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Meldung vom 07.10.1998 11:13  http://seite1.web.de/show/361B30A7.NL1/

Moskau sieht wachsendes Verständnis für friedliche Lösung im Kosovo
Moskau (dpa) - Der russische Außenminister Igor Iwanow sieht ein wachsendes internationales Verständnis für eine politische Lösung des Kosovo-Konflikts. Bei einem Treffen mit Präsident Boris Jelzin im Kreml sagte Iwanow am Mittwoch, daß dazu die aktiven Vermittlungs-Bemühungen Rußlands beigetragen hätten.
     Die Partner Moskaus begännen die Zweckmäßigkeit einer politischen Lösung der Krise in der südserbischen Unruheprovinz zu verstehen und sich der Folgen bewußt zu werden, die ein NATO-Militärschlag haben könnte.
     Jelzin habe Iwanow beauftragt, zu einem am Donnerstag in London geplanten Treffen der Internationalen Kontaktgruppe zu reisen, teilte Kreml-Sprecher Dmitri Jakuschkin weiter mit. Für das Treffen gab es in London zunächst keine offizielle Bestätigung.
     der russische Präsident setzte am Mittwoch nach Kreml-Angaben seine internationalen Vermittlungsbemühungen zur Lösung der Kosovo-Krise fort. Er telefonierte mit dem britischen Premierminister Tony Blair.
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NATO-Außenminister-Treffen zunächst abgesagt
Brüssel (dpa) - Ein für diesen Donnerstag anberaumtes Treffen der NATO-Außenminister in Brüssel ist abgesagt worden. Das bestätigte ein NATO-Sprecher am Mittwoch. US-Außenministerin Madeleine Albright komme zunächst nicht nach Brüssel. Ursprünglich wollte sie dort ebenfalls am Donnerstag mit NATO-Generalsekretär Javier Solana das Kosovo-Problem erörtern.
     Offiziell wurden bei der NATO keine Gründe für die Absage der Ministertagung genannt. Es hieß jedoch, daß sowohl die Diskussionen im UNO-Sicherheitsrat wie auch Probleme mit dem deutschen Beitrag für eine Luftstreitmacht die Gründe sein könnten.
     Der scheidende deutsche Verteidigungsminister Volker Rühe hatte der NATO 14 Tornado-Flugzeuge für einen Luftangriff auf serbische Stellungen zur Verfügung gestellt. Über ihren Einsatz muß jedoch das Parlament entscheiden.
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Polen zur Teilnahme an Militäraktion im Kosovo-Konflikt bereit
Warschau (dpa) - Der NATO-Anwärter Polen ist zur Teilnahme an einer militärischen Aktion der NATO im Kosovo-Konflikt bereit. Das versicherte der polnische Ministerpräsident Jerzy Buzek am Mittwoch im polnischen Rundfunksender «Radio Zet».
     Dies sei eine Verpflichtung angesichts des bevorstehenden Beitritts zum Bündnis und der Ratifizierung der Erweiterung durch mittlerweile 15 der 16-NATO-Staaten. Am Dienstag hatte bereits Außenminister Bronislaw Geremek die polnische Unterstützung im Falle eines Militärschlages angekündigt, aber auch mitgeteilt, daß Polen bislang nicht konkret um Hilfe gebeten worden sei.
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Holbrooke setzt Pendel-Diplomatie fort
Belgrad (dpa) - Der US-Sondergesandte Richard Holbrooke setzt an diesem Mittwoch seine Kosovo-Pendeldiplomatie zwischen Belgrad und Pristina fort. Er werde sich in Pristina erneut mit dem Albanerführer Ibrahim Rugova und anschließend zum dritten Mal mit dem jugoslawischen Präsidenten Slobodan Milosevic treffen, meldete die Nachrichtenagentur Beta (Belgrad).
     Sein mehr als dreistündiges Gespräch am Dienstag abend mit Milosevic hatte keinen Fortschritt für eine friedliche Lösung der Kosovo-Krise erbracht. Holbrooke selbst vermied in der Nacht zum Mittwoch jeden Kontakt mit der Presse.
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«Kommersant daily»: Kosovo für Moskau wichtiger als Wirtschaftskrise
Moskau (dpa) - Die russische Wirtschaftszeitung «Kommersant daily» schreibt am Mittwoch zu der russischen Politik im Kosovo-Konflikt:
     «Die NATO hat ihre Bereitschaft erklärt, in den nächsten Stunden Jugoslawien zu bombardieren. Moskau unternimmt verzweifelte Versuche, das zu verhindern. Die Situation in Kosovo beschäftigt den Kreml sogar mehr als die Probleme der russischen Wirtschaft. Belgrad drängt Moskau im ungeeignetsten Augenblick zur Konfrontation mit dem Westen (...).
     Moskau versucht mit allen Kräften, die Bombardierung Jugoslawiens zu verhindern. Aber die Bemühungen der russischen Diplomaten werden nur Erfolg haben, wenn (der jugoslawische Präsident) Milosevic das will (...). Wenn Milosevic und der Westen sich einigen, verspielt Rußland doppelt: Es hat sich mit dem Westen zerstritten, und Kosovo erhält ein NATO-Kontingent.»
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UN-Sicherheitsrat enthält sich Votum zu Militärschlag im Kosovo
New York (dpa) - Der UN-Sicherheitsrat hat sich in einer neuen Stellungnahme zum Kosovo-Konflikt abermals nicht zu einem möglichen Militärschlag geäußert. Das höchste UN-Gremium verlangte in der Erklärung am späten Dienstag abend die vollständige Umsetzung der UN-Resolutionen zu der Krise in der jugoslawischen Provinz.
     Der Stellungnahme waren im Sicherheitsrat stundenlange Auseinandersetzungen vorausgegangen. Viele westliche Diplomaten bewerteten den Text als nichtssagend.
     Die Ratsmitglieder nahmen der Stellungnahme zufolge zur Kenntnis, daß die militärischen Aktivitäten im Kosovo in den vergangenen Tagen nachgelassen hätten. Die bewaffnete Präsenz der Belgrader Regierung im Kosovo sei aber nach wie vor «bedeutend». Der Sicherheitsrat verurteilte die «wahllose und unangemessene Anwendung von Gewalt gegen Zivilisten, ebenso wie die terroristischen Aktivitäten». Damit wurden sowohl die Serben als auch die Kosovo-Albaner kritisiert.
     Der Sicherheitsrat rief zu einer raschen Wiederaufnahme von Verhandlungen ohne Bedingungen auf, um eine umfassende politische Lösung der Krise zu erreichen. Er unterstrich die Bedeutung eines ungehinderten Zugangs für humanitäre Helfer und forderte sichere Bedingungen für die Rückkehr von Flüchtlingen.
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UN-Sicherheitsrat uneins über Kosovo-Konflikt
New York/Belgrad (dpa) - Der UN-Sicherheitsrat hat sich in der Nacht zum Mittwoch nicht auf eine gemeinsame Haltung zum Kosovo-Konflikt einigen können. Das höchste UN-Gremium beriet mehrere Stunden lang über den Kosovo-Bericht von UN-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan, den er am Vortag vorgelegt hatte. In einem Entwurf Großbritanniens für eine Stellungnahme wurden «dringende Schritte» in der Krise empfohlen. Er enthielt aber keine Hinweise auf einen möglichen Militäreinsatz der Nato.
     Angesichts der Vorbereitungen der Nato auf einen Militärschlag in der jugoslawischen Unruheprovinz hatten sich sowohl Rußland als auch China am Dienstag einer gewaltsamen Lösung entschieden widersetzt. Beide Staaten haben als ständige Mitglieder ein Vetorecht im Sicherheitsrat.
     Die Außenminister der Nato beschlossen unterdessen, die Kosovo-Krise bei einer Sondersitzung am Donnerstag in Brüssel zu erörtern. In der Region selbst bemühte sich der US-Gesandte Richard Holbrooke um Vermittlung eines Dialogs zwischen der jugoslawischen Führung in Belgrad und den Kosovo-Albanern. Holbrooke bezeichnete die Lage nach einem Besuch im Kosovo als «nicht sehr ermutigend» und forderte den jugoslawischen Präsidenten Slobodan Milosevic auf, die Nato-Drohungen mit Militärschlägen ernstzunehmen. Ein weiteres Treffen mit Milosevic am Dienstag abend schien keinen Fortschritt erbracht zu haben.
     Das Parlament der jugoslawischen Teilrepublik Montenegro appellierte am Dienstag abend an die Nato, militärisch nichts gegen Jugoslawien zu unternehmen. Gleichzeitig riefen die Parlamentarier Milosevic auf, alle von der internationalen Gemeinschaft verlangten Bedingungen voll zu erfüllen, meldete die Belgrader Nachrichtenagentur Beta aus der montenegrinischen Hauptstadt Podgorica.
     Die internationale Diplomatenmission im Kosovo bestätigte unterdessen den teilweisen Abzug serbischer Polizeiverbände und jugoslawischer Armee-Einheiten aus dem Kosovo. Dennoch wurden weiterhin Armee-Verbände im Süden und im zentralen Teil der Provinz gesichtet, hieß es in einem in Belgrad veröffentlichten Lagebericht. In der Umgebung der Provinzhauptstadt Pristina und bei Djakovica entdeckten die Diplomaten neu aufgestellte Luftabwehr-Raketensysteme vom Typ SA-6.
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Noch keine Einigung im UN-Sicherheitsrat über Kosovo
New York (dpa) - Der Weltsicherheitsrat ringt weiter um eine einheitliche Haltung im Konflikt um die südserbische Provinz Kosovo. Das höchste UN-Gremium beriet am Dienstag abend (Ortszeit) mehrere Stunden lang über den Kosovo-Bericht von UN-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan, den er am Vortag vorgelegt hatte. Zunächst konnten sich die Ratsmitglieder nicht auf eine Stellungnahme einigen.
     Ein Entwurf der britischen Ratspräsidentschaft stieß auf erhebliche Widerstände. Darin waren in der Krise «dringende Schritte» empfohlen worden. Der Sicherheitsrat sollte seine Entschlossenheit bekräftigen, Belgrad zur vollständigen Erfüllung seiner Forderungen zu bringen.
In dem britischen Entwurf gab es allerdings keine Präzisierung und keine Hinweise auf mögliche Militäreinsätze der Nato. Rußland und China, die solche Beschlüsse als ständige Mitglieder des Sicherheitsrats mit einem Veto verhindern könnten, sind gegen einen Militärschlag gegen serbische Ziele.
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Milosevic nochmals mit Holbrooke zusammengetroffen
Belgrad (dpa) - Der jugoslawische Präsident Slobodan Milosevic hat sich am Dienstag abend in Belgrad zum zweitenmal innerhalb 24 Stunden mit dem früheren amerikanischen Balkan-Sonderbeauftragten Richard Holbrooke getroffen. Die beiden erörterten nochmals die aktuelle Lage in der südserbischen Krisenprovinz Kosovo, wie Radio Belgrad meldete. Einzelheiten des Gesprächs wurden zunächst nicht bekannt.
     Der zweitägige Besuch Holbrookes wird als der vielleicht letzte internationale Versuch gedeutet, ein militärisches Eingreifen der Nato im Kosovo-Konflikt abzuwenden. Holbrooke hatte sich am Dienstag in Pristina auch mit dem Albanerführer Ibrahim Rugova und anderen Albanervertreten getroffen. Er warnte Milosevic anschließend, die Nato-Drohungen mit Militärschlägen müßten ernst genommen werden. Die Lage im Kosovo bezeichnete er als «nicht sehr ermutigend».
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Cohen gegen US-Beteiligung an Friedenstruppen in Kosovo
Washington (dpa) - US-Verteidigungsminister William Cohen ist gegen eine Beteiligung amerikanischer Bodentruppen an einer etwaigen Friedensstreitmacht in der jugoslawischen Krisenprovinz Kosovo. Sie sollte nach seiner Auffassung hauptsächlich aus europäischen Soldaten gebildet werden.
     Cohen sagte am Dienstag bei einer Kongreßanhörung in Washington, die USA würden im Falle von Luftangriffen auf serbische Ziele den Großteil der Flugzeuge stellen. Sie sollten daher «nicht mehr Lasten als notwendig tragen. Wenn eine Bodenkomponente erforderlich ist, ist es meine Empfehlung und - ich würde fast sagen, mein Beharren -, daß sie größtenteils, wenn nicht vollständig, europäischer Art ist.» Unter Hinweis auf die kontroversen Debatten über die Beteiligung an den friedenssichernden Einheiten in Bosnien sagte er, er zögere, eine »bedeutende Präsenz (amerikanischer) Kampftruppen auf dem Boden in Kosovo vorzuschlagen».
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Belgrad bekräftigt Ende der Einsätze von Sonderpolizei im Kosovo
Belgrad (dpa) - Die serbische Sonderpolizei hat nach Angaben Belgrads am Dienstag alle ihre Einsätze in der südserbischen Krisenprovinz Kosovo beendet. Das berichtete am Abend das staatliche Belgrader Fernsehen. Alle Einheiten der «Antiterroreinheiten» seien aufgrund der Beschlüsse der jugoslawischen und serbischen Führung in ihre Kasernen außerhalb Kosovos zurückverlegt worden, hieß es. In der Provinz seien nur noch Verkehrspolizei und reguläre Ordnungskräfte geblieben. Seit sieben Tagen habe die Polizei trotz Angriffen «versprengter Terroristengruppen» keine Kampfhandlungen mehr geführt.
     Das Staatsfernsehen zeigte Aufnahmen langer abziehender Kolonnen aus gepanzerten Mannschaftswagen, Bussen und Lastwagen. Nach Angaben der Belgrader Nachrichtenagentur Beta befanden sich in einem Konvoi mindestens 25 Busse mit mehreren hundert bewaffneten Polizisten.
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 Dear Senator Warner:

It is with great frustration and concern that we write to you regarding the situation in Kosovo.  It is our understanding that preparations are almost complete for a bombing of Serbian territory by NATO. This, we are told, is because of the atrocities committed against the Albanian population by Serbian forces in Kosovo.

