they refuse to take part.

But they also discussed the prospect of deploying U.S.

troops to monitor the ceasefire that would result from any peace deal between the Serbs of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said Clinton and his team made no decisions on a troop deployment but discussed what the mission would be and the so-called "exit strategy" -- how long they would stay and when they would be pulled out.

Top U.S. officials have been consulting members of Congress about sending ground troops to Kosovo if a ceasefire is reached, and so far there has been no major outcry against it, as the Senate impeachment trial of Clinton continues to grip Washington.

Cohen said at the Pentagon that European allies should bear the main burden of dealing with Kosovo and Washington had not decided whether to contribute troops to any Kosovo operation.

"My personal view is that European allies must bear a substantial burden in terms of dealing with Kosovo and that any participation by the United States should be as small as it could be given the military requirements for adequate protection," Cohen told a news briefing.

He made clear that any dispatch of troops would have to be preceded by a political agreement between Serbian leaders and ethnic Albanians seeking to break Kosovo away from Yugoslavia.

Cohen said the possibility of NATO air strikes to halt the fighting in Kosovo remained "very much on the table," but that U.S. warplanes would not drop bombs in support of rebels in Kosovo.

"We have indicated in the past we are not going to serve as their air force. That still is our position," he said.

Representatives from the so-called Contact Group -- the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany and Italy -- have summoned the Serbs and ethnic Albanians to France for talks by next Saturday. They set a tight deadline for concluding a peace deal between them.

NATO cleared the way on Saturday for the use of force to help impose any deal on Kosovo, but the Serbian province's warring parties have responded coolly to the international ultimatum to attend peace talks.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said he was optimistic a "critical mass" of Kosovar Albanian leaders would be at the negotiating table.

"The question is whether we can get a critical mass of Kosovar Albanians to understand that this is an historic opportunity that they should not miss," said Rubin.

Military planners estimated a force of between 20,000 and 30,000 would be needed to monitor the situation in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians are trying to break from Serb rule.

The size of the U.S. contingent is unclear because the size of the overall mission depends upon negotiations that have not even begun. Under various contingency plans, the range falls anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000, officials said.

Britain and France said on Thursday they were prepared to commit troops along with other NATO allies. British officials said London wants U.S. ground troops in any peacekeeping force.

Rubin, in answer to concerns that U.S. troops would be under foreign command in Kosovo, said the forces would be in an American chain of command through the supreme allied commander in Europe.

He said Albright had been reporting to the president on a range of issues regarding Kosovo, including diplomatic efforts on how to marshall the international community behind achieving an agreement in the Kosovo negotiations.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

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Albright Consults with Congress on Sending U.S. Ground Forces to Kosova

AP 01-FEB-99

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has started talking with members of Congress on the potential use of thousands of U.S. ground troops to keep any peace agreement that may be worked out for Kosovo.

As in Bosnia, they would be part of a monitoring group with European troops. In all, some 20,000 troops may be necessary to oversee a cease-fire.

Albright briefed President Clinton on Monday at the White House for 75 minutes on the outlook for a negotiated settlement. With the talks due to begin on Saturday at Rambouillet, France, U.S. and European envoys lacked a clear commitment from Kosovo Albanian rebels to participate.

On the other side, the Yugoslav government announced the Serbian Parliament, dominated by hard-liners and ultranationalists, would decide Thursday whether the Serbs would attend the talks.

With NATO threatening military force, the United States and five European nations last week demanded Yugoslavia and ethnic Albanians end a nearly yearlong conflict in Kosovo.

The so-called "Contact Group set mid-February as a deadline for a settlement.

Britain and France, the cohosts, already have announced they would commit troops to a peacekeeping operation in the Serbian province.

The Europeans deferred to the Clinton administration on threatening the Serbs with NATO bombardment if they did not halt their offensive in Kosovo. They, on the other hand, want the United States to be part of any peacekeeping force on the ground.

Albright began her consultations last Saturday, on her return from London where the six nations leveled their demands. She talked to Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, among others.

Albright's spokesman, James P. Rubin, said Monday there was no decision yet on U.S. troops. But he emphasized "there is a need and an urgency for American leadership and determination" in Kosovo, as in Bosnia, and offered assurances that while U.S. troops might be under the immediate command of a European their ultimate commander would be Gen. Wesley Clark, an American who is the supreme NATO commander in Europe.

