Note: Place names rendered primarily in Serbian spelling---------------------------------------------------------
"The United States bears the main responsibility for the confusion on Kosovo's borders yesterday. There was no excuse for not having the marines ready to enter the province as soon as the Serbian withdrawal had begun. Even if the Russian manoeuvre could not have been predicted, it was imperative to move in immediately to prevent clashes between the KLA and the Serbs. The delay points, once again, to Bill Clinton's crippling reluctance to deploy troops in the Balkans, even if they are part of a peacekeeping force. By yesterday, the impact of the air war was beginning to look thin, with the British waiting for the Americans to arrive, the Russians taking advantage of the delay, and Strobe Talbott, the deputy secretary of state, turning back his plane to resume negotiations in Moscow." Leading editorial, The Daily Telegraph, June 13 « London
"I think you have to see the issue of the Russians at the airport as a manifestation of an ongoing political dialogue... about the nature of this mission... This is essentially a political problem that needs to be resolved on a political level." NATO Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark
Quoted by the Los Angeles Times, June 14 « Skopje
"[Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton] agreed that Russian and NATO generals should sit down to resolve the participation of the Russian advance party that is currently at Pristina."
US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer
Quoted by Agence France Presse, June 14 « Washington
"The actions of the battalion created conditions for more constructive negotiations... After the dash [by Russian troops to Pristina] the situation at the talks [on Russian participation in Kosovo peacekeeping] became simpler. "Unnamed Russian General Staff officer
Quoted by Interfax news agency, June 13 « Moscow
"Russia should have an area in which its responsibility is manifest and evident for all the world to see... That is not only a legitimate objective but an objective that the United States supports."
US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott
Quoted by the Los Angeles Times, June 14 « Moscow
"They had just under a company worth of troops, about 80 or so, digging positions or laying minefields or doing something like that... We taped them and those tapes have been sent to our commanders."
Canadian Staff Sergeant William Kingston, on footage of Russian soldiers "digging in" at the southern end of Pristina airport
Quoted by The Daily Telegraph (London), June 16 « Pristina
"Remember, this is an administration that prides itself on constructive engagement with Russia... These administration officials do not wish to acknowledge that Russian high officials have been stringing them along all week. "Unnamed senior NATO official on US Defense Secretary Cohen's meeting with Russia's Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev
Quoted by The New York Times, June 16 « Brussels
---------------------------------------------------------
I. US, NATO TO GIVE "ZONE" TO RUSSIAN FORCES?
* Agence France Presse reported today that "Russia and the United States on Wednesday suspended talks for the night on a deal that would allow Moscow to join the command structure for peace-keeping forces in Kosovo, sayi'good progress' had been made but no breakthrough was achieved. US Defense Secretary William Cohen said after more than seven hours of grueling talks with Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev that the negotiations were 'very long but very productive. 'We have made a lot of tentative decisions but we will not conclude negotiations until tomorrow,' Thursday, he added.'We have made good progress.' Russian agencies earlier cited Sergeyev as saying: 'The issue of how the command of the peace operation is made up including a Russian military contingent has been settled. 'The question of (Pristina's) Slatina airport is practically settled, too,' he reportedly added... Members of the US delegation said Cohen would consult with the United States' NATO allies before any agreement can be reached." Ass
ociated Press reported today that "Defense Secretary William Cohen ruled out any compromise with Russia that would permit Moscow's troops to patrol in Kosovo under their own command, but he promised on Wednesday to be 'as
creative as we can' in resolving the dispute over Russia's role. His Russian counterpart, Marshall Igor Sergeyev, struck an optimistic tone as he and Cohen met to begin an expected two days of negotiations. Sergeyev predicted the problem would be resolved by the weekend, and comments by officials in Moscow seemed to hint at a compromise."
* Associated Press reported today that "Vladimir Putin, secretary of the Security Council, said Russia wanted to coooperate with NATO troops whil retaining limited independence for its forces in Kosovo. A Russian officer could be part of the overall command for peacekeeping forces, he suggested. Russia will insist on 'a certain degree of independence in making decisions and in conducting the operations which might be undertaken in the course of implementing peacekeeping functions,' Putin was quoted as saying today by the Interfax news agency."
US to suggest "area of responsibility"?
