The New York Times

Tuesday, March 14, 2000

Albright Aide Cautions Both Serbs and Albanians

By CARLOTTA GALL

MITROVICA, Kosovo, March 13 -- James P. Rubin, the State Department spokesman, urged both Albanian and Serbian leaders in Kosovo today not to play into the hands of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and to reject extremists who are behind recent violence.

On the second day of his visit to Kosovo, Mr. Rubin brought messages from Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to Serbian opposition leaders, in particular Bishop Artemije of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, urging him to join Albanians in the Kosovo governing body set up by the United Nations.

And at every chance he repeated the message made on his arrival on Sunday, warning Albanian leaders they must use their positions to stop the violence against Serbs and other minorities or they risk losing support of the West.

Accompanied by the American presidential adviser Christopher Hill and officials from the United States peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, Mr. Rubin was on an unusual diplomatic tour of his own. He has played a special role in Kosovo, personally intervening to clinch a disarmament deal with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. Working the ties formed before and after last year's NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, and playing on the gratitude many Albanians feel towards Dr. Albright for supporting them during the war, Mr. Rubin said he had come to show Kosovo Albanians that Washington's commitment to their future remained strong, but should not be taken for granted.

"We are trying to create coexistence here," he said to journalists in the divided town of Mitrovica, which has been the scene of repeated violence in recent weeks. "The message is don't let extremists ruin this."

Flying on to Djakovica in western Kosovo, which suffered some of the worst destruction by Serbian forces last spring, Mr. Rubin kept on with his message. He stood on the steps of a destroyed mosque, facing a silent line of women protesting the disappearance of their men at Serbian hands, and he spoke against revenge.

"If this is to be the end of the cycle of violence, all of you who live here must find a way not to visit upon the Serbs that violence that was visited upon you," he said.