"The United States has tried to calibrate very carefully what the relative roles and responsibilities of European countries and the United States ought to be," Rubin said.

Also, the spokesman said the United States had "significant national interests at stake" in ending the 11-month conflict in Kosovo.

These include the potential for a humanitarian catastrophe in the spring, when the weather is more conducive to fighting, and that the Kosovo conflict could spread to other areas of Europe.

Congress was skeptical about the use of U.S. troops in Bosnia to monitor the settlement engineered by the United States in November 1995 to end a 31/2-year ethnic war among Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

The peacekeeping operation has proceeded smoothly, however, with no American soldiers lost in any conflict in the former Yugoslav republic.

The U.S. contingent has been reduced to 6,900 from a high of 20,000.

On the diplomatic side, Rubin discounted reports that ethnic Albanians were divided and might not attend the negotiations.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill, who will head the American delegation, has been in touch with many of the key players, Rubin said. Hill "is fairly confident that we will be able to get a critical mass of Kosovar Albanian leaders, who will reflect the various points of view of the people of Kosovo," Rubin said.

The United States and the five European countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, have set as a goal maximum self-rule, but not independence, for the Albanians.

Many, including the Kosovo Liberation Army, want to split away from Yugoslavia, and some seek union with Albania.

Rubin said this would not be an impediment to negotiations.

"Right now," he said, "the international community is prepared to use military power in their behalf."

But Rubin warned that if the Albanians fail to negotiate and accept the self-rule plan, they will lose international support. Also, the United States could mount an embargo on new weapons for the Albanians, he said.

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Veton Surroi Sees Momentum for Peace

DAVOS, Switzerland, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The publisher of Kosovo's leading Albanian-language newspaper said on Monday he thought momentum for peace was growing in the troubled Yugoslav province even if it had to be imposed by NATO's threat of force.

Veton Surroi, who will take part in peace talks scheduled to start in France on Saturday, told a news conference that international pressure to end the fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo might well succeed.

"There is momentum at this stage to get into these talks and there is momentum to overcome many of the differences," he said while attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

"I'm not optimistic at all that the Serbs and the Albanians will get closer (on) their arguments. The gap is very, very wide. In this case we will see more an imposition of an accord than the ability of the parties to reach an agreement."

The big-power Contact Group has summoned Serbs and ethnic Albanians to the negotiating table to end the fighting, but Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels have not yet said definitively they will attend.

"It is very important to understand that the KLA initially has not refused to attend these talks," Surroi said. "They are in the process of studying (it). The feeling that we get is that the military commanders in the field are not saying 'no'."

He said he expected a definitive response within 48 hours.

Surroi said the outcome of peace talks should not be prejudged and that much depended on the way any self-determination plan for Kosovo was implemented.

But he added that the planned talks presented the best chance yet for peace.

"It has the biggest chances until now, not necessarily because the parties have become more serious...but the degree of international involvement is reaching a stage at which it is irreversible," he said.

"One of the most important factors here is NATO's 50th anniversary in April. I don't see a possiblity that NATO could afford to (reach) that very big date claiming that it is the umbrella of security in Europe with a conflict in the middle of Europe. The real deadline is actually April."

Surroi said a crucial test of any accord would be how well it changed Kosovo's fractured society and served as a catalyst for political reforms in the Balkans.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

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One Killed, Two Wounded in Pristina Cafe Bombing.

01-FEB-99

Prishtina, February 1 - One person died and two were wounded as a grenade went off in a cafe in the Kosova capital of Pristina overnight to Monday. All three were Albanian.

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No Guaranteed Kosova Peace Talks: UK Official

Xinhua 01-FEB-99

LONDON (Feb. 1) XINHUA - Britain said on Monday that it had no guarantee the peace talks between the warring Serbs and the ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo would succeed.

"I cannot confirm that the talks which we seek will take place. Nor can I guarantee that if they take place, they will succeed," Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said in a statement read in the parliament.

Last Friday, the Contact Group on former Yugoslavia, which comprises the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia, summoned the two sides in Kosovo to hold peace talks in France this week to avert all-out war in the southern Yugoslav province.

Cook said Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas, formed by ethnic Albanians, would not be able to stop the talks by staying away.

He warned Yugoslavia at the same time that NATO was ready to act if it refused to attend the talks, which will last a maximum of two weeks.