As the New York Times reported on August 29, 1998, the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) forces are committing atrocities against the Serbian minority as well.  Human rights abuses, therefore, should not be the impetus for NATO involvement.  In fact, we believe that strikes against the Serbian forces will encourage the terrorist KLA forces to increase their attacks on the already besieged Serbian minority.   NATO involvement will hopelessly muddle U.S. foreign policy, which officially does not support an independent Albanian-ruled Kosovo.

We ask you, as our U.S. Senator, to ask yourself-and to ask other policy makers involved in Kosovo contingency plans-these questions:

1.   Both Albanians and Serbs have committed atrocities in the Kosovo region. While all violent acts should be condemned, how will bombing one side--the Serbs--stop the violence?

2.   If NATO bombs the Serbs, the Albanians will proceed with more violent attacks against the Serbian population. The Albanian goal, as the KLA has repeatedly stated, is to ethnically cleanse the remaining 250,000 Serbs out of Kosovo, create an independent Albanian Republic of Kosovo, and eventually join with Albania to form a Greater Albania. Why, when  the U.S. has staunchly opposed the formation of Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia in the territories of the former Yugoslavia, would it draw up contingency plans that would all but ensure the formation of Greater Albania?  This would destabilize the entire region and set a dangerous precedent.

3.   The Albanians have repeatedly refused to negotiate with the Serbs. How will bombing drive the Albanians to the negotiating table?

4.   Bombing will only increase extremism on both sides and in particular will strengthen President Milosevic's hold on power. Milosevic is a master at using crises and actions of the international community to distract the Serbian people from his failure to implement political and economic reform.  The democratic opposition, independent media and human rights groups in Serbia will ultimately pay the price for NATO bombing, which will allow Milosevic an opportunity to marginalize all threats to his hold on power.

We have another solution.  We propose that the U.S., together with its European allies, strongly push for peace negotiations between the Serbian and Albanian leaders.  Any agreement reached for Kosovo should not circumvent the democratic opposition in Serbia or the legitimate representatives of Kosovo, among these being Momcilo Trajkovic and Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije of Kosovo and Metohija.

The U.S. must stop relying on Milosevic as a factor of stability in the region, where we have allowed him to act as both a pyromaniac and a firefighter at the same time. It is high time the U.S. realizes that Milosevic is the problem, and begins supporting democratic alternatives to Milosevic.

The U.S. must also ensure that equal pressure is brought to bear on the terrorist forces of the KLA, which have targeted innocent civilians, both Serb and Albanian, and whose extremist goal of a Greater Albania threaten the entire region.

A group of us would like to discuss this further with you at your convenience. We will be contacting your office soon to set up an appointment. We feel that NATO involvement has the potential of further inflaming and destabilizing the entire Balkan region.

Sincerely,
Stella Jatras
--
Decani Monastery               tel +381 390 61543
38322 Decani, Serbia           fax +381 390 61567
http://www.decani.yunet.com    e-mail: decani@EUnet.yu

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The views expressed in the news reports and messages posted to the List by the List members are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Quoting is allowed only if the source of the information  is specified.
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 Betreff:         SM News:6876: NEWS-RadioYu (Tue 98-10-06)
 Datum:         Tue, 6 Oct 1998 17:53:25 -0400 (EDT)
    Von:         ddj@pathcom.com
 
ddj posted Message 6876 in the SM News:
Dated  : October 06, 1998 at 17:53:02
Subject: NEWS-RadioYu (Tue 98-10-06)

NEWS-RadioYu
Tuesday October 06, 1998

In Tuesday's telephone conversation with French president Jacques Chirac, Russian President Boris Yeltsin reiterated a warning that the use of force in Kosovo-Metohija, would not only not calm down the situation, but would also have serious international consequences.

In this regard, the Russian president underlined the fact that the Yugoslav leadership had adopted several concrete decisions, aimed at normalizing the situation in Kosmet, Tanjug reports. Chirac reportedly praised Russia's efforts and assessed that there was an improvement in the Yugoslav leadership's stand.
***
Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov said on Tuesday, that if the issue of the use of force in Kosmet was brought up at a UN Security Council session, Russia would exercise its right to a veto.

He said that everything would be done to find a political solution and that the conflict could only be resolved by political, diplomatic means, Tanjug reports.
***
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov said on Tuesday that Moscow would do everything in its power not to allow a military for resolving the Kosovo problem, Beta reports.

At a working meeting on Tuesday, Yeltsin and Primakov reviewed the details of Monday's and Tuesday's talks between the Russian president and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, U.S. president Bill Clinton, French president Jacques Chirac and candidate for German chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder, which were devoted to the situation in Kosovo, the statement from the Kremlin said.
***
Maneuvers of the strategic long range action aviation which will last three days, started in Russia early on Tuesday morning.

The maneuvers are being carried out on a large scale and under command of the Russian air force's commander-in-chief General Anatoly Kornukov, Tanjug reports. Moreover, the strategic aviation is under direct command of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Observers in Moscow link this beginning of maneuvers, which were not previously announced, with Monday night's information that Yeltsin, after talks with Igor Ivanov on the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, had issued several orders to Russian ministries and departments.
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The OSCE has welcomed Yugoslavia's invitation for this organization's mission to come to Kosovo-Metohija and check out the situation in that Serbian province, Tanjug cited Reuters as reporting.

The British news agency specified that the OSCE leaders had discussed a mission in Yugoslavia, since Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic announced on Monday, that Belgrade would accept the mission proposed by Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Reuters reported that under way are very active consultations between Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, the current chair of the OSCE, and his counterparts, as well as between Geremek and the representative of Russia.
***
In regard to the report on the situation in Kosovo-Metohija which the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan prepared for the Security Council to review, the head of the Yugoslav mission to the UN, ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic, on behalf of the Yugoslav government sent a letter to Annan setting out several objections and comments concerning the objectivity of his report.

In the letter to Annan it was underlined that the prepared report, despite the fact that it takes into consideration some of Yugoslavia's stands and thus creates an impression of objectivity, still contains several imprecise and inexact citations, Tanjug reports. Jovanovic in the letter said that certain important elements for assessing the situation in Kosmet were completely omitted from the report, thus making the report seriously lose on its strength. He criticized Annan for wrongfully placing the responsibility on the FRY for the situation in Kosovo-Metohija and pointed to the fact that the responsibility lay on the Albanian separatists and terrorists, who had, since the beginning of the year, carried out hundreds of brutal and serious terrorist acts against the security forces as well as Serb and Albanian civilians. In his letter to the UN secretary general, Jovanovic denies Annan's conclusion regarding alleged aggressive activities of the security forces and recalled tha!
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t Yugoslavia had the right and obligation to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the violent activities of the separatists and terrorists. Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic, in his letter to UN secretary general, underlined that since last Monday all the activities of the security forces had ceased and that the special anti-terrorists forces had returned to their bases.
***
French President Jacques Chirac announced on Tuesday that there was still time for avoiding a NATO action in Kosovo-Metohija.

The foreign ministers of Italy and France - Lamberto Dini and Hubert Vedrine agreed in Florence on Monday night that the Kosmet crisis must be resolved by political means and without the use of force. Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov said on Tuesday that the normalization process in Kosovo had started and assessed that now the main task of the international community was to provide the necessary assistance. In a broadcast on the Russian TV Vremya, Ivanov said that the Yugoslav authorities were taking the necessary measures to fulfill the demands of the UN Security Council. He reiterated the warning that there is no resolution to the Kosovo problem by force. The President of Belarus, Aleksandar Lukashenko, said on Tuesday that his country was ready to offer full support and assistance to Yugoslavia. The Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday spoke against a NATO intervention in Kosovo assessing that the conflict in the southern Serbian province should be resolved only by peaceful !
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means. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook spoke in favor of the total fulfillment of the requests from the Security Council resolution, as a precondition for not undertaking a military intervention. A possible NATO military intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would be a terrible blow to all the nations in the Balkans, said the deputy Greek foreign minister Giorgios Papandreu. He also assessed that he saw will on the Yugoslav side for a compromise solution. The Bulgarian foreign minister, Nadezda Mihailova on Tuesday reiterated the stand that Bulgaria was in favor of a peaceful solution to the Kosmet issue. China is against the NATO threats of a military attack on Yugoslavia, it has been officially announced in Beijing. The spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Ju Bangtsao, has said that China is very concerned over the latest development of the situation concerning Kosovo, concluding that large-scale armed clashes in Kosovo-Metohija have ceased and that !
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the general situation in the region is calming down. He expressed the hope that dialogue would soon be renewed. The United States announced on Monday night that a decision on engaging NATO forces could be avoided only if, in the meantime, one saw a strategic, definitive and irreversible change in the Serbian authorities' conduct. The State Department's spokesman James Folley has said that it is up to the governments of the 16 NATO countries to take a political decision on the further measures regarding the situation in Kosovo. On Tuesday, Japan joined in Russia's stand on the need for a peaceful resolution of the problems in Kosmet and welcomed Moscow's efforts in that direction. A high official of the Japanese foreign ministry has said that Tokyo is ready to cooperate through humanitarian aid to refugees.
***
The Montenegrin Assembly adopted, on Tuesday at a special session, conclusions regarding the current circumstances for resolving the crisis in Kosovo-Metohija, calling on the relevant international factors to abandon the intention of a military intervention, Tanjug reports.

The conclusions did not include the stand from the session of the Supreme Defense Council that the country would defend itself if it is attacked, and the inclusion of this stand was the precondition of the Socialist People's Party for voting for the proposed conclusions. In the conclusions, the assembly called on all the relevant international factors to reconsider the point of the use of force, for the purpose of resolving the crisis in Kosovo-Metohija, and to abandon a military intervention. It was pointed out that, in this regard, the consequences of a military intervention would affect the innocent the hardest, and in the long run it would endanger peace, security and democracy. The Montenegrin parliament also requested that fulfilled be all the obligations undertaken at the meeting between Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, then also the obligations stemming from Security Council resolution 1199 and the presidential statement, as we!
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ll as other documents. The assembly pointed out that representatives of the UN, the US , Russia, the EU, OSCE and other organizations and institutions should be invited to Kosovo-Metohija in order to assure themselves on the spot of the claims that the obligations undertaken in regard to the situation in the province have been carried out. 34 MP voted for the conclusions, 18 were against and 2 abstained. Not accepted was the amendment of the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro calling for the assembly conclusions to define the stand that the parliament, together with the government, the president of the republic and other bodies, would assume the right and obligation independently to decide on issues concerning the internal and foreign policy. The Liberal Alliance of Montenegro, also in regard to today's issue on the agenda, proposed a separate resolution which practically calls for the proclamation of Montenegro's independence, but it was not accepted, Tanjug reports.
***
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All Yugoslav newspapers carry a statement issued from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's cabinet following talks with US envoy for the Balkans Richard Holbrooke. President Milosevic said that the treats of aggression against FR Yugoslavia represented a criminal act. They represent support for Albanian terrorists rather than the Albanian nation which is testified to by Albanian graves which terrorist left behind, President Milosevic said. He once again stressed that a solution to the current problem was possible to be found only by political means. Next, Radio Yugoslavia's PRESS REVIEW prepared by Senka Nikolic.

