NATO Threat Hangs Over Milosevic

NATO prepared to launch an unprecedented "no contact" peacekeeping mission in Kosovo Wednesday as world leaders threatened Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that force would come swiftly if his promises to withdraw troops from the province are broken. CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports.

In a first step toward compliance Tuesday, Milosevic outlined a plan to allow Kosovo autonomy. However, officials shut down two newspapers critical of the hard-line leader, reinforcing suspicions that Milosevic's agreement with U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke was not reliable.

"We prefer compliance over conflict, and we hope that will be the case, but whether it is or not is entirely up to him now," said President Clinton on Tuesday.

Following a week of intense talks with Holbrooke, Milosevic agreed Monday to withdraw forces from Kosovo, begin peace negotiations with separatist ethnic Albanians and allow some 2,000 international inspectors into Kosovo to verify compliance.

Since the agreement, the United States and Britain have warned Milosevic that he has until 1 a.m. EDT Saturday to honor his vow and end the brutalities in Kosovo. If he has not complied by that time, NATO officials say Serb forces will suffer punitive air strikes.

Milosevic's seven-month crackdown against ethnic Albanian militants in the province has killed hundreds of people, including innocent villagers, and has left up to 300,000 refugees homeless.

Ethnic Albanians form 90 percent of the 2 million people in Kosovo and have insisted on independence rather than regaining the autonomy Milosevic stripped in 1989. However, international leaders oppose independence for Kosovo, fearing that could lead to further instability in the tense Balkans.

President Milosevic

On the ground, civilian monitors, including Americans, are to observe and verify that the U.N. Security Council's demands for peace have been met. The monitors could remain in Kosovo for up to two years. In the air, American and other NATO spy planes will conduct flight missions to check that Serb troops are indeed leaving the embattled areas of Kosovo.

"We have a verification system," said Mr. Clinton. "There will be facts, facts on the ground, which will tell us whether or not the compliance is there."

Milosevic made the concessions only after B-52 bombers had moved into position to strike. But NATO has called off any more deployments of aircraft tassure Milosevic that it is safe to shut down his air defenses and pull back his troops.

While diplomats may think the agreement eases the Kosovo crisis, the refugees it is intended to save think there's more work yet to be done, reports CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey.

The tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians huddled in the cold and rain that has settled over the mountains did not listen to Milosevic's televised address to the nation Tuesday.

The Serb leader hailed diplomatic developments as an "achievement" that removed the threat of military intervention and was in the best interests of what he called "the country and all its national units."

Kosovo refugees say Milosevic is just trying to buy time, keeping them in the mountains until the snow comes and leaving them to freeze.

None of the refugees has a home with a roof over it, and the prospect of winter in the mountains terrifies them.

"If the international community would guarantee our safety I'd take my plastic tent and go live in the garden of my ruined house," one woman said.

Until the international monitors are in place to check on compliance, the world will simply have to take Milosovic on trust.

A formal agreement to set up the verification mission was to be signed in Belgrade on Friday by Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, the current chairman of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE).

©1998 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report