The New York Times

Friday, June 11, 1999

UNITED NATIONS

Security Council Backs Peace Plan and a NATO-Led Force

By JUDITH MILLER

UNITED NATIONS -- After more than a day of frantic diplomatic maneuvering, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution Thursday sending a large NATO-led force into Kosovo to keep the peace and placing the United Nations in administrative charge of the province.

Fourteen of the Council's 15 members voted in favor of the resolution. China, which had pressed for changes in the text, only two of which were adopted, abstained.

Approval of the resolution bestows United Nations legitimacy on the peace plan and the NATO-led military operations in Kosovo. NATO's bombing campaign, by contrast, never secured the world body's explicit blessing, since resolutions authorizing it would have been blocked by Russia and China.

The vote also gave a vast, challenging role to the United Nations, which had been politically sidelined until now by American insistence that NATO and Russia take the lead in efforts to end the conflict.

"Today we are seeing at least the beginning of the end of a dark and desolate chapter in the history of the Balkans," said Secretary General Kofi Annan, who nevertheless warned against being "triumphalist," and spoke of "difficulties and dangers ahead."

United Nations officials, struggling with budget cutbacks and demands that they do more with fewer resources, said they were pleased but daunted by the task ahead. For the resolution approved Thursday turns Kosovo at least temporarily into a virtual United Nations protectorate.

Shashi Tharoor, the director of communication, said the war "was a NATO war; the peace will be a United Nations peace."

NATO members of the Council, bowing to China's sensibilities, adopted a nonsubstantive change in the wording of the resolution's preamble. But the Chinese representative, Shen Guofang, regretted that the Council did not accept other changes, adding that the resolution "makes no mention of the disaster caused by NATO bombing."

China tried to fix a firm 12-month limit on the life of the force, to soften criticism of Yugoslavia, and to limit the circumstances under which the NATO-led troops could use military force in carrying out the resolution. It succeeded in none of these.

Most of the 20 representatives who gave often impassioned speeches in the Council Thursday defended NATO's campaign and endorsed the peace plan. Peter Van Walsum, the representative of the Netherlands, said the vote reflected a profound shift in the balance between respect for human rights and for national sovereignty. "Today," he said, "no sovereign state has the right to terrorize its own citizens."

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the British representative, asserted that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia had been "defeated" in his attempt to destroy the Kosovar people.

Russia's representative, Sergei V. Lavrov, one of the resolution's 13 co-sponsors, said, nevertheless, that his country "sternly condemned the NATO aggression" against Yugoslavia. The bombing, he said, had transformed a humanitarian crisis into a "humanitarian catastrophe."

A far harsher note was sounded by Cuba, whose representative heatedly attacked the United States and its NATO allies for the bombing, accusing the allies of conducting a "genocide" in Serbia. This, in turn, elicited equally sharp critiques of Cuba's human rights record from the United States, the Netherlands and Croatia, among others.

Yugoslavia's representative, Vladislav Jovanovic, also expressed disappointment that the resolution had authorized participation in the United Nations mission by "countries which have taken an active part in the aggression."

The NATO-led force, which is to be number about 50,000 troops, will include civilian experts as well as soldiers. It will supervise the refugees' return and the withdrawal of Serbian forces and paramilitary policemen. It will consult with the Secretary General, but will not be directed by him.

Another unusual feature of the resolution, a senior United Nations official said, is its unlimited authorization of the NATO-led force. While the resolution authorizes the force for an "initial period of 12 months," it can continue to operate there "unless the Security Council decides otherwise."

The Council gave sweeping powers to both the NATO-forces and the United Nations. Specifically, it charges NATO with "deterring renewed hostilities," "demilitarizing the Kosovo Liberation Army," and establishing "a secure environment" for refugees to return home. Placing these powers under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, means that the NATO-led soldiers can use force to insure that the Yugoslavs fulfill their commitments to the Council.

The resolution authorizes the Secretary General to establish an "interim administration" for Kosovo, guaranteeing "substantial autonomy" and providing for free elections.