The New York Times

Friday, June 18, 1999

Clinton Says Kosovo Deal Close

By The Associated Press

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- U.S. and Russian negotiators searched for an agreement on Kosovo peacekeeping today, and President Clinton said ``almost all the issues'' had been resolved.

It was unclear how the high-level talks would break a deadlock over Russia's demand that it play an equal role with NATO countries.

The negotiations, which broke off Thursday, resumed this morning for an apparent final attempt to reach an agreement.

``They've got almost all the issues resolved,'' Clinton said in Cologne, Germany. Of the remaining issues, he said: ``We must not make any decisions that in any way, shape or form undermine the ability of the Kosovars and their willingness to go home.''

``I expect we'll get this worked out today.''

``I think the important thing right now, as much as possible, is to focus on making decisions that will work,'' Clinton said.

Russia's resolute insistence on an equal footing with NATO is frustrating U.S. efforts to draw Moscow into the Western alliance's plans for pacifying the province and returning its ethnic Albanian refugees.

``We have made great progress,'' Defense Secretary William Cohen said after a 12-hour session that ended about midnight. He said he remained hopeful a deal could be completed.

With an agreement still not in place by midafternoon, Cohen left the negotiations to take a stroll in an open-air market across the street. He told reporters that translators were working on new wording of a proposed agreement.

Asked whether it was possible the negotiators would fail to reach agreement, Cohen replied: ``Each of us has to be prepared to leave without a final agreement.'' But he added he was returning to the talks still hoping to wrap up a deal.

Marshall Igor Sergeyev, the Russian defense minister, raised the possibility that the issue might have to be resolved by Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin. The presidents are scheduled to meet Sunday at an economic summit in Cologne, where they had hoped to discuss a variety of issues unburdened by the difficult issue of peacekeeping.

Sergeyev insisted the talks were not derailed.

``We are not drifting away,'' he said.

The main sticking point was NATO's rejection of a Russian demand that it be given its own geographic sector of Kosovo in the NATO-led peacekeeping operation, which is designed to stabilize the province, ``demilitarize'' ethnic Albanian rebels and ensure the safe return of hundreds of thousands of Albanian refugees to their villages.

U.S. and NATO officials believe that letting Russian have its way would lead to a partitioning of the province, given the Russians' close links to the Serb minority in Kosovo.

A further complicating factor is the animosity of Kosovo's guerrilla movement, the Kosovo Liberation Army, toward Russians. Moscow is urging a quick disarming of the KLA, while NATO has said it will ensure that the guerrillas disband but not disarm completely.

The United States, France, Britain, Germany and Italy have divided Kosovo into five sectors for peacekeeping. The purpose of assigning the sectors only to NATO countries is to guarantee unity of command, which NATO insists is essential to effective peacekeeping. That is the way the alliance has operated in Bosnia since 1995, although Russian troops are keeping the peace there in a sector led by U.S. forces.

``We have made quite clear there would not be a separate Russian sector,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters as she arrived to join the negotiations Thursday. She and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov were staying for today's session.

The issue of sectors is a particularly sticky one because the Russians feel they deserve equal treatment with the major NATO powers in postwar Kosovo, given that Russian envoy Victor Chernomyrdin played an important role in persuading Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept NATO's terms for peace after 11 weeks of bombing.

The matter of Russia's role in peacekeeping took on added urgency after Moscow sent about 200 troops into Pristina, the Kosovo capital, last weekend and gained control of the airport. The Russians are still holed up there, although officials said the Helsinki talks had tentatively settled the matter of NATO's access to the airport.

Cohen spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the two sides' technical experts were working overnight ``refining the details'' of a deal. Cohen said there was no deadline for the negotiations, but the U.S. delegation planned to depart today for talks with NATO allies in Brussels, Belgium.

Sergeyev told reporters, ``We have optimism to reach agreement at our level in order to have something to report to our presidents.''

U.S. officials said Cohen was urging the Russians to accept a geographic patrol area within one of the already established five peacekeeping sectors in Kosovo, thereby avoiding a split between NATO and non-NATO areas. One suggestion was to call this a Russian ``zone of responsibility.''