*The New York Times reported today: "In an effort to break an impasse over how Russian troops will operate in Kosovo, Secretary of Defense William Cohen is to suggest to his Russian counterpart that the troops be allotted an 'area of responsibility' within one of the five established NATO sectors, administration officials said Tuesday. Cohen also plans to propose a command structure that he hopes will satisfy the Russians' demand that their troops not report directly to an allied commander, but will not violate NATO's insistence on a unified command for the entire security force, the officials said... Cohen is bringing two possible compromises on
the sensitive issue. The first is that the Russians report to a commander from a neutral, non NATO country, like Sweden or Finland, an administration
official said. This commander would report to a more senior NATO officer. The other possibility is that the Russians duplicate the pattern used in Bosnia, where Russian troops operate in the American sector and report to an American commander. He in turn reports to a Russian liaison officer at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium... In arguing that the Russians take an 'area of responsibility' and the proposed command structure, Cohen will not cross the 'red lines' of partition and unified command, administration officials said."
* The New York Times report continued: "The 'area of responsibility' for Russia most likely in the north and thus most likely in the French zone, where there is the largest concentration of Serb civilians would have a concentration of Russian troops but allied forces would be able to come and go, an official said...Another interest for the Russians, according to officials, is to protect what is left of the economic interests of the Serbs in Kosovo. The Trepca smelting complex, which includes the Stari Trg lead and zinc mines, is in northern Kosovo [Serbia's state-run news agency
Tanjug reported April 20, 1996 that "the Trepca firm of Yugoslavia and Krasnodarglabsnab of Russia have signed a five-year contract on export of Trepca accumulators [capacitators] worth 60m dollars."] ...It is also not clear how big the 'area' for Russia would be. A realistic number of Russian soldiers for Kosovo is in the vicinity of 'several thousand,' so the area would have to be 'decentsized,' the official said." The International Herald Tribune said today that "Moscow [seems] already to have scored major gains. At the very least, Russian troops now seemed likely to be dominate in a sector of Kosovo an outcome that NATO officials had publicly ruled out."
* The Washington Post reported yesterday that "U.S. officials had hoped to apply the same model in Kosovo that has held in Bosnia, where Russian forces serve in the American sector but report to a Russian general stationed at NATO's military headquarters in Mons, Belgium. Russian authorities want a more significant status for Kosovo. They have refused to accept a subordinate role under any of the five major NATO powers the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy that will have charge of sectors in Kosovo. But the United States and its allies are reluctant to give Russia its own sector, determined to avoid even the appearance that Kosovo is being partitioned. Instead, U.S. officials say the alliance is trying to create a 'zone of responsibility' for Russian peacekeepers, where Kosovo's returning ethnic Albanians as well as Serbs would be as safe as those in any other sector. Ideally, such a zone would still be part of one of the planned five sectors under the control of a major NATO power. A fallbac
k option, according to Pentagon officials, would involve an additional sector in which Russian troops would serve under the command of a non-NATO country, possibly Finland. Such a plan would allow Russia, which
has historic and cultural ties to the Serbs and opposed the NATO bombing campaign, to answer to a non-NATO nation. But it would preserve NATO's requirement of a 'unified command' structure, since the head of the non-NATO sector still would be taking orders from Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson, the British officer leading the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo."
Russia reportedly ready to send up to 7,000 to Kosovo
* United Press International reported yesterday that "Russia intends to send between 5,000 and 7,000 troops to Kosovo by transport planes via Ukraine and Bulgaria within the next three or four days and land on Slatina airfield, reports from Pristina say. The paratroops will be deployed to other places in Kosovo. The operation is possible after Bulgaria gave overflying rights to the Russians Monday after NATO and Russia had reached agreement on Kosovo, the reports said." The Times reported today that "there are doubts that such a large force could be mobilised so quickly and a figure of 2,500 soldiers was seen as more plausible...[Nezavisimaya
Gazeta's] defence correspondent, Reserve Colonel Igor Korotchenko, was optimistic that a compromise could be reached, giving Russia a 'zone of responsibility.' He said: 'That way we would not have to provide the 10,000 troops that would be necessary if Russia were given a sector something our negotiators are demanding. We could just about find the money for 2,500 to keep the peace in a zone of responsibility.' " Citing the reports of an imminent deployment of between 5,000 and 7,000 troops, Agence France Presse noted yesterday that "Russia's upper house of parliament must approve any such deployment. Its chairman Yegor Stroyev said Tuesday the chamber would approve troops for Kosovo only after an agreement with NATO is reached."
