May 07, 1999
Sokol Rama
Archives: http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/albanews.html
____________________________________________________________________
KCC (Kosova Crisis Center) http://www.alb-net.com/
Kosovapress http://www.kosovapress.com/
US Information Agency http://www.usia.gov/kosovo/
KOSOVA-INFO http://www.kosovainfo.com/
Kosova Information Center http://www.kosova.com/
_____________________________________________________________________
-------> Want to help the people of Kosova?? <-------
KHAO (Kosova Humanitarian Aid Organization)
URL: http://www.khao.org/
United States: Phone: 1-714-892-7283
Fax: 1-714-898-0740
_____________________________________________________________________
U.S. Growing Upbeat about Kosovo Outlook
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Blindsided by the extent of Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's defiance of the NATO air war, President Clinton and
other senior U.S. officials appear to be growing increasingly confident that
victory is within grasp.
In the days soon after Operation Allied Force began unleashing air strikes
on Yugoslavia, grumblings and finger-pointing surfaced as administration
officials sought to dodge blame for a campaign they had hoped would end in
capitulation within days of its start.
Clinton returned Thursday night from a two-day trip to NATO headquarters in
Brussels and visits in Germany with U.S. troops and refugees who fled
Kosovo. He is sounding more confident about winning the clash of wills with
Milosevic.
U.S. officials insist the decision by Moscow to endorse the use of an
international security force in Kosovo represents a significant step and
possible turning point in the conflict.
Serbs "have to see that they're increasingly isolated," White House National
Security Adviser Sandy Berger said of the Kremlin endorsement, which does
not go as far as the NATO allies would like but reflects a shift by one of
the primary opponents of the air war.
"I think Russia is moving toward the NATO position" on a peacekeeping force
Berger said, noting the alliance was hoping to create a "Bosnia-like
presence" in Kosovo once peace is established.
Russia and Ukraine, as well as other non-NATO countries, participate in the
international force that has kept the peace in Bosnia. The United States,
Britain and France -- key members of the alliance -- play a central role in
Bosnia.
Clinton, who has insisted NATO ultimately will make Milosevic back down,
wrapped up his two-day trip by saying, "I think there is a real peace
process underway" as long as "we maintain allied unity and firmness."
U.S. officials believe that Belgrade was convinced the alliance would crack
if the air war continued as long as it has. Instead, the NATO summit in
Washington at the end of last month ended with the 19 leaders calling for an
intensified war effort.
With Washington confident that China soon will follow Russia's backing for
an international force in Kosovo, U.S. officials now say they would welcome
a United Nations resolution in support of such a peacekeeping operation.
Earlier, the United States resisted direct involvement by the United Nations
out of fear that Moscow and Beijing would block Washington's wishes.
Clinton and other U.S. officials have been encouraging efforts by former
Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin to broker a peace deal even as
NATO expands its list of targets for the military campaign.
"We need to stay with the strategy we have," said Clinton, predicting "that
will secure the conditions necessary for a lasting peace in Kosovo."
On the day before Clinton departed Washington for his two- day trip, he met
at the White House with Chernomyrdin and with civil rights activist Jesse
Jackson.
Jackson, who returned from Belgrade after winning the release of three U.S.
soldiers captured by Serb forces, urged Clinton to suspend the bombing or
make some diplomatic gesture to encourage peace efforts.
U.S. officials insisted there was no connection to the release of the
Americans and an announcement that Clinton was considering freeing two Serb
army privates now being held by American forces in Germany.
"Obviously we're keeping all options open," said a U.S. official who
accompanied Clinton on his mission to Europe.
Russia's Yeltsin Nods Approval of G8 Kosovo Plan
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin gave a nod of approval
Friday to a newly crafted international plan for resolving the Kosovo
crisis, while his special Balkan envoy prepared for a fresh mission to
Belgrade, officials said.
But Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also said it was too early for optimism
about ending the conflict and reiterated his call for a halt to NATO's
bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
"This is not a breakthrough, just a step in the right direction," Ivanov
told reporters as he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the
Kremlin wall ahead of Victory Day in World War II, celebrated in Russia on
May 9.
"If our partners had accepted the idea of a pause in bombing it would have
helped to take decisions in a calmer atmosphere. (But) every hour brings new
tragedies," said Ivanov, who has strongly condemned the NATO air raids.
Foreign ministers from the world's seven biggest economies and Russia,
meeting Thursday in Bonn for the first time since NATO launched its air war
six weeks ago, called for Yugoslav troops to leave Kosovo and an
international force to secure the region.
