Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999, 11 AM.

Kosovo Talks Remain Deadlocked

RAMBOUILLET, France (AP) - Rival Kosovo Albanians and Serbs remained deadlocked today over a pledge to keep Yugoslavia's borders intact, amid signs their peace talks already are heading for trouble.

Apparently seeking to get the talks moving, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine were expected in Rambouillet today to meet with the mediators and the two sides.

The sides have remained so estranged that they haven't met face-to-face. A team of international mediators has been shuttling between rooms at the 14th century castle outside Paris where talks opened Saturday.

On Monday, Kosovo Albanians pressed for a formal cease-fire for the province, while Serbs sought a pledge to keep Yugoslavia's borders unchanged.

The mediators wanted to drop what they called ``side issues'' and move on to details of a peace settlement for Kosovo, where more than 2,000 people have died and about 300,000 have been driven from their homes in a year of fighting between ethnic
Albanian secessionists and Serbian security forces.

Hashim Thaci, political director of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army who heads the Albanian delegation, called for ``an immediate cease-fire agreement'' between the warring factions in Kosovo.

There has been a shaky cease-fire since October, when American troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke worked out a deal with hard-line Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

But a formal cease-fire, signed by both sides, would amount to a de facto Serb recognition of the KLA - something Serbs have vowed not to do.

The two sides were forced to the negotiating table by the renewed threat of NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia and further measures to cut off the KLA's arms supplies and financing.

The Serbs are insisting that all sides sign the list of 10 basic principles drawn up by the Contact Group of six nations, including the United States, as the basis for the talks here.

That is very important for the Serbs because those principles contain a guarantee that Yugoslavia's borders won't change. That would mean the ethnic Albanians would have to give up their demand for independence.

Conference spokesman Philip Reeker said, however, that all sides already had agreed to the principles merely by coming to the talks, and that they are not negotiable.

The ethnic Albanian newspaper Koha Ditore, published in Kosovo, quoted Western sources in today's edition as saying that chief U.S. mediator Christopher Hill was trying to convince the Kosovo Albanian delegation to sign the principles.

``Other sources said the Albanians did not accept anything,'' said Koha Ditore, whose publisher is a member of the Albanian delegation.

Earlier, a member of the Serb delegation, who requested anonymity, described some of the details in the Contact Group plan as ``horrifying'' because they would significantly reduce Serb authority in the province. He said the Serbs were preparing a list of amendments.

The ethnic Albanian delegation has made three demands at the conference: holding a referendum on the status of Kosovo following a three-year interim period, having NATO be a signatory to the agreement, and clearly defining the status of Kosovo.

The delegation regards the referendum as important because they believe the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian province will vote for independence.

Milosevic has rejected independence for Kosovo, which has 2 million residents, as well as the suggestion that tens of thousands of U.S. and other NATO troops be deployed in the province to police any agreement.

Defense Secretary William Cohen said Monday that President Clinton intends to include U.S. ground troops in any NATO force sent to preserve a Kosovo peace settlement, provided the accord is solid.

``We will be there to keep a peace, not to make a peace,'' Cohen told a news conference after meeting with German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping in Bonn.

Pressure Mounting For Kosovo Settlement French Official Makes Surprise Return to Talks

By Charles Trueheart
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 9, 1999; Page A09

PARIS, Feb. 8—French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine made an
unexpected return to the Kosovo peace talks today, adding to Western
pressure on Serbian officials and ethnic Albanian leaders to reach an
accord to end the fighting in the separatist province.

Vedrine, saying "I cannot be optimistic" about the outcome of the talks,
met with negotiators in a medieval French chateau in Rambouillet, France,
where the talks began Saturday. He was to be joined on Tuesday by
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, the conference's co-chairman.

The two opposing sides at the conference -- officials from the Yugoslav
federation and from Serbia, a republic of Yugoslavia, on one side, and a
medley of independence-minded ethnic Albanian representatives from
Kosovo on the other -- continued to review less-contentious elements of a
Western draft peace plan for Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's
dominant republic.

Foreign ministers of all six nations in the Balkans "contact group" -- the
United States, France, Britain, Italy, Germany and Russia -- are expected
in Rambouillet this weekend, at the midpoint of the negotiating period,
which is scheduled to end by Feb. 19.

More than 1,500 civilians have been killed and nearly 50,000 displaced
since Serbian security and Yugoslav federal army forces launched a
crackdown last February on ethnic Albanian guerrillas seeking
independence for Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs 9 to
1, but Serbs control the levers of power.

A Western-drafted peace plan would restore considerable autonomy to
the province but put off talks on a final settlement for three years. Ethnic
Albanians want to win Kosovo's independence, a goal that neither the
Serbs nor the international community support.

At Rambouillet today the two sides, still meeting with intermediaries and
not with each other, examined proposals for Kosovo's new constitution,
for elections to choose a representative assembly for the province's 2
million inhabitants, and for an international ombudsman to guarantee
respect for the interim accord, Western sources inside the chateau said.

One participant said the talks were transpiring in a "reasonable, rational
atmosphere. No one is rushing out of rooms. There are no contrived
incidents."

In the coming days, sources said, negotiators will take up an increasingly
contentious roster of issues. One will cover how Serbian forces will be
withdrawn from the province, and the provisional disarmament of the
guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, whose representatives are delegates at
the talks. The draft plan goes so far as to specify the size of firearms the
remaining Serbian forces, and the new Kosovo security forces, will be
allowed to use.

An unidentified member of the Serbian delegation called the draft text
"horrifying for us because it would take Serbia out of Kosovo completely,"
news services reported.

Not yet under formal discussion, sources said, is a pivotal piece of the
diplomatic puzzle -- the deployment of at least 30,000 troops in a
multinational force to maintain peace and security during the interim period.
The United States would contribute as many as 5,000 troops to a force
dominated by European military contingents and commanded by a British
NATO general -- all operating under the supreme authority of U.S. Army
Gen. Wesley Clark, the top NATO commander.

NATO's renewed threat in January to carry out airstrikes on Kosovo and
Serbia influenced both sides' decision to attend the peace talks here. A key
NATO meeting in Brussels Wednesday morning will glean the latest allied
thinking on the multinational force before it is taken up at the Kosovo talks.

Today the ethnic Albanians won a small tactical victory when their
American advisers, initially barred by the conference hosts, were allowed
to visit them at the chateau. They included former U.S. diplomats Morton
Abramowitz and Paul Williams.

The night before, they lost a maneuver when the three Western mediators
-- American Christopher Hill, Austrian Wolfgang Petritsch and Russian
Boris Maiorsky -- refused to entertain an ethnic Albanian motion to call an
immediate cease-fire in the province. A cease-fire theoretically has been in
place since an October accord between U.S. envoy Richard C.
Holbrooke and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

As Kosovo Talks Continue, NATO Troop Plan Lags Badly (NY Times)

By JANE PERLEZ

AMBOUILLET, France -- As peace talks in the Kosovo conflict entered a second session here, the plans for using NATO troops -- a key element of an agreement -- were lagging far behind, Clinton administration and NATO officials said Monday.

How a NATO force would be deployed and discussions over what authority it would have in Kosovo were far from final even though a two-week deadline has been set for the talks, the officials said.

The slowness in deciding the shape of a NATO force mostly reflected France's unsuccessful effort to have a force in Kosovo report to the "contact group" of nations, the officials said. The contact group, which consists of the United States, four Western European countries and Russia, is running the peace talks here.

Giving the group power over NATO forces would be similar to the kind of "dual key" situation created by the Bosnia peace accord. In that agreement, the United Nations could veto NATO action, officials said.

Such a dilution of NATO authority would be intended to make the force in Kosovo more inviting to Russia, which is taking part in the Kosovo talks, and to the Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic, who is under pressure to accept NATO troops as part of a deal, the officials said.

The lack of decisiveness on how NATO forces would operate in Kosovo, even as the peace talks are under way, contrasts sharply with the strategy during the Dayton negotiations that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995. There, the warring parties were presented with a NATO military plan, which gave the NATO commander huge powers in Bosnia, as soon as they entered the talks.

Nine days ago, France, the host to the talks here, insisted at a meeting of the 16 NATO members that the contact group should have oversight over any NATO air strikes against Serbia. But after 10 hours of debate, France lost its case. At the meeting, NATO authorized air strikes against Serbia if Milosevic failed to support a peace accord that negotiators are trying to forge now between the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians.

France, Britain and the United States have said that to buttress a peace agreement involving political autonomy for Kosovo, foreign troops are necessary.

France and Britain have announced that they will send troops to Kosovo on condition that a peace agreement is reached. President Clinton has been less definitive, saying he was "seriously considering" sending a contingent of American soldiers that would be smaller than any European contingent. But other NATO nations have not committed themselves to contributing troops.

Other uncertainties involve the actual operations of a NATO force. Military specialists describe the mission as a "tricky" situation that could be more dangerous than that of the peacekeeping force in Bosnia.

A draft of a military annex to the proposed peace agreement ascribes much greater powers to an international group of unarmed monitors than NATO military experts want. This draft military annex has not been presented here but is under discussion at NATO headquarters, officials said.

The annex states that during the three years that the peace agreement is expected to run, the Serbian security police, who have been suspected in most of the atrocities against ethnic Albanian civilians, would be under the control of the Kosovo Verification Mission, which is made up of unarmed monitors run by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

According to the draft, the Serbian security forces would be required to reduce their numbers to 2,500 and would carry out "only normal policing duties at the direction" of the head of the verification mission. The security forces now number about 11,000, in violation of a 10,021 ceiling set in October, a NATO military official said. The Yugoslav army has about 15,000 soldiers in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, which together with Montenegro makes up Yugoslavia.

One of the many unanswered questions, a NATO diplomat said, was how the security police would be disarmed and their units sent out of Kosovo. It was clear, he said, that unarmed monitors of the verification mission would not be capable of taking heavy weapons from the security police. "I fail to see how the OSCE could control the Serbian security forces without NATO help," he said.

And it was unlikely, the diplomat said, that nations contributing to a NATO force would want their soldiers working on such a potentially dangerous assignment unless NATO had undisputed military command.

Another problem facing a NATO contingent in Kosovo was how to disarm the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, which has become skilled at classic guerrilla hit-and-run tactics.

Kosovo is potentially a much messier situation for NATO, officials said. Unlike Bosnia, which is a sovereign country that NATO could essentially control, Kosovo will remain part of Serbia during the three-year peace agreement that is envisioned in the talks. Kosovo's borders would still be patrolled by the Yugoslav army, giving NATO much less control.

