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Talks on Kosovo peace plan postponed for 'clarification'
June 7, 1999
BONN, Germany (CNN) -- Foreign ministers adjourned their talks on a U.N. Security Council resolution that endorses a Kosovo peace plan Monday to let Russian diplomats consult with Moscow on key sticking points. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said progress had been made toward drafting a resolution, but the ministers needed more time to discuss three points. Diplomats from the Group of Eight -- the top seven industrialized democracies and Russia -- said the meeting would resume on Tuesday. Meanwhile, NATO responded to the breakdown in talks between between allied and Yugoslav military staffs in Macedonia by striking targets around Belgrade for the first time in several days. Fischer did not disclose what differences were, but predicted they would be resolved. Separately, Western diplomats said the three sticking points are:
The Russians also continued to insist on an early NATO bombing pause, State Department Spokesman James Rubin said. NATO has vowed to continue airstrikes until a verifiable Serb withdrawal from Kosovo begins. Underscoring that point, NATO struck targets in and around the Yugoslav capital late Monday for the first time in nearly a week. Anti-aircraft fire erupted across Belgrade around 11:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. EDT), followed by explosions at midnight that plunged the capital into darkness. An oil refinery in Pancevo, on the outskirts of Belgrade, was struck by at least two NATO cruise missiles -- and bright orange fireballs lit up the night sky. The refinery has been a repeated NATO target during the 11-week conflict. A military barracks in Fruska Gora, about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the capital, and at Avala, a mountain on the southern outskirts of Belgrade, were hit. A military airport in Batajnica, outside the capital, was reportedly targeted as well. The G-8 ministers were going over a five-page French proposal linking a Serb withdrawal to Security Council consideration of the peace plan and a pause in bombing. Anne Gazeau-Secret, a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, said the British and German ministers supported the French initiative. Ministers from Italy, Canada, Japan, the United States and Russia also were attending the meeting. U.S. President Bill Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Monday in an apparent attempt to ease Russian concerns about the plan. According to U.S. officials, Clinton told Yeltsin the Kosovo peace process was at a "critical stage" and urged that Russian envoy Victor Chernomyrdin "keep moving forward" in his peace efforts.
Yugoslav officials have insisted on a U.N. resolution before they withdraw their forces from the embattled Serbian province. That insistence was one reason weekend talks between NATO and Yugoslav officials stalled over the timetable and routes of the withdrawal. Yugoslav and NATO generals met until the early morning hours Monday trying to finalize the withdrawal plan, but the Serbs reportedly balked on a number of key issues that NATO deemed "non-negotiable." "If the Serbs want to talk, they know what number to call," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said after the talks were suspended. NATO blamed Yugoslavia for the breakdown in the talks, but the Serbs said NATO was acting in bad faith in executing an agreement Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic made last Thursday, after a diplomatic effort by Russian Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. "We will continue with our constructive effort, and we are ready to talk further," Yugoslav Foreign Ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said. "Speculation that we have no mandate for those talks are not correct," he said. "We have a clear mandate in accordance with the political document established in Belgrade." Yugoslavia said the seven days NATO is allowing for a complete withdrawal from Kosovo are not enough, and that it should be allowed to keep some 15,000 troops in the province. NATO has called for a complete withdrawal and redeployment of a token force after NATO peacekeepers move in. Yugoslavia currently has about 40,000 troops in Kosovo.
NATO had slowed down its 75-day-old bombing campaign over the weekend after Yugoslavia accepted the international peace plan. After the talks broke off, NATO reintensified the attacks. "As far as the air campaign is concerned, there is no reason to suspend it," Shea said. "Conditions for that have not been met. We're going to keep it up so that (Milosevic) has a chance to rethink again the strategy of not following through on what he has agreed." Shea said that mere agreement with the principles of the peace plan was not enough. "We have to have complete acceptance of our non-negotiable conditions, and we have to have verifiable implementation," he said. "An agreement without implementation is not an agreement." Despite the snags, Milosevic told Ahtisaari by telephone that he intended to comply with the terms for peace. Ahtisaari relayed the message to the G-8 ministers. Just hours after the talks were suspended, air raid sirens sounded Monday in Belgrade for the first time in days, and Serb media reported new bombing raids near the cities of Pec and Decani.
NATO military spokesman Gen. Walter Jertz said the latest attacks hit "a wide variety of tactical military targets, including a command post, an early warning site, radar relay site and ammunition storage facility." The alliance remains concerned about intense fighting between Serb forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which is fighting for independence for the province. "Two main areas of conflict remain, in the Mount Pastrik vicinity and to north of Mount Pastrik," Jertz said. "The artillery firing into Albania continues in the Mount Pastrik area and from positions near Junik along the Kosovo-Albanian border, forcing Albanian people to leave their homes -- another clear sign that Serb military forces do not bother about civilian casualties." Yugoslav generals have demanded protection against KLA attacks before they begin withdrawing. NATO says it has instructions to disarm the guerrillas. Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelly and Correspondents Jim Clancy and Andrea Koppel contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Talks between NATO, Yugoslavia fall apart RELATED SITES: Yugoslavia:
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