But NATO ruled out an immediate halt to the strikes and bombs fell again
just hours after the end of the meeting.
Yeltsin, speaking by telephone Friday with his Balkan envoy Viktor
Chernomyrdin, broadly approved the foreign ministers' decision and said
talks on Kosovo should continue without pause, Chernomyrdin's office said.
The Kremlin also said Yeltsin had spoken by telephone with former German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, with whom Yeltsin had close informal ties, and
agreed a peaceful solution in Kosovo should be actively sought.
Chernomyrdin told reporters he hoped to head for Belgrade in the near future
for a third round of talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but
did not say when he would leave.
He said he was optimistic on the chances for an agreement to end the war.
"There is progress. ... There are good grounds for an agreement," he said.
NATO has welcomed Russia's diplomatic efforts as well as its agreement
Thursday to an international security presence in Kosovo, though Moscow also
insists this must have Belgrade's consent.
Ivanov travels to Britain Saturday to meet his counterpart Robin Cook. He
will spend three days in Britain.
Continuing the diplomatic flurry, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe
Talbott is expected in Moscow next Tuesday, his second visit to the Russian
capital in two weeks.
Russia's influential business newspaper, Kommersant Daily, said Moscow and
the West had achieved a turning point in the Yugoslav war Thursday and would
now work closely together.
"The main thing is that Belgrade will no longer be able to play on the
differences between Russia and the West. Starting from yesterday, they
represent the same front," it said.
But the head of Russia's parliamentary international affairs committee,
Vladimir Lukin, said it was too early to draw optimistic conclusions from
Thursday's deal, saying details still to be worked out could open up new
divisions.
"What happened yesterday was important and useful, but it is an agreement on
general principles. The principles are easy to agree on, much easier than a
concrete agreement," he said.
Interfax news agency quoted Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov Friday
as saying Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin were "betraying and selling Yugoslavia"
and that they had nudged Ivanov closer toward the West's position on
Yugoslavia.
Also Friday, a new plane carrying Russian humanitarian aid for the victims
of the Kosovo conflict flew to the Bulgarian capital Sofia en route for
Yugoslavia and Macedonia.
Milosevic Opens Door to Further Talks if NATO Stops the Bombing
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- NATO hit a residential area in Yugoslavia's
third-largest city today, reportedly killing at least 11 people and injuring
dozens in a strike near a hospital.
The attacks came after President Slobodan Milosevic signaled a willingness
to discuss a new Kosovo peace plan if the alliance stops its bombing
campaign. A draft of the seven-point plan was worked out Thursday by Russia,
Japan and six NATO members, including the United States.
Authorities in the city of Nis, 120 miles southeast of Belgrade, said at
least 11 people were killed and 60 were injured when NATO missiles hit the
city center near a local hospital, a marketplace and a park shortly before
noon today.
An Associated Press reporter, taken to the scene by Serbian authorities, saw
destruction to an entire street near the Nis University. One house was
completely burned. Dozens of others had their windows blown out and their
walls were pierced by what appeared to be fragments of cluster bombs.
Several cars were destroyed.
A bit farther, in the Anete Andrejevic street near a market place, three
bodies were lying in pools of blood. One was that of an old woman surrounded
by pieces of carrots. The other two were men, one dismembered.
"When it began, we rushed to a cellar," said Smilja Juric, 70. "People were
screaming ... One wounded man was in my backyard. No one came to take this
young man there," she said, indicating the dismembered body.
NATO said it struck the Nis airport in two rounds of attacks before dawn
Friday. The alliance reported "substantial strikes" in Nis, but declined to
confirm hitting the center of the city.
At a NATO briefing in Brussels, Belgium, Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz said the
alliance was investigating reports of a strike near a hospital. He refused
to comment further.
The new peace plan calls for the deployment of "effective international
civil and security presences" in Kosovo "capable of guaranteeing the
achievement of the common objectives." It must be endorsed by the U.N.
Security Council.
Many details still have to be worked out. Among other things, Russia and
NATO have different interpretations of a "security presence."
Russia also wants a halt to the bombing, while NATO is demanding that Serbs
first stop attacking ethnic Albanians. The United States wants a total
withdrawal of Serb forces, while Moscow and Belgrade are talking about a
partial pullout.
Speaking in Moscow today, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov expressed
disappointment that NATO did not end its attacks.
"Had our partners accepted our proposal to halt the airstrikes, better
conditions would've been created to adopt a decision," Ivanov said.
Russia's special envoy on Kosovo, former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin,
will soon propose major new steps on achieving a peaceful solution, Ivanov
said, giving no details.
Chernomyrdin said today he would fly to Belgrade, but did not say when.