'No miracles,' say Kosovo mediators (BBC)

International mediators leading the Kosovo peace talks in France say there has been progress towards agreement between the delegations, but "no miracles".

"I'm very pleased with the progress ... but I don't want to imply for a minute that either of the delegations is particulary happy, " said US mediator Christopher Hill as discussions entered a third full day.

Speaking at a news conference, Mr Hill stressed that talks had so far
addressed only the framework of a political settlement, with a view to
moving on to security details at a later date.

"We want to nail down the political settlement first," he said.  The Contact Group - five Western powers and Russia - has given the sides two weeks to reach a settlement or face possible Nato military intervention.

Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders are attending talks at a 14th Century chateau at Rambouillet, near Paris.

The European Union representative at the talks, Wolfgang Petritsch, said that a significant hurdle had already been cleared with the acceptance of the Contact Group's basic framework towards autonomy for the province

"The proposals by the contact group are the basis of the negotiations. This has been acceprted unanimously ... it helps to push forward an agreement," he said.

The third of the international mediators, Russian diplomat Boris Mayorski, stressed the compatibility of the troika of head negotiators.

As the mediators gave details of their progress, the British and French foreign ministers, Robin Cook and Hubert Vedrine, made a flying visit to the negotiations - to put their "maximum weight" on the two sides.

Both the Serb delegation and the ethnic Albanians have been accused of seeking to introduce proposals beyond the framework agenda, and delaying progress.

The Serbian side is demanding that the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia be recognized in writing while the ethnic Albanians are demanding a ceasefire backed by the immediate deployment of an international force.

The French Foreign Ministry has urged both sides to stick to the original text drawn up by the Contact Group.

Top diplomats to return early to tough Kosovo peace talks (CNN)

February 8, 1999
Web posted at: 9:39 p.m. EST (0239 GMT)

RAMBOUILLET, France (CNN) -- The co-chairmen of Kosovo peace talks in France are expected to rejoin the negotiations earlier than planned, a sign the talks could be hitting a snag.

British Foreign Minister Robin Cook and French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine are scheduled to return to the 14-century chateau outside Paris on Tuesday to add their weight to the peace efforts.

The two men opened the negotiations on Saturday but have left the day-to-day discussions in the hands of an international team of mediators.

In their second full day of talks Monday, both Serb and ethnic Albanian delegates presented demands that would be impossible for the other side to meet without
substantial changes in their basic principles in the dispute over the troubled Serbian province.

The two sides have yet to meet face to face. Instead, mediators -- led by U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, Austrian Wolfgang Petritsch and Russian diplomat Boris Mayorski -- shuttle between the delegations on separate floors of the Rambouillet chateau.

That shuttle diplomacy resulted Sunday in both sides accepting 10 basic principles drawn up by the six-nation Contact Group on the Balkans.

Monday's talks were designed to focus on the details of that agreement, which called for limited autonomy for the embattled province -- whose population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian -- while keeping it part of Serbia for at least a three-year period.

Sunday February 7, 10:54 AM

Serbs, Albanians given draft plan at Kosova talks

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 7 - International mediators opened the first detailed talks on a Kosova peace plan on Sunday in separate sessions symbolising the wide gulf between the Serbian and ethnic Albanian sides to the bloody conflict.

Holding the trump card of threatened NATO air strikes if the talks fail, they handed out copies of a draft deal to Serbian delegates in one room of the chateau where the talks are being held, and in another room to the ethnic Albanians, delegates said.

The mediators, from the United States, the European Union and Russia, will shuttle between the two groups for up to two weeks trying to find consensus for wide autonomy for Kosova.

French President Jacques Chirac officially opened the talks on Saturday and the delegations dined that evening -- again in separate rooms -- while the mediators moved back and forth between them.

It was not clear whether the delegates, who were cooped up in an elegant chateau in Rambouillet, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Paris, would immediately begin haggling over the finer points of the draft document or first withdraw to study it.

The six-nation Contact Group on former Yugoslavia -- the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy -- hope the talks will end with Belgrade granting autonomy to the Kosova Albanians and allowing up to 30,000 NATO troops to be stationed in the rebellious province to help guarantee it.

Sunday February 7, 10:45 AM

Cook Forecasts 'Dramas' Ahead At Kosova Talks

Negotiations are due to get under way at the Kosova peace talks as Foreign Secretary Robin Cook predicted "dramas" most days of the week-long session.

Mr Cook, who is co-chairing the talks with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine, was speaking after finally persuading Serb and ethnic Albanian negotiators to sit down in the same room for the opening ceremony last night.

Even that was "a bit of a breakthrough," Mr Cook told BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost programme.

The talks were delayed by several hours after the Serbs refused to let representatives of the Kosova Liberation Army leave the war-torn Yugoslav province to attend the peace conference in France.

Serb leaders at the talks have refused to talk to the KLA representatives, branding them "terrorists".

Mr Cook said diplomats persuaded the Serbs and Albanians to sit down in the same room after promising they could sit in different rows of seats.

The peace conference, at the chateau of Rambouillet near Paris, is scheduled to last a week, with a possible extension of another week if all sides are judged to be making progress.

Mr Cook said no attempt would be made to try to bring the two sides face to face for a few days.

The Albanian delegation, made up of civilian politicians and KLA fighters, needed time to get to know each other and both sides needed to study the plan proposed by the six-nation Contact Group.

The group have proposed a three-year deal offering Kosova a degree of "self-government", including control over police and internal security, Mr Cook said.

Sunday February 7, 10:17 AM

Cook Expects Tough Talking At Kosova Summit

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has finally launched the Kosova peace talks in France frankly admitting that many obstacles remain in the way of a settlement.

The peace summit at Rambouillet near Paris got under way several hours later than expected, after Serb officials blocked representatives of the Kosova Liberation Army from boarding a plane to the talks.

On Saturday morning they relented, but Serb negotiators insisted they would refuse to sit down with "terrorists" from the KLA.

Mr Cook accepted there would be other crises in the talks, telling BBC News 24: "We have been presented with our first difficulty and we have managed to solve our first difficulty. We must show the same patience and determination every time an obstacles is put in the path of this conference."

Mr Cook, co-chairing the talks with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine, made a heartfelt plea for an end to the fighting that has ravaged the breakaway Yugoslav republic.

After convening the opening session of the talks, Mr Cook told a press conference: "I know it's not going to be easy to reach agreement. It's much easier to make war than to make peace."

And he appealed to the Serbian authorities and the ethnic Albanians seeking independence, telling them: "I understand the bitterness and the distress created by the violence of the past year. But we do not honour those who have given their lives by prolonging the conflict in which more will be killed."

The six-nation Contact Group has given both sides a week to reach a deal, with the possibility of another week of talks if they judge progress is being made.

Backing up the diplomacy is a fleet of British and US warplanes on 48-hour standby to launch airstrikes if either side refuses to negotiate.

The talks aim to replicate the Dayton negotiations - which eventually brought a settlement in Bosnia - with "proximity talks". These involve neutral officials shuttling between the opposing camps in separate rooms - replaced, it is hoped, by face-to-face talks.

All Work and No Play for Kosova Talks Delegates

Reuters 07-FEB-99

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. mediator Chris Hill has laid down the law to delegates at Kosova peace talks -- it's going to be all work and no play at the elegant Rambouillet chateau near Paris where they are meeting.

"There is not going to be any free time. No one is planning to play volleyball or ping-pong with each other," Hill said in remarks carried by BBC radio on Sunday.

"Our expectation is that they remain in the chateau until they reach an agreement. It's going to be a very intense period."

Hill has been at the forefront of months of diplomatic efforts to bring peace to the troubled Serbian province of Kosova.

Delegates at the Rambouillet talks, which opened on Saturday, face a stark alternative if no agreement is reached -- the threat of NATO air strikes.

Serbian officials, rebel Kosova Albanians and mediators from the United States, Russia and the European Union are due to start to thrashing out details of a political settlement designed to grant ethnic Albanians wide-ranging powers in their home province.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Sunday, February 7, 1999 Published at 11:27 GMT

Kosova tough talks ahead BBC

The first day of serious negotiations to try to end the Kosova crisis is due to get under way in France.

International mediators will shuttle between Serbian and ethnic Albanian negotiators at a castle near Paris.

The two sides have been given two weeks to agree the terms of an international autonomy plan for Kosova, or face possible military action by Nato.

Ethnic Albanians have promised to set aside factional differences in order to negotiate on a united front at Rambouillet, near Paris.

US mediator Chris Hill told the BBC: "Our expectation is that they remain in the chateau until they reach an agreement. It's going to be a very intense period."

Peace plan

On the table is a plan drawn up by the six nation Contact Group on Yugoslavia for an immediate ceasefire, with Serbian forces returning to their barracks.

Proposals include three-year interim autonomy for Kosova, giving the region control of large sections of policy-making but retaining links with Serbia

After three years there would be a review of Kosova's status.

According to Britain's Financial Times newspaper, the proposal also says all paramilitary groups, including the KLA, would be dismantled within three months.

It also instructs Serbia to reduce its police force strength in Kosova to 2,500 immediately, from the current level estimated at around 10,000.

A new police force reflecting the ethnic composition of Kosova - almost 90% - would be set up.

The international monitoring mission in Kosova would set a timetable for the remaining Serbian police to leave.

A Nato force of 25,000-30,000 could be sent into Kosova to police the settlement.

Face-to-face

The Serbs have always resisted the idea of foreign troops policing any peace deal.

For the ethnic Albanians, especially the Kosova Liberation Army, eventual independence is the most crucial goal.

BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Bridget Kendal said the Albanian delegation's decision to negotiate by consensus and to appoint one chief negotiator is a sign they are taking the talks seriously.

Diplomats say the framework for Kosova autonomy is 80% drawn up after negotiations in Belgrade and Pristina, the Kosova regional capital, ahead of the talks.

It is hoped that as talks in France continue, both sides will agree to face-to-face negotiations.

UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said: "This document has already been extensively. Now is the time for both sides to thrash it out."

Hurdle cleared

At the largely ceremonial opening on Saturday, French President Jacques Chirac told the delegates: "There are times when history is in the hands of a few men.

"When you leave Rambouillet, a page in Europe's history will have been turned. I exhort you to let the forces of life overcome the forces of death. The world is watching. The world is waiting."

