U.S. Envoy Fails to Get Milosevic to Budge on Kosovo

U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, a past master at squeezing compromises from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, failed Wednesday to persuade him to budge over Kosovo.

Only days before peace talks are due to resume in France, Holbrooke and Milosevic talked for almost eight hours, and neither side moved on the key issues in the negotiations over the separatist Serbian province, Holbrooke said.

“There has been no change in the Yugoslav position during the day, and, needless to say, there has been no change in our position,” Holbrooke told reporters after what he called “very intense talks.”

Milosevic continued to take an uncompromising stand publicly, repeating that Yugoslavia will accept a political deal on more self-rule for Kosovo--whose population is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian and supports independence--but not 28,000 NATO-led troops to enforce it.

In Washington, the House prepared to forge ahead today with a formal vote on the deployment of U.S. troops in that NATO force, despite warnings by the Clinton administration that the action could “complicate” efforts to broker a peace in Kosovo.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) refused to postpone floor action, brushing aside an appeal from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that any expression of opposition to the administration’s policies “would be taken by both sides as a green light to resume fighting.”

Hastert’s decision poses a problem for the administration, particularly if the vote today is close or conservatives prevail in putting the House on record against the administration’s plans to dispatch several thousand troops--an outcome that key lawmakers say is highly possible.

The resolution essentially will put lawmakers on record as favoring or opposing a U.S. troop deployment. Although it will not be binding on the administration, some officials say it could sow doubt among outsiders as to how long Clinton will be able to keep troops deployed.

The Senate also is moving toward scheduling a prompt floor vote. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told reporters that the Senate needs “to raise this question now” before any U.S. troops actually are deployed.

Today’s House action will pit an amendment by Rep. Tillie K. Fowler (R-Fla.) that would oppose sending any U.S. peacekeepers to Kosovo against a Democratic alternative that would support the deployment on the condition that both sides sign a peace accord.

Foreign mediators are trying to nudge the belligerents in Kosovo as close as possible to signing an 82-page agreement before they meet for a second round of peace talks scheduled to begin Monday at a French military base.

But sporadic fighting in Kosovo, and daily talks with leaders of both sides in the conflict, has complicated the negotiations as deeply suspicious opponents try to outmaneuver each other and hold out for deals on the side.

Cautioning that it’s dangerous to jump to conclusions about Wednesday’s setback, Holbrooke hinted that Milosevic had left an opening for compromise. But Holbrooke refused to say what it was.

“A lot else is going on,” Holbrooke said. “This isn’t the only arena.”

Holbrooke, who is the United States’ ambassador-designate to the United Nations, said he is leaving Yugoslavia today to brief Albright and the White House. When asked if he expected to return to Belgrade, the Yugoslav and Serbian capital, Holbrooke replied, “I hope not.”

Kosovo is a poor, southern province of Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia’s two republics. The proposed peace accord would give Kosovo more control over its own affairs, such as a freely elected president and assembly, and police dominated by ethnic Albanians instead of Serbs.

It would delay a decision on Kosovo’s final status for three years, but guerrillas fighting for a separate state insist on an independence referendum.

Holbrooke is the latest in a line of foreign envoys who have visited Belgrade and guerrilla outposts in Kosovo after 17 days of talks at a French chateau in Rambouillet last month came up short of a peace deal.

Watson reported from Belgrade and Pine from Washington.