World

Little Progress At Kosovo Talks

February 6, 1999 / 1:52 PM EST / AP

Ethnic Albanian rebels and rival Serbians demanded several important changes Wednesday to a U.S.-sponsored plan to bring peace to Kosovo, despite the American mediator's report of progress during talks.

The two delegations remained far from any agreement after three full days of talks at the 14th century French chateau where they are meeting.

Serb-led Yugoslavia was demanding a formal pledge to keep the country's borders intact, and Albanian negotiators were calling for a referendum on independence, an immediate cease-fire and NATO guarantees for the eventual interim settlement.

In a statement Wednesday, the Kosovo Liberation Army said it would not give up its battle for independence for the province, where more than 2,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless in a year of fighting.

In the statement, distributed to the ethnic Albanian media in Kosovo, the KLA also demanded that a formal cease-fire be signed with the Serb side and guaranteed by a third party.

The Serbian government considers the KLA terrorists and has refused to sign a cease-fire because that would amount to a de facto recognition of the group.

Despite claims of progress Tuesday by chief U.S. mediator Christopher Hill, sources close to the delegations said the two sides had not agreed on a single word of the peace plan. Progress, in the view of the mediators, appears to mean the delegations are actively studying the text of the proposal.

"This is not easy, and frankly it's not a lot of fun ... but we are making progress," said Hill, who heads the team of three mediators shuttling between Serb and ethnic Albanian delegations. The two sides are staying on different floors and have not met face-to-face.

The KLA rebels, who have five officials on the 16-member ethnic Albanian delegation, also demanded the release of all political prisoners held in Kosovo or the free return to the province of those sentenced in absentia.

Another request was to allow an investigation of alleged war crimes in Kosovo by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

"Above all, we demand our legitimate right to recognize the independence of Kosovo through a clear and indisputable formulation with fixed dates and with a distinct mechanism which will secure Kosovo to become independent," the KLA said.

The Serbian side has also filed a series of complaints about the peace plan, which was handed to them when negotiations began Sunday, sources close to the delegation said.

The Serbians said the plan virtually separates Kosovo, their medieval heartland, from Serbia. They want the ethnic Albanian delegation to publicly sign their pledge that Kosovo will not become independent.

Under the plan, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority would be given virtual autonomy during an interim period of at least three years. But the province would remain part of Yugoslavia's republic of Serbia.

NATO generals are working on plans to dispatch 25,000 to 30,000 troops to Kosovo, including up to 4,000 Americans, to enforce the agreement.

Russia strongly opposes the NATO threat of force. A Western military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that discussion of a NATO deployment is being put off until the end of the talks to avoid a diplomatic dispute with the Russians.

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said that autonomy for Kosovo would be no problem. But he said "under no condition" would foreign peacekeeping troops be allowed in Kosovo.

Also Wednesday, a spokesman for international monitors said Serb authorities have agreed to release the bodies of 40 ethnic Albanians slain in January in Racak. The killings brought new threats of NATO air strikes and intensified diplomacy, paving the way for the current peace talks.

The bodies have remained unburied because of a struggle between Serbs trying to avoid the spectacle of a mass funeral and ethnic Albanian politicians seeking to draw attention to what they say was a Serb atrocity.