But the ceremony also saw one hurdle cleared - ethnic Albanians and Serbians in the same room. Even so they will not agree yet to sit together for the negotiations that lie ahead.

As President Chirac addressed the delegates a bomb blast in Pristina killed three people. Serbian authorities said the dead were ethnic Albanians loyal to Serbia.

Sunday, February 7, 1999 Published at 04:55 GMT

Bomb overshadows Kosova talks BBC

The first full day of serious negotiations to end the Kosova crisis gets under way in France on Sunday, but the talks have been overshadowed by renewed violence in the Serbian province.

A bomb attack on Saturday killed three people at a food shop in the regional capital, Pristina. The Serbian authorities said those killed were ethnic Albanians who were loyal to Serbia and had apparently been targeted by separatists.

The attack was condemned by the United States.

The blast happened as French President Jaques Chirac launched the talks at a 14th century chateau at Rambouillet, near Paris.

Mr Chirac told the sworn enemies the world would not tolderate a conflict which trampled on the basic principles of human dignity.

''There are times when history is in the hands of a few men," he added.

"When you leave Rambouillet, a page in Europe's history will have been turned. I exhort you to let the forces of life overcome the forces of death. The world is watching. The world is waiting."

He also called on the two sides to accept the deployment of an international military force in the province.

Serbs: 'We won't talk to terrorists'

The talks were delayed by three hours after Serb officials initially barred ethnic Albanian rebels from leaving Pristina saying their papers were not in order.

The delegation eventually arrived on two French military planes after intense diplomatic pressure.

But the Serbs are still insisting they will never negotiate with Kosova Liberation Army "terrorists".

A senior delegate, Vojislav Zevkovic, said "if the KLA shows up at the plenary session, we won't attend".

However, the warring sides are now locked up together in the chateau for a week under threat of Nato strikes if they fail to reach a peace settlement.

Autonomy plan

The Western plan calls for autonomy for Kosova within Serbia, with the province's status reviewed at the end of three years.

According to Britain's Financial Times newspaper, the proposal says all paramilitary groups, including the KLA, would be dismantled within three months.

It also instructs Serbia to reduce its police force strength in Kosova to 2,500 immediately, from the current level estimated at around 10,000.

A new police force reflecting the ethnic composition of Kosova - almost 90% - would be set up.

The international monitoring mission in Kosova would set a timetable for the remaining Serbian police to leave.

Separate rooms

During the negotiations, the international mediators, US envoy Christopher Hill, European Union representative Wolfgang Petritsch and Russian diplomat Boris Mayorski, will shuttle between the two sides who will sit in segregated rooms.

"Clearly I think they have to put aside their maximalist positions. The Albanians have to stop talking about independence, the Serbs have got to stop talking about status quo and we have to find something in the middle," Mr Hill said.

The peace conference is aimed at ending a year of bloodshed in Kosova which has left at least 2,000 people dead and thousands displaced

Saturday February 6, 8:13 PM

Solana says NATO troops vital in Kosova deal By Thomas Atkins

MUNICH, Germany, Feb 6 - NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said on Saturday that any agreement that was reached in the Kosova peace talks would be doomed unless it was enforced by NATO troops.

"If it is not implemented by forces on the ground, the agreement will not be a success," he said, addressing an international security conference in Munich.

U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen told reporters after he had met key Western counterparts that he was pleased to find the Europeans "willing and able to provide the bulk of the troops in Kosova if a NATO force is deployed".

NATO is considering sending perhaps 35,000 troops, including some Americans, to police any accord between the warring factions in Kosova, who began talks near Paris on Saturday.

Britain has put up to 8,000 troops on standby. French Defence Minister Alain Richard told the conference: "When it comes to force, the Europeans will accept their responsibility."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told the conference: "Germany is ready to take an appropriate part in such an international peace mission. But...it is absolutely vital that American ground troops play a substantial role."

U.S. President Bill Clinton is considering providing perhaps 4,000 troops, but U.S. officials in Munich stressed he was still consulting with Congress and no final decision had been made.

Solana said independence for Kosova, an ethnic Albanian-majority province of Serbia within federal Yugoslavia, "not a solution" to the conflict, which dominated much of the backroom brainstorming.

Cohen discussed Kosova with Richard as well as British Defence Secretary George Robertson, German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping and Italy's Carlo Scognamiglio.

Robertson told the conference that Kosova underscored the dependence of European NATO members on U.S. participation in the defence alliance.

But U.S. officials who asked not to be identified said Kosova was a watershed for NATO because European countries were for the first time prepared to take the lead in peacekeeping.

"Bosnia was a setback because they found they couldn't do it alone or lead it. Now they feel they can lead the Kosova operation," said one.

Fischer also said a south Balkan peace conference would be vital after any peace agreement takes effect.

Germany Toughens Position on Kosova Talks

Xinhua 07-FEB-99

BONN (Feb. 6) XINHUA - The two warring parties in Kosova must reach a peace agreement through the ongoing talks in France, said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Saturday at the 35th Conference on International Security in Munich.

As Bonn is ready to join the international community in securing peace in Kosova by military means, Schroeder said, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should maintain its tough position in seeking a peaceful end to the crisis there.

"The international community won't tolerate killings in Kosova any more, " he said, adding the Western military bloc can take military actions against the trouble-making side if there is once again a massacre in the troubled Yugoslav province.

Also at the two-day conference, German Minister of Defense Rudolf Scharping said the country's federal defense forces will make further and better preparation for participating in possible NATO military operations in Kosova.

In his speech at the meeting, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said the talks beginning Saturday in Paris must succeed in reaching a peace accord.

U.S. Defense Minister William Cohen said NATO military attack is pending if Serbian authorities and ethnic Albanians fail to sign a pact.

The 16-nation NATO has threatened air strikes against Yugoslav targets while stepping up financial and military pressure on separatist ethnic Albanian forces.

Squabbling Starts Even Before Talks Begin

AP 06-FEB-99 RAMBOUILLET, France (AP) -- Under the threat of NATO guns, Yugoslav Serbs and Kosova Albanians sat down at the negotiating table Saturday, faced with intense international pressure to make peace in just two weeks.

President Jacques Chirac began the proceedings in a 14th-century chateau here with a solemn appeal for all parties to answer the call of history.

"There are times when history is in the hands of a few men," Chirac said in an opening statement. "When you leave Rambouillet, a page in Europe's history will have been turned. I exhort you to let the forces of life overcome the forces of death."

"The world is watching," the French leader said. "The world is waiting."

Despite NATO's threat to unleash its missiles and bombs if all parties did not start talking by Saturday, Serb officials delayed the ethnic Albanians' departure from Kosova and let it be known they would not negotiate with "terrorists," as they call the Kosova Liberation Army rebels.

In the end, all parties turned up -- at least for the opening speeches and the brief administrative session that followed. The real negotiating was to start Sunday, sources close to the talks said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the easiest issues would be tackled first.

The ethnic Albanian delegation arrived by mid-afternoon on two French planes after Serb officials initially refused to permit the entire delegation to leave Kosova. The standoff -- which began Friday -- caused a three-hour delay in the proceedings.

Chirac was flanked by his foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who are acting as co-chairmen of the talks.

Mediating the negotiations will be Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Macedonia, who has been shuttling between Serbs and Albanians for months. He is joined by Wolfgang Petritsch of Austria, the European Union representative, and Boris Mayorsky, a Russian diplomat.

Crowds of pro-Kosova Albanian demonstrators gathered in the center of this small central French town as negotiators, high officials and squadrons of blue-uniformed French police assembled at Chateau de Rambouillet, located about 35 miles south of Paris.

The demonstrators, generally subdued under a gentle winter rain, carried red and black Albanian flags and waved banners, some of them reading "Independence and Only Independence."

Nestled in a former royal forest and surrounded by manicured gardens, Rambouillet has been the home of kings and presidents. It was built in 1375 and used centuries later by Louis XIV, who passed idle hours in its pink and gray marble halls.

The French and British co-chairmen of the talks planned to lock the opposing sides inside the chateau and throw a news blackout over the entire process while applying maximum pressure until a deal is reached.

Neither side really wanted to be at Rambouillet. The Serbs came only because NATO said it would bomb them into submission if they didn't. The Albanians faced unspecified pressure from the West.

Over the last year, an estimated 2,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless in clashes between ethnic Albanian rebels and the Serbs.

New violence rocked Kosova even as the negotiations opened. A bomb exploded outside an ethnic Albanian-owned vegetable market in Pristina on Saturday, killing three people, witnesses said.

The blast was the deadliest in a series of bombings -- mostly in cafes -- which have rocked Kosova's capital. Pristina, under tight security, has been largely spared from the violence which has swept rural areas of the Serbian province.

The Albanians have refused to budge on their demand for the independence of Kosova, the southern province of Serbia, which is the dominant republic of Yugoslavia. Serbia and the world community reject that position.

The Serbs say they are willing to negotiate increased autonomy for Kosova. The ethnic Albanians say that is not enough.

Most of the Kosova Albanian rebels, though, feel the only road to independence is war. Only some of the more moderate Kosova Albanians see any point in negotiating, and none of the Albanians have much confidence in President Slobodan Milosevic.

Negotiators will be working on a framework document drawn up by Hill and the six-nation Contact Group made up of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

The framework plan calls for a three-year period of autonomy for Kosova, maintenance of Serb territorial integrity, protection of minorities and a police force that reflects the ethnic community.

The framework document "offers the basis for a democratic self-governing Kosova with control over its own internal affairs," Cook said.

The Albanians want a referendum on independence. The Serbs refuse, and the international community also opposes independence out of fear it could destabilize the Balkan region.

"There is not going to be an independent Kosova," Petritsch said. "There has to be the highest possible degree of self-rule for Kosovar people, including all the communities there."

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Make-Or-Break Kosova Talks Get down to Details

Reuters 06-FEB-99

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Make-or-break Kosova peace talks get down to details in a French chateau on Sunday after more carnage in that corner of the Balkans and Serbian brinkmanship over which ethnic Albanians could attend.

The stark alternative facing them -- the threat of NATO air strikes if no agreement is reached here -- won in the end over the deep enmities the delegates were brought here to escape.

Serbian officials, rebel Kosova Albanians and mediators from the United States, Russia and the European Union will start to thrash out details of a political settlement designed to grant ethnic Albanians wide-ranging powers in their home province.