All newspapers also carry reports from yesterday's session of the Federal Assembly at which adopted were conclusions about the security, economic and social situation in Kosovo-Metohija. At the session, once again expressed was readiness for dialogue and a political settlement of the Kosovo crisis as well as preparedness to defend the country by any means. The press also carries excerpts from an expose of Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic which said that all requests stemming from the Security Council resolution had been fulfilled and inviting OSCE observers to assure themselves of positive developments in the field. The Assembly once again called on the Kosovo Albanians to continue dialogue.

The Danas daily newspaper said the head of the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team, Fehmi Agani, had declined an invitation of Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ratko Markovic to continue negotiation. Agani said that insisting on a solution to be found within Yugoslavia and Serbia and their constitutional set-up made the talks irrelevant. Politika recalls that for seven months now, the Kosovo Albanians have rejected the Serbian side's persistent calls for continuation of dialogue. Since the first invitation of March 10, representatives of Kosovo Albanian political parties have made numerous excuses for their not coming to talks including the agenda, address and the request for the talks to be public. The Kosmet Albanians ignored all requests forwarded by the international community to enter talks. It seems that the real reasons for rejecting the talks were set out by Fehmi Agani on May 12 when he said that to accept the talks with the delegation headed by Ratko Markovic would mean th!
!
at they recognized the Serbian government as the legitimate authorities in Kosovo, Politika says.

Nasa Borba quotes the international law expert, Konstantin Obradovic, as saying that a NATO military intervention will most probably not take place since over the past few days, requests stemming from the Security Council resolution have been fulfilled. One of the main conditions is for the security force to withdraw, which is already taking place, Obradovic said and added that Richard Holbrooke's visit to Yugoslavia was important as well. A military intervention will not take place without a consent from the Security Council, Obradovic said.

The Dnevni Telegraf daily newspaper talked to the spokesman for the Irish Soccer Association Brendon MCckenen about the postponement of a qualifying match between Yugoslavia and Ireland for the 2000 European Championship. "We have been preparing for the match against Yugoslavia but we cannot influence the European Football Union's decision but only honour it", said MCckennon. He said he believed that Irish caps were not afraid of coming to Belgrade and that they had wished to play Yugoslavia on Saturday. The Secretary General of the Yugoslav Soccer Association, Branko Bulatovic, said that the situation in Yugoslavia was absolutely safe and that there were no reasons why the match should be postponed. He added that Yugoslavia would accept another date proposed by UEFA, Dnevni Telegraf said.
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THE POPE IN CROATIA

Pope John Paul II paid a visit to Croatia at the weekend. On the occasion, he beatified Alojzije Stepinac, the Zagreb arch-bishop in the first independent state of Croatia, a puppet state of Hitler's Germany in which many war crimes against the Serbs and Jews were committed. More from Radio Yugoslavia's Rastko Jovetic.

This visit of the Pope's to Croatia has provoked negative reactions from a number of European states. Namely, the Pope is criticized for having beatified arch-bishop Stepinac who enthusiastically welcomed the first Croatian independent state of Croatia created at the beginning of World War II with great support from Hitler's fascist Germany. Actually, in April 1941, Stepinac addressed a message to the Croatian Catholic clergy calling for "sublime commitment to preserving and promoting the Independent State of Croatia". After this, according to the London BBC, the Catholic clergy "ardently backed the campaign of terror conducted by the regime" which killed some 30 thousand Jews and hundreds of thousands of Serbs. The Serbian Orthodox population was also converted into Catholicism. Even after the World War II and the fall of the Croatian fascist regime when many other crimes were revealed, Stepinac remained loyal to the regime justifying this with an assertion that "the Croatian!
!
 nation voted in favour of this state at a plebiscite in 1941", so that he, as their shepherd, had to do the same. It is precisely this statement of Stepinac's that served as a guideline for Croatian President Tudjman to write a book ten years ago saying that the first independent state of the Croats had been an expression of the Croatian nation's historic aspirations and that the same reasonable aspirations had been built into the foundations of the present-day Croatian state.

The Vatican and Croatian media claim that with the beatification of the arch-bishop who later on became cardinal, Pope John Paul II wished to reward Stepinac for his anti-communist ideas and those of the entire Croatian Catholic church during World War II and in the former Yugoslavia. However, the Radio France International says this was a weak alibi for beatifying Alojzije Stepinac and even more so, for pronouncing him saint which is almost certainly the Pope's next move. Stepinac's unhidden approval of the state in which many Serbs, Jews and Gipsies were killed, have prompted both the Serbian and Jewish community in Croatia as well as the Jewish Simon Wiesenthal Center, to try to prevent the beatification of Alojzije Stepinac. However, Pope John Paul II did not take into account the statements by the Jewish and Serbian communities in Croatia that certain moves Stepinac had made in the fascist Croatian state had been disputable, to say the least.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (C.) Radio Yugoslavia.

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The views expressed in the news reports and messages posted to the List by the List members are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Quoting is allowed only if the source of the information  is specified.
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At 06:09 AM 10/5/1998 -0500, you wrote:
The Washington Times
Monday, 5 October 1998
 

COMMENTARY
A rebellion not our war?
by Patrick Buchanan

"What we are really talking about is a humanitarian disaster precipitated by the cold political calculus of an autocratic leader who has pursued a political strategy against his own citiziens," said U.s. Gen. Wesley Clark, supreme allied commander in Europe.

Gen. Clark's target was Slobodan Milosevic.  Yet his words might have been used by another American general named Robert E. Lee, about another "autocratic leader" named Abraham Lincoln.

The day Gen. Clark made his statement bolstering the cause for air strikes in Kosovo, the fall issue of Independent Review arrived.  In a piece on Lincoln, "micromanager of the war effort," scholar Thomas DeLorenzo describes Union tacts in the rebels' She nandoah Valley:

Gen. U.S. Grand "told cavalry officer Phillip Sheridan that 'we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste' and famously ordered him to make sure that even a crow flying over the valley would have to pack its own lunch...the Union cavalry went on  a rampage of pillaging, plundering, burning, and the murdering of civilians that came to be known as 'the Burning.'  As one Union solder described the scene, 'the atmosphere from horizon to horizon, has been black with the smoke of a hundred conflagrations and at night a gleam brighter and more lurid than sunset has shot from every verge...The completeness of the devatation is awful.

Hundreds of nearly starving people are going north'."

Kosovo must look like that today.  And what is written here is not in defense of the thuggish Mr. Milosevic or the squalid atrocities perpetrated there. But it is to raise a question:  If the South's war to break free of the Union was none of Europe's business, why is Kosovo's rebellion to break free of Yugoslavia America's business?

Kosovo has belonged to Serba far longer than South Carolina had been part of the United States with it seceded.  If Lincoln had a right to launch a four-year blood bath, in which half a million perished, to recapture the South, why does Serbia not have a right to send its army to prevent the cradle of that country from being ripped away?

Comes the retort:  Kosovo is 90 percent ethnically Albanian, and the majority wish to be independent of Belgrade.  But a majority of Southerners wanted to be independet of a Union led by Lincoln, who failed to win a single Southern electoral vote.

Why are we about to attack Yugoslavia?  Defense Secretary William  Cohen responds, "It's up to NATO, sooner or later, to take action.  NATO's credibility is on the line."

But who put NATO's credibility there?  NATO is a defensive alliance, and no NATO nation has been attacked.  Nor have U.S. troops been attacked or U.S. embassies bombed.  Where did Mr. Cohen and President Clinton get the authority to launch air strikes on  Serb soldiers operating on the sovereign territory of their own country?

Serb atrocities must stop! comes the answer, and air strikes are the way to stop them, as in Bosnia.  But what ended the Bosnian war was less  NATO air strikes than an invasion by a Croatian army of 100,000 which overran the disputed territory and cleansed it of Serbs, making further fighting futile.  Moreover, U.S.-NATO air strikes will convince the Kosovo Liberation Army to keep fighting,  adding to the war dead, and the KLA has its own history of atrocities.

In America, we used to have something called a Constitution. Before Americans could be sent to fight, Congress had to authorize a war.  When did Congress authorize acts of war against Yugoslavia?  And if, after U.S. strikes have "punished" the Serbs, enr ated Serbs lob mortar shells onto U.S. installations in Bosnia, or blow up a U.S. Embasy, or take U.N. hostages, or bring down a U.S. airliner, will Mr. Clinton and Congress accept responsibility for that?

The pictures from the latest atrocity in Kosovo were disgusting but one could find equally disgusting photos from countries like Algeria, where the victims of five years of massacres number in the scores of thousands. Yet no one has called for air strike s there, though Algiers is closer to the United States than Belgrade.

It was pictures of a burning Buddhist monk that caused John F. Kennedy to support a coup that Americanized the Vietnam War. It was pictures of starving children that sucked us into Somalia.  It was pictures of a mortar shell, that drew us into our open-e nded occupation of Bosnia that has cost $10 billion.

"It is unworthy of a great state to dispute over something which does not concern its own interests," Bismark observed, with the Balkans in mind.  Words worth pondering, a we set out to do justice and punish wickedness with missiles and smart bombs.
--
Decani Monastery               tel +381 390 61543
38322 Decani, Serbia           fax +381 390 61567
http://www.decani.yunet.com    e-mail: decani@EUnet.yu

"It is easy to take the side of the Albanians of Kosovo.  But if you examine the Kosovo rebellion more carefully you will find that independence is not their end goal.  Their goal is to unite with the most vile and corrupt state in Europe -- Albania -- and its deposed president, Sali Berisha.  That is not all.  The Albanians now seek a Greater Albania, which would mean instigating the Macedonian Albanians to join a Greater Albania, which certainly promises Greek and eventually Turkish and Bulgarian interve ntion.  Thus, a new Balkan War will be in the making 85 years after the war that precipitated the First World War, among others."

Excellent point!
====================================================================
The Washington Times
Tuesday, 6 October 1998

COMMENTARY
Humanitarian help better on Kosovo
by Amos Perlmutter

Kosovo is a tragedy.  The bloody war between Serbs and Albanians will not achieve their political purposes.  Slobodan Milosevic wants to deny autonomy to the Albanian majority of Kosovo.  The Albanian revolutionary KLA will settle for nothing short of independence.  Neither party has demonstrated any desire to compromise, negotiate and find a solution short of bloodshed.

NATO ministers, led by the United States, promise to act against the Serbs in two weeks unless Mr. Milosevic accepts a cease-fire.  What is significant about the United States and the Europeans in NATO is that their past threats have been meaningless as they appear to be now.

The strategy laid out by Defense Secretary William Cohen and his military advisers in a briefing on Capitol Hill before a closed session failed to persuade the senators of an American political solution.

What then is the American political solution?  According to National Security Adviser Samuel Berger (Jim Lehrer, "NewsHour," Oct 2) the burden of guild is Mr. Milosevic's.  When asked about the role of the KLA, Mr. Berger said that if they do not provoke

the Serbs, he hopes for a "high degree of autonomy" for Kosovo.  This is an unreaslistic American solution.  Autonomy for Kosovo means continued warfare.  A political solution means a military intervention in Kosovo with no exit strategy, which could leave American forces in Kosovo, as they are now in Bosnia, for years after the promised but unfulfilled withdrawal of the main American force.

Let's establish the facts for what they are.  Mr. Milosevic and the Serbs will not relinquish their domination over Kosovo, and the Albanian radicals will not fulfill their goal of independence.  What is the purpose of this less-than-serious threat of using NATO's air power?

Whom does it scare, and what can it fulfill if there is no American-NATO political solution to the bitter Kosovo conflict?  Neither the United States nor Britain, the most aggressive among NATO partners when it comes to Kosovo, have offered any solution short of cease-fire and negotiations between the warring parties.

Military action, however limited, must have political purposes, and NATO air action, if it does take place, would only exacerbate the conflict and cause more atrocities and blodshed on both sides.  For the United Staes and NATO to bring upon a realistic and substantive political solution, NATO military gound forces must invade and occupy Kosovo, and impose upon the parties an uncondtional surrender to NATO's occupiers.  No reasonable political leader or analyst believes this type of solution can ever take place since the only political solution offered in the past, and one that continues to be offered, is negotiations -- when there are no parties to negotiate.

The moderate Albanians, led by Ibrahim Rugova, have been removed from the diplomatic scene.  The KLA emboldened by American threaets, CNN pictures, and media propaganda, called for total war against Mr. Milosevic.  The irresponsible CNN and other media and the pusilanimous American and European diplomats are indirectly responsible for the massacre of Albanians by embolding the KLA in the past with hopes and promises of greater autonomy.  In fact, if NATO only blubbers and its threats are phony, this time it will be responsble for additional massacres, and NATO's threats to Mr. Milosevic will continue to encourage the hopeless aspirations of the KLA.