NATO military commanders wary of bilateral talks
* The New York Times reported today: "The idea of involving Cohen and Sergeyev in the talks and moving the dispute away from diplomats came from the Russians, an administration official said, after Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, failed to come to a solution over the weekend. But on the eve of the defense secretaries' talks, senior NATO military commanders are concerned that the political need to keep good relations with Russia will interfere with the allies' military need to insure control over the peacekeeping troops. The alliance will not be represented during the talks. Instead, the NATO secretarygeneral, Javier Solana, and the alliance's top military commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, will be kept informed by telephone."
* The International Herald Tribune reported today that "British officials privately criticized Washington for failing to challenge vigorously the Russian military for breaking agreements with the West in leaving Bosnia without NATO consent and grabbing the Pristina airport in defiance of the alliance. Instead, Clinton administration officials have publicly accepted reassurances from Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov that these actions were a mistake and would be corrected. 'The Americans are wooing the Russians,' a policymaker said in London, suggesting that a prime U.S. concern seemed to be protecting the image of President Boris Yeltsin as a statesman and a man still in charge of Russia's actions. Since so much of the U.S.Russian relationship is based on ties with Mr. Yeltsin, his authority has become critical for hopes of progress in domains ranging from international security to internal economic modernization."
II. CONTINUED CONFUSION OVER RUSSIAN TROOP ACTIVITY
Russian troops digging in at Kosovo airport
* The Times (London) reported today that "a Canadian reconnaissance team, with a thermal imaging surveillance camera on a 30-foot mast, spotted Russian troops under cover of darkness digging in at the southern end the area designated for British soldiers. ... The act of defiance by the Russians... provided the clearest evidence that, despite rapidly running out of water and supplies, they intend to stay in control of the airport and to await reinforcements... Last Saturday, Brigadier Adrian Freer,
commander of Five Airborne Brigade, came to a compromise with a Russian general at the airport that the Russians would stay in the northern section and the British would be allowed in to take up residence at the southern end."
* Associated Press reported June 12 that "in a move that surprised Washington, a Russian armored column arrived in the province ahead of alliance forces, taking positions shortly after midnight today [Friday night, eastern time] at the airport in Pristina and staking a claim on a leadership role in the key provincial capital." US Secretary of Defense William Cohen said June 12: "President Yeltsin had indicated that he had given general direction to his military authorities, that they were to make a judgment based upon their own situation what they have value it to be workable on the ground. But he indicated he had delegated that responsibility to them." The Washington Post reported June 12 that "the Russian troops entered Kosovo even as [US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe] Talbott was in Moscow for the resumed talks to try to reach a settlement on
Russia's role in the peacekeeping force...[Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov Friday afternoon had] assured [US Secretary of State] Albright that the Russians were only taking up positions outside Kosovo's borders, in preparation to enter the province when there is an agreement. Ivanov made the same pledge in comments broadcast on Russian television... shortly after the Russian troops arrived in Pristina this morning, Ivanov told CNN it was unfortunate they had entered Kosovo and they had been ordered to withdraw immediately."
* The Times (London) Monday noted General Jackson "bridling at suggestions that the Russians had grabbed the location that he wanted as his headquarters in Pristina... snapped: 'I'm not in a turf war. They regard the airport as important. I don't think it's important. It's not my priority... I might have put my tactical headquarters there for a short time, but it's too far away and there is too much unexploded ordnance. I'm perfectly happy to leave it to the Russians.' " However, The Times also noted that "while the general established his HQ in a furniture factory on the western outskirts of the city, the Russians were enforcing a virtual 'no go' area at the airport, which was not as badly damaged by NATO bombs as was believed."