The talks, which could last two weeks, opened in a delayed ceremony on Saturday at the elegant Rambouillet chateau southwest of Paris, with French President Jacques Chirac urging the participants: "Allow the forces of life to triumph over the forces of evil."

Goodwill seemed in short supply, however. The Serbian authorities had held up the departure of ethnic Albanian delegates from Kosova, ostensibly because some from the separatist Kosova Liberation Front (KLA) did not have the proper travel papers.

And just as the session was starting, a powerful bomb killed three people outside a food shop owned by ethnic Albanians in the Kosova capital Pristina. Mobile phone-toting Kosova Albanians here heard the news from home within minutes.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, talks co-sponsor with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine, said the delayed arrival of the ethnic Albanians was just the first of problems to come.

"I don't think anyone should be surprised by what happened over the last 24 hours," Cook told Reuters Television after Belgrade finally allowed the whole 16-man ethnic Albanian delegation to leave for France.

"There are going to be obstacles put in the path of these talks. We have overcome this one. We will show the same determination and the same firmness when similar obstacles are put in our path in the future," he said.

The six-nation Contact Group on former Yugoslavia plans to present proposals envisaging substantial autonomy for Kosova, leaving Belgrade only tenuous control over its troubled southern province, diplomats say.

"The plan sees very little role for Serbia and Belgrade in Kosova," said one European diplomat close to the talks.

A three-man mediating team led by U.S. envoy Chris Hill will tackle constitutional issues with the two sides in a bid to build momentum before confronting some of the most tendentious issues, such as defence for the province.

The thick draft proposals -- drawn up by Contact Group made up of the United States, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and Italy -- spells out in a key section what powers of self- determination the people of Kosova will have.

"They should have the right to democratic self-government through legislative, executive, judicial and other institutions established in accordance with the agreement," said the confidential document that diplomats showed to Reuters.

The Serbs by contrast would control "territorial integrity, maintaining a common market, monetary policy, defence, foreign policy, customs services and federal taxation."

The exact nature of Belgrade's role in Kosova's defence -- a crucial issue in a province where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian -- still had to be considered. "We do not yet have documented proposals on defence," a diplomat said.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said on Saturday that any agreement that was reached in the Kosova peace talks would be doomed unless it was enforced by NATO troops.

"If it is not implemented by forces on the ground, the agreement will not be a success," he said, addressing an international security conference in Munich.

NATO is considering sending perhaps 35,000 troops, including some Americans, to police any accord reached between the warring factions in Kosova.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Chirac Urges Kosova delegates''choose Life''

Reuters 06-FEB-99

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 6 (Reuters) - President Jacques Chirac opened Kosova peace talks at a French chateau on Saturday, calling on delegates to be courageous and warning that major powers would not tolerate further bloodshed.

"I urge you to allow the forces of life to triumph over the forces of evil," he told Yugoslav and ethnic Albanian negotiators at Rambouillet castle near Paris. "The world is watching you and waiting."

"There are rare moments when history is in the hands of only a few men. This is the case today as you take your places at this negotiating table," Chirac said.

Urging them to work "so peace can return to hearts and minds," the French leader also warned, in the name of major powers: "We will not tolerate the prolongation of a conflict which flouts the basic principles of human dignity.

"We will not allow the cycle of violence to slowly but surely threaten the stability of peace in all of southeastern Europe. We want peace on our continent," he said.

The conference began three and a half hours late after almost collapsing at the last minute when Serbian authorities on Friday refused to let Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas leave for France with other delegates. They later relented.

Chirac made clear the international community expected Yugoslavia to grant wide autonomy to Kosova but that ethnic Albanian inhabitants should drop expectations for independence and accept life as part of federal Yugoslavia.

"You have a choice between pursuing the tragedies of the past or the hope of life which is taking shape," he said.

A Yugoslav delegation member, deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic, was quoted in a French newspaper interview as saying Belgrade was ready to accord unspecified autonomy to Kosova.

As the peace delegates gathered in France, a bomb exploded outside an ethnic Albanian-owned food shop in the Kosova provincial capital Pristina, killing three people, police said. The dead included a woman and a boy of about six.

Chirac, recalling France's past of repeated wars with Germany, told the delegates that ancestral hatreds could be laid to rest. He noted that Rambouillet had played host to post-World War Two reconciliation talks between the late General Charles de Gaulle and then-West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, co-chairing the talks with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine, said "three quarters of the solution" for Kosova was already laid out in a proposed peace plan drawn up by U.S. peace envoy Chris Hill.

"If we are to finish the task and bridge the final 25 percent, then it is necessary to bring these two sides together and that is the subject of these talks," he told reporters.

"(The proposed peace plan) offers a basis for a democratic, self-governing Kosova with control over its internal affairs. It provides entrenched rights for the national communities of Kosova and full protection for the different cultures, languages and religions within Kosova," he said.

Vedrine said, in reference to the peace document: "This is substantial autonomy which does nonetheless respect the confines of the country in which they find themselves."

In Germany, NATO supreme commander General Wesley Clark sounded a note of caution about the prospects for agreement. "We are very concerned that the conflict parties are prepared for a failure of the peace talks," he told local radio.

The European Union's envoy at the talks, Wolfgang Petritsch, said there would be a high price to pay for failed talks.

"I can guarantee one thing: either the Kosova conflict is formally settled by the end of April or the bombs are going to start falling," he told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.

Petritsch said that delegates at the talks would be barred from media contact and from walking out before the end.

He said the chief topics would be amendments to the Yugoslav constitution and reorganisation of the police.

In Munich, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said any agreement would be doomed to failure unless it was enforced on the ground by NATO troops -- something opposed by Belgrade.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Big Powers Plan Sweeping Autonomy for Kosova

Reuters 06-FEB-99

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The six-nation Contact Group on former Yugoslavia envisages substantial autonomy for Kosova, leaving Belgrade only tenuous control over its troubled southern province, diplomats say.

The proposals were due to be presented to Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegations on Sunday, the first full day of peace negotiations being held in a chateau southwest of Paris.

"The plan sees very little role for Serbia and Belgrade in Kosova," one European diplomat close to the talks said on Saturday.

A three-man mediating team led by U.S. envoy Chris Hill will tackle constitutional issues with the two sides in a bid to build momentum before confronting some of the most tendentious issues, such as defence for the province.

The thick draft proposals -- drawn up by the Contact Group made up of the United States, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and Italy -- spells out in a key section what powers of self- determination the people of Kosova will have.

"They should have the right to democratic self-government through legislative, executive, judicial and other institutions established in accordance with the agreement," said the confidential document that diplomats showed to Reuters.

The Serbs by contrast would control "territorial integrity, maintaining a common market, monetary policy, defence, foreign policy, customs services and federal taxation."

The exact nature of Belgrade's role in Kosova's defence -- a crucial issue in a province where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian -- still had to be considered. "We do not yet have documented proposals on defence," a diplomat said.

"What is likely to happen is that we will start with constitutional matters and leave defence to the end," said a senior European official, declining to be named. "We will present them with one document at a time, not the whole package."

One of the three Contact Group negotiators, Russian diplomat Igor Mayorsky, was reported to be worried that the Serbs would need at least a day to study the autonomy proposals alone before starting face-to-face talks with the mediators.

British Foreign Minister Robin Cook said he saw no reason for Belgrade to reject the plan. "Only those afraid of democracy would be afraid to sign up to this accord," he told reporters.

Cook said the proposals included firm safeguards for all of Kosova's ethnic groups, explaining that all would have the right to elect their own assemblies and communes. Apart from its Serbs and Albanians, Kosova has several other ethnic groups.

Diplomats said that if there was a deal, the international community would play a crucial role in both policing and administering Kosova. "We would have very substantial reponsibilities," a European official said.

The Contact Group has given the Serbian delegation and ethnic Albanians a week to reach a deal, with just under one week more set aside to conclude an accord if needed.

Besides defence, diplomats said the question of how Kosova should proceed after an initial three-year interim period was not covered by the Contact Group proposals.

The ethnic Albanians want a referendum on full independence, but Belgrade has refused to consider such a clause. "I would be amazed to see any mention of referendum in any final document," the senior European diplomat said.

Cook and his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine, who are co-hosting the negotiations, left the chateau after Saturday's opening ceremony, but are expected back in Rambouillet mid-week and again next weekend.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Albright Sees Reasons for U.S. Troops in Kosova

Reuters 06-FEB-99

MIDDLETOWN, Conn., Feb 6 (Reuters) - The United States has "compelling reasons" to consider sending troops to Kosova as part of a NATO peacekeeping force, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Saturday.

The prospect of a U.S. presence could "well make the difference between the success or failure of the negotiations" between Belgrade and Kosovar Albanian leaders that began in France on Saturday, Albright said in a speech.

"Failure in the talks could result in renewed wide-scale violence that would cause massive human suffering, jeopardise gains made in Bosnia and threaten stability through much of southern Europe," Albright said.

She spoke at a Wesleyan University symposium on "The Domestic Impacts of U.S. Foreign Policy."

Albright noted that President Bill Clinton said on Thursday that the U.S. will seriously consider participating in a NATO implementation force if and when a Kosova agreement is reached.

"We do so for compelling reasons," she said.

The U.S. has a vital interest in the region, she said.

"Kosova may seem like a faraway place. The fate of its people may seem to have little impact on our own. But Kosova is in the Balkans, the powder keg of Europe, where World War one began and World War two raged," she said.

"Our permanent goal over the past half century has been to defend freedom while preventing another major European conflagration that would cost thousands more American lives."

Albright said that Europe must provide "the lion's share" of any peacekeeping force in Kosova. "And the military mission must be clear," she said.

"There are strong grounds for the United States to do what it can to encourage a settlement in Kosova," she said.

"Fortunately, because we have 15 -- soon to be 18 -- allies in NATO, and many more partners in Europe, whatever actions we take, we will not have to take alone."

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

German FM Calls for Peace Conference on South Balkans

Xinhua 06-FEB-99

BONN (Feb. 6) XINHUA - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called Saturday for a peace conference on the south Balkans to resolve once and for all tensions tearing the region apart.

Fischer told the 35th World Security Policy Conference that once the fighting has been stopped in the Yugoslav province of Kosova, it would be "indispensable (to have) a peace conference on the south Balkans."

Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania and also Serbia should attend such a conference for an "integrated and peaceful Europe in the future," he said at the two-day Munich gathering of officials of over 20 countries.

