Efforts Intensify to Head Off Kosovo Crisis

Efforts to head off worsening conflict in Yugoslavia’s breakaway Kosovo region intensified Saturday, with U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke shuttling between opposing sides while another American official warned of possible NATO action.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasievsky also arrived here Saturday to join the diplomatic effort to find a peaceful solution in the strife-torn region, where more than 300 people have died since late February in the conflict between the 90% majority Albanian population and the Serbian-controlled security forces.

After returning from half a day of talks in Kosovo, Holbrooke said Saturday evening that Afanasievsky will join him in a second round of discussions today with ethnic Albanian leaders in Pristina, the region’s capital.

Holbrooke and Afanasievsky met earlier Saturday with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Holbrooke also met with Milosevic on Friday.

Fears are widespread internationally that failure to peacefully resolve the Kosovo crisis could drag neighboring countries into a broader Balkans war or trigger NATO intervention with unpredictable consequences.

In London, Robert Gelbard, a special U.S. envoy on Kosovo, warned Belgrade on Saturday that NATO is drawing up contingency plans on “an accelerated basis.”

“We are keeping all options open,” Gelbard said. “We are not being cute when we say that. We are very serious about it. . . . The planning process in NATO is not a fiction. It’s being pursued very aggressively. Contingency planning is real and it’s quite advanced.”

Gelbard also expressed optimism that diplomacy is making progress.

“We know that this is going to be hard, but we’re confident it’s going to work,” he said.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook also warned Saturday that Milosevic “must know that if there was any return to that kind of heavy military offensive against civilian people [such as occurred in early June] we would certainly return to the possibility of military intervention.”

Milosevic claims that his crackdown has been aimed at ethnic Albanian terrorists who have attacked Serbian police.

Yugoslavia’s Tanjug News Agency on Saturday quoted Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Lilic saying that Belgrade wishes to avoid war in Kosovo.

“Loudly and clearly we want to convey to the entire world that we will not and do not wish to wage a war,” Lilic said.

With international diplomatic efforts now focused on setting up a cease-fire in the embattled region, Holbrooke spent six hours Saturday in a series of talks in Pristina with leaders of various ethnic Albanian factions.

Those meetings were held at the United States Information Service office in Pristina and at the offices of the Democratic League of Kosovo, which is headed by the region’s top moderate politician, Ibrahim Rugova.

The talks in Pristina appeared aimed in part at establishing a broad umbrella grouping that could assert authority over the Kosovo Liberation Army. That loosely organized guerrilla force has been rapidly gaining support in Kosovo at the expense of Rugova, who seeks independence for Kosovo but opposes the use of violence to achieve it.

Asked whether representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army should be included in talks between ethnic Albanians and the Serbian leadership in Belgrade, Holbrooke said Saturday that Washington wants “everybody who has a legitimate role in the destiny of Kosovo” to have a place in the negotiations.

Speaking to reporters with Rugova at his side, Holbrooke stressed that “the U.S. believes that the solution of the Kosovo problem must be peaceful.”

“We do not support or encourage in any way action by security or military forces or violent means to solve these problems,” Holbrooke said.

Holbrooke also met Saturday with Rugova’s more radical rival, Adem Demaci, president of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo.

Holbrooke “plainly demanded the Albanians to unite their position and act united and agree on a joint stand,” said Kaqusha Jashari, who heads a faction of the Kosovo Albanian Social Democratic party.