Deadly blast in Pristina mars start of Kosovo peace talks

February 6, 1999
Web posted at: 6:58 p.m. EST (2358 GMT)

In this story: Chirac: 'Overcome forces of death' Rebels departure delayed Talks have 'tight script' Solana: Ground troops imperative RELATED STORIES, SITES

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Shortly after peace talks opened Saturday in France to try to end the violent conflict in Kosovo, a powerful bomb ripped through a small grocery store in the center of Pristina, killing three people, including a child.

The victims -- who were walking past the store when the bomb went off -- were ethnic Albanians, as are the owners of the store. Several others were injured in the explosion.

It was the third bombing in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo province, in little more than a week. But while the previous bombings were hand grenade attacks, Saturday's blast appeared to have been caused by a more powerful device.

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.

Chirac: 'Overcome forces of death'

Meanwhile, inside a 14th-century chateau in Rambouillet, near Paris, Yugoslav government officials and representatives from various ethnic Albanian factions in Kosovo sat down for peace talks.

Opening speeches and a brief administrative session followed. Negotiating was expected to get under way in earnest Sunday.

French President Jacques Chirac opened the session by urging the warring parties to have the courage to put ancient hatreds aside and end the violence in Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia, which is one of two republics that make up the Yugoslav federation.

"There are times when history is in the hands of a few men," Chirac said. "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."

Rebels departure delayed

Saturday was the deadline set by NATO for negotiations to begin. Otherwise, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana had been authorized to order military action against targets in Serbia.

But the beginning of the talks was delayed by three hours after Yugoslav authorities prevented two representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army from leaving Pristina because they consider members of the KLA "terrorists." That prompted the rest of the ethnic Albanian delegation to refuse to leave as well.

Yugoslav authorities finally relented to international pressure. Members of an international verification force on the ground in Kosovo escorted the KLA representatives through checkpoints and out to the tarmac to board the flight to France.

Ethnic Albanian guerrillas forces have been fighting Serb police and Yugoslav army troops for almost a year. About 2,000 people have been killed and 200,000 left homeless.

Many ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the population of Kosovo, want greater autonomy from Belgrade, and the KLA is insisting on outright independence. Serbia's leaders insist that the province is an integral part of their territory that they will never relinquish.

Talks have 'tight script'

The European Union's envoy to the talks, Wolfgang Petritsch, made it clear that the goal of the talks was to reach a deal on autonomy for Kosovo and nothing more.

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

The chief negotiator for the talks is Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Macedonia, who has been shuttling between the parties for months. Also participating as a negotiator is Boris Mayorski, a Russian diplomat.

If the talks go well in the coming days, they are expected to extend into a second week. Those chaperoning the talks say about 75 percent of the final agreement has already been worked out.

"We have a pretty tight script, but ultimately it's always better in negotiations to get the parties to understand the script and agree to go along with it," Hill said.

Solana: Ground troops imperative

The Serbs have vowed that they will never approve the use of outside troops to enforce a peace agreement. But Solana said Saturday that any agreement will fail unless NATO-led ground troops are part of the equation.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Germany, Solana made an impassioned plea for NATO countries, including the United States, to commit ground troops.

"I know ... many around you may say it's too early to think about that," Solana said. "But it is not too early to really commit ourselves to implement this agreement with forces on the ground."

The United States has promised to "seriously consider" contributing up to 5,000 troops to a NATO force in Kosovo but won't make a final decision until it sees the details of any peace agreement.

Correspondents Nic Robertson and Richard Blystone and Reuters contributed to this report.

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