The draft plan for ending the conflict also must be endorsed by the U.N.
Security Council.
Yugoslavia's state-controlled Tanjug news agency signaled today the
country's eventual acceptance of the new peace plan, but it said the
negotiating process could be "very lengthy."
Tanjug reiterated official Yugoslav stand that NATO must first stop bombing
Yugoslav targets before the plan is negotiated and passed by the United
Nations.
On Thursday, Milosevic and Serbian President Milan Milutinovic met with an
envoy from NATO-member Greece, Carolos Papoulias, to discuss the proposal.
Milosevic told Papoulias that Yugoslavia wants to reach a political solution
to the crisis in Kosovo, which is a province of the Yugoslav republic of
Serbia.
"We believe that a just solution on all open issues can be reached through
the political process of direct talks, which is predicated upon an end of
the aggression and return of peace and return of Yugoslav citizens to their
homes," Milosevic said in a statement distributed by government media.
NATO showed no sign of easing its air campaign against Yugoslavia, striking
several areas other than Nis early today.
Serbian media reported an attack before dawn near Sremska Mitrovica, 45
miles west of Belgrade. Explosions were also heard in the northern city of
Novi Sad, the Beta agency said.
The media also reported that alliance missiles destroyed the main railway
bridge between Yugoslavia and Romania late Thursday. Serbian TV showed the
destroyed bridge and entangled rails in the border town of Vatin.
Strikes were also reported near Kosovo's capital Pristina and close to the
Bulgarian border near Surdulica.
NATO hopes that a common diplomatic stand with Russia, which has religious
and cultural ties with the Serbs, will increase the pressure on Milosevic to
drop his resistance to an international military presence in Kosovo.
To bring in Russia, the Western powers agreed on a statement that makes no
reference to any NATO role in Kosovo peacekeeping and stresses the
importance of U.N. backing.
However, NATO ministers insisted they had not dropped demands that the force
be strongly armed, allowed to use force and spearheaded by alliance troops.
NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia on March 24 to force Milosevic
to accept a Western-dictated peace plan for Kosovo. About 90 percent of
Kosovo's prewar population of 2 million were ethnic Albanians, and
independence sentiment among them was strong.
Differences on Peacekeepers Are Narrowed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the United States and Russia closing ranks on a
peacekeeping force for Kosovo, President Clinton said today that Western
allies should not change their formula for a settlement and must neither
"add nor subtract from the basic conditions."
He suggested that the peacekeeping plan adopted in Bosnia might be a model
for Kosovo. "What we did in Bosnia was functional," the president said. In
Bosnia, the command was divided three ways, with the United States and
Russia in charge of one geographic area, Britain in another and France in a
third. "There may be some other way to do it in Kosovo," Clinton said. "I
don't want to prejudge all the details."
The president spoke with reporters on the South Lawn as he headed out for a
day of political fund raising in Texas, followed by a visit Saturday to
tornado-ravaged Oklahoma.
There was a quickening of developments on the diplomatic front.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arranged to meet here today with Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright on the newly energized diplomacy and Deputy
Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is flying to Moscow for further talks with
senior Russian officials.
Clinton said any peace deal must follow the conditions set by NATO for the
withdrawal of Serb forces, the return of refugees, political autonomy for
ethnic Albanians and the deployment of an international security force led
by NATO.
"I think it's important for the United States and our allies neither to add
nor subtract from the basic conditions that we have said all along are
essential to make this work," the president said.
Just how far the new diplomatic initiative goes is largely up to Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic, whose preliminary reaction was cautious.
"We believe that a just solution on all open issues can be reached through
the political process of direct talks," state-run Serbian media quoted
Milosevic as saying Thursday, without elaboration.
Milosevic also demanded "an end of the aggression and return of peace and
return of Yugoslav citizens to their homes."
Initially dead set against any international force on Serbian territory,
Milosevic had already offered to admit some lightly or unarmed observers
under the United Nations. Eight foreign ministers who met Thursday in Bonn,
Germany, countered with "deployment in Kosovo of effective international
civil and security presences," which NATO says means a well-armed military
force with NATO at its core.
There was no mention of NATO troops in the communique issued by the United
States, Russia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. But U.S.
officials said they would be part of the contingent that would shield
returning ethnic Albanian refugees.
Drafting of a U.N. resolution on Kosovo is to begin in the next few days for
discussion among the eight foreign ministers. That process could take weeks,
and the resolution would not be submitted to the Security Council until
there is final agreement between Russia and the United States.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y., scheduled a hearing of the
House International Relations Committee, which he chairs, for Thursday. "We
need to be mindful that it is diplomacy that will ultimately shape the
future of Kosovo and Yugoslavia," he said in a statement.
