------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 12:37:24 -0700
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: UNARMED CIVILIAN U.N. MISSION OKAY FOR KOSOVO - BELGRADE;
MILOSEVIC'S OFFER "INADEQUATE": WHITE HOUSE
Agence France-Presse April 30, 1999
UNARMED, CIVILIAN U.N. MISSION OKAY FOR KOSOVO: BELGRADE
BELGRADE — Yugoslavia could accept a United Nations peace mission
in Kosovo if it is civilian and unarmed, foreign ministry spokesman
Nebojsa Vujovic said Friday. "I'm not talking about a (military) force,"
Vujovic said on CNN. "We are speaking about a UN international mission
-- not a force, (but) an unarmed and civilian mission."
Such a "presence" would be similar to the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission that was previously
in Kosovo, he said.
Vujovic's statement on CNN clarified remarks he made earlier
Friday, in which he said Yugoslavia could accept an international force
for Kosovo if such a presence was decided by the UN Security Council.
Vujovic said Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN
Security Council, supported a plan worked out between Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic and Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin on
April 22.
"Russia is a member of the Security Council, also China... the
countries supportive of the seven-point principles," developed by
Chernomyrdin and Milosevic, Vujovic said.
Asked whether an international armed force with a UN mandate
would be acceptable to Belgrade, the spokesman said: "As long as the
Security Council moves in the direction of implementing those principles,
we would be supportive."
NATO leaders have insisted that the alliance should have a
commanding role in any peace implementation force that would be
deployed in the Serbian province.
Chernomyrdin and Milosevic launched a fresh round of talks
earlier Friday, after the Russian envoy's visit to Bonn and Rome
Thursday.
Milosevic's Serb-dominated government is fiercely against the
deployment of foreign troops in Kosovo, particularly those from the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But NATO members insist that
the alliance lead a multi-national peacekeeping force in Kosovo that would
protect the Serbian province's ethnic Albanian majority.
The OSCE mission came out of an agreement in October that
Milosevic made with US envoy Richard Holbrooke, but it pulled out from
Kosovo just before NATO air strikes began March 24. But in the time it
was deployed, the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission could only watch
the October ceasefire unravel as Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) skirmished.
__________________________________________________________
Agence France-Presse April 30, 1999
WHITE HOUSE BRANDS MILOSEVIC'S OFFER "INADEQUATE"
WASHINGTON — The White House vowed Friday that NATO military
strikes on Yugoslav targets would continue until all military aims are met
and rejected as "inadequate" reports from Belgrade that it will accept a
UN-sanctioned international force in Kosovo.
Asked about reports from Belgrade that a Yugoslav foreign
ministry spokesman said Belgrade might accept an international force
sanctioned by the UN, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said "it's
something that's clearly inadequate."
"We've been very clear: all their forces need to leave," he said,
referring to Milosevic's troops in the war-torn province.
"The way out is clear," he added. NATO has demanded Milosevic
withdraw his forces from the war-torn province, allow the return of
refugees driven from Kosovo, and allow an international peacekeeping
force to enter the province.
[PEN-L:6321] (Fwd) UNARMED CIVILIAN U.N. MISSION OKAY FOR KOSOVO - BELGRADE
ts99u-1.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.154.224] Sun, 2 May 1999 22:20:03 -0500
