-Caveat Lector-
"NATO drew up a plan for landing ground troops in Kosovo as far back as
last summer ... "
NATO Foreign Ministers Gather
By JEFFREY ULBRICH
.c The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- With no end to the air war against Yugoslavia in
sight, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and fellow NATO foreign
ministers gathered at alliance headquarters today for a brief show of unity.
The 19 NATO foreign ministers want to use the meeting, called by Albright
last week, to show Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that the alliance is
holding together despite his tough resistance to the bombing campaign, now in
its 19th day.
Arriving in Brussels on Sunday, Albright said the Serbian onslaught against
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo means fewer Serb troops will be permitted to
remain in the province than previously proposed.
In another policy shift bound to anger Milosevic, Albright did not rule out
partitioning Kosovo as part of a settlement, provided there are ways to
protect Orthodox Christian holy sites.
``Lots of parts of Rambouillet have been overtaken by events,'' Albright said
of the accord, negotiated outside Paris, that was rejected by the Serbs and
accepted by the Kosovo Albanians last month.
Albright said ``there has to be recognition'' of the Serb offensive that has
forced the expulsion of more than one-third of the ethnic Albanians in what
the United States has denounced as a ``scorched-earth'' campaign.
More than 100 fresh aircraft were en route to the war zone to step up the air
operations against Yugoslav army and police forces who have been waging a
systematic campaign to empty Kosovo of its ethnic Albanian inhabitants.
Military and political leaders insist the airstrikes have been effective in
damaging the Yugoslav military's support network, and in recent days, hitting
ground forces in Kosovo.
Military briefers say Serb activity in Kosovo has slowed and that most
Yugoslav forces are now dispersing and defending against the allied air
attacks.
Senior NATO diplomats say the four-hour foreign ministers' meeting will
stress the need for a political solution for the province and its 2 million
inhabitants, 90 percent of whom are ethnic Albanians.
Albright was also expected to meet later today with rebel Kosovo Liberation
Army representative Jakup Krasniqi.
What kind of political agreement is now possible in Kosovo is a much more
difficult question than it was just three weeks ago. Originally, the basis
for any settlement was the agreement worked out at Rambouillet in February
and March. That agreement called for a wide autonomy for the province within
Serbia.
Now, as one NATO ambassador put it, the Rambouillet framework is looking less
realistic, but so far no viable alternatives have emerged.
The introduction of ground forces in Kosovo is a subject that will not go
away. Officially, NATO says ground troops will only enter the province in a
``permissive environment,'' either as part of the originally planned NATO
implementation force or some sort of force to escort refugees back.
NATO considered plans for a land invasion of Kosovo as far back as last
summer, one among a large number of options studied at the time. That plan
was put on the shelf and so far, senior diplomats say, no one has proposed
reviving it. Nonetheless, much of the military analysis for a ground
intervention has been done. Initiating one, however, would take considerable
time.
In what one top NATO diplomat described as ``an interesting role reversal,''
some members of Congress have been calling for ground forces and several
other allies seem ready to go that way.
For the moment, however, both political and military officials say the air
campaign has a lot of time left before it will have run its course.
Another problem faced by the ministers is the harmful effect the bombing is
having on relations with Russia. Moscow has severed relations with NATO and
most of the activities of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, created
two years ago in Paris, have been put on hold.
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