*The New York Times noted June 13 "a growing consensus in Moscow that the deployment was no mistake, as Russia's top diplomats had originally suggested.... Among the clues was the announcement today that Mr. Yeltsin had promoted Viktor Zavarzin, Russia's military representative to NATO who accompanied the Russian troops to Pristina, from lieutenant general to colonel general." Agence France Presse reported yesterday that "Russian troops... retained control of [Pristina's] airport for a third day, forcing NATO to set up its headquarters elsewhere near the capital." The Scotsman (Edinburgh) noted yesterday that "NATO [had] called it a
"strategic location for a forward tactical base." The Independent (London) noted Monday that "General Jackson was not only deprived of his main objective at a stroke, but also lost the ability to immediately fly in his troops and the thousands of tons of aid meant for returning refugees. The big plan had been shot down in flames." The Montreal Gazette (Canada) reported yesterday that "aid organizations have complained that they can make no progress on opening the airport for mercy flights, and army engineers want to assess the repairs needed on the runways, so that troops and other military equipment can be airlifted straight to Pristina."
* United Press International reported today that "a convoy of eight trucks, three armored personnel carriers and three suppport vehicles with 29 Russia troops and logistics supplies from the SFOR stabilization force in Bosnia-Herzegovina crossed into Kosovo, joining the small Russian unit occupying a part of Slatina airfield, near Pristina. The convoy delivered supplies of food and water to the 200 Russian peacekeepers, who have been in Kosovo since Saturday morning. In Moscow, Colonel.-General Leonid Ivashov said the convoy included 15 vehicles, a higher number than the previously reported figure of 11, but dismissed reports that over 150 troops had joined the supply convoy."
Russian forces and KLA in war of words; Belgrade troops reportedly cooperating with Russians
*Agence France Presse noted yesterday that "reports said the airport was fired on by a rocket-propelled grenade overnight Monday. NTV television in Moscow also showed footage of the Russian troops coming under fire from unidentified gunmen hiding in hills near by. No one was said to be hurt in either incident. Russian defense ministry sources followed those reports by stating that Russia's Kosovo contingent had orders to shoot on sight should it feel threatened by any attackers."
*Agence France Presse reported today that "the designation of Russian peacekeepers by the Kosovo Liberation Army as an 'enemy force' was a ' declaration of war' on Moscow's Kosovo contingent, a foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday. 'It is an unprecedented declaration, it can only be taken as a declaration of war on Russian peacekeeping forces,' said the official, who asked not to be named. However, the source added, 'Words are one thing, but actions are quite another.' " Agence France Presse had reported yesterday that "the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has warned that it will treat Russian soldiers in the international peacekeeping force (KFOR) as an ' enemy force' and said there would be no peace in Kosovo until they have left. 'They will be unwelcome here and we will treat them as an enemy force,' said Jakup Krasniqi, the official spokesman of the rebel ethnic Albanian KLA. Asked if that meant that the KLA would attack the Russians, Krasniqi replied: 'I did not say that.' "
* The Guardian (London) reported Monday that "Serb T-55 tanks and self-propelled artillery hidden in surrounding villages were yesterday spotted moving into the Russian sector of the airfield." The Financial Times (London) reported yesterday that on Saturday night British paratroopers trying to reach the airport by road "were cut off by Yugoslav troops clearly acting in concert with the Russians." The New York Times reported Monday that Americans setting up in Urosevac [twenty miles south of Pristina] "first encountered a convoy of Yugoslav military trucks, escorted by a Russian armored vehicle."
Russian troop levels unclear
* The Times (London) reported today that "currently the Russians have some 400 troops in Kosovo, where they hold the airport at Pristina." Agence France Presse yesterday reported that the Russian force was composed of "some 300 Russian paratroopers." Interfax (Moscow) had reported June 12 that "according to the representative of the Russian Defence Ministry, the force [from Bosnia was composed] of approximately 200 Russian paratroops and 40 armoured vehicles." The New York Times noted June 12 that an American official said "that the United States had received conflicting reports that a Russian IL-76 transport might have landed in Belgrade [on Friday night/Saturday morning]." When a BBC correspondent noted during a June 14 press conference: "We understand that the numbers [of the Russian contingent] there are much larger than we had expected. That there's 170 was the figure originally, but some people are saying it's well over 300," NATO General Mike Jackson responded: "Well, first of all, as to numbers, pers
onally, I have not invited the Russian contingent commander to hold a muster parade to allow me to count them. So I am not going to speculate. It's of the order of 200 is my belief." The International Herald Tribune today notes "rumors that the Russian column [that arrived Friday night/Saturday morning in Pristina] also contained Serb troops in Russian uniforms."
