U.S. Pushes 2-Track Plan for Kosovo Peace

The Clinton administration said early today that it has won preliminary agreement from major allies on a two-track plan of military and diplomatic pressure in a bid to coerce the warring factions in Kosovo to accept a compromise both sides have previously rejected.

A senior administration official traveling with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Russia and the Middle East said the plan counts on the threat of NATO bombing attacks to pressure Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to give broad self-rule to the ethnic Albanian majority in the separatist province. Kosovo is part of Serbia, the dominant republic of what is left of Yugoslavia.

Washington’s plan is a complex one and requires support from the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Contact Group, a six-nation consortium coordinating peace efforts in the Balkans.

Under the proposal, the Contact Group would endorse the autonomy plan as the basis for a political settlement. Separately, NATO would threaten to bomb Serbian targets unless Milosevic agreed to go along with self-rule.

After a hectic day of telephone consultations, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said, the United States won tentative approval from its fellow Contact Group members: Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.

“Having achieved agreement with our allies on a strategy aimed at resolving the crisis in Kosovo by combining diplomacy with a credible threat of force, Secretary Albright looks forward to joining her Contact Group colleagues in London [on] Friday to help implement this strategy,” Rubin said in a statement issued shortly after midnight.

On Wednesday, Albright had said she would not attend a tentatively scheduled meeting of the group unless she was assured that the autonomy plan would be accepted.

“The more credible the threat, the more likely that we can succeed in the political objectives and, therefore, the less likely that we will have to use that force,” a senior State Department official said.

He indicated that Washington hopes the factions can be pushed to a political settlement within a few weeks that would end the conflict marked most recently by a massacre of more than 40 ethnic Albanian villagers. Although the United States intends to pressure both the Yugoslav government and the guerrillas, the official said, no bombing of rebel positions is contemplated.

At a joint news conference Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, Albright said it is time to “quicken some political solution” to the Kosovo crisis through NATO and the Contact Group. She said the conflict has already gone on far too long.

Albright conferred earlier Wednesday in Cairo with Moussa and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, then flew to Saudi Arabia for talks with King Fahd and other top Saudi officials.

The meetings were intended to bolster Arab support for what Albright’s spokesman, Rubin, described as the U.S. policy of isolating Iraq and trying to undermine the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Although there were differences on tactics, U.S. officials said, the Egyptian and Saudi leaders endorsed Washington’s objectives.

But the deteriorating situation in Kosovo intruded repeatedly on Albright’s Middle East talks.

The senior official described a complex series of interlocking actions by NATO and the Contact Group, starting with a meeting today in Brussels of NATO ambassadors. The purpose of that session, the official said, is to issue a warning that the alliance will use military force if the conflict is not resolved soon. But the official said that no specific military measures will be approved at that meeting.

On Friday, under the plan, the Contact Group would call on Milosevic and the Albanian insurgents to accept an autonomy plan originally proposed by U.S. mediator Christopher Hill. Neither side likes the plan, which goes too far for Milosevic and not far enough for the Albanians, who are seeking independence.

But the official said the autonomy plan appears to be the only way to reach a compromise.

If, as is now expected, the Contact Group endorses the plan, Washington will then press NATO to issue a specific threat of force unless Milosevic accepts the political solution in a matter of weeks, the official said.

In October, NATO authorized airstrikes on Serbian targets if Milosevic did not agree to end brutal repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and pull back part of his forces from the province. Milosevic agreed and the bombing campaign was put on hold, but the Yugoslav regime subsequently violated most of the agreement.

This time, the administration wants NATO to aim higher. The senior official said Washington wants the alliance to threaten military action to “bring the Serbs into compliance [with the October agreement] and move both sides toward acceptance of a political settlement--not just the negotiating process, but acceptance.”

The official conceded that Russia will certainly oppose the use of force. But he expressed optimism that Moscow will go along with the Contact Group even with the knowledge that it would be backed by NATO power. The other five Contact Group members are NATO members.

Albright’s schedule today includes a visit to U.S. military personnel stationed at a base in the Saudi desert. Her next stop will be Amman, Jordan, to meet with the new heir to the throne, Prince Abdallah, and then she will continue on to London for talks with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook prior to the Contact Group session.

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In this and some other stories, King Abdullah II of Jordan is referred to as Crown Prince Abdallah of Jordan.

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