Fischer also expressed concerns over the "weak leadership" of the United Nations shown in handling some international affairs.

Conflicts in Kosova make it clear that sometimes military actions are needed to stop human catastrophe, but generally speaking, such actions should be authorized by the United Nations, he said.

Interference by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) without the authorization by the United Nations will be implemented only when it is "absolutely necessary," Fischer said.

Attending the meeting are some 200 senior defense experts and defense or foreign affairs ministers from more than 20 countries, including U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, as well as NATO Secretary General Javier Solana.

Rebels Hail Start of Talks but Doubt Serbs Will Accept a Deal

AP 06-FEB-99

LAUSA, (AP) -- Sipping tea by a wood stove, rebel fighter Gani Geci and his brothers listened to shortwave radio reports Saturday on the Kosova peace talks and concluded that despite all their doubts, this was a great day for the Kosova Albanian people. "This is a very big day for Albanians because our delegation is united," Geci said as he leaned back against the spongy cushions spread around the walls of a spartan stone house. "The Albanian delegation has the politicians and the fighters," he said in a mixture of Albanian, high school English and German which he picked up as a construction worker in Heilbronn, Germany. "Now, we will be taken seriously by the rest of the world." Geci, a gaunt, hollow-cheeked figure dressed in green camouflage fatigues of the Kosova Liberation Army, spoke over the crackle of a shortwave report on Voice of America's Albanian language service about the opening Saturday of Kosova peace talks in Rambouillet, France. The word from Rambouillet was not encouraging. Even before the delegates had gotten down to business, Western officials were becoming exasperated as Serb delegates threatened not to talk to KLA members of the ethnic Albanian team, branding them "terrorists." Back home, however, in this wrecked village which was an early target of the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians last year, the squabbling and the posturing didn't seem to matter. "If the Serbs won't talk to us, we'll just talk to the Americans," Geci said as he flipped through Albanian language newspapers from Pristina, about 20 miles to the southeast. "It was very important for our side to go to Rambouillet." Outside the rude, one-story house was ample evidence of the reason the United States and European powers want to put an end to the bloodshed. This village of brick houses and white-washed walls was once home to 4,500 people. Now, only rebels live in the charred ruins. Their wives, children and parents have all fled -- mostly to Albania. In narrow dirt streets where children once played, young armed rebels patrol in groups of five to seven, mindful that Serb police are only across the hill, about a mile away. Geci said he left his job in Germany in November 1997 and returned home to fight after his former teacher was killed by Serb security forces as he sat in his classroom. Geci then packed 27 members of the clan off to safety in Albania. He and three brothers remained behind to fight. Geci and his remaining brothers hold little hope that the talks will end with either independence or the sweeping autonomy which the Americans and Europeans are demanding that the Serb government grant to the province. "If the talks fail," he said, "there will be a bigger war." Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Three Albanians Killed in Explosion in Pristina.

Reuters 06-FEB-99 PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A powerful bomb killed three people outside an ethnic Albanian-owned food shop in the centre of the Kosova capital Pristina on Saturday, police sources said.

The dead included a woman and boy of about six. Several people were wounded, the sources said.

A leg with the shoe still on and other pieces of mangled bodies were scattered on the city's main road and a trail of blood ran along the gutter.

Armed police cordoned off the scene while specialists began examining the area. Twisted pieces of shrapnel were pinpointed with police markers.

The ethnic identity of the dead and wounded was not immediately clear. After months of relative calm while fighting went on in the countryside, Pristina cafes have been targeted in a series of hand-grenade attacks in which one person died and nine were wounded.

But Saturday's blast appeared to have been caused by a more powerful device.

The explosion came as ethnic Albanian and Serbian authorities opened talks in France on the future of the restive Serbian province.

The recent spate of attacks on Serb and Albanian-owned cafes and restaurants in the capital appeared to have been sparked by the killing of 24 ethnic Albanians by Serbian security forces after one of their colleagues was shot dead.

The Sunday Times 07.02.99

Hawks fly in to perch at Kosova peace talks

by Jon Swain

AS THE shadowy leaders of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) converged on a French chateau yesterday to talk peace, their minds were still set on war.

The wrought iron gates of the 18th-century castle, a former royal hunting lodge, were finally expected to close last night on the internationally sponsored Kosova peace conference, hours behind schedule. The uncompromising positions of both Serbs and ethnic Albanians, however, signalled that success was far from certain.

Western peacemakers have given the Serbian and Albanian negotiating teams two weeks to reach agreement or face Nato military action. A 30,000-strong multinational force, led by Britain, the biggest contributor of troops, is being assembled to uphold any agreement.

However, even before the talks were due to open yesterday afternoon, there was trouble. In Kosova, Serbian officials blocked the departure of three KLA members on the grounds they did not have passports. The rest of the ethnic Albanian delegation refused to leave without them.

Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, who is co-hosting the conference with his French counterpart, Hubert VÊdrine, warned the Serbian authorities that the peace talks would not go ahead without the KLA and they would carry the blame.

The standoff was finally broken hours before the conference was due to start. The Serbs relented under international pressure and the three barred KLA members joined a 10-strong delegation of ethnic Albanian politicians and intellectuals at Pristina airport for the flight to Paris on three French executive jets.

Two other KLA delegates based abroad were already in Rambouillet, outside Paris, and were not affected by the Serbian ban. Even after this problem had been solved, however, the squabbling continued.

The tone at the beginning of the negotiations would be crucial for success, diplomats said. They got off to a bad start with the Serbian delegation repeatedly reiterationg its refusal to sit at the same table as "assassins or terrorists" - Serbian shorthand for the KLA.

Once the talks had been formally opened, the idea was to leave the Serbian, ethnic Albanian and international negotiators inside to produce a deal along the lines of a peace plan drawn up by European powers and America last month.

They would be cooped up in the 30-bedroom chateau until they came to an arrangement that would give Kosova, which is 90% Albanian, substantial autonomy from Serbia for a three-year interim period.

However, the ethnic Albanian position was that this was not good enough; that the agreement must include provisions for a referendum on full independence for Kosova after three years, and the entry of Nato ground troops into Serbia, where they would be stationed to protect the population from Serbian attacks.

The Serbs resolutely oppose full independence and the presence of Nato troops on sovereign Serbian territory. "Kosova is Serbia's heart and it will remain forever so," said Gorica Gajevic, a senior aide to President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Serbia is Yugoslavia's dominant republic. The West recognises Kosova as belonging to Serbia. It is sympathetic to special status for it, but not full independence as the Kosovar Albanians demand.

The West has set a deadline of February 19 for the warring sides to sign an agreement or face the consequences. It is the same carrot-and-stick approach that pulled off the Dayton, Ohio, peace agreement, leading to an uneasy peace in Bosnia in 1995.

If Milosevic signs up to peace, the European Union will almost certainly ease crippling sanctions on Serbia. If not, Nato is threatening to bomb Serbian military targets.

Pressure on the KLA is more complicated. The organisation is hydra-headed and has been plagued with infighting. But as a result of Serbian repression its struggle for independence has attracted much international support. Western officials have warned the KLA that this will be withdrawn if it remains obdurate.

Fighting between the KLA and Serbian forces has killed at least 2,000 people, many of them civilians, and made refugees of hundreds of thousands more. But western peacemakers believe the KLA is now stronger, having used the winter to rearm and re-equip its weakened forces with money contributed by Kosovar Albanians abroad. Its fundraising efforts in America, as well as those of Albanian immigrants in Europe, have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

KLA fighters are equipped with rocket-propelled grenades and remote-controlled mines in addition to their AK-47 rifles. Most of the arms are smuggled in from neighbouring Albania, which shares a mountainous border with Kosova and which the Serbian army has vainly tried to seal with ambushes and mines.

The peace talks represent the final chance to halt a wider war in the spring. Widescale violence would inevitably embrace Macedonia, which has a large ethnic Albanian minority of its own, and Albania. The drive for peace at Rambouillet is being spearheaded by Christopher Hill, the American ambassador to Macedonia.

Hill is largely responsible for the western peace plan the Serbs and ethnic Albanians are being forced to consider. "We are going in assuming that we are going to achieve success. We have gone through a lot of Balkan mud to get where we are," he said.

The West still pins its hopes of a settlement on Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovar Albanians' elected leader, who opposes violence and is an acceptable negotiating partner for the Serbs.

NYTimes, Feb 07, 1999

Delayed by Serbian Maneuvering, Kosova Talks Begin

By JANE PERLEZ

RAMBOUILLET, France -- The Kosova peace conference, delayed by Serbian maneuvering and the subsequent late arrival of the ethnic Albanian delegation, finally opened here Saturday evening to exhortations from President Jacques Chirac of France that both sides follow the example of the rest of Europe and put aside their differences.

"You represent peoples who fully belong to Europe," Chirac said in his address to the Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegations gathered in the reception room of a former royal chateau here. "This is also why the idea of war in Kosova is unbearable to us."

"Europe has reconciled enemies, Europe has overcome divisions," Chirac said. The two sides in the 11-month conflict in Kosova should do the same, he urged.

The 16 ethnic Albanian negotiators, flown from Kosova in a French Government jet, had been held up overnight after the Serbian authorities refused to give travel documents to three members who belong to the Kosova Liberation Army, which is fighting for independence for the southern Serbian province.

After intense Western diplomatic pressure, the Serbs relented, and the three men -- Jakup Krasniqi, Ram Buja and Zen Syla -- who changed their mud-caked boots and crumpled camouflage uniforms for suits, ties and topcoats, were picked up at their rural headquarters and driven to the airport in Pristina, Kosova's capital, by Western diplomats.

The Kosova Albanian delegation includes the political leader of the province's majority Albanian population, Ibrahim Rugova. The 13-member Serbian delegation, headed by the deputy Serbian prime minister Ratko Markovic, insisted on Friday that it will not talk -- even through intermediaries -- with members of the rebel army it brands a "terrorist" organization.

Chirac, who spoke in stern tones, told the delegates that the conference -- led by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook of Britain and Foreign Minister Hubert VÊdrine of France -- was about peace, but not about forgetting.

"Justice will have to be made, and culprits will have to be tried," he said, in apparent reference to atrocities against civilians that have marked the conflict.

The bumpy start to the conference was a fitting prelude to what could be a two-week standoff between the two sides, who seek widely differing solutions to the crisis in Kosova. The province was stripped of its autonomy in 1989 by the then Serbian -- now Yugoslav -- President Slobodan Milosevic, and has been ruled with tough police repression ever since.

