Agence Europe, 5&6 October 1998

(EU) KOSOVO/NATO: RUSSIA WARNS MILOSEVIC - HOLBROOKE MISSION TO BELGRADE

Brussels / Belgrade, 05/10/1998 (Agence Europe) - After a brief visit to NATO on Monday morning in Brussels, US special emissary Richard Holbrooke began a mission in Kosovo, at the request of Madeleine Albright. Mr Holbrooke, who was to meet Milosevic in Belgrade on Monday and the Kosovar leaders in Pristina on Tuesday, told the press in Brussels that the situation in Kosovo was still "just as serious" as last week despite the announcement of withdrawal by the Serb forces.

On Monday, Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic announced to Parliament that the FRY agreed to receive an OSCE mission in Kosovo, as Boris Yeltsin had just proposed in a message to Slobodan Milosevic. The message was passed on to the Yugoslav president by Mr Ivanov and Mr Sergueiev, Russian Foreign and Defence Ministers, on Sunday in Belgrade. Russia, which had earlier warned against any military intervention by NATO without the endorsement of the UN Security Council called on Belgrade to take immediate "decisive measures to put the situation in Kosovo right".