He also stated that possible air strikes could take place in Serbia.

Cook made his speech in the parliament two days after he had delivered the Contact Group's ultimatum to Yugoslav and Kosovo leaders, which said NATO's threat of action applied to both sides.

He said neither side would have to give up its long-term goals by attending the peace talks.

But he refused to rule out the chances of the province eventually gaining full independence, which was opposed by both Belgrade and the Contact Group.

"Those who want to see an independent Kosovo -- which does not embrace the Contact Group -- can take this opportunity of creating democratic structures which would create a political community within Kosovo which could be ready, if that was the outcome at some future date, to take that extra step," he said.

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Schroeder Optimistic for Kosova Peace Deal

Reuters 01-FEB-99

BONN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Monday he was optimistic that the West's threat of force, combined with Russia's diplomatic efforts, would help bring about a peaceful solution to the Kosovo crisis.

Schroeder, speaking after meetings with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, said he expected peace talks called by the international community for this Saturday in France to "start on schedule and reach a satisfactory result."

NATO's North Atlantic Council at the weekend granted Solana authority to order military strikes to back up pressure for a truce and talks between the Yugoslav government and ethnic Albanian separatists.

Russia, which is close to the Yugoslav government, has distanced itself from the threat of NATO armed action.

But Schroeder praised Moscow's constructive role in framing the latest call by the six-nation Contact Group for both sides to come to the negotiating table.

"What matters to me is that we both agree on the goal of reaching a political solution," Schroeder told reporters after meeting Ivanov.

Ivanov did not comment directly on the possible use of force by NATO, but stressed the need for international cooperation.

"The Chancellor underlined that we have common strategic goals -- not just in Kosovo," Ivanov said. "Russia is prepared to cooperate closely to deal with these challenges."

Earlier, Solana made it clear that he had full authority to order NATO military action in Kosovo in support of attempts to restore peace to the Yugoslav province, where some 2,000 people have been killed in fighting in the past year.

Varying interpretations have emerged from NATO capitals over how independently -- and how quickly -- Solana might order air strikes if he deemed them necessary.

Solana told reporters that no further decisions were necessary to launch military action: "Of course I will consult, but no formal decision will be needed."

The latest peace drive was sparked by the death of 45 ethnic Albanians last month in what international observers described as a massacre by Serb forces.

"This is a last opportunity to reach peace in Kosovo," Solana said. "We are ready to act if the parties do not come to an agreement."

Schroeder said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic should not underestimate NATO's resolve.

"It is particularly important that the warring parties, especially Milosevic, understand that the international community is deadly serious," he said.

Neither Belgrade nor the Kosovo Albanians have yet replied to the talks proposal.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

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UAE Condemns Serb Forces Over Kosova Violence

Reuters 01-FEB-99

ABU DHABI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates on Monday condemned violence by Serb military forces in Kosovo and said it backed international efforts to achieve peace in the province, the official WAM news agency reported.

"The UAE is following with deep concern the tragic events to which the residents of the Kosovo province are subjected at the hands of the Serb forces," the UAE ministerial council said in a statement carried by WAM.

Describing Serb military attacks in the province "ethnic cleansing," the statement called on "the international community, especially Moslem states, to take a decisive stand to stop the massacres."

Violence simmered in Kosovo on Monday as Yugoslav and ethnic Albanians jostled for position ahead of peace talks called by the international community for the weekend.

More than 100 people had been killed in Kosovo this year, despite an October truce brokered by the West, including 45 ethnic Albanians reported to have been killed in an alleged massacre by Serb forces in the village of Racak in January.

The Kosovo Information Centre reported shelling around the strategic town of Podujevo, on the main road to the rest of Serbia, which saw heavy fighting last week between Serb forces and separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

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New York Times February 1, 1999

Lessons of Balkans Applied to Kosova

By JANE PERLEZ

WASHINGTON -- As the Clinton administration rallies diplomatic and military measures to get talks going on a peace settlement in Serbia's Kosovo Province, lessons appear to have been learned from the long delay in moving to end the 3 1/2-year war in Bosnia. The question is: Has enough been absorbed to avert another long Balkan tragedy?

Eleven months after the conflict in Kosovo erupted, Washington has pushed the Europeans and Russia into calling the warring parties in Kosovo to a peace conference.