* US Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon noted Monday that a Russian IL-76 military transport plane had landed in Belgrade on Friday: "I don't know what it was carrying. I don't believe it was carrying troops. It could have been supplies. I mean, they do have relationships with Yugoslavia."
III. NATO ENTRY INTO KOSOVO DELAYED BY US OFFICIALS
* The Times (London) reported June 12 that Friday afternoon "General Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander in Europe, agreed to an international force upstaging the Russians. General Jackson, the KFOR commander, telephoned Tony Blair at lunchtime to brief him on the plan, which called for the paratroops to head straight for Pristina airport, badly damaged by NATO bombs. Alongside their airborne incursion, the British 4th Armored Brigade was being rushed to the border and was understood to be ready to push straight along the main highway to Pristina to join up with the paratroops. By now, Western statesmen were thoroughly alarmed. President Chirac of France said his troops would join the operation and, anxious not to be left out, the Americans offered to use their Apache helicopters as escorts. Ms Albright was briefed by NATO commanders about this emergency plan to stop the Russians getting to the capital first. It was the French who changed their minds first. M Chirac said he would not let his troops take
part. At about 3 PM Ms Albright spoke to President Clinton and similarly pulled the US forces out of the operation." The Guardian (London) reported yesterday that "at 11:15 AM [Friday] the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment and 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles were put on 30-minute notice to fly to Pristina in Chinook and Puma helicopters with enough ammunition to challenge the Russians. NATO commanders, who waited in stifling heat in a barley field as their political masters frantically contacted Moscow, warned of a 'very ugly' confrontation. Journalists were told there would be 'bullets flying all over the place.' "
* The Scotsman (Edinburgh) reported June 12 that "the peacekeeping mission, due to begin [Friday morning] was postponed by 24 hours. There were rumors that the delay was caused because commanders were waiting for US marines who had not been due to be part of the advance guard « to arrive in Macedonia." The Times (London) reported June 12 that on Thursday night "the British and French forces, the bulk of NATO's European troops, were ready to roll into Kosovo, hard on the heels of the retreating Serbs. They had made plans to cross the frontier at dawn. But suddenly the command came: wait for the Americans. The US Marines were not ready. They wanted to be among the first to liberate Kosovo. Vanity and pride were producing chaos amid the NATO ranks in Macedonia." The Washington Post noted June 12 that "first members of the [British paratroopers' unit that first entered Kosovo] were told they would enter Kosovo Friday morning; then they were told of a 24-hour delay to give U.S. Marines who had been stationed offs
hore on warships for the past few months a chance to join the head of the column. The Marines were not ready but insisted on not being left behind, several soldiers here said." The Washington Times noted June 14 that "some 2,200 Marines of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit were blocked aboard three amphibious assault ships in the Aegean Sea last Monday when the Greek government said they could not pass through Greece until a full agreement on the Kosovo conflict is reached."
IV. RUSSIA WORKING TO CLEAR AIR CORRIDOR FOR DEPLOYMENT
* The International Herald Tribune reported today that "Moscow [has] pressed East European countries for overflight rights, land corridors and perhaps even a naval base to handle what Russia says will be an enlarged peacekeeping force of 9,000 troops, according to diplomats. That would make the Russian presence a major component in Kosovo second only to the 12,000 strong British presence... Russian pressure was being played down by U.S. and allied officials in public, and even though NATO officials agreed that East European governments were coming under diplomatic pressure, there was no public evidence about the state of actual Russian preparations for moving reinforcements to Kosovo."
* Interfax news agency (Moscow) reported yesterday that Slobodan Milosevic's brother and Yugoslavia's Ambassador to Russia Borislav Milosevic "[said Tuesday that] Russia and Yugoslavia have the right to conclude a bilateral agreement to earmark a separate sector to the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo... 'The deployment of an international security presence is not NATO's monopoly, according to the spirit and resolution of the U.N. Security Council,' Borislav Milosevic said at a press conference. Kosovo is an inseparable part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he said. 'A security vacuum has occurred in Kosovo' recently despite the fact that the U.N. Security Council resolution envisions a
synchronized withdrawal of the Serbian troops and the deployment of international forces under the U.N. aegis, he said."
