Contact group calls for Kosovo talks within week

Cook

January 29, 1999
Web posted at: 7:31 a.m. EST (1231 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- The six-nation Contact Group on Friday demanded an immediate cease-fire in Yugoslavia's Kosovo province and said that government representatives and ethnic Albanians must meet within a week to negotiate an end to the separatist conflict.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, speaking after a meeting of the contact group, said that the negotiations between the two warring factions would be held near Paris and would last three weeks at the most.

The contact group is comprised of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

Cook said the negotiations on the future of the troubled Serbian province must be based on significant regional autonomy for ethnic Albanians, including government control at the community level, and control of police and security forces.

He said the talks would take place with the participation of representatives of the contact group.

The British foreign minister also said he would travel Saturday to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, and Kosovo's provincial capital, Pristina, to deliver the contact group's message.

Cook did not comment on any NATO military enforcement of the contact group's demands, saying this was not the business of the six countries.

NATO has stated repeatedly in the past few weeks that it will intervene unless Yugoslav forces and ethnic Albanian rebels halt their armed conflict, which has already killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

Despite the urgent diplomatic call from London, the fighting in Kosovo did not stop Friday.

At least 20 ethnic Kosovo Liberation Army rebels were killed along with a 20-year-old Serbian policeman in clashes Friday in Rogovo, near Decani in western Kosovo, Serb sources said.

Reuters contributed to this report.