The administration was the driving force behind getting NATO to agree Saturday, under certain conditions, to the use of air strikes. Along with Britain, France and Germany, which have already declared willingness to commit ground troops to monitor an eventual peace settlement, the administration is also contemplating deploying ground troops, albeit a much smaller contingent than in Bosnia.

But doubts still loom about how serious the administration is about forcing President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, whose forces it blames for mass killings in Kosovo in the past two weeks, to yield.

Critics of the administration note that it was only after air strikes against the Serbs in Bosnia -- and not before -- that Milosevic was pulled to the negotiating table at Dayton, Ohio. Once he was there, it took the heavy lifting of big names in the administration: Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, and the weight of President Clinton behind them to seal an 11th-hour deal among Milosevic and the other feuding Balkan leaders.

The talks between the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians -- being convened at a French chateau in Rambouillet, 30 miles southwest of Paris, on Friday -- bear some superficial resemblance to the successful Dayton conference. A deadline -- Feb. 19 -- has been established for agreement, and the participants will be in the pressure cooker of an isolated setting.

But beyond that, Rambouillet lacks the heft of Dayton.

First, Milosevic himself will be absent, apparently fearful of leaving his redoubt in Belgrade. Associates of Milosevic have suggested that the Yugoslav leader fears that he has been secretly indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, and that he risks arrest if he goes to France. Instead, the Serbian delegation will be headed by Milosevic's longtime ally, Milan Milutinovic, president of Serbia, who is unlikely to be able to do anything without Milosevic's long distance assent.

Second, even from Belgrade, will Milosevic listen to the two co-chairmen of the conference, Robin Cook and Hubert Vedrine, the foreign ministers of Britain and France? "Cook is a good guy, but can Cook deliver Milosevic? I doubt it," said a Clinton administration official. The Americans are planning only a mid-level delegation at Rambouillet.

Third, if it is difficult to foresee Milosevic's agreeing to grant even more autonomy to Kosovo than that he stripped away a decade ago, what is the credible leverage against the rebels of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army?

Emboldened by a faster supply of better weapons than they have had before, the rebels may have little incentive to settle for less than the independence of Kosovo that they seek.

The notion that NATO can establish a blockade, as it has suggested, against arms coming across the precipitous mountains between Albania and Kosovo is not unlike suggesting a blockade in Afghanistan, an administration official said.

The Clinton administration has argued that the biggest stick they have against Milosevic is the "credible" threat of NATO air strikes. And with the 50th anniversary of NATO due to be celebrated with lavish partying and platoons of heads of state in Washington in April, the administration is anxious to solve Kosovo, rather than its being an embarrassing blot on the alliance's credibility as the festivities run their course.

"Solved" may in fact mean "managed," so that Kosovo is on a back burner, rather than supplying horrendous news of more massacres.

James Hooper, a retired American diplomat who is the executive director of the Balkan Action Council, a bipartisan group of former senior policy makers, said that even though the administration pushed for the right of NATO to bomb the Serbs, it might choose to back down at the last minute.

Hooper said he feared a repetition of October when Holbrooke, he said, decided to "trade in NATO air strikes for a phony cease-fire with Milosevic."

"If the administration does that," Hooper continued, "then what they are going to have is a hollow triumphal NATO anniversary."

For all the skepticism, the past two weeks of diplomatic maneuvering point to some progress in dealing with Milosevic and the tangled web of Balkan conflicts.

The usually fractured Europeans have come together, a coalescing of positions that Washington has long sought. The Blair government in Britain is politically stronger, and more proactive, than the administration of Prime Minister John Major. The Russians appear to be on board, largely out of a desire not to be isolated in forums to which they belong to -- in particular the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, which runs the mission of the estimated 1,000 monitors in Kosovo and is the only European organization in which Russia carries equal clout with NATO members.

And in this crisis, the secretary of state is Madeleine Albright, who comes from Central Europe, was forced to flee it as a victim of terror, and appears to understand the implacability of Milosevic. And the overall European commander of NATO is Gen. Wesley Clark, who has argued within the administration that Milosevic only understands force.

"That's all positive," said an administration official who was an insider critic of the policy toward Bosnia and spoke on condition of anonymity. "But it's not enough. If there were 100 bodies found in a massacre tomorrow and there were withering air strikes against the Serbs and we had heavy hitters as negotiators then you would be able to get Milosevic to the table. We're not there yet."

