Diplomats reach deal on Kosova
Haxhi Haxhaj
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05/06/99- Updated 10:35 AM ET
BONN, Germany (AP) - Russia and Western powers agreed
Thursday on a
common approach to seeking peace for Kosova,
including terms for an
armed international force to secure the return of
refugees.
"The Russians have accepted the proposition there
needs to be a security
presence on the ground in Kosova," President
Clinton's national security
adviser, Sandy Berger, told reporters with the
president.
Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries
meeting outside Bonn
settled on a seven-point plan to be endorsed by the
U.N. Security Council,
German officials said.
At a news conference, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright said, "This
meeting has been a step forward."
She said Russia now accepts all five NATO principles
for a solution to the
conflict: an end to violence in Kosova, a withdrawal
of Serb forces from the
southern Serbian province, the return of Kosova
refugees, the introduction of
an international security force and a political
settlement.
Albright said the "robust" security force "will have
NATO at its core," adding
that Russia will be "part of it."
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also called
the agreement "a
considerable step forward."
Getting Russia, which opposes NATO airstrikes on
Yugoslavia, into such a
common front is designed to increase diplomatic
pressure on Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic to settle on NATO's
terms, including an armed
NATO-led international force to secure the return of
Kosova refugees.
Milosevic has so far said he would only accept an
unarmed U.N. presence in
Kosova.
But Berger described the security force endorsed by
the G-8 ministers as a
"robust presence that would not only be able to
defend itself but maintain civil
order." He said the Russians indicated that they
would participate in this
force, under the right circumstances.
Milosevic has shown no sign of giving in, but he has
made some manoeuvres
that prompted speculation of a Yugoslav diplomatic
offensive.
With Belgrade's permission, Kosova's most prominent
ethnic Albanian
leader, Ibrahim Rugova, flew to Rome on Wednesday.
Last weekend,
Milosevic allowed three captured U.S. soldiers to be
released.
Thursday's meeting of G-8 foreign ministers at a
government guest house
outside Bonn was the first since NATO's assault began
March 24.
Represented were the United States, Britain, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan
and Canada - the world's leading industrial countries
- and Russia.
Albright met separately before the main session with
Fischer and Russian
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
Before the talks, Western leaders praised mediation
efforts by Russian
envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, who has met twice with
Milosevic since
airstrikes began.
"Not least because of Chernomyrdin's mission, the key
political positions
have come closer together," German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder said
Wednesday.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Russia "has
shown an increased
interest" in helping solve the Kosova crisis over the
past two weeks.
A major aim of Thursday's talks was to start moving
toward a U.N. mandate
for any military force to secure the return of Kosova
Albanian refugees and
for an interim administration for the Yugoslav
province, Cook said.
Some European governments, including Germany's, are
also under pressure
to pursue diplomacy to head off growing antiwar
sentiment.
"The military means we are using are not an end in
themselves, they are the
means for a single purpose: ending the killing in
Kosova," Schroeder said in a
speech to parliament.
Clinton, on a two-day trip to Germany to meet U.S.
military personnel
involved in the war on Yugoslavia, stressed that the
bombing will continue
until Milosevic gives in.
But even Clinton softened his rhetoric this week
after meeting
Chernomyrdin, offering both a pause in NATO's bombing
of Yugoslavia and
negotiations on a U.N.-backed peace force for Kosova
if Milosevic starts
pulling out his forces.
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