New Battles Break Out in Kosovo as Talks Falter

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright struggled to salvage Kosovo peace talks, ethnic Albanian guerrillas and government forces battled Monday on two fronts in the Serbian province, sending refugees fleeing the new upsurge of fighting.

Officials at the talks in Rambouillet, France, said as Albright ended 13 frustrating hours of negotiations shortly before midnight Monday that they were not optimistic that either side would approve a peace plan that could lead to the introduction of 28,000 NATO troops, including up to 4,000 Americans, to Kosovo.

It was unclear what would happen after today’s latest deadline for agreement--which already was extended from Saturday. But on the ground in Kosovo, fighting was increasing.

If both sides turned down the pact, the conference probably would end, leaving the United States and European mediators trying to devise a next step.

“We would have to review the bidding,” said State Department spokesman James P. Rubin.

Albright has said that if the ethnic Albanians, most of whom want independence, accept the plan and the Serbs refuse, the Serbs face airstrikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. However, there was no indication of any immediate action.

Officials at the talks said members of the ethnic Albanian delegation were arguing among themselves Monday over segments of the agreement drafted by the United States and European governments.

Speaking of the ethnic Albanian delegates, a conglomeration of guerrilla fighters and ethnic politicians, one exasperated U.S. official said: “They are a tricky group. They never had to work together. They never had to make collective decisions.”

Albright spent most of her time Monday with the ethnic Albanians. She gave up days ago on obtaining the approval of the Serbian delegation for a NATO-led peacekeeping force to police the agreement.

The ethnic Albanian team was holding out for a referendum on independence. The peace plan calls for autonomy but not an eventual state for the ethnic Albanians. In addition, the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, was bargaining for a future role in the province.

The Serbs have said they accept the political aspects of the agreement. But despite the possibility of NATO airstrikes, they have refused to accept the NATO force.

In an effort to push the ethnic Albanians into an agreement, Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO’s military commander, made an unannounced trip from his Brussels headquarters to a military airstrip near Rambouillet, where he met with Hashim Thaqi, a leader of the KLA and de facto chief of the ethnic Albanian delegation.

Diplomats in Europe said Clark hoped to convince Thaqi that NATO’s enforcement plan could protect the ethnic Albanians.

On the ground in Kosovo, hundreds of refugees fled attacks on at least three villages near the northern city of Vucitrn when fighting erupted Monday morning, according to accounts from both Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

Serbian authorities said guerrillas opened fire with sniper rifles and automatic weapons on a Yugoslav army convoy that was returning from “regular exercises.”

The guerrillas claimed that the Serbs fired first and that they counterattacked, destroying one armored vehicle in a battle that left three guerrillas and a villager wounded.

There also were conflicting claims about fighting at a nearby village in which Serbian media reported that guerrillas had killed one person and wounded two others.

In a separate incident, one of the guerrillas’ strongest bases, at Lapastica in northern Kosovo, came under renewed artillery fire from Serbian forces, the guerrillas said.

Such mounting violence in Kosovo put pressure on NATO as the deadline loomed.

Bombing Serbian targets could provoke revenge attacks against unarmed ethnic Albanians or any foreigners who decided not to join an evacuation and to carry on relief work or other jobs in Kosovo.

But holding NATO fire might condemn Kosovo, whose population is 90% ethnic Albanian, to a new upsurge in fighting, with Serbian forces taking a tougher stand than they did when warfare first broke out last year.

The dangers of failure in Rambouillet weighed on U.S. diplomat William Walker, leader of a team of 1,300 unarmed peace monitors.

Even without NATO attacks, Walker said, he may have to evacuate his people from Kosovo if there is no peace left to monitor. Walker was fearful that Kosovo will blow up again if ethnic Albanians and Serbs are left to sort things out for themselves.

The Yugoslav army and special police are moving large numbers of troops and armored vehicles around Kosovo in violation of an October cease-fire agreement, Walker said.

He said his military experts think the army is moving soldiers and equipment to make it harder for NATO to bomb them.

Since the original deadline for a deal passed over the weekend, Serbian security forces have grown bolder and are now fighting daily battles with guerrillas.

Walker’s unarmed monitors also have come under attack by angry Serbian mobs. And uniformed police pulled two European monitors from their orange vehicle and roughed them up Sunday evening, prompting Walker to send a sharp diplomatic protest to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

The monitors were driving behind a civilian bus when the police got off the bus and dragged them out of their car near the northern Kosovo city of Podujevo.

One of the police “pulled a black [ski] mask over his head, came back, pulled the driver out of the car and smacked him around a bit,” Walker said. “Then he reached in and smacked the other guy. Not very nice. It’s the first time we’ve had anything like that happen.”

Watson reported from Pristina and Kempster from Rambouillet.