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The Independent

1 February 1999

Nato air strikes on Serbs could start in 48 hours

By Rupert Cornwell

Five days before the planned start of the Kosovo peace conference in France, the West is stepping up military and diplomatic pressure to force Serbs and Albanians to embrace the political settlement drawn up for them.

Kicking off what is bound to be a week of brinkmanship, Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, went to the Balkans in person to deliver the leading powers' ultimatum for a deal by 20 February. At the same time, Nato authorised its Secretary-General, Javier Solana, to unleash military action if he judges it necessary.

This means air strikes by the hundreds of Nato planes in the region could start with 48 hours' notice if President Slobodan Milosevic refuses to pull back his troops as he promised when agreeing last October's failed ceasefire. Alternatively, the alliance could move to close the supply lines of the insurgent ethnic Albanians if they spurn the summons to negotiate.

After meeting the Prime Minister in London on Saturday, the US Vice-President, Al Gore, warned that "the rest of the world is united in demanding that Milosevic comply". Washington is also edging towards committing ground troops to police a settlement, as Britain, France and Germany have already done. Subject to congressional agreement, the Pentagon could contribute up to 5,000 of the total force of 30,000 men who might be required.

All that remains is for Serbs and Albanians themselves to attend the peace conference, to be chaired jointly by Mr Cook and the French Foreign Minister, Hubert Vedrine. "I told Milosevic the Contact Group proposals [on Kosovo's autonomy] offered him a way out of a conflict he cannot win against the great bulk of the Kosovo population," Mr Cook said yesterday. "I also told the Kosovo Albanian leaders that the proposals would provide for a democratic self-governing Kosovo free from fear and bloodshed."

The clearest-cut acceptance has come from Ibrahim Rugova, political leader of the Kosovo Albanians, but he is perhaps the least significant of the protagonists. The two who matter most, President Milosevic and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), are still considering their options.

Adem Demaci, a senior political representative of the KLA, told Mr Cook he needed time to consult commanders in the field - thus indirectly underlining the divisions between the Albanians' political and military leaders, which have hampered efforts to restart peace talks.

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The Independent 31 January 1999

Meet Kosova's number one man

A Sorbonne-educated professor will lead the KLA to the negotiation table. By Raymond Whitaker in Pristina

IT IS no accident that Ibrahim Rugova, the man most of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians consider their president, looks like a Left Bank intellectual. He is a Sorbonne-educated professor of literature and aesthetics, who displays his diploma from Paris on the wall of his offices.

If Serbs and Albanians do indeed sit down and begin to negotiate the future of Kosovo next weekend at the chateau of Rambouillet, it will be deeply satisfying for the 54-year-old Mr Rugova. To be accepted as the embodiment of Kosovar Albanian aspirations by the international community, which once considered him a dangerous idealist, would be the culmination of an ambition; but for this to happen in France would be a dream come true.

Many obstacles still lie in the way of these hopes, however, not least the rise of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which demands immediate independence from the rump Yugoslavia - in effect, Serbia and the radical nationalists who control it. Last week the KLA called for a new Albanian assembly, which would drastically diminish Mr Rugova's status. He replied sharply in an interview with the Independent on Sunday: "They should start to behave as a serious political force. Given the present situation, it is too much of a luxury for us to be divided.

"The vast majority of [Albanian] groupings are pretty much engaged in the process. Of course there are some who are doing nothing to help" - it was clear he meant the KLA - "but we are working hard to get them to participate more closely and assume responsibility. The Serbian side are trying to convince the world that we are divided, and use that as a pretext to continue their behaviour in Kosovo."

Mr Rugova became the spokesman for the Albanian community, who constitute 90 per cent of Kosovo's population, almost by accident. In 1988 Serbs broke away from the Association of Writers of Kosovo, of which he was president, and the organisation produced an influential statement of Albanian political aims. The following year he was made head of the Democratic League of Kosovo (known by its Albanian initials, the LDK), which has been compared to Solidarity in Poland in the way it operates as a cross between a political party and a mass movement.

Noel Malcolm, author of a history of Kosovo, describes the strategy of Mr Rugova and the LDK as threefold: "To prevent violent revolt; to 'internationalise' the problem . and to deny systematically the legitimacy of Serbian rule, by boycotting elections and censuses and creating at least the outlines of the state apparatus of a Kosovo 'Republic'."