The Serbs insist that Kosova, the heart of Serbia's medieval empire, must remain a part of Serbia, while the ethnic Albanians -- who make up 90 percent of Kosova's two million residents -- want independence.

Diplomats from the United States, European Union and Russia who will run the day-to-day negotiations here are seeking an in-between autonomous status.

The conference comes almost one year after fighting erupted between the Kosova Liberation Army and the much stronger forces of the Serbian police and the Yugoslav Army.

The Clinton Administration pushed hard last week to persuade NATO to agree to air strikes against Serbia if Milosevic refuses to agree to a political settlement at the talks here.

But it still seemed unclear whether NATO would actually go ahead with air strikes or try to find a face-saving way out. Analysts concur that heavy pressure will have to be brought to bear on Milosevic before he agrees to relinquish control of Serb-held land, as he did previously in Croatia and Bosnia.

President Clinton said on Thursday that he was "seriously considering" sending American ground troops to Kosova as part of a NATO-led force. He emphasized that he would only do so if a political settlement was reached -- and Clinton said that was a "big 'if.' "

A fairly major stumbling block to productive talks here appeared to be the absence of Milosevic. Markovic and two deputy Yugoslav prime ministers, Nikola Sainovic and Vladan Kutlesic, will, Western diplomats say, have to consult their leader at every step of the way.

Hours before the talks were to start, NATO's European commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, sounded a note of caution, suggesting that neither the Serbs nor the Albanians -- whose delegation represents the very disparate views of Kosova's majority population -- really have their minds fixed on success.

"We are very concerned that the conflict parties are prepared for a failure of the peace talks," he told Deutschland Radio Berlin in Germany. "With every battle, the conflict becomes more and more difficult to handle. Therefore we hope and will do all we can to insure the conflict parties reach a successful agreement."

To underscore the gravity and ferocity of the Kosova conflict, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, released a report here Saturday, detailing some of the main atrocities in Kosova.

The report, based heavily on witness accounts, focuses on a massacre in Obrinje on Sept. 26, when 21 members of the Delijaj family were killed by Serb forces. It also gives details of a summary execution on the same day of 13 ethnic Albanian men and of a massacre last month of 45 civilians in the village of Racak.

The fighting has been marked by guerrilla tactics of ambush by the ethnic Albanians and by tank and artillery attacks by the Serbs against village farmers, whose compounds the Serbs see as potential guerrilla bases.

The massacre in Racak last month convinced the Clinton Administration that the Kosova conflict was not likely to go away and had the potential of marring the 50th anniversary celebration of NATO in Washington in April.

The cease-fire arranged last October by the American envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, evaporated last month as more Serbian troops returned to Kosova to confront resolute, better-armed guerrillas.

More than 1,000 unarmed international monitors, working under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, were unable to stop the fighting and in the case of the Racak massacre were prevented from entering the village when the killings were under way.

The Clinton Administration decided to push for a negotiated settlement that would have as its basis the same sort of autonomy that Milosevic stripped from Kosova 10 years ago. He has ruled the region with heavy police repression ever since.

The plan under discussion at Rambouillet has been drafted in the last three months in separate, and largely fruitless, talks with the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians.

Christopher Hill, the main American envoy to the talks, told reporters on Friday that neither side likes the plan. It denies the Albanians the independence they crave, while for the Serbs it gives away too much -- in particular by requiring them to withdraw most of their police force and Yugoslav Army troops.

But the United States, the four European countries and Russia -- who make up the so-called Contact Group formed to solve the problems arising from the breakup of former Yugoslavia -- have made clear this is largely a nonnegotiable plan.

State Department officials openly talk of imposing a settlement on the two sides, an unusual negotiating tactic in the world of diplomacy.

"Sign on the dotted line," is the message, an American official said.

Essentially the plan makes Kosova, a pocket of European countryside about the size of Connecticut with steep mountains and fertile land, an international protectorate for three years. During that time, elections are envisioned, and the people of Kosova would form their own police, courts and other institutions so that the ethnic Albanians can take control of those spheres.

The Independent

Sunday February 7, 9:40 AM

Make or break for Pax Europa

From Rupert Cornwell Rambouillet

Two questions hover over the creeper-covered walls of the mediaeval chateau where Balkan peacemakers are again plying their thankless trade. There is the obvious one: can Serbs and Albanians lay down their arms in Kosova? And then there is the less obvious but even more momentous one: is this the moment when Europe finally starts to get its military and diplomatic act together?

Three years ago another Balkan peace conference took place, at a vast US airforce base in the depths of the Midwest. It was held amid the symbols of American military might, and chaired by a hardcharging American diplomat with a Kissingeresque contempt for Europe's diplomatic clout. That disdain of course was amply justified by the wretched European performance over Bosnia - and Dayton, Ohio, yielded a settlement which holds to this day.

The new venue could not be more different: a former royal estate west of Paris, in the heart of old Europe, where French kings sported and Napoleon spent his last nights before St Helena. The food undoubtedly will be far better than at Dayton, and Richard Holbrooke will be nowhere to be seen. The effort to impose a settlement upon Serbs and Kosova Albanians will be chaired by the foreign ministers of Britain and France. If they succeed, British, French and German troops will account for over half the 30,000 men dispatched to police that settlement. There will be a small American contingent, but under the command of a British general. Kosova, as they say, will be very much a European show.

The stakes are huge. "Who do I call when I want to speak to Europe?" Henry Kissinger once famously complained. Soon perhaps, an American secretary of state will have the answer. If all goes well, Europe will have taken a first step towards the common defence and security identity envisaged by Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac at St Malo last December. Who knows, even the European Union's future foreign policy representative may actually count for something. But if Rambouillet fails, and Europe watches Serbs and Albanians killing each other again, the heart could be torn from both initiatives.

The task now is both easier, yet more difficult than Dayton. Easier, because there are two, not three, antagonists, while a detailed and delicately calibrated draft settlement has been in preparation for six months now.Chris Hill, the US diplomat who is author of the plan, served under Holbrooke in Dayton, and thus learnt the art of Balkan headbanging at the feet of the master. But in some ways, Kosova is even tricker than Bosnia.

For one thing, Serbs and ethnic Albanians are at total odds over the future of the province. Be they politicians or guerrilla fighters, the Albanians insist on nothing less than full independence for the province; Serbia will hear none of it. Mr Hill has only postponed that dispute with the device of an "interim" settlement, whereby Kosova's final status will be reviewed after three years. Then, if not now, the crunch will come.

But there is no postponing the fact that President Slobodan Milosevic, who will not be at Rambouillet in person, is being asked to allow Nato troops onto Serb territory, within a sovereign Yugoslavia. Bosnia in 1995 was, after all, technically an independent state. Small wonder that ultra-nationalist Serbian parties are warning that if Nato wants to go in, it will have to fight its way in.

That may be bluster - but maybe not. For the interim agreement, by giving Kosova an elected assembly and president, and by handing sweeping powers to the international monitor force, reduces Belgrade's effective control of the province to almost zero. Kosova, the holy soul of Serbia, will become a quasi-protectorate of Nato.

The Independent

Sunday February 7, 9:40 AM

Peace talks shrug off Serb delay

>From Rupert Cornwell in Rambouillet

The Kosova peace conference finally started here last night - but only after the Serb authorities had signalled their defiance by holding up for almost 24 hours the departure from Kosova of the ethnic Albanian delegation.

Only after fierce pressure from the six nations of the contact group of leading powers did Belgrade relent, and the Albanian team, including five representatives of the rebel Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), took off for Paris.

Outwardly, officials of Britain and France, the countries co-hosting the talks, put a brave face on proceedings, maintaining that the delay was a predictable manoeuvre by Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, to show who really counted. "This is par for the course," one British diplomat said.

In a show of confidence they perhaps did not feel, Robin Cook, Britain's Foreign Secretary, and the French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, the conference chairmen, strolled in the streets of Rambouillet, in whose medieval chateau the negotiations will take place. The talks would not start without the KLA members, Mr Cook said earlier. "The ethnic Albanians must have the delegates they choose."

Both men accepted however that, even if the talks were about to start, the real difficulties were only beginning. In Paris, the Serb number two Ratko Markovic made it clear that Belgrade's representatives would not even sit at the same table as the KLA. "We will not negotiate with terrorists," he said.

The first contacts here may well be "proximity talks" with the two sides holding separate discussions with the chief mediator, Christopher Hill, whose plan will form the basis of any settlement. It calls for broad autonomy for Kosova, 90 per cent of whose population is ethnic Albanian. It will have an elected assembly, president and police force. Serbia will be stripped of virtually all direct control, while the head of the 2,000-strong force of international monitors will be vested with vice-regal powers.

But this formula satisfies no one. The Kosova Albanians demand independence while Belgrade insists the province must remain part of Serbia. The major powers also oppose an independent Kosova for fear it will provoke chaos throughout the entire southern Balkans.

"I know it is not going to be easy for us to reach agreement," Mr Cook told the Serbs and Albanians. But he promised the draft agreement would protect both national communities of Kosova. "It enables both sides to build a stable, peaceful Kosova without surrendering any of their own views on the long-term future of the province."

Mr Cook warned that violence as a means of changing borders was unacceptable. "It is the people of Kosova and elsewhere in Yugoslavia who will pay the price of failure here," he said.

Boston Globe Talks on Kosova begin near Paris

Serbs, ethnic Albanians hear a plea and an implied threat

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, 02/07/99

RAMBOUILLET, France - Talks aimed at ending the fighting in Kosova got under way last night, as ethnic Albanian and Serbian negotiators were urged to feel both the weight of history and the threat of NATO military intervention should the efforts fail.

President Jacques Chirac, whose summer residence in this castle town southwest of Paris is the setting for the talks, told the delegates that history would judge them harshly if they did not find a compromise to end the bloodshed that has taken 2,000 lives and uprooted more than 300,000 people in the past year.

New violence rocked Kosova even as the negotiations opened. A bomb exploded outside an ethnic Albanian-owned vegetable market in the provincial capital of Pristina yesterday, killing three people, The Associated Press reported.

In the room the negotiators were sitting, Chirac said, Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, Germany's first postwar chancellor, mapped out the idea for a new, united Europe that had been destroyed by two world wars.

''This war in Kosova is unacceptable ... as Europeans,'' Chirac said. ''Freedom, democracy and tolerance must be the three principles on which this peace is built.''