The fact of the matter is that this brutal bloodshed -- for which both parties, however unequally, are guilty -- is indeed a serious humanitarian tragedy.  Rather than waving the U.S. air force at Mr. Milosevic, it would be much better in the absence of a political solution or Western powers will power, to concentrate upon humanitarian action.

This is exactly the role of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.  a cease-fire can be achieved, but not with U.S. bombs.  Unfortunately, the only route is by seeking the good offices of the brutal Mr. Milosevic, as we did in Dayton, to end the war and faciliate the necessary humanitarian support.

The political goal of the United States and NATO is to direct the United Nations to begin a large-scale humanitarian support.  The U.S. Air Force should drop food and not bombs to the suffering in Kosovo.  Any other U.S.-NATO threat promises more bloodshed and more desperate actions by fanatic KLA Albanianians that will be brutally ended by Mr. Milosevic's police dogs.

It is easy to take the side of the Albanians of Kosovo.  But if you examine the Kosovo rebellion more carefully you will find that independence is not their end goal.  Their goal is to unite with the most vile and corrupt state in Europe -- Albania -- and its deposed president, Sali Berisha.  That is not all.  The Albanians now seek a Greater Albania, which would mean instigating the Macedonian Albanians to join a Greater Albania, which certainly promises Greek and eventually Turkish and Bulgarian interve
ntion.  Thus, a new Balkan War will be in the making 85 years after the war that precipitated the First World War, among others.

The political purpose of the United States and NATO is to make sure that no more blood is spilled among the peasanty of Kosovo Albanians.  To contain Mr. Milosevic and the KLA's peurile fantasies about an independent Kosovo and a Greater Albania, we must accept Mr. Milosevic's cease-fire without air threats.

Once must persuade American senators that Kosovo is not an American interest other than as a humanitarian issue.  U.S.-NATO political effort must be directed only at the humanaitarian issue.  There is no Dayton on the horizon in Kosovo.

++ END/KRAJ

*NEWS REPORT*
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The views expressed in the news reports and messages posted to the List by the List members are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Quoting is allowed only if the source of the information  is specified.
******************************************************************************************************

SERBIAN RENEWAL MOVEMENT NEWS
TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 1998

PRESS CONFERENCE REPORT

"When bombs and rockets are treated as facts, the room for words and facts becomes smaller", said SPO president Vuk Draskovic at today's press conference. Regarding the situation in Kosovo he stated his opinion that no disease is treated by attacking the consequences and hiding the cause. Then problems in Kosovo will not be solved until the causes of this crisis are condemned and resolved. "Exactly yesterday", pointed out Draskovic, "while the NATO strike against Serbia was being emphasised, the chief of the Albanian negotiating team Fehmi Agani stated that the negotiations which do not include the creating of Greater Albania were futile and clearly said that Kosovo Albanians were not interested in  any sort of Kosovo within Serbia. With such a statement, Agani clearly and undoubtedly breached the UN Charter.
However, the reaction of those who should protect the United Nations was entirely left out. It would have been logical to reach the resolution which would demand from Kosovo Albanians to accept the UN Charter and condemn Albanian terrorism and separatism. Had this been done, terrorism would have been terminated in the shortest period of time and the dialogue would be close at hand".
--
Decani Monastery               tel +381 390 61543
38322 Decani, Serbia           fax +381 390 61567
http://www.decani.yunet.com    e-mail: decani@EUnet.yu

I just received this from Dr. Ron Hatchett, Director, Center for International Studies,
The University of St. Thomas, Houston.  Stella

------Begin forward message-------------------------

Here is an op-ed I drafted on the Kosovo situation.  Send it to whomever you think may read or publish it. Ron

The Clinton Policy Towards the Balkans: Part of the Problem, Not the Solution

By Dr. Ronald L. Hatchett
Director, The Center for International Policy
The University of St. Thomas

     The Clinton administration is making final preparations for an armed intervention in the civil war in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. Aircraft form the US, Britain, The Netherlands, and Turkey are gathering at the American airbase in Aviano Italy; ground troops from the US and Britain are being alerted for possible deployment; top national security officials of the administration are briefing congressional leaders behind closed doors; and an ultimatum has been sent to the Yugoslav leader: "cease your military actions against the Albanian uprising in Kosovo or we will attack."

      The Clinton people say that US intervention is the only way to bring peace to the Balkans and keep the instability from spreading to other countries in the area. To some this may sound like a cause worthy of supporting. But to me the Clinton reasoning is naive, misleading, and dead wrong.

      From its very beginning, the Clinton Administration has been more a factor for instability in the Balkans than stability. Its policies have reflected little understanding of the history of the area and a naivete about what is and is not possible in this area of the world. Even more egregious to me are the "situational ethics" that have characterized the Clinton policy.

      Two months after the Clinton administration came to office in 1993, Lord David Owen, representing the European Union, and Cyrus Vance, representing the UN Secretary General, put together an agreement that would have ending the fighting in Bosnia by creating ethnically based enclaves in which each of the factions -- Croat, Serb, and Muslim -- would have had autonomy over its day to day lives, and a weak coalition central government that would preserve the semblance of a Bosnian state. As David Owen angrily points out in his memoirs, Balkan Odyssey, the Clinton administration killed the agreement, insisting that there be no division of territory based on ethnicity and that only a unitary state with a strong central government was acceptable to the United States.

      This policy condemned the Bosnian peoples to another two and half years of warfare before the Clinton Administration finally announced its great peace plan at Dayton in October 1995: the division of Bosnia into ethnically based enclaves with a weak coalition central government to preserve the semblance of a Bosnian state. What made Dayton possible was not the bombing of the Serbs in August and September but the abrupt reversal of the Clinton Administration "single Bosnia" policy and acceptance of a de facto partition of the territory. David Owen says that the turn about was because the President wanted Bosnia off the horizon in the coming Presidential elections.

     But with a little smooth talk, President Clinton convinced most Americans that it was his "get tough" policies that brought peace to the Balkans and created a new Bosnian citizenship that bridged the differences between warring ethnic groups. He also assured us that American forces would only be needed in the area for about one year to help in the transition to peace and harmony.

     It is now three years later. We have spent $12 billion taxpayer dollars and peace and harmony are still not assured in Bosnia. In the elections last month, nationalists won the top jobs in all three ethnic areas of Bosnia. None of the ethnic groups, including the supposedly multi- culturally oriented Muslims, welcomes refugees from other ethnic groups back into their areas. The weak central government is so divided that it cannot even agree upon a common currency, a national flag, or auto license plates for the country. The UN High Commissioner has had to design all these things for them.

     Had the Clinton Administration not intervened in the Balkans with such a heavy hand in 1993 there could have been a stable peace in Bosnia two and a half years before Dayton and we would not be bogged down there now in an open ended commitment costing us $4 billion per year. Nor would we be diverting American forces from tasks that are more vital to our national security, like being prepared to deal with Saddam Hussein or North Korea if the need arises.

     Now the Clinton Administration is asking us to get even deeper into the Balkan quagmire by attacking Yugoslav forces in Kosovo. Many Americans may see this as being just an extension of our intervention in Bosnia. It is not. In Bosnia our air strikes were conducted at the invitation of the internationally recognized government and were against an ethnic group in rebellion against that government. In Kosovo it will be just the opposite. Military action there will be against the internationally recognized government and in support of an ethnic group in rebellion against that government. We will be committing an act of war against another sovereign state that has made no threat against America or its citizens. Moreover, as in Bosnia, our military commanders say that air power alone cannot do what the politicians say is our objective. General John Jumper, Commander of the USAF in Europe said on September 15 that it was doubtful that air strikes can halt Yugoslav ground operations in Kosovo.

     But the Administration says we must act to keep the war from spreading. In reality repeated American threats of military intervention in Kosovo since the crisis began last February have prolonged the violence by encouraging the Albanian rebels to refuse to enter autonomy talks with the Yugoslav government in the hope that US intervention will bring them complete independence. Actual NATO intervention in support of Albanian rebels in Yugoslavia will probably encourage uprisings among Albanians in northwest Macedonia and northern Greece who already speak of their desire to join in the "Greater Albania" they believe is being created.

     The Administration also says we must act because of the moral correctness of defending an ethnic minority from a government that is denying them self determination. If this a valid justification for our intervention, why aren't we contemplating bombing the Turks for their continuing attacks against rebelling ethnic Kurds in eastern Turkey? Or the Israelis for their continued denial of Palestinian self determination aspirations on the West bank? Or the Mexicans for their attacks on the rebelling Indians of Chiapas? (37,000 have died in Turk-Kurd conflict, an estimated 1000 in Kosovo.)

     Under international law every state has the right to put down rebellions in its territory. Under the charter of the United Nations, states are to refrain from "threats or use of force in matters which are within the domestic jurisdiction of other states."

     More importantly, is there a US interest at stake in Kosovo that warrants sacrifice of American lives? Kosovo is an area of major importance to the Serbs, it is their ancestral homeland, the site of the most holy places in their Christian church -- some of the monasteries there are over 1000 years old. And the Yugoslavs have a military cadre of over 2 million trained active and reserve soldiers to defend it. How much is it worth to us?

     So before we allow the Clinton Administration to sell us another bill of goods about the "necessity" of taking further military actions in the Balkans, we should examine more closely the moral justifications we are being given and assess more fully the potential costs.

PRESS RELEASE
(For Immediate release)
HRH CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER OF YUGOSLAVIA
KOSOVO AND YUGOSLAVIA
NO AIR STRIKES

London (6 October 1998). The tragedy of Kosovo is of great concern to the world. My heart goes out to all the innocent victims and refugees. The refugees need urgent humanitarian help. Both the Belgrade regime and the Albanian extremists are hindering a political solution and I strongly condemn their resort to violence. Human rights violations should be immediately investigated by independent teams and the criminals punished. I am strongly against air strikes. Many people in the west including governments conclude like I do that air strikes on Serbia or Montenegro will kill many innocent people and only further consolidate the Belgrade regime.
The Belgrade regime fully controls the media, politics and institutions. The regime is the continuation of the communists using another image. The regime prospers on its daily orchestration of propaganda using negative patriotism, negative religion, disinformation and intimidation.
The west believed that the ruling members of the former League of Communists were capable of real democratic reform. The west struck a deal with the regime in Belgrade and the war ended, but hope of real democratic reform was firmly put on hold since the regime received credibility and recognition from the west. Today real democratic and economic reforms are dead. All the people of Yugoslavia face a dismal political and economic future since the same Mafia and the interconnected Mafia's, militias and fronts the regime created are homogeneous and fully in power. All the brave people working and longing for democracy have been abandoned by this western short-sighted policy.  There has been a vast "brain drain" of hundreds of thousands to the west during the last few years. Western policy of striking deals with the regime has contributed considerable pain and only supported those in power.
I forecast that the Belgrade regime will continue to fire up in the future the many "hot spots" regardless of air strikes or threats for the sake of staying in power. The west must review its policy and come up with a workable plan in implementing real democratic reforms and human rights in Yugoslavia for future peace and stability within the region.
(END)

For further information contact: + 44 171 493 3715 (LONDON)
Visit: http://www.RoyalFamily.org

 
Petar Makara (Makarov) posted Message 6856 in the SM News:
Dated  : October 06, 1998 at 14:12:38
Subject: President of Democratic Party of Serbia: NATO as KLA air force

This is an abbreviated  translation of:
Report from Democratic Party of Serbia news conference

The main point is that Serbian PEOPLE not "Milosevic" as trumpeted in the West does not want the heart of their heritage, the Serbian Jerusalem - being given away. Here is what a party vehemently opposed to Milosevic on most of issues has to say about Western piracy

         NATO as KLA air force

"The West threatens Serbia with military intervention. The intervention is supposed to suppress the excessive use of force that [Yugoslav] regime is using against Albanian terrorists and insurrectionists who want secession of Kosovo and formation of Greater Albania." This is what, Dr. Vojislav Kostunica, President of Democratic Party of  Serbia said in a news conference on October 5.

[Mr. Kostunica, who is also a lawyer continued:]

"We should ask ourselves: Even if there was an occasional excessive use of force by Yugoslav Army or police in Kosovo would any of that happen were there no Albanian terrorism and mutiny as well as constant incursion of KLA terrorists from Albania?

Which use of force was a legitimate and which was not? Would wanton destruction of military force of Yugoslavia be a valid response to possible excessive use of force of [Federal] forces in fight against terrorism?