The third aim has been surprisingly successful, given the level of Serbian oppression, although in some ways the oppression has helped. The mass sacking of Albanians from government jobs spurred the creation of separate schools, for example, financed by a tax most Albanians are happy to pay, especially those working abroad. Forced into private enterprise, many of the community have prospered more than Serbs who still cling to their state employment.

An unofficial referendum gave overwhelming support to independence; elections, held using private homes as polling stations, have endorsed the LDK equally strongly. Its leader, returned by a landslide last March, is commonly referred to as "President Rugova" by Albanians.

And if Rambouillet happens, the problem of Kosovo will certainly have been well and truly internationalised. The question for Mr Rugova, however, is what has brought this about. The savage reaction of the Serbian security forces to the eruption of armed resistance by the KLA has done more in 10 months to bring the international community into the equation than his years of patient efforts; it has also left his first aim, preventing violence, in ruins.

Yesterday the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, was due to tell Mr Rugova and other Albanian leaders that they had a week to put a delegation together for talks. Apart from the KLA challenge to his authority, however, there is likely to be deep disagreement over aims. The advent of the guerrilla movement has sharpened his demands for independence (although he denies it), but some Albanians are impatient with his continual hints that compromises are possible.

"We support an interim accord, with a referendum on independence at the end of three years," he told the Independent on Sunday. "Independence is the optimum solution, and the accord is a means to that end." That does not go down well with those who want to get shot of Serbia as soon as possible.

In the view of these opponents, the older and more middle-class leaders of the LDK tended to rest on their prestige among the Albanian population until the guerrillas appeared on the scene to shake their complacency and demand more vigorous action against Serbia. Mr Rugova also suffered from his close association with Sali Berisha, the disgraced president of Albania who fell from power in 1997.

Many urban intellectuals in Pristina deride Mr Rugova as a man left behind by events. But even they admit that his support remains solid, particularly in the countryside. "They are very feudal in the villages," he loftily declared. He might have been surprised at the acuteness showed by at least one villager. As the intellectual would have predicted, he began by pronouncing: "President Rugova is the number one man in Kosovo. We have him to thank that this killing did not happen earlier.

"On the other hand," he went on, "the KLA has made these talks happen faster. They [Mr Rugova and the guerrillas] have to find a consensus, and I think they will. I support the idea of a referendum after three years if that is what we can get. It will take 10 years for the KLA to get as strong as the Serbs, and I don't want to wait. It's we civilians who suffer most in this fighting."

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The Times

February 1 1999

British tank force ready for Kosova

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

BRITAIN is preparing contigency plans to send up to 8,000 troops, equipped wih tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery, to Kosovo to enforce a peace settlement if the warring parties reach a deal.

Ministers are being warned that if Nato is deployed in the Yugoslav province in a peacekeeping role, Britain will be expected to play a substantial part and to contribute a heavy armoured force for an alliance presence that could total 36,000 troops. Germany has said it will contribute 3,000 soldiers.

A question mark remains over whether the United States will send troops. to Kosovo. Al Gore, the Vice-President, said no decision had been made, but Sandy Berger, the National Security Adviser, said: "Don't count on us (sending troops)."

Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, returned to London on Saturday night after delivering the six-nation Contact Group demand for peace talks to President Milosevic in Belgrade and to Kosovo Albanian leaders at Skopje.

Mr Cook said the Serbian leader had said he was committed to a peaceful solution. Two out of the four ethnic Albanian representatives also agreed to attend the talks scheduled to start on Saturday in Rambouillet outside Paris.

To spur the warring sides towards negotiations, Nato's North Atlantic Council at the weekend approved the launching of airstrikes if the Contact Group's diplomatic efforts failed.

If a peace deal is reached,Britain will be expected to play a substantial role because Nato's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, based in Germany, has been selected to send an operational headquarters to Kosovo and the corps is commanded by a British officer, Lieutenant General Sir Michael Jackson.

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The Times

February 1 1999

Kosova foes snub West's initiative

Anthony Loyd from Pristina

THE twin-barrelled efforts of Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, to set the stage for ending the Kosovo crisis seemed destined for disaster yesterday after the protagonists gave his initiative a cool response and their forces continued fighting.

