------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 12:37:24 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: UNARMED CIVILIAN U.N. MISSION OKAY FOR KOSOVO - BELGRADE; MILOSEVIC'S OFFER "INADEQUATE": WHITE HOUSE Agence France-Presse April 30, 1999 UNARMED, CIVILIAN U.N. MISSION OKAY FOR KOSOVO: BELGRADE BELGRADE — Yugoslavia could accept a United Nations peace mission in Kosovo if it is civilian and unarmed, foreign ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said Friday. "I'm not talking about a (military) force," Vujovic said on CNN. "We are speaking about a UN international mission -- not a force, (but) an unarmed and civilian mission." Such a "presence" would be similar to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission that was previously in Kosovo, he said. Vujovic's statement on CNN clarified remarks he made earlier Friday, in which he said Yugoslavia could accept an international force for Kosovo if such a presence was decided by the UN Security Council. Vujovic said Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, supported a plan worked out between Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin on April 22. "Russia is a member of the Security Council, also China... the countries supportive of the seven-point principles," developed by Chernomyrdin and Milosevic, Vujovic said. Asked whether an international armed force with a UN mandate would be acceptable to Belgrade, the spokesman said: "As long as the Security Council moves in the direction of implementing those principles, we would be supportive." NATO leaders have insisted that the alliance should have a commanding role in any peace implementation force that would be deployed in the Serbian province. Chernomyrdin and Milosevic launched a fresh round of talks earlier Friday, after the Russian envoy's visit to Bonn and Rome Thursday. Milosevic's Serb-dominated government is fiercely against the deployment of foreign troops in Kosovo, particularly those from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But NATO members insist that the alliance lead a multi-national peacekeeping force in Kosovo that would protect the Serbian province's ethnic Albanian majority. The OSCE mission came out of an agreement in October that Milosevic made with US envoy Richard Holbrooke, but it pulled out from Kosovo just before NATO air strikes began March 24. But in the time it was deployed, the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission could only watch the October ceasefire unravel as Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) skirmished. __________________________________________________________ Agence France-Presse April 30, 1999 WHITE HOUSE BRANDS MILOSEVIC'S OFFER "INADEQUATE" WASHINGTON — The White House vowed Friday that NATO military strikes on Yugoslav targets would continue until all military aims are met and rejected as "inadequate" reports from Belgrade that it will accept a UN-sanctioned international force in Kosovo. Asked about reports from Belgrade that a Yugoslav foreign ministry spokesman said Belgrade might accept an international force sanctioned by the UN, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said "it's something that's clearly inadequate." "We've been very clear: all their forces need to leave," he said, referring to Milosevic's troops in the war-torn province. "The way out is clear," he added. NATO has demanded Milosevic withdraw his forces from the war-torn province, allow the return of refugees driven from Kosovo, and allow an international peacekeeping force to enter the province.
[PEN-L:6321] (Fwd) UNARMED CIVILIAN U.N. MISSION OKAY FOR KOSOVO - BELGRADE
ts99u-1.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.154.224] Sun, 2 May 1999 22:20:03 -0500