October 13, 1998
Yugoslavia and NATO "went to the brink" over Kosovo, but stopped just short of airstrikes with the announcement on Tuesday (October 13, 1998) of an agreement negotiated between US envoy Richard Holbrooke and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade. The agreement allows the international community to monitor Yugoslav compliance with a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the rebel province. The highlights of the agreement are:
1. Serb forces must be withdrawn and refugees allowed to return home.
The withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo was one of the key demands of the UN Security Council resolution passed on September 23. Holbrooke said Milosevic will sign an agreement confirming his intention of complying with the resolution.
Neither Holbrooke nor Milosevic would discuss the actual number of troops to be withdrawn. Following the agreement, The Washington Post quoted a White House official as saying that under the terms of the UN resolution, the Serbs must reduce their military forces in Kosovo to the level they were in February, when the conflict began. This would mean cutting the 18,000 troops in Kosovo now to about 12,500, and the 11,000 policemen to 6,500.
The war has displaced about 250,000 ethnic Albanians, tens of thousands of whom are hiding out in the mountains. International aid groups are predicting a serious humanitarian crisis if the refugees do not return to their homes before the onset of winter.
2. International monitoring by land and air.
The inspection effort will be organized by the 55-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The group will assemble a 2000 member, multi-national mission to assure Serbian compliance with the UN Security Council resolution. Holbrooke has said that an agreement detailing where the inspection teams will be headquartered and how their work is to be carried out will be signed by October 19. The mission will apparently be led by an American, and will include Russians.
Milosevic has also agreed to allow unarmed NATO aircraft to fly over Kosovo to verify the cease-fire and withdrawal of troops. Yugoslavia has agreed to turn off its air defense radar systems during the fly-overs. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and Gen. Wesley Clark, the alliance's supreme commander in Europe, will sign an agreement spelling out the details of the aerial surveillance plan in Belgrade later this week.
3. Timetable for autonomy talks.
According to the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug, "free and fair" elections are to take place within nine months to set up an autonomous government in Kosovo. The province had enjoyed such a relationship until 1989, when Milosevic revoked its autonomy.
Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas have already condemned the agreement's bias toward autonomy within Yugoslavia as opposed to outright independence.
4. Statement of intent by Yugoslav government.
The Yugoslav government, as a result of the agreement between Holbrooke and Milosevic, issued an 11-point statement read to government ministers by Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. The details of the agreement, as reported by Agence France Presse, are as follows:
1. A political approach and settlement of problems through dialogue.
2. Violence and terrorism must cease immediately.
3. Any settlement must respect the territorial integrity, the sovereignty and the recognized international borders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
4. A settlement must be based on full respect for the equality of all citizens and national communities.
5. The future of Kosovo lies in peace, equality, integration economic prosperity and a life of freedom and togetherness as opposed to ethnic, religious, cultural divisions and isolation.
6. Legal dispositions to allow autonomous administration in Kosovo must conform fully to the laws of Yugoslavia, to international norms and to the Helsinki Final Act.
7. Citizens of Kosovo will exercise democratic self-rule through parliamentary, executive and judicial organs. [CEO Note: the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported the elections are to be held in the province within nine months.]
8. Members of national (ethnic) communities will benefit from additional rights enabling them to express their national cultural, religious and linguistic identities. They will not use their rights to harm those of other communities.
9. A local police force will be set up under the control of the local government and its composition will reflect that of the local population. [CEO Note: at present the police force in Kosovo is entirely Serbian, although Serbs make up less than 10 percent of the region's population.]
10. No person will be prosecuted for offenses committed in relation to the Kosovo conflict, with the exception of crimes against humanity and international law. The state will allow foreign experts, including pathologists, unhindered access to Kosovo so they may cooperate with state investigators. [CEO Note: Milosevic will not, however, accept the jurisdiction of the Hague-based war crimes tribunal.]
The competent authorities will re-examine, with a view to granting exception reductions in sentences, the verdicts pronounced against members of national communities for offenses inspired by political motives.