If one is to talk about the stability in the region, then the question is - WHO is the real if not ONLY factor of instability in the South Balkans. It could only be Albanians who are dissatisfied in two countries in which they are minority (in Yugoslavia and FYR Macedonia) AND THEIR OWN COUNTRY OF ALBANIA.

What could be political and/or legal explanation of possible use of NATO forces in the region?

If NATO air force attacks Yugoslavia it would be the first such attack on a sovereign country - and in support of a movement which wants to split a portion of territory of that sovereign country in order to join the territory to another, neighboring country (here: Albania). That neighboring country was supporting a separatist movement [an aggression] in Kosovo. It is not Yugoslavia that attacked, let alone did an aggression, on neighboring Albania.

NATO bombing would destroy good portion of self-defense capability of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia would loose ability for self-defense a right guaranteed by Article 51 of the U.N. Charter. This after USA bombed two different countries, thousands of miles apart, using as an excuse the same Article 51. The two countries were, supposedly, threatening security of USA in two terrorist attacks on US Embassies in the two countries. It seems that no-one dared question  the legality of the U.S. action.

In case of Yugoslavia - no NATO country was attacked, let alone NATO defense system, so there is no excuse for NATO response. If one is to care at all about basic  international norms of conduct as well as basic international LAWS then the question is: What right does NATO have in interfering in the Kosovo events?

In one word, NATO HAS *NO LEGAL EXCUSE* FOR ITS MILITARY INTERVENTION [in Yugoslavia].

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1199 was also addressed to Kosovo terrorists but those who are threatening military action against Yugoslavia are conveniently not mentioning that aspect of the Resolution. In paragraph 6 of the  Resolution the Security Council "insists that leadership of Kosovo Albanians should condemn any terrorist activity and stresses that all elements of Kosovo Albanian community should apply a peaceful means only in striving for their goals". Neither are Kosovo Albanians using peaceful means nor did their leadership condemn terrorist activities.

The question of consequences of NATO military intervention is no less important.

ALL ethnic groups that may have numeric majority in other parts of Yugoslavia will understand the military intervention as a signal that they also have a RIGHT to pursue secession.

KLA will understand bombing as NATO support. In truth, NATO will become KLA air force. Spokesperson for KLA, Jakup  Krasnici said that NATO can count on Kosovo "Liberation" Army support.

Radical Islamist elements will be strengthened in Kosovo and Albania. Those who are for a negotiated settlement among Albanians will be weakened. In Albania itself the already weak government will be further wakened even helpless while radical elements round former President  Sali Berisha would be strengthened. Sali Berisha, among other things offered his private lands to be used as KLA training camp.

Radicalization of Kosovo Albanians would not leave their keen in FYR Macedonia without effect either.

After eventual Western military intervention, the Serbs of Republic of Srpska could question why were they bombed when they only fought for a right for self-determination in Bosnia; why were they punished and why were those who fought for Greater Albania rewarded. The Serbs from Bosnia can not remain indifferent to Serbia, the land that they see as the heart land of the Serbian people.

There is no doubt that military intervention would  strengthen authoritarian, radical elements in Serbia. It would strengthen the current regime... ...

In trilateral Rumania-Bulgaria-Grece meeting in Delphy it was stressed that military intervention would repeat the situation from war in Bosnia and that other Balkan countries suffered the results of sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia. Many are deciding the destiny of Balkan peoples but it is Balkan peoples that pay the price.

In short the military intervention would strengthen the extremists; it would make the crisis more serious; it would set grounds for broader regional wars.

Whatever is one to say the military intervention is  nothing new and is no surprise. It is an integral part of the continuous ATTACK ON THE SERBIAN *PEOPLE*; the attack that did not cease since the beginnings of destruction of the old Yugoslavia. Many analysts close to American government wrote articles of HOW SHOULD WE DESTROY SERBIA... ...

[We know the model from the case of Bosnia.] Before intervention, Western media was working on satanization on creating racist, Nazi-like stereotyping of the Serbs. This stereotyping was not concerning only Slobodan Milosevic but SERBIAN PEOPLE as a whole... ...

Was there an alternative to the intervention?

Yes. Instead of persistent isolation and sanctions that international community, lead by the USA, have plunged Yugoslav peoples into, they had to integrate Serbia and Yugoslavia in international organizations [and economic flows]. Then the crisis would not be as deep... ...

If international community wanted to boost democratic processes in Serbia then they would NOT support Slobodan Milosevic. Then, it would not have happened that American ad-hoc diplomat Holbrooke, bit more than a year ago and in the middle of Belgrade says that it is utterly irrelevant whether the elections in Serbia were rigged or not. He also used the occasion to add that Milosevic is a "tough"  negotiator who defends the interests of the Serbian people - superbly.

One should not be fooled with what Milosevic or American Administration say against each other. Objectively and subjectively they are THE SAME TEAM. Their common enemy is the Serbian people.

If, at the very beginning, the international community  (and USA)  distanced themselves from some Kosovo Albanian idea of independence; even more important if they distanced themselves from terrorist KLA; if they insisted on  negotiations - then the situation would be completely different. Instead the politics of the international community and USA in particular was not only WRONG it was devastating; it was FATAL for the peace and stability in the region.

This politics could only distance Serbia from the West. It distances West from its own roots of liberty and democracy. Not only does the Serbian people have an enemy in the current regime in Belgrade - the SERBIAN PEOPLE HAS AN ENEMY IN THE CURRENT REGIME IN AMERICA. The realization of this fact will only be strengthened by after NATO intervention. After one more aggression on Serbia, after World War One, the Serbs erected a  monument of gratitude to France. Now the Serbs have even more reason to erect a MONUMENT OF HATRED TOWARD AMERICA. That monument, though not tangible, could be harder than stone that real monuments are made of... ...

We can still hope that the worst will be avoided. This not because of REASON as there is none left in Washington and Belgrade regimes. It is because of complex dynamics in other world capitals where important, the key decisions are made... ...

E-mail: info@dssrbije.org.yu
http://www.dssrbije.org.yu
Demokratska stranka Srbije,
Brace Jugovica 2a,
11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia
Tel: (381 11) 182-535; 183-525; 638-013; 328-2886
Fax: (381 11) 328-1793

Translated by: Petar Makara

FONDATION FRANZ WEBER
CH – 1820 Montreaux / Suisse
Tel: (021) 964 37 37 / 964 24 24 / 964 42 84
Fax: (021) 964 57 36

European Cultural Heritage Threatened by NATO:

Franz Weber sends SOS to Boris Jelzine, Helmut Kohl, Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair and Zemin Jiang

Dear Sir,

News of imminent bombing by NATO forces of the Serbian province of Kosovo has filled millions of Europeans with shock and disbelief. Millions of Europeans feel very strongly that interfering in the affairs of a sovereign state in this manner is utterly out of the question.

As you know, Kosovo has over 1800 registered Serbo-Byzentine monuments of the Middle-Ages on its small territory of 11,000 km2, amongst them famous and priceless works of art and architecture such as the monasteries of Pec, Decani, Prizren, Gracanica, etc. A great many monuments of the Ottoman civilization are located on the same territory. Kosovo is indeed one of the great universal heritage sites of history and culture.

If I am taking the liberty of appealing to you on this subject, it is because I have been fighting for the preservation of endangered natural, cultural and historic sites all over the world these last 35 years. Thus I have defended and saved the celebrated Engandine valley where Nietzsche wrote his Zarathustre. In the south of France I fought successfully for the preservation of Les Baux de Provence, in Italy for the medieval city of Asolo. In Greece I rescued antique Delphi from destruction by industrial projects (in recognition the town made me an honorary citizen). In Serbia I achieved the preservation of the magnificent church and monastery of Studenica, in Switzerland the preservation of the legendary wine growing region of Lavaux on Lake Geneva, in Austria the protection of the alluvial forests of the Danube near Vienna, etc. etc. In Australia I created a sanctuary of 50,000 hectares for the persecuted wild horses, in Togo my Foundation manages the National Park of Fazao-Malfakassa.

The news of impending NATO air raids on Kosovo fills me with alarm and dismay. In the name of enlightened Europe I implore you to do everything in your power to prevent such a barbaric act. It stands to reason that the Kosovo conflict cannot be solved through bombing but solely through dialogue and negotiation. Military intervention by the NATO armed forces, apart from making the situation worse, will mean immediate danger to the cultural heritage of Kosovo, if not annihilation. It will mean the loss of innumerable human lives and entail irreversible damage to the environment as did NATO bombings of 1995 in Bosnia.

Indeed the Kosovo disaster is not to be solved by any NATO attack, just as the century-old feud between Serbs and Albanians cannot be settled by air raids against one side or the other.

Three months ago, as a move in favour of peace in the Balkans, I addressed a letter to General Director Federico Mayor of the UNESCO, asking that UNESCO bestow on the monuments of Kosovo, Orthodox and Muslim, the status of Universal Heritage – an act which could assist both the Serbs and Albanians in overcoming their ancestral antagonism and working out a way of coexistence.

Now we set our hope in your authority, wisdom and intervention. Help us all, help Europe to try and preserve the Kosovan civilization, true cornerstone of European culture and achievement. In the name of peace, keep the barbarians of our time from destroying it. Civilized Europe will be eternally grateful to you.

I am, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully,

Franz Weber
President of Fondation Franz Weber and 'Save Delphi'

Montreaux, October 4, 1998
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38322 Decani, Serbia           fax +381 390 61567
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OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ON THE KOSOVO CRISIS

October 6, 1998
Dear Member of Congress:

 Our nation stands on the precipice of a colossal foreign policy blunder in the form of military action against Serbia. The Administration has failed to explain to the American people the grievous risks involved. The Administration has failed to consult with Congress as it is constitutionally bound to do under the War Powers Act.

 This process of explanation and consultation is vital. Over the past days it has emerged that airstrikes would not, as the Administration has argued, be a quick, self-contained event of a punitive nature, but would likely be the precursor to a costly, long-term deployment of U.S. ground troops to Kosovo on the Bosnian model, but with the risks to American lives and interests magnified a hundred fold. Other major questions about the implications for U.S. interests, our military readiness, and global order remain open.

 The Congress must now exercise its constitutional prerogatives as guardian of the national interest by insisting that the Administrations answers these questions before any action is taken.

1. WILL U.S. GROUND TROOPS BE NEEDED?

 On October 5 British Defense Minister George Robertson stated that NATO ground troops will be needed in Kosovo. In Bosnia, initial deployment of allied troops necessitated later US deployment. Does the Administration expect that U.S. ground troops will also be required in Kosovo? Has the Administration given its allies secret assurances that it will contribute ground troops in Kosovo? When will the Administration seek Congressional authorization?

2. WHAT IS THE ADMINISTRATION'S EXIT STRATEGY?

 If operations against Serbia subsequently cause U.S. ground troops to be drawn into the conflict in support of our European allies (as in Bosnia), what exit strategy will be the Administration follow? How long will the deployment last? As long as in Bosnia where three years after the Dayton Accords, there is still no date for a pullout? What will be the goals and the projected costs of this deployment? Will these be paid from the current military budget or by drawing on other resources, including those earmarked for social security? How will this impact U.S. global readiness?

3. ARE THE PROPOSED U.S. OPERATIONS LINKED TO DOMESTIC EVENTS?

 Kosovo has been in turmoil since the beginning of the year, including the winter months. Why are U.S. operations suddenly needed at this time? Is there any connection with the domestic timetable, including the impeachment process and the mid-term elections? Are American forces being committed for serious foreign policy purposes or are domestic calculations uppermost?
 
4. WILL U.S. ACTIONS ASSIST TERRORISTS AND EXTREMISTS?

 On October 3 the Washington Post cited a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army as saying that western bombing was needed so that “the KLA could continue fighting.” The KLA has been described by Presidential envoy Robert Gelbard as terrorists and is known to have links to Middle East terrorist and fundamentalist groups. The independent International Crisis Group has described the KLA as financed by “criminal activities”, including smuggling, money laundering, and drug trafficking. What steps is the US taking to ensure that NATO operations will not enable the KLA to establish a foothold in Europe from which terrorist attacks and other criminal acts can be launched against US interests?

5. WILL U.S. OPERATIONS DAMAGE GLOBAL AND REGIONAL RELATIONS?

 On October 5 Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned of serious international consequences from any NATO operations against Yugoslavia. What weight does the Administration attach to this danger? Does the Administration believe that the gains to the U.S. in Kosovo will outweigh the damage to U.S. relations with Russia? Further, on October 4 the leaders of Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania warned of the dangers of region-wide war in the event of NATO airstrikes. Does the Administration share these concerns for regional stability? What contingency plans has the Administration formed to deal with an eruption of conflict beyond Kosovo, and especially in Macedonia? At a time of global financial turmoil, does it make sense for the U.S. to embark on a risky war strategy?

