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NATO Fails To Find Breakthrough In Serbian Peace Talks
BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, March 11 (News Agencies) - Hopes of securing an immediate ceasefire between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists faded over the weekend after days of NATO shuttle diplomacy fell apart Sunday with no breakthrough in sight.
NATO's mediator Peter Feith pleaded for patience on all sides as his efforts to bridge the gulf between both sides failed to bear fruit.
"We are continuing the efforts to come to a ceasefire ... I think we have to be patient," Feith told reporters after a two-hour meeting with Belgrade's top negotiator, deputy prime minister Nebojsa Covic.
Significantly, Feith said he expected no direct talks with the other side Sunday, adding that he would meet the ethnic Albanian separatists only "when they are ready for further contacts."
His last direct contact was on Saturday, when the separatists balked at a clause that would allow Serbian special police to re-occupy a separatist-held village inside a demilitarized buffer zone separating Kosovo from Serbia proper.
The ceasefire deal would have formalized the return of Yugoslav armed forces to a key section of the buffer zone near Macedonia, whose army clashed with a separate ethnic-Albanian separatist group last week, leading to fears of a wider escalation of the violence.
NATO's involvement is a reflection of the international community's growing concern at the spread of violence in the tinderbox of neighboring Macedonia, the only Balkan republic to have emerged from the ex-Yugoslavia unscathed by war.
Albanians make up around a quarter of Macedonia's two million, as well as forming the majority in the U.N.-administered Serbian province of Kosovo.
The Kosovo group say they are fighting for a homeland, those in Macedonia say they are fighting for equal rights in the multi-ethnic republic. Serbia insists the separatists are seeking to join in a common homeland.
Feith said he was not "aware" if a Serb police return into a separatist-held village was the only hurdle to getting the ethnic Albanians to sign the accord.
"Maybe there are other problems, but if that is what they say, perhaps we can see a further progress," Feith said.
But he voiced optimism that he would meet the separatists again as soon as Monday.
Yugoslavia has effectively had its hands tied by the NATO-imposed demilitarization of the buffer zone, which has inadvertently allowed separatists of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), three Albanian-majority towns in the zone, to gain control of much of the five-kilometer (three-mile) zone.
The Albanians refusal so far to sign the deal met with a chorus of international disapproval Sunday.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for the isolation of the separatists, and said most Albanians in the region rejected violence.
"The time is for confidence-building and integration-encouraging methods, in order to open a perspective for the various ethnic groups in the Serbian and Macedonian areas bordering Kosovo to live together peaceably and to isolate the extremists," he said.
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, returning from a visit to Germany where he discussed the crisis, said that, "neither international organizations nor Albanian parties in Kosovo are doing enough to destroy the roots of Albanian terrorism."
Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou aired the possibility that Kosovo and Montenegro could negotiate a separation from Yugoslavia but insisted that it would never happen through violence.
"The logic that says someone can start a guerrilla war and be recognized as a political force, make land claims, change borders and the status quo of a region is a very dangerous game that we must not allow," Papandreou said in Sunday's To Vima newspaper.
Deputy prime minister Nebojsa Covic said that an "accord is not disputed by us [Belgrade] at all."
"We immediately accepted it," he said, adding that the separatists' refusal to accept the accord was "very damaging."
Belgrade's other key negotiator, ethnic minorities minister Rasim Ljajic, said he believed a "final response" on a ceasefire accord should be reached by Monday.
The UCPMB commander, known as Vullnet, told reporters in the separatist-held village of Konculj on Saturday that the "discussions will continue on a date which has yet to be fixed."
"The Serbs can sign what they want, but it won't be recognized as long as the UCPMB haven't signed it," Vullnet said.
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