* Agence France Press reported Tuesday that "ten thousand Russian troops are an 'indispensable minimum' for Kosovo, Belgrade's ambassador to Moscow, Borislav Milosevic, the Yugoslav president's older brother, said Tuesday. 'We feel that Russia should have a massive presence in Kosovo equivalent to the others. The Russian troops should have their own commandment,' Milosevic told a news conference... 'The deployment of 200 Russian paratroopers (who seized the Pristina airport) is only the first stage of the operation,' the Yugoslav envoy said, but added that Belgrade had not sent 'any official request' to Moscow." The New York Times reported June 12 that "after generals from United States Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Russian Defense Ministry had failed to agree in talks here yesterday on a solution on the question of command, the chief Russian negotiator issued a blunt warning. 'If this agreement is not reached,' the negotiator, General Ivashov, said, 'Russia has the same right as NATO. We shall announce a s
ector that will be agreed with the Yugoslav side and which will meet our interests.' "
* Hungary's state news agency MTI reported June 12: "The prime minister said the Hungarian parliament will vote on Tuesday 15th June afternoon about whether it will assent Russia's request for Russian transport aircraft carrying technical support to use Hungary's airspace en route to Pristina, Kosovo. [Prime Minister] Orban confirmed that the request from Moscow arrived in Budapest on Friday 11th June , but was rejected because the number of aircraft indicated was considered to be excessive, and it was presumed these would be carrying soldiers and their equipment as well as armored vehicles. In any case, it is within parliament's authority to consent to the use of the airspace." Hungarian Radio reported June 12 that "Moscow is planning to send extra troops today to reinforce the Russian forces deployed in Pristina. According to the news agency Interfax, a supplementary unit of a few hundred men would be sent to Kosovo by air. However, it is not yet known how these soldiers could get to Yugoslavia because nei
ther the Ukrainian nor the Hungarian authorities have granted permission to the Russian planes carrying the Russian KFOR troops for the
use of their airspace."
* Bulgaria's state press agency BTA reporteed June 12: "Russia approach Bulgaria through diplomatic channels on Saturday [12th June] with a request for an air corridor for the transportation of Russian units to Kosovo over Bulgaria, the office of the spokesman of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told BTA. 'I have been informed that there is a Russian note but that it has not been sent according to the respective regulations,' Prime Minister Kostov told the press Saturday afternoon when asked about Russia's request for an air corridor for the transportation of its units to Kosovo.
The Russian note does not mention whether the people in the planes will be armed or not and the Bulgarian constitution provides for totally different procedures in the two cases, Kostov added... 'Naturally, if the question is about Russian participation in KFOR, as a part of these forces and under unified command, we have already declared our agreement to this effect,' Kostov also said." Agence France Presse reported June 14 that "an aide to Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Andranik Migranian, on Sunday called the lack of an immediate Bulgarian reply a 'hostile act' in an interview with
the private Bulgarian radio Express. Migranian said the refusal 'will intensify anti-Bulgarian feelings in Russia, and risked influencing economic relations' between the two countries."
* Agence France Presse reported "Romania on Monday rejected a Russian request to use its airspace for flights to Kosovo, arguing that previous UN Security Council approval would be needed for such a decision. 'Even if the United Nations give the green light, Russia's request must follow the same procedure as a previous request by NATO,' said President Emil Constantinescu. 'Moscow's request will be examined in line with the UN resolution on the creation of the KFOR Kosovo peace force,' said ministry spokeswoman Simona Miculescu had said earlier."
V. DIPLOMATIC JOCKEYING OVER UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO KOSOVO
* UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a report June 14 on "a preliminary operational concept for the overall administration of the [international community's] civil presence [within Kosovo], which will be known as the United Nations Interim Adminstration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK). The report notes that "UNMIK will be headed by a Special Representative of the Secretary-General, appointed by the Secretary-General in consultation with the Security Council." The report also assigns the responsibility for major components of the Kosovo mission to international organizations as follows: Interim civil administration (including international civilian police, border police and judicial affairs) « the United Nations; Humanitarian affairs (including ensuring the safe and unimpeded return of refugees, and protection and assistance to minority groups) « UNHCR; institution-building (including the conduct and monitoring
of elections, human rights monitoring, and capacity building, in the areas of justice, police and public administration) « the OSCE; reconstruction (the physical, economic and social infrastructure « the EU.