The body count from Friday morning's Serb ambush of a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) unit in the village of Rogova stands at 24. Tit-for-tat grenade attacks that evening on Serb and Albanian bars in the province's capital, Pristina, left five civilians seriously injured.

Mr Cook presented Contact Group demands for both Serbian and Kosovo Albanian parties, including representatives of the KLA, to attend negotiations towards a political settlement which are to begin outside Paris next week. This summons was backed by a Nato deadline involving potential airstrikes for non-compliance.

But while Belgrade gave a lukewarm welcome to the idea of talks, President Milosevic insisted that there could be no intermediate ceasefire, no prospect of eventual independence, and remarked that, as Kosovo was an integral part of Serbia, its problems should be solved internally.

KLA representatives, who want nothing short of full independence, pledged merely to respond to the ultimatum in a few days. Only Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate and increasingly discredited "president" of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo, told Mr Cook that he would attend. In spite of the international community's recent flurry of diplomatic activity, which has been lent apparent cohesion and credibility by the threat of Nato action, there are gaping holes in the timing and strategy of the peace initiative. Last summer the West stood by as Serb security forces laid waste to swaths of Kosovo's rural hinterland in a gamble to crush the fledgeling guerrilla army and its nascent popular support. The Serb move and the West's complacency backfired dramatically. After more than 300,000 ethnic Albanians fled their burnt-out homes, KLA recruitment soared while Albanian attitudes hardened at the expense of liberal leaders such as Mr Rugova.

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The Times

February 1 1999

Milosevic's 'final solution' could split province in two

WESTERN diplomats fear that a cornered President Milosevic of Yugoslavia could throw the Rambouillet peace conference, scheduled for next week, into confusion with a plan to divide Kosovo territorially, taking up to 40 per cent into Serbia and leaving the rest to the ethnic Albanians.

Splitting Kosovo has long appealed to academics in Belgrade, and various maps and charts have been unfolded before secretive committees during the past decade of Yugoslavia's collapse. Analysts and diplomats close to an increasingly beleaguered Milosevic inner circle have given a warning that the Yugoslav President may be about to play his last trump card.

His "final solution" would give away part of the supposedly sacrosanct province in return for security guarantees for remaining Serb pockets and monastic enclaves. If tempted really to chance his arm amid the hunting grounds of Rambouillet, he might try to sow the seeds for a swap, with Kosovo being abandoned in return for the prospect of Serb territory in Bosnia rejoining Serbia proper.

Braca Grubacic, an independent Belgrade analyst who publishes the VIP newsletter, said in a recent edition: "Many Serbian politicians believe division is the best solution, if not now then in a few years . . . Serbian leaders also believe Republika Srpska might eventually secede from Bosnia-Herzegovina, which would facilitate the creation of an ethnic Serb state in the future."

A redrawing of maps and shifting of populations sends shivers down the spine of Balkan peacekeepers. The Contact Group document given to Mr Milosevic by Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, is presaged on Kosovo staying intact and within Yugoslavia. And a divided Kosovo is anathaema to its Serbs; many were moved there by Mr Milosevic from Serb areas of what is now Croatia.

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The Times

February 1 1999

Nato told to set up action teams

FROM IAN BRODIE IN WASHINGTON

HIGHLY trained civilian intervention units should be set up to take advantage of early warnings and so prevent crises in such trouble spots as Kosovo, according to a report published today.

They should be organised by Nato in co-operation with the European Union and other international groups, says the British American Security Information Council (Basic), an independent research organisation. When it was announced last autumn that 2,000 civilian "verifiers" would be sent to Kosovo, no one knew where they would come from or what type of training would be required, the report says.

Once again an ad hoc contingent of retired officers, diplomats, young volunteers and an assortment of humanitarian personnel had to be assembled quickly. The only essential qualifications listed in advertisements for recruits were a valid driving licence, spoken English, physical fitness and immediate availability, said Dan Plesch, director of Basic.

The suggested units would employ engineers, social workers, peacekeepers and other specialists. A media section would be able to set up a portable, low-power television and radio station to explain the unit's mission to the local population and ask for help.

Lightly-armed police or paramilitary teams would be included for protection, drawn, for example, from the French CRS riot police, Italian carabinieri or German border units. The past decade has shown a need to be able to deploy 5,000 to 15,000 people quickly. That would require equipping and training up to 45,000 people.