While awaiting a move from Milosevic, the Pentagon announced that Defense
Secretary William Cohen ordered as many as 176 more Air Force and Marine
Corps planes to join the Yugoslav effort.
The deployment includes 18 more A-10 attack planes, 18 additional F-16CJ
jets, 36 more F-15E planes, 24 more F/A-18 jets and up to 80 additional
tanker planes. The Hungarian government said earlier this week the 24
F/A-18s will be based on its territory; the Pentagon has not confirmed that
but said eight U.S. Air Force refueling planes are scheduled to arrive in
Hungary this week.
"I think you'll find when it's together and announced that we will have
basically a 360-degree attack capability against Yugoslavia," Pentagon
spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Thursday, referring to the widening circle of
bases from which NATO attack planes will launch their missions against
Yugoslavia.
The new peacekeeping plan is designed to win over Milosevic while ensuring
the tormented ethnic Albanian refugees can return to their homes in safety.
It also could give Russia, China or other U.N. Security Council members a
say in the troops' mission and possibly limit the weapons and force they can
employ to protect returned refugees.
Even though Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Thursday after a
briefing by State Department and Pentagon officials the force "could well
not include Americans," there seems to be little doubt there will be a
sizable U.S. contingent, as there is helping to keep the peace next door in
Bosnia.
The 28,000-member force initially planned for Kosovo is now considered too
small to monitor the postwar resentment that could boil over into violence
even after most of the Serb troops and paramilitary units depart the
province.
The force could expand to 60,000, with a proportionally larger U.S. share
than the 4,000 considered at the outset.
That guarantees the Clinton administration will not budge from its
insistence that the American troops be under the control of American
commanders.
Sandy Berger, the president's national security adviser, described the
security force approved Thursday by the Group of Eight foreign ministers as
a "robust presence that would not only be able to defend itself but maintain
civil order."
Troops from Russia, Ukraine and other countries friendly to Yugoslavia are
likely to be included, and possibly from such NATO nations as Greece and
Portugal, which have not actively engaged in the 6-week-old NATO attacks on
the Serbs.
Council of Europe adopts resolution on Kosovo
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) The 50th anniversary meeting of the Council of Europe
ended Friday with a call for the punishment of those responsible for the
mass deportation of Kosovo Albanians and for the violation of their human
rights.
Like NATO's own 50th birthday last month, the meeting here , too, was
intended to be a celebration of achievements, but instead was overshadowed
by the humanitarian tragedy in Kosovo.
«Progress has been made on a number of fronts in the past six months, but
unfortunately this was not matched in relation to the Kosovo crisis,» said
the outgoing chairman, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi.
«The Council of Europe could have taken a much more active role in treating
the Yugoslav crisis ever since 1991,» said outgoing Secretary General Daniel
Tarschys, adding «it is time for self-criticism.»
However, the council will play a major role in the repatriation of the
Kosovo refugees, both Tarschys and Martonyi promised.
A statement adopted on Kosovo expressed support for the efforts of U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan toward a solution of the Kosovo crisis. It also
welcomed a statement adopted by the G-8 group aimed at settling the
conflict.
The session received a telegram of greetings from Pope John Paul II, sent
before he departed for Romania, in which the pontiff called on the council's
41 member states to «untiringly seek ways of stopping the violation of human
dignity in Kosovo.»
The ministerial committee of the council agreed to set up the post of Human
Rights Commissioner, a post which is to be filled by January 1, 2000.
The council was the brainchild of Winston Churchill, who envisaged that the
«free nations of Europe could assert their shared values of human rights,
democracy and the rule of law.»
Established on May 5, 1949, in London, the council is now based in
Strasbourg, France.
____________________________________________________________________
ALBANEWS Site of the Day: "Kosova-Info-Line (Germany)"
http://www.kosova-info-line.de/
____________________________________________________________________
ALBANEWS is not affiliated with the Albanian Government, the Kosova
Government, any association or organization, nor any information or
news agency. Reports, articles and news items from various sources
are distributed via ALBANEWS for INFORMATIVE purposes only.
Opinions expressed/published on ALBANEWS do NOT necessarily reflect
the views of the owner and the co-owners and/or moderators, nor any
of their host institutions. ALBANEWS does NOT guarantee the accuracy
of the reports, articles and news items distributed via the list.
____________________________________________________________________
ALBANEWS listowner, co-owners and/or moderators can be contacted at:
ALBANEWS...@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu