NATO Strikes Over Kosovo Crisis May Be Near, U.S. Envoy Says

U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said early today that “nothing has changed” in tense negotiations to end the crisis over Kosovo and that NATO will meet Monday to consider authorizing airstrikes.

“Monday, NATO will meet to authorize actions,” Holbrooke predicted, speaking well after midnight following a marathon negotiating session with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. “We will continue to meet with President Milosevic and his colleagues continuously tomorrow in the hope we can find, in the next two days, a viable, peaceful alternative.”

Holbrooke said his discussions with Milosevic were focused not just on the issue of compliance with a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an end to the violent crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in breakaway Kosovo province but also on the terms of an interim political agreement between Kosovo Albanians and the Belgrade government.

Any solution reached “will require a verifiable compliance” structure, Holbrooke added, in an apparent reference to expectations that a political agreement in Kosovo would need to be monitored and enforced by an international military force.

While Holbrooke portrayed the negotiations as making little or no headway, with possible NATO strikes imminent, the Yugoslav side claimed major progress in Saturday’s talks, which came after Holbrooke made a trip earlier in the day to meet with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo.

In a statement released after Holbrooke and Milosevic completed seven hours of talks, the Belgrade government said: “It was agreed that all necessary conditions exist for the resolution of open questions through a political process.”

The terse, three-sentence statement issued by the official news agency Tanjug said it was agreed that Serbia had met conditions set by the United Nations for ending the threat of NATO airstrikes against Serbian military targets.

“The demands contained in the U.N. Security Council resolution have been realized in practice, which is evidenced by the accelerated normalization of the situation in the field,” the statement said without further elaboration.

Asked about this statement, Holbrooke replied: “I don’t comment on statements [Milosevic] makes.”

But fresh reports from Kosovo indicated that Milosevic’s military forces were preparing defenses against possible NATO airstrikes instead of trying to meet a Western demand to withdraw.

According to diplomatic monitors who have been driving throughout Kosovo daily, the Yugoslav army has established three major air defense units and at least one new antiaircraft site. The monitors also said Yugoslav security forces are showing new hostility to Americans, with Serbian police having fired semiautomatic weapons over the head of one U.S. monitor Friday and having tried to intimidate other monitors by driving an armored vehicle at one of their cars.

20 U.S. Aircraft Bound for Region

Meanwhile, six B-52 bombers, 13 tanker planes and one reconnaissance aircraft left the United States on Saturday for Britain for use in the possible airstrikes. The planes took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, the Pentagon said. Each of the B-52s carries up to 20 air-launched cruise missiles.

Most of the U.S. aircraft expected to be used in any NATO action are already stationed in Europe or are on the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, now deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.

Earlier Saturday, Holbrooke was accompanied in the capital of Kosovo, Pristina, by U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia Christopher Hill, who heads a U.S. team trying to work out a political settlement between Milosevic and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, and by British Ambassador to Yugoslavia Brian Donnelly.

“The three of us are diplomats of one sort or another, and we always believe it is better to keep talking. Nobody wants to have to resort to bombing or military action,” Holbrooke said.

“On the other hand, the U.N. resolution [demanding that Milosevic end his Kosovo crackdown] is very clear, and as [British] Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have made clear, the Yugoslav government is not in compliance with that resolution.”

The goal of his mission is to find a formula for “totally viable, credible, verifiable and irreversible compliance with the U.N. resolution,” Holbrooke said.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, where the government vehemently opposes NATO action, Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov said airstrikes would “destroy the existing security system in the world” and force Moscow to reassess its relations with NATO. He repeated that Russia will veto any U.N. resolution authorizing strikes.

“If NATO carries out missile attacks on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it could lead to a correction of Russia’s relations with NATO,” Primakov said.

A Russian general issued an even blunter warning Saturday on NTV television in Moscow.

If NATO launched airstrikes, “Russia would have the right to full-scale military cooperation with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” said Leonid Ivashov, head of the Defense Ministry’s office of International Military Cooperation. “You cannot abandon a brotherly nation in such a crisis.”

Italy, Greece and some other NATO members have been reluctant to take military action without a specific U.N. Security Council mandate for the use of force.

However, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said Saturday after a meeting of ambassadors from NATO countries that the 16-nation alliance was close to approving strikes.

“There’s no compliance on the ground,” Solana said. “If Milosevic does not comply, I can tell you that NATO is ready to act. . . . [But] still we have a way out of this crisis. It is for Milosevic to comply.”

Officials in Germany, meanwhile, indicated that German approval for NATO action could come Monday.

German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe was quoted Saturday in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper as saying that endorsement of NATO action by Chancellor-elect Gerhard Schroeder during a visit to Washington “makes it possible for the Cabinet to give NATO the green light on Monday.”

Some Italian officials also expressed a positive stance toward NATO action. Caretaker Defense Minister Beniamino Andreatta said that “when political authorities give the order, our armed forces are ready to join the armed forces of other countries in the alliance to mount the maximum pressure so that law is restored in Kosovo.”

Parliamentary approval is needed in Italy before its armed forces can join in NATO strikes, and when that approval might come remained in doubt. The Italian Senate issued a statement after a meeting of party leaders declaring that “the government does not foresee the necessity for immediate measures.”

Rome’s role is critical because NATO air bases in Italy would probably be used in any strike.

Milosevic Is Given Six-Point Ultimatum

Holbrooke came on his mission to Yugoslavia carrying a six-point ultimatum issued Thursday by the United States and its key allies in trying to force Milosevic to ease the repression in Kosovo.

The ultimatum demands that Milosevic end offensive military operations in Kosovo; withdraw forces that were sent into the province last March to put down ethnic Albanian separatists; allow international humanitarian organizations to operate freely; cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal; facilitate the return of people displaced from their homes; and start negotiations with the ethnic Albanian community on autonomy for the province.

Holbrooke’s trip to Pristina dealt at least in part with negotiations toward some kind of interim political settlement in Kosovo.

His key meeting in Pristina was with Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the largest ethnic Albanian political party. Holbrooke had praise for Rugova, who favors a nonviolent path to Kosovo independence, but he gave no comment on the outcome of the talks.

“I’m very grateful to Dr. Rugova for the time he took to see us today,” Holbrooke said. “He continues to represent the important moderate leadership in a situation where all sides have resorted to violence. We greatly admire and appreciate that.”