Message Board: Balkans flashpoint

March 8, 1999
Web posted at: 9:39 a.m. EDT (0939 GMT)

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Special U.S. envoy Chris Hill was meeting ethnic Albanian leaders at a secret location in Kosovo on Monday, amid hopes that separatist rebels will formally accept an international peace proposal for the war-torn Serbian province.

International mediators had hoped that the Kosovo Liberation Army rebels and civilian ethnic Albanian leaders would accept the autonomy peace plan this past weekend.

But discussions have been dragging on amid reports that ethnic Albanians want firm assurances that there will be a referendum on Kosovo's independence after an interim three-year period.

Ethnic Albanians also want to be assured that any accord will be implemented with the help of a NATO-led international peace force -- a demand repeatedly rejected by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

A further sticking point appeared to be the KLA's future, as a peace accord may call for the disarmament of the rebel movement.

The international draft peace plan for Kosovo would give the majority ethnic Albanians wide-ranging regional autonomy but would leave the Serbian province an integral part of the Yugoslav federation.

The Balkan Contact Group -- which brings together the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy -- hopes that a final peace accord can be signed at a second round of Kosovo peace talks scheduled for March 15 in France.

On Monday, there were also reports of renewed fighting in the troubled province.

Truce monitors said clashes between KLA forces and Yugoslav troops had erupted close to a border crossing into Macedonia in the south of the province.

They reported a buildup of Yugoslav army troops to the west of the frontier post in an area where violence in the last weeks drove thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes.

KLA sources said one of their soldiers was killed in the area on Monday and four were wounded.

Correspondent Tom Mintier andReuters contributed to this report.

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