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World - Europe

Kosovo rebels wary of peace agreement

 ALSO:
NATO: Bombing of Yugoslavia could end by Sunday

NATO hopes peace deal deflates Milosevic's power

 

June 4, 1999
Web posted at: 7:50 p.m. EDT (2350 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Although Belgrade has signaled it will allow international peacekeepers into Kosovo to protect hundreds of thousands of returning refugees -- as well as Serb civilians -- ethnic Albanian rebels expressed concern Friday over how the peace plan would be implemented.

Russia and NATO must still work out details about which countries will contribute to the Kosovo force and who will maintain command. But the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army said refugees would be too afraid to return to areas controlled by Russian forces, adding that some 12,000 Russian volunteers and mercenaries had fought alongside Yugoslav forces in Kosovo.

"If there is either a single Serb or a single Russian there ... nobody will go back," said Kosovo provisional government spokesman Shinasi Rama. "The people will go where the United States forces and NATO forces will go."

U.S. and NATO officials have said that the KLA must demilitarize once Yugoslav and Serb forces withdraw from the province. KLA leaders said they will honor a cease-fire with Yugoslavia, but insist they will retain some light weapons, potentially leaving angry, armed Kosovars as a challenge to the international force's mission of keeping the peace in Kosovo.

"I think people don't realize how ... this expulsion -- the rapidity with which it happened and the brutality with which it happened -- radicalized the whole population and especially the younger generation," said Susan Woodward of the Brookings Institution.

However, U.S. State Department Spokesman James Rubin said the KLA would not interfere with the peace deal. "We believe and we have confidence that, at the end of the day, if indeed the Serb forces fully withdraw and the NATO peacekeeping forces enter, that we will be able to cooperate constructively with the KLA," Rubin told reporters.

Many Kosovar Albanians feel the peace plan falls far short of their goals.

"We believe that we deserve independence, with the suffering our people have gone through. We do not see how we can live with the Serbs in the same state," Rama said.

One of the primary concerns of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians is the fact that the peace plan gives the U.N. Security Council the job of deciding on Kosovo's interim government. They worry that the Russians or Chinese might use their vetoes to prevent strong Kosovo self-rule.

"The Russians and the Chinese will use their veto to make sure that there is an alphabet soup of organizations running Kosovo," said Paul Williams, an attorney for the Kosovo provincial government.

"This alphabet soup will be very ineffectual and will provide an opportunity for the Serbian regime to continue in a sense their unsettling of the population of Kosovo and the slow partitioning of Kosovo, (a policy) they have been pursuing in Bosnia as well," he said.

Correspondent David Ensor and Reuters contributed to this report.


RELATED STORIES:
Chernomyrdin's peace efforts criticized by some Russians
June 3, 1999
Yugoslavia accepts peace deal on Kosovo
June 3, 1999
Peace talks with Milosevic to resume Thursday
June 2, 1999
Macedonia fears KLA recruiting from refugee camps
April 17, 1999
KLA guerrillas appeal for arms, NATO ground troops
April 17, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Yugoslavia:
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
      • Kesovo and Metohija facts
  • Serbia Ministry of Information
  • Serbia Now! News

Kosovo:
  • Kosova Crisis Center
  • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

Military:
  • NATO official site
  • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
  • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
  • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
  • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
  • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis


Resettlement Agencies Helping Kosovars in U.S.:
  • Church World Service
  • Episcopal Migration Ministries
  • Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
  • Iowa Department of Human Services
  • International Rescue Committee
  • Immigration and Refugee Services of America
  • Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
  • United States Catholic Conference

Relief:
  • World Relief
  • Doctors without borders
  • U.S. Agency for International Development (Kosovo aid)
  • Doctors of the World
  • InterAction
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Kosovo Humanitarian Disaster Forces Hundreds of Thousands from their Homes
  • Catholic Relief Services
  • Kosovo Relief
  • ReliefWeb: Home page
  • The Jewish Agency for Israel
  • Mercy International
  • UNHCR


Media:
  • Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
  • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
  • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
  • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

Other:
  • Expanded list of related sites on Kosovo
  • 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage
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