The New York Times

Thursday, June 10, 1999

G-8 Found Kosovo Peace Formula

By The Associated Press

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) -- Seven Western powers and Russia haggled for a tense three days before all the pieces fell into place for a formula to end the Kosovo crisis.

A confrontation between Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov at a Cologne conference provided the spark Wednesday that led Yugoslav commanders to sign a troop pullout accord with NATO generals in Macedonia, officials said.

The deal paved the way for NATO to halt its 11-week-old bombing of Yugoslavia and for the deployment of an international peace force to safeguard the return of some 860,000 refugees to their homes. Yugoslav convoys began withdrawing from Kosovo today.

The Group of Eight foreign ministers briefly turned away from Kosovo at their closing session, discussing ways to prevent the spread of weapons-grade nuclear material, notably from Russia and Ukraine, German officials said.

They also met with counterparts from South Africa, Colombia and Bangladesh to discuss how to involve developing countries in G-8 efforts to settle regional conflicts and fight international crime.

In the Balkans, NATO-Yugoslav military talks had sputtered for days. At the G-8 session at a historic old-town hall, Ivanov told Albright that Russia was unfairly being blamed for the absence of an accord -- and the continuation of NATO's air attacks.

This was resolved, the official said, when they agreed to remove from the military accord a sentence that Albright concluded was unnecessary. The sentence dealt with the exact sequence for coordinating a Yugoslav pullout, NATO's bombing halt and the arrival of the peace force, officials said.

``We have handled that by making these steps as near to simultaneous as we can,'' British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said.

The eight foreign ministers also instructed their U.N. ambassadors to get ready to vote on a draft Security Council resolution that endorses a Kosovo peace plan and an international force with NATO at its core.

Russia, a Yugoslav ally, has opposed NATO's air campaign from the start. But some European NATO allies, mainly Germany and Italy, have also been intent on ending the bombing.

As the ministers gathered Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was overheard forcefully discussing the merits of a bombing pause -- something the 19 NATO allies have refused to do until they have observed a clear, verifiable withdrawal of Serb army and police forces from the province.

Clearly unaware of a live television feed inside the hall, Fischer wondered aloud what difference it would make in practical terms if NATO stopped the bombing for a few days.

Earlier, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping sowed confusion by saying that NATO had ``de facto'' stopped bombing. NATO and U.S. officials quickly insisted the operation was continuing.

Looking beyond the war in Kosovo, the ministers were signing off today on a Balkan stability pact that aims to help all countries in the region economically and ultimately bring them into the European fold.

Besides pledging governments to Western-style reforms, the pact sets up permanent panels for settling border conflicts and minority rights disputes and for promoting economic cooperation.