6. WILL AIRSTRIKES STRENGTHEN SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC AND WEAKEN THE DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION IN SERBIA?

 On October 3 the New York Times carried interviews with members of the public in Belgrade to the effect that airstrikes would strengthen the position of the Belgrade regime led by President Slobodan Milosevic and would set back the prospects for democratic reform. In discussions in Washington in September Kosovo Bishop Artemije, Democratic Alternative President Nebojsa Covic, and Kosovo Serb Resistance Party President Momcilo Trajkovic presented the same message. Has the Administration assessed this potential negative effect of the proposed U.S. military operations? Does the Administration agree that they are likely to strengthen the regime in Belgrade? If airstrikes are extended to Montenegro as part of the Yugoslav air defense system, what will be the effect on the democratic government of President Milo Djukanovic?

CONCLUSION

 With so many unanswered questions, it would be folly for the U.S. to launch airstrikes against Serbia. The outcome is too unpredictable, but the risks to U.S. interests, military assets, and financial resources are significant. A better course is to allow current initiatives under OSCE, U.S., and Contact Group auspices to take effect. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke has presented the Serbian authorities and the Kosovo Albanian side with a draft settlement framework. They should be allowed to consider this peacefully and constructively without fear of NATO attacks.

        Sincerely,

Milosh D. Milenkovich
President
5851 Pearl Road, Suite 302,
Broadview Heights, OH 44130
tel: (440) 842-2770 fax: (440) 842-2740

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Decani Monastery               tel +381 390 61543
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Dear List members,
On the official Web Site of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate you may read an extensive report on the genocide over the Serbian people in Croatia and Bosnia. The text is documented with photos.

 http://www.spc.org.yu/Genocid/indexe.html
--
Decani Monastery               tel +381 390 61543
38322 Decani, Serbia           fax +381 390 61567
http://www.decani.yunet.com    e-mail: decani@EUnet.yu
 

back to Part 1

Kosovo causes angst in Congress
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans long have criticized President Clinton's overseas military missions, suggesting their number and scope are undercutting readiness and morale. Looming air strikes in Kosovo, and the possibility of a new peacekeeping operation there, is generating fresh consternation.
     "There is a credibility gap," suggests Sen. John McCain., R-Ariz. He says the administration misled Congress on the potential duration of the U.S. involvement in Bosnia, still going after five years and may now be doing the same with neighboring Kosovo.
     Many lawmakers who say they will support the president on military strikes against Serbian forces in Kosovo say they are doing so grudgingly.
     The escalation of tensions in the Yugoslav province is also renewing questions over Clinton's authority as commander-in-chief to commit U.S. forces abroad when the actions contemplated are offensive rather than defensive.
     Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic "is a tyrant and his actions are deplorable. However, we've got to follow our rules, and the Constitution grants exclusively to Congress the power to authorize offensive military action against another country that hasn't attacked us," said Rep. David Skaggs, D-Colo.
     Skaggs and Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., are the authors of a letter to Clinton insisting that airstrikes against Serb positions require prior approval from Congress.
     It's a view shared by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense.
     The administration claims it would like to receive congressional blessings for airstrikes but doesn't really need it. "That's a constitutional absurdity," Skaggs said.
     President Bush made the same mistake when he first claimed he didn't need congressional approval for the Gulf War, Skaggs suggested. Bush went on to request the authority and got it.
     Although the president's national security team has spent considerable time briefing members of both the House and Senate, the briefings have left many questions unanswered, lawmakers suggested.
     Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., even questions whether the airstrikes are a political gambit to build support in advance of next month's elections a notion Democrats dismiss as nonsense.
     Defense Secretary William Cohen was thus an easy target before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Senators the week before had pounded the nation's top military officials four four-star generals and an admiral for being slow to sound the alarm about the slide in U.S. military readiness.
     " You shouldn't. You should criticize me, if anyone," Cohen said. The lawmakers took him up on it.
     Said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind: "My conclusion is that we have a president of the United States who has never shown much interest or involvement or ability in foreign policy issues, in military issues. He is now distracted to the point that his credibility is in serious question -- not only by members of Congress but by world leaders."
     Clinton has proposed another $1 billion for readiness in this year's budget and has vowed to look at the problem in depth with military leaders.
     The Pentagon claims a big reason for the shortfall is because Congress refuses to close unnecessary military bases and keeps ordering the productions of ships and aircraft the Pentagon doesn't want like C-130 transport planes built in Marietta, Ga., near House Speaker Newt Gingrich's home.
     Cohen renewed this argument, saying that, without additional base closures, "something has to give."
     But he didn't make much headway with senators, who seemed more concerned about whether U.S. forces would wind up on the ground in Kosovo. That, Cohen said, was "a possibility," but not likely.
     Meanwhile, Cohen and other administration officials claim congressional approval isn't needed for any Kosovo operation either under the Constitution or the 1973 War Powers Act.
     That act requires congressional notifications and approval when American troops are sent into combat. However, presidents since Nixon of both parties have found ways to sidestep the act when putting troops in harm's way.
     "Would you welcome a repeal of the War Powers Act?" Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., asked Cohen, who represented Maine in the House as a Republican when it was passed.
     "Well, since I was a supporter of the War Powers Act, I am not eager to advocate its repeal at this point," Cohen said.
__________________________________________________

UK Tells Advises Nationals to Leave Yugoslavia
Reuters  07-OCT-98

LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Britain advised its nationals on Wednesday to leave Yugoslavia immediately and Prime Minister Tony Blair said NATO air strikes were coming closer.
     Blair discussed the crisis in Yugoslavia's Kosovo province by telephone with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, as Russia stepped up its efforts to negotiate a compromise in the Balkans.
     Defence analysts meanwhile said the Serbs had reported improvements in their air defence systems in the past two years -- a factor NATO would have to take into account before launching military action.
     A Foreign Office spokeswoman said 117 British nationals were registered in Yugoslavia.
     "We advise against travel to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and we also advise British nationals in the FRY to leave immediately," she said. France and Denmark also advised their nationals to leave.
     Defence Secretary George Robertson said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic should realise NATO was ready to act if diplomacy failed.
     "At the moment we are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst...time is running out for the refugees and time is running out for President Milosevic," he told Sky television.
     "We've got to prepare and ready to use force if (diplomacy) should fail," he said.
     Blair told reporters in Beijing that NATO was moving closer to launching air strikes against Yugoslavia because it appeared Milosevic was not complying with U.N. resolutions on Kosovo.
     Blair was asked whether his comments meant military action was coming closer.
     "Yes it does, because there is no doubt at all that we have to take action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Kosovo," he said.
     The United Nations has demanded that Yugoslavia withdraw its forces from Kosovo and end its crackdown against the ethnic Albanians who make up most of the province's population.
     A spokesman for Janes' Information Group said the Serbs had been improving their ageing Soviet-made air defence network, which includes mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.
     "(The Serbs) have made considerable improvement to their air defence systems in the last two years, in terms of improving the envelope of engagement, as it's called, with the aim of making the most out of their systems," Paul Beaver, Janes' spokesman and a Balkan expert, told Reuters.
     The Times newspaper said the Russians had supplied the Serbs with advance missile equipment, including new warheads, fuses and sensors for their mobile SAM-6 missiles.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

Diplomats Make Belgrade Exit as NATO Strikes Loom
Reuters 07-OCT-98

BELGRADE, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Western embassies gradually wound down operations in Yugoslavia on Wednesday, fearing reprisals if NATO goes ahead with air strikes to end the Serb military action in Kosovo.
     The U.S. embassy in Belgrade said it was making plans to withdraw staff in the next day or two, and would sharply curtail operations if the air strikes take place.
     "There are plans underway to draw down the staff very shortly," an embassy official said.
     "I don't know exactly what will happen in the event of an air strike but I suspect few if any official Americans would remain," the official added.
     Ambassador Jan Sizoo of the Netherlands said a second advisory to Dutch nationals, urging them to "seriously, seriously consider leaving the country," had been issued on Wednesday morning.
     "We have sent home half the staff, that is to say three staff members, and all the dependents," Sizoo said, adding that the embassy had received threats against diplomats and Serbs employed locally.
     He said that among the threats, some received in writing and others by telephone, was one which said "as soon as the first bomb will fall on Serb soil you won't get home alive."
     With NATO warning in Brussels that this weekend would be the last for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to comply with U.N. demands on Kosovo or face military intervention, the exodus of diplomats and their families was expected to pick up pace.
     The British embassy advised British nationals to leave Yugoslavia. An embassy official added that "family members and non-essential members of the embassy staff will shortly leave the country."
     The Canadian embassy said "10 carloads" of diplomats and their families, representing most of the embassy staff, left for neighbouring Hungary on Tuesday.
     "The visa section is closed until further notice...people who want a visa will have to go to Rome," said Tatyana Amtiz, acting as embassy spokesperson in place of a press officer who was evacuated.
     Jan Kickert, spokesman for the Austrian embassy, said a third of the embassy personnel had been withdrawn but more drastic cuts would not be made immediately because Austria holds the revolving EU presidency.
     "Because we have the EU presidency we will evacuate less people than we would have done," Kickert said.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

France Advises Nationals to Leave Yugoslavia
Xinhua  07-OCT-98

PARIS (Oct. 7) XINHUA - The French foreign ministry on Wednesday advised its nationals to leave Yugoslavia because of possible NATO air strikes over Kosovo.
     A statement issued by the ministry also asked French travellers not to go to Yugoslavia until further notice.
     The French embassy in Belgrade on Wednesday delivered the advice to French nationals in Yugoslavia, including the embassy personnel and their relatives.
     There are about 1,000 French nationals in Yugoslavia. Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain have also urged their nationals to leave Yugoslavia.
     The United Nations has demanded that Yugoslavia withdraw its forces from Kosovo and end its military action against the ethnic Albanians.
     Interviewed by the French newspaper, Le Monde, on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said that if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic did not meet the U.N. requests, NATO would take action.
     NATO forces had made all preparations for the air strikes and the countdown had started, he warned.
     French President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday that NATO military strikes, likely to be decided in coming days, could be avoided if a ceasefire was reached and Yugoslavia withdrew its troops from Kosovo.
__________________________________________________

Zhirinovsky Urges Meeting with NATO Embassies' Officials.
Itar-Tass  07-OCT-98

MOSCOW, October 7 (Itar-Tass) - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament, suggested that heads of Duma factions and groups of deputies meet with representatives of NATO countries embassies in Moscow. Zhirinovsky spoke at the outset of the plenary meeting of the State Duma on Wednesday.
     Zhirinovsky believes the State Duma "should take a firmer stand on the situation regarding Kosovo". He said "chiefs of deputies' groups could get in touch with embassies of NATO countries and sharply warn them that the intentions to deal bombing strikes at Yugoslavia pose a major threat to peace and security in Europe."
     In response to Zhirinovsky's proposal, Gennady Seleznyov, the Duma speaker, suggested, in his turn, "to consider whether a meeting of heads of groups of deputies with representatives of NATO countries' embassies can be arranged today."
__________________________________________________

Norway Advises Nationals to Leave Yugoslavia
Reuters  07-OCT-98

OSLO, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Norway on Wednesday advised its nationals in Yugoslavia to consider leaving the Balkan country as NATO threatened air strikes to punish Belgrade for its use of force in Kosovo.
     "To those staying in Yugoslavia, we are advising them to keep in close contact with the embassy in Belgrade and to be prepared to leave," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ingvard Havnen said.
     Norway's Defence Command on Wednesday put F-16 fighter jets on stand-by in preparation for any military move.
     Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek said on Tuesday that he expected NATO to give a clear signal on military action against Yugoslavia some time this week.
     "We stand at the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe which is not acceptable. We have to do something," Vollebaek told the NTB news agency after meeting NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana in Brussels.
     U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke began decisive talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday as NATO prepared to decide whether to attack military installations in Yugoslavia.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

Russia, Greece Oppose Military Action in Kosovo
Xinhua  07-OCT-98

ATHENS (Oct. 7) XINHUA - Russia and Greece on Wednesday voiced their opposition to any possible military intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Kosovo.
     Speaking after talks in Athens with his Greek counterpart, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev warned that any military action by NATO would risk escalating the conflict.
     The Russian defense minister, who is in Greece for a two-day visit, said NATO intervention should not be a one-sidedly punitive operation.
     Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, on his part, stressed there was no military solution to the Kosovo problem.
     Tsohatzopoulos also hoped that all diplomatic and political approaches had yet to be exhausted and that the use of force would be eventually averted.
     He said that Greece, as a Balkan state, should be taken into account with respect to any possible NATO military intervention.
     Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Tuesday sent a message to all parties involved in the Kosovo crisis, calling for self-restraint to clear any pretext for resumption of hostilities in Kosovo.

