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| A POSSIBLE PEACE PLAN | |
 May 6, 1999
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The foreign ministers of the G-8, the seven leading industrial democracies plus Russia, have agreed to an outline of how to end the war in Yugoslavia. -- Posted at 3:55 PM EDT |
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The draft plan calls for the deployment of "effective international civil and security presences" in Kosovo that would be "capable of guaranteeing the achievement of the common objectives." The move marks a significant shift in Russian policy. A historic ally of the Serbs, the Russians have opposed the military action and have attempted to find a diplomatic end to the fighting. Although Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov agreed to the basic concepts, he stressed the need to negotiate with the Yugoslav government in Belgrade. "It's not a matter of Russia's opinion or Japan's opinion," Ivanov told reporters. "All these opinions count but we have written in the principles that we guarantee the sovereignty of Yugoslavia. Without the agreement of that state, nothing is possible." NATO allies welcomed Russia's move. President Clinton, in Germany to meet with Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder and Kosovar refugees, called the agreement an important first step.
"I consider it as a truly substantial progress which has been made there," Schroeder added. "And there has been open talk about the presence and the necessity for the presence of international troops there, and I think things will continue along that way." The news from inside Yugoslavia seemed to indicate a fundamental split between the Serb position and that of Kosovar Albanians. In an interview conducted last week and released today, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic said he could accept a U.N. peace mission in Kosovo armed with "self-defence weapons," but without any participants from the 19 NATO countries. "We cannot accept an occupational force, not under a NATO or a UN flag," Milosevic was quoted as saying. But when asked whether he would accept a UN peace force, he said: "Yes, but no troops." The moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, who was traveling in Italy, said that Serb forces had to withdraw and that armed peacekeepers, including those of NATO nations, needed to be sent into Kosovo before refugees could return. "A clear and essential condition for the return of the refugees is an international force in Kosovo including NATO and other countries and the withdrawal of Serb forces," he told a news conference. |
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"The
significance is that, as far as I know, this is the first time that
the Russians have publicly said they would support an international
security as well as a civilian force in Kosovo," President Clinton
told reporters. "This is a significant step forward. And I was
personally very pleased by it."