In a nod to the Serbs, Chirac stressed that the determination of the international community to find a solution is not aimed against one group. But Chirac, his foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, and the British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, pointed out repeatedly that the negotiations were backed by the UN Security Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is monitoring the conflict, and NATO.

Chirac urged the negotiators to show courage.

''Courage doesn't take one in the direction of war,'' he said. ''There is a greater courage, the courage to accept the need to negotiate. Be assured, when you leave Rambouillet, a page in European history will have been turned. The world is watching. The world is waiting.''

The wait was longer than expected. While the Serbian delegation, led by a deputy prime minister, Ratko Markovic, arrived in Paris on Friday, the ethnic Albanians were delayed by a day.

The reason: Serbian authorities had refused to allow two members of the ethnic Albanian separatist group, the Kosova Liberation Army, to board the French government plane in Pristina, because they did not have passports. The 14 other members of the ethnic Albanian delegation refused to go unless the two Kosova Liberation Army members were allowed on. After some frantic diplomacy, most of it French and British-led, the passport problem was resolved and the ethnic Albanians flew off for Paris yesterday afternoon.

Later, at a news conference, Cook and Vedrine, who will chair the talks, played down the setback.

''So far, so good,'' said Cook, who considered it a victory merely to get everyone here to begin the talks.

Cook and Vedrine rejected suggestions that the international community was imposing a settlement in Kosova, and that the delegates are being asked to rubber-stamp something already drawn up.

Both Cook and Vedrine acknowledged, however, that Christopher Hill, the special US envoy to Kosova, and his European Union counterpart, Wolfgang Petritsch of Austria, had put together a framework document based on four months of discussions with the warring sides.

After Chirac, Cook and Vedrine gave what amounted to a pep talk to the two delegations, the delegates met separately with Hill, Petritsch and a Russian diplomat, Igor Mayorsky. Those three will mediate the negotiations.

Hill and his colleagues are trying to get the ethnic Albanians to put aside their separatist agenda, and to get the Serbs to accept that Kosova needs to return to the autonomy it had before the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, unilaterally ended it in 1989.

The plan calls for giving the ethnic Albanians control over their domestic affairs, but it stresses that Kosova will remain a Serbian province, putting off the question of Kosova's status for at least three years.

The negotiators will work secluded from the world's media, which has descended upon this quaint town 35 miles southwest of Paris. Cook said that he and Vedrine would give the six-nation Contact Group, which manages the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, a progress report on Friday. Cook hinted that if progress was being made, the negotiators would be given a few extra days to reach an agreement.

But Cook and Vedrine stressed that the international community will not sit idly by if the negotiators are unable to reach agreement. NATO intervention seems inevitable, either to police a settlement, if one emerges, or to bomb Serbian targets if the killing resumes.

Security here was intense. Elite French policemen in full-length leather coats eyed passersby suspiciously and checked the undercarriages of cars for bombs.

There were hundreds of Kosova Liberation Army supporters in evidence, holding banners and flags and chanting, ''Oo-chic-ka!'' which in Albanian means UCK, which is Albanian for KLA.

Negotiators will be isolated from such provocative partisanship. Instead, they will be asked to appreciate the history of the Chateau of Rambouillet, where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette once frolicked.

Cook referred to the history of the place when he noted that the English had attacked the castle three times.

''Successfully, I might add, Hubert,'' he said, turning to his French counterpart.

Possible Breakthrough in Kosova Talks

AP 07-FEB-99

(Rambouillet, France-AP) -- There could be a breakthrough at the Kosova peace talks. A senior member of the Serb delegation tells The Associated Press both sides are accepting a list of ten major principles established by the U-S and five other countries. If it's true it'll mean the ethnic Albanians are giving up their demand for independence. But there's no confirmation from them.

This is day-two of the peace talks in a town outside of Paris. The two sides aren't meeting face-to-face. Instead, negotiators are shuttling between them.

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Focus-Twin Track Kosova Talks down to Business

Reuters 07-FEB-99

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The first detailed talks on a Kosova peace plan started on Sunday on twin tracks, with mediators holding separate sessions to present a draft deal to the Serbian and ethnic Albanian sides.

Clutching the trump card of threatened NATO air strikes if diplomacy fails, mediators handed out part of a draft deal to Serbian delegates in one room of the chateau where the talks were being held and in another room to the ethnic Albanians.

The mediators -- Christopher Hill of the United States, Wolfgang Petritsch for the European Union and Boris Mayorsky of Russia -- will shuttle between the two groups for up to two weeks trying to find consensus for wide autonomy for Kosova.

"There is not going to be any free time. No one is planning to play volleyball or ping-pong with each other," Hill said in remarks carried by BBC radio on Sunday.

"Our expectation is that they remain in the chateau until they reach an agreement. It's going to be a very intense period."

Reflecting the heavy pressure bearing down on the talks from outside, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reminded the two sides that Washington saw the alternative to peace in the bleakest terms.

"Failure in the talks could result in renewed wide-scale violence that would cause massive human suffering, jeopardise gains made in Bosnia and threaten stability through much of southern Europe," she said in a speech.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the talks could face daily dramas as the two sides thrashed out an agreement.

The delegations were holed up in an elegant 14th century chateau sealed off by fences and police from the rest of this quiet town southwest of Paris. Delegates were not immediately available for an initial reaction to the draft deal.

An adviser to the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), the militant separatist movement that Belgrade denounces as terrorist, told Reuters his group rejected one stipulation that its arms be handed over and kept in NATO-guarded stocks.

"This is unacceptable to the KLA," said the adviser, who asked not to be named. An offer to integrate KLA fighters into the Kosova police force was not an equal tradeoff, he said.

"The KLA wants to be an army, just as the Bosnian Serbs have their own forces," he said.

French President Jacques Chirac officially opened the talks on Saturday and the delegations enjoyed buffet dinners that evening -- again in separate rooms -- while the mediators moved back and forth among them.

The six-nation Contact Group on former Yugoslavia -- the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy -- hope the talks will end with Belgrade granting autonomy to the Kosova Albanians and allowing up to 30,000 NATO troops to be stationed in the rebellious province to help guarantee it.

The talks opened under a cloud, however, after Serbian authorities had held up the departure of ethnic Albanian delegates from Kosova, ostensibly because some from the KLA did not have the proper travel papers.

And just as the Saturday session was starting, a powerful bomb killed three people outside a food shop owned by ethnic Albanians in the Kosova capital Pristina.

After a three-hour delay, the ceremony opening the talks took place with Chirac urging the participants: "Allow the forces of life to triumph over the forces of evil."

The Contact Group's plan envisages substantial autonomy for Kosova -- where ethnic Albanians constitute 90 percent of the population -- leaving Belgrade only limited control over its troubled southern province, diplomats say.

The mediating team will tackle constitutional issues first in a bid to build momentum before confronting some of the most tendentious issues, such as defence.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Troika Carries Negotiating Burden at Kosova Talks

Reuters 07-FEB-99

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Success or failure at the Kosova peace talks that began in earnest outside Paris on Sunday depends not just on Serbs and ethnic Albanians, but on a troika of mediators unknown to most of the world.

None of the three has the international profile of a Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy who presided over the marathon 1995 Dayton peace talks that brought an end to the war in Bosnia.

But diplomats and analysts say that the troika -- American Chris Hill, Austrian Wolfgang Petritsch and Russian Boris Mayorsky -- is grappling with a problem even more intractable that Bosnia and fraught with greater risk.

"There is a reason why Kosova is the last of the Yugoslav wars of this decade, why no solution has been found so far, and that is because it is so difficult," a Western diplomat at Rambouillet, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

"Each of the three mediators has a special strength. Hill is the American. He brings Washington's military power and prestige to the table. That gets people's attention and makes a deal at least theoretically possible in the first place."

"Petritsch is very good with the KLA (ethnic Albanian Kosova Liberation Army). Mayorsky's job is to keep the Serbs onside. It's a strong team, but this is going to be one hell of a tough negotiation. Serbs and Albanians really don't like one another."

Chris Hill, 46, was Holbrooke's deputy in the Dayton negotiations. He has used his current post as U.S. ambassador to Macedonia as a base from which to spearhead the international drive for peace in neighbouring Kosova.

He and Petritsch, Austria's ambassador to Belgrade, have spent months shuttling between Serb and ethnic Albanian officials trying to forge agreement on the "draft interim accord" that is the basis for the Rambouillet negotiations.

"I try to avoid using the words 'optimist' and 'Balkans' in the same sentence," he joked this week in the run-up to the Rambouillet talks.

But Hill believes the prospects for success at Rambouillet are enhanced by unprecedented agreement within the Contact Group -- the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy -- which was often deeply divided over what to do in Bosnia.

He, Petritsch and Mayorsky represent the Contact Group in the negotiations.

"I have never seen such unanimity as I see within the Contact Group at this moment," Hill told Reuters last week.

Petritsch is also European Union envoy to Kosova. He struck a note of cautious optimism before the talks started.

"Looking back on the history of Kosova I would have to say that success at Rambouillet is rather unlikely," he said.

"Looking forward I would say that we may indeed be at a turning point. What has changed is not the level of enmity between the parties," he told Reuters. "What has changed is the determination and resolve of the international community."

Hill has often been frustrated in his dealings with the KLA, whose fight for Kosova's full independence is anathema to Western capitals proposing no more than substantial autonomy for the southern Serbian province. Petritsch has better relations with the guerrillas.

"Petritsch is more American than the Americans when it comes to dealing with the KLA. He's very practical," said a western diplomat in Kosova familiar with both men.

Petritsch, by his own account, brings a special sensitivity to the Kosova problem, where 90 per cent of the population is ethnic Albanian tired of being a minority in Serbia.

"I myself am a member of the Slovene minority in Austria, so I am quite sensitive to the minority situation," he said.

Mayorsky, a Moscow-based official of the Russian foreign ministry, will be shepherding his fellow-Slav Serbs towards an agreement while working with Hill and Petritsch to safeguard relations among Russia, NATO, Europe and the United States.

"Mayorsky has been intimately involved in the process leading up to Rambouillet and he's a savvy operator," Petritsch said of his colleague.

"He can be a very jovial companion, yet underneath he's unbelievably tough. He's essential to our team."

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Serbs Say Kosova Is Lost, Ethnic Albanians Upbeat

Reuters 07-FEB-99

BELGRADE, Feb 7 (Reuters) - If public opinion is any guide to the outcome of the Kosova peace talks, the Serb negotiators in France might just as well sign away the province and go home.

