The New York Times

Thursday, May 27, 1999

DIPLOMACY

A Role for Serb in Peace Talks Isn't Ruled Out

By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has concluded that an indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia on war crimes charges would not preclude direct negotiations on Kosovo with the Yugoslav leader, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

"We don't rule out further contacts if they are necessary to achieve our objectives and further our national interest," said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Officials acknowledge that it would be enormously awkward for U.S. negotiators to sit across a table from Milosevic after he has been formally charged. The International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, is expected to announce an indictment of Milosevic on Thursday.

But the officials said the United States was willing to reopen contacts with the Yugoslav leader if it might hasten the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and the return of Kosovar Albanian refugees, the goal of the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia.

Officials pointed out that negotiations could be carried out through third parties, most importantly Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian envoy to the Balkans.

Since the American-led NATO airstrikes began in March, there have been no direct negotiations between the United States and Milosevic, who has severed diplomatic ties with Washington.

But Clinton administration officials suggested that contacts could resume if Milosevic appears willing to accept NATO conditions for the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.

They recalled that at the height of diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed in Bosnia, senior U.S. officials came face-to-face with Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serbian leader, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army commander, even though they were under indictment by the same tribunal in The Hague that is about to move against Milosevic.

In September 1995, the Yugoslav leader arranged the encounter between the Bosnian Serb leaders and a delegation of U.S. officials.

U.S. officials insisted Wednesday that the United States had not put pressure on the the chief war crimes prosecutor, Louise Arbour, either to delay or hasten the indictment of Milosevic, who has been under investigation by the tribunal for years.

Nor, they said, would the United States attempt to manipulate international law and use the indictment from the tribunal for the as a bargaining tool with the Serbian leader, either by offering to drop the charges or threatening to expand them.

"If the question is could we protect him or would we consider protecting him from the indictment, the short answer is no," said the senior official. "We've always said that it's up to the tribunal about how to proceed. We've never interfered with its decision-making."

U.S. officials said it was unclear whether the indictment would hinder the peace process in Kosovo -- by convincing Milosevic that he has no option left but to fight -- or speed the process by undermining Milosevic in the eyes of his fellow Serbs.

"If this indictment does occur, it will have several important positive effects," one official said. "It will bring home to the people of Serbia the real reason why NATO has acted militarily in such a sustained way. It will clearly identify for the people of Serbia who is ultimately responsible for their suffering."

Jon W. Western, a former State Department war-crimes analyst for Bosnia who is now affiliated with the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, said he welcomed news of the indictment but said he was unsure it would have much effect on Milosevic's thinking.

"We've already bombed his house, we've already bombed his wife's business," he said. "If that didn't wound him or change his thinking, I don't think an indictment will."

An indictment of the Serbian leader would pose a series of logistical problems in future American negotiations with Milosevic, most importantly by limiting his ability to travel outside Serbia for peace talks.

Under international law, an indictment and arrest warrant issued by the war crimes tribunal would compel any member nation of the United Nations to arrest Milosevic should he arrive on its soil.

"His arrest would be mandatory," said Theodor Meron, a professor of international law at New York University. "Milosevic will not be able to go to international meetings or conferences. We would have to find new modalities to make negotiations possible."

Milosevic traveled to the United States in late 1995 for the Dayton peace talks that ended the war in Bosnia and negotiated on behalf of Karadic and Mladic, who were then under indictment and faced arrest in the United States.

Still, a delegation of U.S. officials had met earlier with both Karadic and Mladic in Belgrade in preparation for the Dayton talks, even though both were then under indictment.

The encounter took place in September, when the delegation led by Richard Holbrooke, then the State Department official in charge of ending the war in Bosnia, was encouraged by Milosevic to meet with the two Bosnian Serb leaders.

"I felt deeply uncomfortable about the prospect of sitting down with indicted war criminals," Holbrooke wrote in his recent book about the negotiations, "To End a War." "But in the end I decided it was justifiable under the circumstances."

"I did not shake hands, although both Karadzic and Mladic tried to," he continued. "Some of our team did, others did not; it was their choice. We sat down at a long table on the patio facing each other and began to talk."