NATO authorizes airstrikes to stop Kosovo violence

In this story:

• Britain's Cook carries ultimatum to both sides
• Cease-fire keeps crumbling
• Yugoslavia reacts cautiously
• Rebels remain critical
• Related stories and sites

January 30, 1999
Web posted at: 6:59 p.m. EST (2359 GMT)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- NATO ambassadors Saturday authorized Secretary-General Javier Solana to order military action if Yugoslavia and its Kosovo province's ethnic Albanian separatists don't reach a settlement within three weeks.

"NATO stands ready to act," Solana said. "We rule out no option to ensure full respect by both sides in Kosovo for the requirements of the international community."

The six-nation Contact Group on the Balkans agreed Friday in London to demand that the two sides reach an autonomy agreement for Kosovo in three weeks or face military action. The sides are required to attend talks beginning February 6 in Rambouillet, France, outside Paris.

At a meeting in Brussels, NATO ministers voted to back up that ultimatum with the alliance's military might. Solana now has the authorization to launch airstrikes on Yugoslavia without additional approval by the NATO nations.

The alliance has assembled an armada of warships and aircraft near the region. Saturday's decision is expected to shorten any delay between a NATO decision to strike and the actual strike.

"NATO is resolved to persevere until the violence in Kosovo has ended and a political solution has been reached," Solana said.

Britain's Cook carries ultimatum to both sides

On Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook traveled to the Balkans to deliver the Contact Group's ultimatum in person to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and ethnic Albanian leaders.

"It is time to start talking and to get down to real serious business on the proposals by the Contact Group," Cook told reporters en route to Belgrade, where he met with Milosevic. He later met with ethnic Albanian leaders in Skopje, Macedonia.

Neither side gave an immediate answer. Milosevic said he planned to respond shortly.

"(He) said it was well known that Serbia and Yugoslavia were firmly committed to resolving problems in Kosovo -- which is an integral part of Serbia -- peacefully in Serbia with the participation of the representatives of all ethnic communities," said a statement from the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug.

Kosovo is a province within Serbia, one of the two republics that make up the Yugoslav federation. The Contact Group includes Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States.

Cook said neither side can achieve a military victory in Kosovo, a conflict that began in earnest last February when government forces cracked down on separatist rebels. More than 1,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have become refugees in the past year of fighting.

The Contact Group's proposal offers the Kosovars -- about 90 percent of whom are ethnic Albanians -- control over their own police force, as well as self-government, stability and democracy.

Cease-fire keeps crumbling

As the peace efforts were under way, the fighting continued.

The Serb Media Center said a Serb civilian died and his wife was seriously injured by a grenade tossed into their bedroom Saturday morning. The incident took place in the village of Rakos in an area fought over by Kosovo and Serb forces.

Friday was a particularly bloody day, with 25 deaths reported.

A hand grenade was thrown through the window of a cafe frequented by young Serbs in Pristina late Friday, wounding seven people, one of whom was Albanian. Police said the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) left a note at the scene claiming responsibility for the attack.

Earlier in the day, 24 armed rebels were killed in clashes in Rogovo in western Kosovo, Serb sources said. The Serb Media Center said the fighting broke out when a 21-year-old Serb policeman was shot to death in the village by the KLA.

Near Ljupce in northern Kosovo, Yugoslav army tanks fired on KLA positions, forcing Albanian villagers to flee.

Yugoslavia reacts cautiously

Yugoslavia generally welcomed the Contact Group call for talks but set conditions for the negotiations.

In an interview with CNN, Vuk Draskovic, Yugoslavia's deputy prime minister, hedged the issue of whether his government would attend the talks.

He said his government was "open for all kinds of democratic negotiations" but only on condition that there will be "full equality for all people" in Kosovo.

Miodrag Popovic, deputy Serbian information minister, said the Yugoslav government wanted talks to start as soon as possible but first wanted to see what terms were being proposed by the Contact Group.

And he said Yugoslavia could not observe a cease-fire -- a precondition set by ethnic Albanian leaders -- "because we consider the KLA a terrorist organization."

Rebels remain critical

KLA rebels had mixed reactions to the Contract Group's proposal.

"There is no point in going to talks with guns pointed at our foreheads," said Pleurat Sejdiu, a KLA representative in London.

Barthyl Mahmut, another KLA spokesman, said talks would not make sense unless Serbs released rebel prisoners and withdrew their forces from Kosovo.

Fehmi Agani, chief of a negotiating team nominated by the moderate leader of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, said he welcomed the international community's "decisiveness and determination."

But he said a key difficulty would be "insufficient coordination among ethnic Albanian political and military subjects."

Correspondent Brent Sadler and Reuters contributed to this report.