Serbs in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade and ethnic Albanians in Pristina may not agree on much, but they do think the talks will end with Serbia reluctantly but inevitably ceding wide-ranging autonomy to Kosova's ethnic Albanian majority.

"I think Kosova is lost, actually," said Nebojsa, 40, heading out to dinner on Saturday night with his girlfriend Greta in the Belgrade district of Zemun, beside the Danube.

"Ninety five percent of the people there are ethnic Albanian. But what would be better is if they could separate Kosova into two parts -- one part to stay in Yugoslavia and the other to do what they want with."

"It is important to protect the monasteries there," said Greta, noting that Serbians consider Kosova the heartland of their Eastern Orthodox religious heritage.

"This is the culture of Yugoslavia. We don't have anything here in Serbia -- it is all there."

Kosova's ethnic Albanians, reeling from 10 years of harsh direct rule from Belgrade since their provincial autonomy was revoked in 1989, want full independence from Serbia.

But they also realise that the Serb-Albanian talks which got under way on Sunday near Paris with big-power mediation will almost certainly bring them less, at least for the time being.

"I am optimistic, though you must bear in mind who we are dealing with," said an ethnic Albanian taxi driver in the regional capital Pristina who did not want to be named.

"Of course it isn't right that they (the West) want to impose a solution on us, but there is a saying in Albanian which says 'If there's no rain, snow might do'."

On both sides, people are dismayed by the violence which has claimed some 2,000 lives in Kosova in the past year since a separatist guerrilla campaign began in earnest last February, and by the harsh rhetoric of leaders on both sides.

"You know, the Albanians are fanatics and they have set out to separate Kosova and they will fulfil their goal," said a 63-year-old woman pensioner in Belgrade.

"The Serbs have proved time and time again that there is no point in talking to them," said a 26-year-old ethnic Albanian woman student in Pristina. "They speak a different language. They don't understand anybody and nobody understand them. All they understand is guns."

But while the overall sentiment among Albanians is that things are going their way, the mood in Belgrade is gloomier.

"I am extremely concerned. Yugoslavia is disintegrating and it will do so to the very end," said Miroslav Lazarevic, a 77-year-old retired doctor.

"I believe that for now some kind of dual power will be established in Kosova and then it will prove too expensive and in the end Kosova will separate from Serbia."

A similar view was expressed by Branko Stefanovic, a media consultant having drinks with friends in a Belgrade pizzeria.

"What's happening now is that it is like we are sitting here in the restaurant and we can eat and drink and finally the waiter comes and someone must pay the bill," Stefanovic said.

"But let's say this was the United States and New Mexico or Texas or Arizona asked for independence. Is that okay or not okay?

"It's not fine and that's because all of Europe is moving to be without borders but in our country it is something quite the opposite -- we make many, many new borders."

Sunday February 7, 3:54 PM

Twin track Kosova talks down to business

By Tom Heneghan

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 7 - The first detailed talks on a Kosova peace plan started on Sunday on twin tracks, with mediators holding separate sessions to present a draft deal to the Serbian and ethnic Albanian sides.

Clutching the trump card of threatened NATO air strikes if diplomacy fails, mediators handed out part of a draft deal to Serbian delegates in one room of the chateau where the talks were being held and in another room to the ethnic Albanians.

The mediators -- Christopher Hill of the United States, Wolfgang Petritsch for the European Union and Boris Mayorsky of Russia -- will shuttle between the two groups for up to two weeks trying to find consensus for wide autonomy for Kosova.

"There is not going to be any free time. No one is planning to play volleyball or ping-pong with each other," Hill said in remarks carried by BBC radio on Sunday.

"Our expectation is that they remain in the chateau until they reach an agreement. It's going to be a very intense period."

Reflecting the heavy pressure bearing down on the talks from outside, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reminded the two sides that Washington saw the alternative to peace in the bleakest terms.

"Failure in the talks could result in renewed wide-scale violence that would cause massive human suffering, jeopardise gains made in Bosnia and threaten stability through much of southern Europe," she said in a speech.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the talks could face daily dramas as the two sides thrashed out an agreement.

The delegations were holed up in an elegant 14th century chateau sealed off by fences and police from the rest of this quiet town southwest of Paris. Delegates were not immediately available for an initial reaction to the draft deal.

An adviser to the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), the militant separatist movement that Belgrade denounces as terrorist, told Reuters his group rejected one stipulation that its arms be handed over and kept in NATO-guarded stocks.

"This is unacceptable to the KLA," said the adviser, who asked not to be named. An offer to integrate KLA fighters into the Kosova police force was not an equal tradeoff, he said.

"The KLA wants to be an army, just as the Bosnian Serbs have their own forces," he said.

French President Jacques Chirac officially opened the talks on Saturday and the delegations enjoyed buffet dinners that evening -- again in separate rooms -- while the mediators moved back and forth among them.

The six-nation Contact Group on former Yugoslavia -- the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy -- hope the talks will end with Belgrade granting autonomy to the Kosova Albanians and allowing up to 30,000 NATO troops to be stationed in the rebellious province to help guarantee it.

The talks opened under a cloud, however, after Serbian authorities had held up the departure of ethnic Albanian delegates from Kosova, ostensibly because some from the KLA did not have the proper travel papers.

And just as the Saturday session was starting, a powerful bomb killed three people outside a food shop owned by ethnic Albanians in the Kosova capital Pristina.

After a three-hour delay, the ceremony opening the talks took place with Chirac urging the participants: "Allow the forces of life to triumph over the forces of evil."

The Contact Group's plan envisages substantial autonomy for Kosova -- where ethnic Albanians constitute 90 percent of the population -- leaving Belgrade only limited control over its troubled southern province, diplomats say.

The mediating team will tackle constitutional issues first in a bid to build momentum before confronting some of the most tendentious issues, such as defence. -----------

Sunday February 7, 4:36 PM

Serbian Role In Kosova Accepted For Three Years

(PA) Rival Serbs and Kosova Albanians have accepted a set of principles that include maintaining some form of Serbian control over Kosova for at least another three years, participants said.

On the first real day of peace talks in France, both a Serb negotiator and a Western mediator said the sides had explicitly accepted the 10 principles set forth by the six-nation Contact Group.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the news with the ethnic Albanian side.

"It's a good step forward," said the Western mediator. "But the devil is in the details" - meaning the nature of autonomy that would be granted the ethnic Albanians.

He pointed out that the principles were the basis on which the sides had agreed to come to the talks in the first place.

But, he said, such a step does mean that the ethnic Albanians have agreed to back off their demand for independence for at least three years.

The two sides were presented for the first time with the full text of the framework agreement drawn up by the Contact Group, which calls for a three-year period of autonomy for the province, maintenance of Serb territorial integrity, protection of minorities and a police force that reflects the ethnic community.

The negotiating teams were not meeting face to face. Instead, mediators were shuttling between two floors of the 14th-century Chateau de Rambouillet, about 50km south of Paris.

Sunday February 7, 4:53 PM

Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegates condemn Pristina bombing

By Shaban Buza

RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 7 - Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegates, briefly bridging the gulf dividing them at make-or-break peace talks, united on Sunday to condemn a bombing in the Kosova capital Pristina that killed three people.

The two sides in the twin-track "proximity talks," which began examining draft peace proposals in separate rooms on Sunday, said such violence in Serbia's rebellious southern province aimed to undermine the negotiations underway near Paris.

The statement, read to reporters by spokesmen for the United States and France, was the first joint declaration by the warring parties, brought together at Rambouillet's elegant chateau under the threat of NATO military force.

There were no signs, however, that either side had budged yet after international mediators handed them partial texts of the draft deal meant to be hammered out over the next two weeks.

"The two participating delegations condemn in the strongest terms this act and demand the perpetrators be found and brought to justice as soon as possible," said the joint statement on the bombing in central Pristina on Saturday evening.

"This and similar cowardly acts are directed against efforts now under way in Rambouillet, where the two participating delegations are working intensively towards a peaceful political solution to the problem in Kosova," it said.

Kosova's ethnic Albanians, reeling from 10 years of harsh direct rule from Belgrade since their provincial autonomy was revoked in 1989, want full independence from Serbia.

Serbia is only ready to grant local self-rule less sweeping than the wide-ranging autonomy the Contact Group -- the United States, Russia, Germany, Britain, France and Italy -- see as the solution to the 11-month conflict.

Phil Reeker, spokesman for chief mediator Chris Hill of the United States, said both sides wanted to make the statement.

Asked how the talks were going, he remarked: "There's not much to tell, really. They're meeting. They're working."

The mediators -- Hill, Wolfgang Petritsch for the European Union and Boris Mayorsky of Russia -- will shuttle between the two groups for up to two weeks trying to find consensus for wide autonomy for Kosova.

"There is not going to be any free time," Hill told BBC radio. "No one is planning to play volleyball or ping-pong with each other.

"Our expectation is that they remain in the chateau until they reach an agreement. It's going to be a very intense period."

Reflecting the heavy pressure on the talks from outside, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned the two sides that Washington saw the alternative to peace in the bleakest terms.

"Failure in the talks could result in renewed wide-scale violence that would cause massive human suffering, jeopardise gains made in Bosnia and threaten stability through much of southern Europe," she said in a speech in the United States on Saturday.

The six-nation Contact Group on former Yugoslavia -- the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy -- hope the talks will end with Belgrade giving autonomy to Kosova.

NATO plans to send up to 30,000 NATO troops to guarantee a three-year interim period after an agreement. Italy's Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema said in an interview published on Sunday Italy was willing to commit troops to such a force.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Gusarov said there would be no need for ground troops if both sides accepted the accord.

Serbia, Moscow's traditional ally in the Balkans, has also argued there should be no need for foreign troops in Kosova. Ethnic Albanians, who constitute a 90 percent majority in Kosova, see the force as their protective shield.

An adviser to the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), the militant separatist movement that Belgrade denounces as terrorist, told Reuters his group rejected one stipulation in the draft deal that its arms be handed over and kept in NATO-guarded stocks.

French President Jacques Chirac officially opened the talks on Saturday. The delegates attended an informal cocktail party in one room that evening but then split up for separate buffet dinners prepared by French presidential chefs.

The talks opened under a cloud after Serbian authorities in Pristina had held up the departure of ethnic Albanian delegates from Kosova, ostensibly because some from the KLA did not have