* The Secretary-General's report also noted that "the Special Representative of the Secretary-General will appoint an Executive Committee whose membership will include the four Deputy Special Representatives. The Executive Committee will assist the Special Representative in fulfilling his responsibilities. It is expected that the agency with the overall responsibility for a particular component will draw upon the capacities and expertise of other organizations on the ground and coordinate their work to maximum advantage."
* The Times (London) reported June 12 that "the new administrator will have to decide contentious political issues. An urgent priority will be the issuing of new identity documents to all returning refugees who had theirs destroyed by Serb forces. The administrator must decide whether to replace lost ones or draw up separate Kosovan identity documents - underlining the de facto independence from Belgrade. He must also decide whether Kosovans must continue paying tax to Yugoslavia or serve in the Yugoslav Army. Both would be repugnant to the refugees; but canceling these obligations would
seem at odds with continued Yugoslav sovereignty. Similarly the province will probably use the German mark or American dollar instead of the old currency. Another immediate issue is the electricity supply. The West is
extremely reluctant to keep Kosovo dependent on the Yugoslav grid; not only will it take Belgrade years to repair its own bombed power stations, but such dependence would give President Milosevic considerable scope to disrupt Kosovo's recovery."
* The Daily Telegraph reported today that "a serious transatlantic rift has arisen over appointing a United Nations proconsul in Kosovo, to rebuild and run it until elections can be held. Washington insists that the job must go to an American. The European countries demand a European. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, has been forced to make a temporary appointment, Sergio Vieira di Mello, a well-regarded Brazilian administrator. America is backing its candidate, Jacques Klein, who is the number two man in Bosnia. Britain and France are understood to have rejected him. The obvious European candidate is Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister and the first High Representative in Bosnia. The Americans object to Mr Bildt because he openly criticised their policy during the Kosovo conflict, demanding that a ground force should be sent in. He also bitterly condemned the deal with Slobodan Milosevic as inconsistent and full of holes. A third candidate is Lakhdar Rahimi, the former Algerian minister who ran U
N operations in Haiti in the mid-Nineties. He is thought to be acceptable to the Americans, but the Europeans insist on their own man. The delay could seriously compromise the work of the civilian authority in Kosovo, which is
due to start moving in early next week, after NATO has overseen the withdrawal of all Serb units and secured the province."
VI. WEST HAD "SECRET CHANNEL" TO MILOSEVIC
* The Financial Times reported June 14 that "top Russian officials, in collaboration with key leaders in the European Union, opened a secret channel in May to Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslav president, which was instrumental in securing a peace deal in Kosovo, according to EU and Yugoslav officials... A source close to the leadership of the Serbian security services, who would not be named, told the FT that Peter Castenfelt, a Swedish-born financier acting as a secret envoy, had, for the first time, revealed to the Yugoslav leader what the final terms were on which NATO would settle... He said it became clear that, in crucial respects, the deal was better than that offered by the leading NATO powers during the Rambouillet negotiations earlier this year - especially since it gave the UN Security Council control of the operation in Kosovo. 'This means that the UN mandate can be voted down by the Russians and the Chinese when we don't want them [NATO] in any more,' said the Yugoslav source [The UN resolution reads
: "The civil and security presences are established for an initial period of 12 months, to continue thereafter unless the Security Council decides otherwise," language that appears to require a unanimous vote by the security council to remove the civil and security presences.] He said it was critically important to Yugoslavia to have the Russian
presence in Kosovo, both to affirm Russia's strategic interest in the region and to protect the Serbs. His testimony, and that of German officials and advisers, suggests the talks with Mr Milosevic, both open and covert, were more of a negotiation than the leaders of the NATO countries have admitted... The Serb source said that the points on which the NATO deal was significantly better than the terms offered during the Rambouillet accords were particularly critical for the eventual acceptance of the deal... These were, he said, that there would be no referendum in Kosovo after three years, as the Rambouillet accord specified; there would be a UN presence, not merely NATO; the Kosovo Liberation Army was not recognised, where it had been at Rambouillet; and Russian troops were part of the Kosovo force, which had not been specified before."
