Little Gained in Kosovo Talks, U.S. Envoy Says
While Yugoslav fighter jets screamed overhead, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said Friday that his four days of diplomacy had failed to yield a peace agreement for Kosovo and warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had stepped up plans for intervention.
Fighting intensified in the independence-seeking Yugoslav province, with Yugoslav forces shelling three villages in western Kosovo, the ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Information Center reported.
The Serbs said three people disappeared after making remarks supporting the Yugoslav army.
Holbrooke warned both Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanian militants that their next major clash could have “tragic consequences.”
More than 300 people have been killed since March, when Serbian police began a crackdown against the ethnic Albanian separatists, who make up 90% of the province’s population.
“I’m leaving this region today with no magic bullets for peace,” Holbrooke said before leaving the region.
He said a diplomatic corps from dozens of countries will likely arrive in Kosovo in the next few days.
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