World

Kosovo: A Powder Keg

January 10, 1999 / 4:20 PM EST / AP

With Yugoslav forces threatening attack, foreign monitors tried to avert an explosion of the Kosovo crisis Sunday by urging ethnic Albanian rebels to free eight soldiers held captive in a northern village.

Reflecting fears that the talks' failure could prompt an all-out government offensive, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana appealed in Brussels, Belgium, for the soldiers' release and called on both sides to show restraint.

A spokesman for the Kosovo monitors expressed cautious optimism the mediation would succeed in heading off a military showdown. But the weekend-long talks continued into Sunday evening without resolution.

"We've had signs that the situation could be calming down," said Heinz Nitsch, spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the group overseeing a peace agreement in Serbia's southern province.

He said OSCE verifiers had been holding negotiations since Saturday night "at the highest level.

Meanwhile, parents of the soldiers captured after they took a wrong turn Friday into rebel territory began arriving, hopeful of a release.

A second day of retaliatory attacks on a rebel-held area to the east had been feared, but there was no evidence of fighting in that region.

Yugoslav army and Serbian police forces that threatened attack if the soldiers were not released remained arrayed outside the village of Stari Trg five miles northeast of Kosovska Mitrovica and 30 miles from the provincial capital Pristina.

The independent Beta news agency reported Sunday night that army units had pulled back from their positions, but the report could not immediately be confirmed.

The OSCE said the captive soldiers were being treated well in a building on a mountainside near the village, where most surrounding homes stood burned or damaged.

While holding fire in the north, Serb forces also apparently did not continue their nearby retaliatory crackdown from the previous day, when they shelled several villages in the Podujevo area 12 miles east of Stari Trg, sending residents fleeing.

Podujevo and outlying villages controlled by the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army were the scene last month of the worst outbreak of fighting since an October truce four days of clashes in which at least 15 people were killed.

International officials fear an escalation of violence could destroy the cease-fire that halted more than seven months of fighting in Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian-majority province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

Most Kosovo residents favor independence from Serbia. Under the October agreement, ethnic Albanians and Serbs were to have begun negotiations on the future of the province. But no direct talks have been held.

U.S.-led diplomacy to try to bring about a political settlement on Kosovo's future has so far failed. American envoy Christopher Hill was back in Pristina on Sunday for what his spokesman Phillip Reeker described as a "regular shuttle diplomcy visit." He met with Serb, ethnic Albanian and international officials.

The OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission over the weekend blamed the latest standoff on "irresponsible actions" and "provocations" by the KLA and praised Yugoslav authorities for a "very restrained" response so far.

But Solana, while appealing to the rebels to release the soldiers, singled out the buildup of Serb forces as unwarranted. He appealed to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw.

"Kosovar Albanians should stop all provocative action," he said in a statement. "Serb special police and army units should avoid disproportionate violence."

The latest reported death came Saturday night when a young ethnic Albanian was killed and another was wounded.