---------

Belarus Vows to Support Yugoslavia Against Kosovo
Xinhua  07-OCT-98

MOSCOW (Oct. 6) XINHUA - Belarussian President Lukashenko stated in Minsk on Tuesday that his country would extend all possible support for Yugoslavia against threatened NATO-led military strike against the country over the Kosovo issue.
     According to the Interfax news agency, Lukashen declared to the press that Belarus was prepared to support Yugoslavia in every aspect, including providing weapons and military equipment to fight back possible NATO-led attacks. However, he said Belarus would not send troops to Yugoslavia.
     Lukashenko stressed Belarus's support for Russia's opposition to NATO's resort of force, but only Belarus's stand was even tougher. He said Minsk would "support Slavic brothers on every issue."
     Meanwhile, it is reported that Estonian Defense Minister Oovel said his country might participate in NATO's military actions in Kosovo.
     He said that insofar as NATO suggests its partner states participate in the "peace-keeping" activities in Kosovo, Estonia would consider it very carefully.
     He said the Defense Ministry of Estonia regards participation in such activities as absolutely necessary.
     Oovel pointed out that Russia's opposition to western countries' military actions in Kosovo would not influence Estonia's position, because "Estonia is an independent country."
     NATO has threatened to launch air strikes against Yugoslavia unless Yugoslavia ends the conflict with Kosovo ethnic Albanian separatists and negotiate an autonomy agreement with them for the southern Serbian province.
__________________________________________________

Hungarian Prime Minister Pledges Support for NATO in Kosovo
AP  07-OCT-98

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told President Clinton today he would like to see a peaceful solution in Kosovo but Hungary stands ready to support any decision by NATO.
     Clinton, meeting with Orban in the White House, said he did not expect Hungary to be involved in military action because "what is contemplated" is air strikes, not ground action. Hungary hosts a major supply base for U.S.-led NATO military peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.
     Orban said Hungary, which is due to become a NATO member next year, seeks a nonmilitary end to violence in the Serb state, "but if a decision is taken by NATO, we are ready to contribute as an ally. We are ready to take part."
....
__________________________________________________

U.S. envoy warns of 'decisive moment' on Kosovo
October 7, 1998
Web posted at: 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke began a decisive round of Kosovo talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday as the West piled pressure on Belgrade to expect NATO airstrikes if mediation fails.
     "Right now, we are in the countdown to a decisive moment in the history of the Balkans," Holbrooke said before his third meeting with the Yugoslav president.
     Milosevic has remained defiant so far, despite Washington's efforts to make it clear that NATO is not bluffing about military intervention should Belgrade fail to withdraw troops from Kosovo and begin serious negotiations on the status of the province.
     Reflecting a grim mood in the U.S. delegation, Holbrooke had only terse public comments Wednesday. "The situation's extremely serious," he said.
     On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council declared that the Serbian combatants in Kosovo had not yet fully complied with U.N. resolutions demanding a cease-fire and withdrawal of special Serb police units.
     While the U.N. resolutions passed thus far carry no legal weight, NATO officials say they are prepared to launch airstrikes swiftly once a final decision is made.
     Observers say such a decision may be possible by the weekend, after the six-nation Contact Group on the Balkans convenes in London later this week.
     Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who opposes NATO strikes against Yugoslavia, said Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov would attend the meeting.
     Holbrooke said he planned to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday in Brussels, where Albright also was to consult with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana.
     Background: Long-simmering tensions between Serbian authorities and independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo escalated into full-blown fighting in February. Serbian forces, backed by Yugoslav army units, launched a major crackdown against guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army and their alleged supporters -- including many civilians. Hundreds of people have been killed and some 300,000 displaced in the fighting. Tens of thousands of refugees are hiding in the woods, prompting fears of an impending humanitarian disaster.
     U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters there was no consensus yet among NATO countries on launching military strikes.

International statements on Kosovo

Statements made Wednesday by key figures and world leaders on the Kosovo crisis:

• British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "We have to make sure he (Milosevic) is withdrawing from a position where he is able to commit these atrocities, these acts of barbarism in Kosovo, and he should know very clearly that if he doesn't then serious action will follow."

• The notorious Serbian warlord known as Arkan, as reported by Belgrade media: "We shall not kneel before NATO missiles. We shall not allow ourselves to become enslaved to NATO or any other foreign power."

• Fernando del Mundo, spokesman for the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Pristina, commenting on the tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees hiding in the woods: "Villagers (in Kosovo) are telling us that if the (Serbian) police withdraw, they will return home."

• Hans van den Broek, European Union foreign affairs chief on Moscow's opposition to NATO strikes: "I have understanding for Russia's misgivings about using military force. But this can never be an excuse for allowing a humanitarian disaster to happen."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
__________________________________________________

NATO strike prospect raised as Milosevic refuses to back down

In this story:

•Security Council declares no full compliance
•'A decisive moment in the history of the Balkans'
•Yugoslav troops moving outside Kosovo
•Cohen: troop pullback not enough to avert strike
•Albania offers sites for NATO strike bases

October 7, 1998
Web posted at: 5:51 a.m. EDT (0951 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Warning that the "decisive moment" was approaching, a senior U.S. envoy has scheduled more talks on Wednesday with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in a bid to persuade him to withdraw from Kosovo and avoid NATO airstrikes.

Edgy Yugoslavs await NATO strike decision

Milosevic has remained defiant through two meetings, during which Richard Holbrooke attempted to convince him Washington was equally firm in demanding that he comply with U.N. resolutions or face military action.
     "It wasn't a good meeting," a diplomat familiar with the deliberations said after Tuesday's talks.
     "It seems to me the grimmest situation we've faced in this region," the diplomat said.
     "Kosovo is more important (to Milosevic) than Bosnia," said another diplomatic source on condition of anonymity. "The American people do not understand that because Bosnia was so much bloodier."

Security Council declares no full compliance

Hours after the Holbrooke-Milosevic meetings on Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council declared Tuesday night that combatants have not complied fully with U.N. resolutions demanding a cease-fire in Kosovo and special Serb police units have failed to withdraw from the province.
     Although it doesn't carry any legal weight, the declaration of noncompliance could fuel calls for military intervention. Council president, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, read the statement late Tuesday after the council met for more than seven hours to discuss the Kosovo crisis.
     The council noted that military activity in Kosovo had appeared to decrease recently, but Greenstock said that Belgrade's armed presence in Kosovo "remained significant" and the operations of the special police continued after the council's latest demands for a cease-fire.

'A decisive moment in the history of the Balkans'

The fact that Milosevic agreed to a third meeting on Wednesday with Holbrooke indicated there was still a chance for agreement.
     "Right now, we are in the countdown to a decisive moment in the history of the Balkans," Holbrooke told CNN.
     The United States has threatened military action unless Milosevic calls off his bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels seeking independence from Serbia, the main republic of Yugoslavia.
     Milosevic's seven-month crackdown against the secessionists has killed hundreds, left tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians homeless and led to growing resolve among NATO allies to stop the bloodshed by striking Yugoslav army targets if necessary.
     Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but most ethnic Albanians, who form 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million, favor self-rule.
     Holbrooke, who negotiated the 1995 peace agreement which ended the Bosnian conflict, met the Yugoslav president after a visit to Kosovo. Following a meeting with ethnic Albanian leaders, Holbrooke said that Serbian security forces still maintain a strong presence, despite U.N. demands for them to withdraw from areas of conflict and allow political settlement.
     "U.S. diplomatic observers are doing a terrific job bringing us information, and the information they're bringing us is not good," Holbrooke told reporters in the Kosovo capital, Pristina.
     Hours after Holbrooke left Kosovo for Belgrade, reporters saw about 100 Yugoslav military vehicles -- ranging from armored personnel carriers to trucks loaded with troops -- moving outside Kosovo. It was an apparent show of Milosevic's compliance with international demands that his forces pull far back from front-line areas.
     Additionally, state-run Serbian television reported that all Serbian special police units, on the forefront of strikes against Kosovo Albanian militants, pulled out of the province.
     "The stakes are high," U.S. President Bill Clinton said in Washington on Tuesday before Holbrooke met with Milosevic. "The time is now to end the violence in Kosovo."
     Clinton said that Holbrooke was telling the Yugoslav leader "what he must do and to make clear that NATO is prepared to act if President Milosevic fails to honor the United Nations resolutions."

Cohen: Troop pullback not enough to avert strike

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen told Congress that a pullback of troops in Kosovo by Milosevic was not enough to ward off NATO attacks.
     Any NATO air strikes might be followed by some kind of "international presence" on the ground, he said.
     Cohen justified the prospective use of air power. "He (Milosevic) stands to lose a substantial portion of his military capability. ... There is a lot that can and will be done by air," Cohen said.
     If more Serb forces don't pull out of the province as demanded, NATO intervention "will become inevitable," French President Jacques Chirac said.
     However, Yugoslav Deputy Information Secretary Miodrag Popovic said that a complete withdrawal of Yugoslav troops is out of the question.
     "Who in their right mind would do so? Is there a country in the world that would do so, especially with an armed rebellion on their hands?" Popovic asked.
     Holbrooke, who negotiated the 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian war, was dispatched to the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade in what appeared to be a last-chance diplomatic effort.
     NATO officials say they are ready to launch military strikes. No decision is expected until Thursday, when NATO ambassadors meet in Brussels.

Albania offers sites for NATO strike bases

Albania's foreign minister said Tuesday that his country has offered its ports and airports to NATO for use in any military operation against neighboring Yugoslavia.
     "Albania has offered its support for such actions in Bosnia and will do so to support NATO's actions in Kosovo," Foreign Minister Paskal Milo told reporters in Albania's capital, Tirana.
     But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the Interfax news agency in Russia, a staunch ally of Serbia, that it would veto any move to approve NATO strikes on Yugoslavia by the U.N. Security Council.
     The Canadian government announced Tuesday that it was flying out nonessential diplomatic personnel and their families from Yugoslavia. Other countries were expected to follow suit.
     The United States is trying to get Milosevic and the ethnic Albanians to agree on a deal that would defer for two or three years a decision on whether Kosovo would separate from Serbia. But the ethnic Albanians have refused to negotiate with Milosevic, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright voiced skepticism that Milosevic would adhere to such a plan.
     "We are dealing with someone we never trusted," Albright said.
     The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, whose attacks on Serb police prompted the crackdown, has rejected any peace formula short of full independence. The KLA has urged NATO to attack.
     "The Serbian war machine and its military and political structure must be destroyed," said Adem Demaci, a politician who speaks for the rebels.

