PLANNING FOR PEACE

June 8, 1999
		Many elements will have to fall into place before the war in Yugoslavia is over. The British Ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, discusses the details of the peace process.

Strikes in Yugoslavia coverage June 8, 1999: The G8 foreign ministers agree on the text of an U.N. resolution. June 8, 1999: President Clinton's comments on the G8 agreement. June 8, 1999: Secretary Albright talks with reporters about the G8 agreement. June 8, 1999: Yugoslav media reports that a peace is near. June 7, 1999: The refugee crisis. June 3, 1999: Defense Secretary Cohen discusses the peace deal. June 3, 1999: Foreign policy experts react to the peace deal. Complete NewsHour coverage of Europe   NATO U.S. State Department The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Serbian Ministry of Information	ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And joining me is Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the British ambassador to the United Nations. Welcome, Mr. Ambassador. SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK, UN Ambassador, Great Britain: Good evening. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: There's a lot happening this evening. The UN Security Council is considering the draft resolution, and the senior NATO and Yugoslav officers are meeting in Macedonia. Help us understand the relationship between these events and the sequence of events as you see them occurring. SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, the text of the Security Council resolution was in a sense pre-negotiated amongst the members of the Group of Eight -- ministers meeting in Bonn. But the Security Council has to take its own decision on this and have met once now today in order to look at the terms of the resolution. The members of the Security Council gave pretty broad support for taking this forward quickly. We had given them an inkling of what was coming a couple of days ago, and I don't think they found anything particularly unusual in it. Russia, you will remember, is a member of the G-8 and has supported -- cosponsored this resolution. So we have very broad support for taking this forward quickly. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. I want to come back in a minute to what's happening in the UN, but I want to get clear what might happen next. The Security Council considers the resolution -- these were informal meetings, not formal meetings. You're not about to vote, right? SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Correct. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. The military technical agreement is, let's say, reached. There was an announcement just recently on the wires that there may be an agreement reached tonight. SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Yes. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Okay. Then, go through the rest of the scenario for me, as it is hoped it could work out.
	Chinese and Russian cooperation.
	SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, a number of things tomorrow we'd like to have happen simultaneously: the military technical agreement is signed; the Serbs begin immediately their verifiable withdrawal, they're watched beginning their withdrawal; we immediately, as NATO, suspend the bombing campaign, make it clear to the Serbs we are suspending it; that is notified to the Security Council; and the Security Council is then in the position because of the Russian and Chinese positions on this to pass the resolution whose text they've already had a good look at. So if we can bring all that together during the course of Wednesday, then I think we're doing pretty well. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. In the Security Council, is the wording fixed? Or are you actually -- as we heard Foreign Minister Ivanov say in the set-up piece -- he said some of the details of how the Russian relationship will be in relation to NATO has to be worked out in the Security Council. Is that happening? SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: That has proposed no amendments to the text that they agreed through Mr. Ivanov in the ministers' meeting in Bonn, so I think that they're more concerned about the sequencing we've just been talking about than the actual text of the resolution, which they have preagreed, I think that the Chinese are in a position, if they wish, to make some amendments to the resolution, but I think they too are more concerned about the circumstances of passing the resolution than the actual text, which the majority of the Security Council will very warmly support. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And by the circumstances of passing, you mean that the bombing has stopped before it is passed? SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Yes. That's what they're mainly concerned with. They do not wish, it seems, to vote on the resolution unless they know the bombing has stopped because they have found the bombing to be so distasteful. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So you don't think at this point it is a major stumbling block, the Russians not having said for sure that they'll accept a single chain of command?
	NATO security presence.
	SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: The annex to the resolution is an integral part of the resolution, and that says that there will be a fundamental NATO participation in the international military presence or security presence under the unified command and control. I think the Russians are concerned to negotiate a dignified accompaniment of our forces to this force, but I don't think that will prevent them actually supporting the wording of this resolution. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And you touched on this. You said that China has -- may ask for some changes. What are those changes? The wires referred, for example, to China objecting to the reference in this draft resolution to the UN War Crimes Tribunal. SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, many members of the Security Council, as all of NATO, will want that reference to be in the resolution, and I do not see it coming out. The Chinese are an independent government. They will make their own decisions, but what they're looking for, above all, is a cessation of the bombing and a move to civil administration and a peaceful future for Kosovo. I do not think -- this may be speculation -- but I don't think that the Chinese will want to hold up this resolution for long on those sorts of issues when what they really want is a cessation of the bombing. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And you touched on this too in relation to Russia, but explain how the resolution does deal with this question in the annex of NATO leadership of the security forces in Kosovo. It never really says that NATO will be in the leadership. SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, it doesn't say -- it didn't use the word "leadership." It says fundamental NATO participation under unified command and control. And we've had the Bosnia experience to show us how the Russians come in with the unit that is commanded by a Russian as a unit but then responds to the general policy of the military wing under at the moment in Bosnia an American commander. I think that this will be the model that in some approximate way will be followed in Kosovo under perhaps the early months under a British commander, but the Russians will have their own unit under their own command and I think will be able to work out the arrangements for that. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Ambassador, within this draft resolution, who decides who has to return to Kosovo?
	Returning the refugees.
	SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: The refugees will I think almost decide for themselves that they will come back to their homes. You will remember that the UN refugees organization, UNHCR, did an enormous amount of work cataloguing who the refugees were when they came out of Kosovo into the camps, so their record of names and families and groups will be extremely important in setting the terms for the refugees to come back to their homes. I think we'll have to do this on a common sense basis. I can understand that the Yugoslav authorities will want to have a say in this, but, remember, the NATO conditions for the return of refugees are that they should be confident that they can come back in security, and they will want NATO and the other contributors to the international presences in Kosovo to be running this particular aspect of it. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: We have talked about the military a lot. The resolution also establishes a civilian presence and authorizes the Secretary-General to establish what's called an international civil presence in Kosovo. It sounds to me, from reading the wording that's available on the wires, like this is essentially a government to be run by the UN Am I right on that? SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: No. I think we will want to avoid the term "government." Clearly, Kosovo has been cleaned out in a way. That was the Serb intention. And we've had to reverse it. So there is a vacuum there of proper administration. In order to get the province back to a political and peaceful future, you have to have the stepping stone of an international presence to recreate law and order, and to give confidence to the refugees to rebuild their homes, and, indeed, economic help for that. So we call this an interim presence, an interim administration, which will not attempt to usurp sovereignty or to take this place over for any length of time. The quicker we can do this and get out, then the better, but it has to be done. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Ambassador, before we go, what's the immediate next step here? What has to happen in the next 24 hours and what do you expect to happen? SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, let me lay out the sequence again. I think there needs to be a military-to-military agreement on how the withdrawal will begin and proceed. As soon as that happens, the Serbs will be asked to begin that withdrawal. Then the NATO forces will declare a suspension of bombing, and the Security Council resolution will then be ready to pass. I think that could happen in a matter of hours, once we have understanding between the military sides that the agreement is ready to go. Within a few hours of that happening I think all those four steps should be completed. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador. SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Thank you.

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