Correspondent Brent Sadler, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
__________________________________________________

Clinton Again Warns Milosevic
UPI  07-OCT-98

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) _ President Clinton said Russian efforts to avert NATO air attacks in Kosovo have foundered on the broken promises of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who now must comply completely with United Nations demands to halt the slaughter of ethnic Albanians.
     Clinton said today the United States has tried to work with Russia on the sensitive question but that because of Milosevic's past intransigence, NATO ``must be prepared to take action'' if he doesn't adhere to a cease-fire, withdraw his troops, allow refugees to resettle and resume negotiations with the Albanian majority.
     ``Those are the United Nations conditions,'' Clinton said at the start of a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. ``If he completely complies, he doesn't have to worry about military force. But I do not believe the United States, and I do not believe that NATO can be in the position of letting tens of thousands of people starve or freeze to death this winter because Mr. Milosevic didn't keep his word to the Russians and the world community one more time.''
     ``The way to avoid NATO military action is for Mr. Milosevic to honor the U.N. resolutions. That's what should be done,'' the president said.
     Russia has objected consistently to the use of NATO force in the Kosovo province, but members of the alliance, as well, are divided over the question, to the extent that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was unable to arrange a meeting among her 15 counterparts for Thursday in Brussels.
     Albright now will meet only with U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, who delivered the latest ultimatum to Milosevic this week, and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana.
     In Jerusalem, Albright announced today that the six-nation Contact Group overseeing the situation in Kosovo will meet in London Thursday. Asked about Russia's intransigence toward military action, Albright said: ``Endorsement isn't the issue here. The Contact Group has been articulate in expressing demands of the international community to Milosevic.''
     The six nations in the Contact Group are Italy, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the United States.
     Efforts by Milosevic to crush a growing separatist movement in Kosovo have taken the lives of nearly 1,000 and driven several hundred thousand from their homes. _-

Copyright 1998 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

U.S. Envoy Tries Again to Persuade Yugoslav President to End
AP  07-OCT-98

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Warning that the "decisive moment" is approaching, a senior U.S. envoy today began more talks with President Slobodan Milosevic after failing to persuade him to withdraw additional forces from Kosovo to avoid NATO airstrikes.
     Milosevic has remained defiant as envoy Richard Holbrooke sought to convince him that Washington is equally firm in demanding that he comply with U.N. resolutions or face military action.
     "The situation's extremely serious," Holbrooke said before today's talks.
     At U.N. headquarters Tuesday, the Security Council declared that the combatants in Kosovo had not yet fully complied with U.N. resolutions demanding a cease-fire and the withdrawal of special Serb police units from the Serb province.
     While the U.N. action carries no legal weight, NATO officials say they are prepared to launch airstrikes swiftly after a final decision is made. A decision is possible by the weekend, after NATO ambassadors meet Thursday.
     President Clinton today renewed his call for Milosevic to halt the crackdown.
     "If he does that, he completely complies. He doesn't have to worry about military force," Clinton said.
     Milosevic's 7-month crackdown on the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army has killed hundreds and driven more than 270,000 civilians from their homes.
     International concern over Kosovo increased last week after reports that Serb police massacred dozens of ethnic Albanian civilians. Police deny responsibility.
     Ethnic Albanians constitute 90 percent of the 2 million people in Kosovo, a southern province in Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia. Most ethnic Albanians favor self-rule.
     Ethnic Albanian villagers in the Malisevo region, southwest of the Kosovo capital Pristina, told journalists today that Serbs have shelled their homes for the last four days. Residents of Dragobe, which has largely been evacuated, said new holes in their houses were from Serb shells. The Serbs have said they are being fired upon by ethnic Albanian rebels.
     But Belgrade's state-run Politika daily carried a front-page headline today saying all police actions have ceased in Kosovo. Serb authorities also claimed all special police units, in the forefront of strikes against Kosovo Albanian militants, have been pulled out.
     A NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity said today that an estimated 14,000 Yugoslav army troops remain in Kosovo, down from 36,000 10 days earlier, in addition to 11,000 military police, half the total in all of Yugoslavia.
     He also said 50,000 refugees remain without shelter in Kosovo.
     The NATO alliance will hold a special joint council with Russia on Friday in Brussels to brief the Russians on NATO's possible actions in Kosovo. Russia threatened Tuesday to use its veto in the Security Council to stop NATO airstrikes.
     State Department spokesman James P. Rubin, in Israel today with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said Albright plans to fly to Brussels for a meeting Thursday with NATO officials and a briefing by Holbrooke.
     Rubin said there is no consensus for military action against the Serbs. "We are continuing to push for early action," he said. "NATO is not there yet."
     However, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today during a visit to Beijing: "There's no doubt at all that we have to take action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Kosovo."
     Intent on showing it is working to settle the conflict, Serbia sent Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic to Kosovo today for discussions with the Serbian-installed interim government, which the ethnic Albanians do not recognize. It also invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to send a mission to Kosovo, officials said.
     "I believe everything will be settled peacefully, but if they strike, we will defend ourselves," Marjanovic said.
     Holbrooke met with Milosevic on Tuesday after talks with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo, where he said Serb forces maintained a strong presence despite U.N. demands for them to withdraw.
     "Right now, we are in the countdown to a decisive moment in the history of the Balkans," Holbrooke said.
     The talks are familiar territory for both men. Milosevic accepted a peace agreement Holbrooke negotiated in 1995 to end the 31/2-year Bosnian war.
     The United States is trying to get Milosevic and the ethnic Albanians to agree on a deal that would defer a decision on whether Kosovo would separate from Serbia for two or three years. But the ethnic Albanians have refused to negotiate with Milosevic.
     Britain, France and Germany advised their citizens in Yugoslavia to leave, and Canada has evacuated all nonessential diplomatic staff and their families. Americans were told earlier not to travel to Yugoslavia, and U.S. officials said dependents of its embassy employees would soon be evacuated.
     Copyright 1998& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

NATO Says ''No Quarrel with Yugoslav People''
Reuters  07-OCT-98

BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - NATO assured the people of Yugoslavia on Wednesday that it had no quarrel with them and was seeking a solution to the Kosovo crisis that would benefit the country as a whole.
     A NATO official, addressing questions about Yugoslav fears of war, said the Alliance always planned meticulously to avoid civilian damage or casualties, but ultimately this would be the responsibility of President Slobodan Milosevic.
     The alliance signalled to Milosevic on Wednesday that he has only a few days left to comply with U.N. demands on Kosovo or face NATO air strikes.
     "NATO has no quarrel with the people of Yugoslavia. If anything it's the people of Yugoslavia, and not just the Kosovo people, who have suffered grievously from the policies assumed by President Milosevic," the official told reporters.
     "They are also the the victims of his rule over the last decade and indeed it is our conviction that the moment we can have a political solution to the crisis in Kosovo will also be the moment when we can start seeing how Yugoslavia can be reintegrated into the international community of nations," he added.
     The official said Milosevic's policies over the years had led to economic sanctions, crippling inflation, mounting public debt and a daily bill now of $1.5 mln for Kosovo operations which the country cannot afford.
     "We are not trying to enter any kind of confrontatation with Yugoslavia as such. We are simply trying to put a certain amount of military and diplomatic pressure on the President of Yugoslavia so he takes steps necessary to ensure the future viability of his country," the official continued.
     "As long as problems in Kosovo continue the more people are going to be killed and that includes the Serbs. We know this. There have been atrocities against Serbs as well as ethnic Albanians," he said.
     "But this problem is not going to be repression. The Kosovo Albanians may have been bludgeoned by military actions over the last couple of weeks but if there is no political solution they will re-emerge, the fighting will start again and Yugoslavia will remain isolated internationally."
     "So our message to the people of Yugoslavia is that a political settlement in Kosovo is not only in the interests of the Kosovo Albanians but also in the fundamental interests of the other peoples of Yugoslavia," the NATO official concluded.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

German Spd Says NATO Strikes in Kosovo More Likely
Reuters  07-OCT-98

BONN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Germany's victorious Social Democrats said on Wednesday the likelihood of Western military action to try to resolve the crisis in Kosovo was growing.
     "The West is on the brink of being forced to make a final decision on this matter," SPD foreign affairs spokesman Guenter Verheugen told Deutschlandfunk radio.
     The centre-left Social Democrats are set to lead Germany's next government, in coalition with the ecological Greens, after ousting Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the September 27 general election.
     The probability of military intervention in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo had increased in the last few days, Verheugen said.
     "At the moment it's about making clear to (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic that the military threat is serious and that he must really be prepared for it to happen...this military threat must be credible," he added.
     Verheugen said the more time spent discussing and qualifing what was and was not needed before a military strike took place, the safer Milosevic could feel.
     "This is exactly what the West has now done for half a year and what has led to the situation we are in today," he added.
     The SPD has previously said that under exceptional circumstances it would support military intervention without a U.N. mandate.
     Russia opposes the use of NATO military strikes against Milosevic and has said it would use its veto on the U.N. Security Council to block any resolution authorising such military action.
     On Tuesday the ecologist Greens, currently in talks to form a coalition with the SPD, cautioned against any NATO military action without the U.N. go-ahead, saying such a move could destroy international stability.
     As one of its last major duties before handing over power to Social Democrat Chancellor-elect Gerhard Schroeder, Kohl's cabinet last week offered 500 troops and 14 Tornado aircraft to NATO for possible deployment in Kosovo peacekeeping.
     The SPD supports this offer, but any transfer of German troops must still be approved by parliament before it can take place.
     Verheugen's name has been mentioned as a contender for the post of defence minister or for a high-level post in the Foreign Ministry in Schroeder's new government.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

Holbrooke's Balkans Formula: Tough Diplomacy Backed by Military
AP  07-OCT-98

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke is called "The Bulldozer" -- or sometimes "Raging Bull" -- when confronting the region's warring leaders to get them to lay down their arms and negotiate peace.
     The U.S. diplomat also is known for sharing cozy hunting lodge meals, sipping pear brandy and getting along with the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president whose Serbian forces have been accused of atrocities from Bosnia to Kosovo, the latest powder keg conflict.
     Holbrooke, a bear of a man in the business of managing sticky U.S. diplomatic situations since the Vietnam War, has no moral qualms about, as he puts it, "negotiating with people who do immoral things."
     "If you can prevent the deaths of people still alive, you're not doing a disservice to those already killed by trying to do so," Holbrooke said this summer after the special U.S. envoy failed to persuade Milosevic to stop his military assault on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
     "And so I make no apologies for negotiating with Milosevic and even worse people, provided one doesn't lose one's point of view."
     Holbrooke, 57, grew to fame as assistant secretary of state for Europe when he orchestrated the 1995 Dayton peace accords, ending the 31/2-year war in Bosnia, where 200,000 Muslims, Croats, Bosnians and Serbs were killed in a horrifying orgy of "ethnic cleansing."
     His talent, according to both those who admire him and those who criticize his approach to Milosevic, is his ego-driven determination to achieve a deal, even if it takes NATO airstrikes to force parties to the table.
     "You don't deal with the likes of those Balkan leaders with tricks. You deal with them by bearing down and using American and European power," said Leslie Gelb, president of the Council of Foreign Relations and a Holbrooke friend. "His hallmark is he's not afraid to use it."
     The question remains whether the United States and its NATO allies are serious about attacking Serb forces in Kosovo after seven months of empty threats.
     A decision could come at a NATO meeting Thursday if Holbrooke, in the region trying to negotiate a cease-fire and pullback of Serb forces, fails to get Milosevic to agree to sit down with Kosovo guerrillas who are seeking independence for the Serb province. The Clinton administration supports a return to autonomy, which Milosevic stripped away in 1989.
     Jim Hooper, director of the Washington-based Balkan Action Council, objects to Holbrooke dealing with Milosevic "as a peace partner" when he is the driving force behind the nationalistic fighting.
     "If the U.S. government purpose is just to get a cease-fire and get beyond the immediate situation, then you want someone like Holbrooke who has a good relationship with Milosevic," Hooper said. "But if we keep a good relationship with Milosevic and treat him as a peacemaker of the Balkans, that enables him to keep destabilizing the Balkans."
     Hooper and critics in the State Department, who refuse to speak on the record, believe Holbrooke's motivating goal is to salvage his reputation by ensuring the fragile peace between Milosevic, who represented Bosnian Serbs at Dayton, Croats and the Bosnian government.
     Moderate ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the 2 million population of Kosovo, were shocked that Holbrooke didn't negotiate autonomy for the Serb province in the 1995 peace deal, Hooper and others said. The setback emboldened hard-liners like the Kosovo Liberation Army, which took up arms to lead to the revolt against the Serbs this year. If the Kosovo conflict spreads, a wider war involving Albania, Macedonia and possibly Montenegro -- the other remaining Yugoslav state -- could result.
     "The Dayton accord, it is his (Holbrooke's) lifetime achievement award," Hooper said. "It's his own monument. ... I think he will do anything to maintain that monument, even if it isn't functioning." Holbrooke is as likely to yell during negotiations as he is to cajole -- perhaps over caviar with Bosnian leaders or while sipping midmorning pear brandy at Dayton with Milosevic, who once hosted the U.S. diplomat for an 11-hour dinner near Belgrade at former the hunting lodge of Marshal Tito, the longtime Yugoslav president.
     The two men, who are on a first name basis, went for long walks in the woods around the time of the late-summer 1995 NATO airstrikes in Bosnia, which Holbrooke heartily endorsed even as Milosevic tried to soften up the native New Yorker, saying he loved the smell of coffee in Manhattan.
     "He's one of our very best and toughest diplomats," said Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to Greece and former State Department spokesman when Holbrooke was there. "His negotiations in 1995, both in the region and at Dayton, were a masterful diplomatic performance."
     Still, Holbrooke's hold on the spotlight has gained him enemies in the U.S. government. He lost out in 1997 to Madeleine Albright to head up foreign policy as secretary of state. And his nomination to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is being held up by an anonymous letter writer who identified himself as a State Department employee.
     The letter questioned the propriety of Holbrooke's interceding at the U.S. embassy in Hungary on behalf of Credit Suisse First Boston, a foreign-owned bank, which wanted to compete with Salomon Brothers, a U.S. company, for an exclusive Hungarian contract in 1995.
     Credit Suisse First Boston later hired Holbrooke, who worked on Wall Street during the 1980s, as a vice chairman after he left his job as assistant secretary of state for Europe in February 1996.
     The White House has expressed confidence Holbrooke will be cleared.

Copyright 1998& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 

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