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Peace Plan Highlights | Photo Gallery | Strike Assessment | News Video Archive | Strike at a Glance | Who's Who | Roots of the Conflict | Story Archive | Links | Discussion Talks on Yugoslav troop withdrawal suspended until Sunday
June 5, 1999
BLACE, Macedonia (CNN) -- Talks between top military commanders of NATO and Yugoslavia on Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo were suspended Saturday after a five-hour session. The talks will resume Sunday. The Yugoslav delegation met with NATO Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson on Saturday to receive instructions governing their withdrawal from Kosovo following Yugoslavia's acceptance of an international peace plan. NATO said the meeting broke up when the Yugoslavs wanted to clarify "one or two points" with officials in Belgrade. "It has been a very constructive day of very positive talks," Clifford said after the meeting was halted late Saturday. NATO warned that its bombing campaign, begun March 24, would continue "until we see the Yugoslav forces actually withdraw." "We expect the Yugoslav military representatives to accept the terms that will be put to them by Gen. Jackson, and we expect them to have the authority not only to agree but also to order the immediate implementation of what is agreed," said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea. Jackson, Lt. Gen. Blagoje Kovacevic, deputy chief of staff of the Yugoslav army, and Police Gen. Obrad Stevanovic reportedly went over the withdrawal document "point by point" during the meeting. "It is crucially important that everybody understands what is meant by the words," said Lt. Col. Robin Clifford, a NATO spokesman. Shea said that the plan Jackson was presenting to the Yugoslavs laid out routes and a timetable for the troop pullout.
Meanwhile, NATO nations expected to send troops to make up the peacekeeping force that will enter Kosovo behind the Yugoslav withdrawal were stepping up their plans to deploy those units. Jackson, a British general commanding NATO's Rapid Reaction Corps in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, placed his headquarters on 24 hours notice to move. The peacekeeping force is to guarantee the safe return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians who fled the province and Yugoslavia's alleged ethnic cleansing campaign. Talks Yugoslavia, between Russia and seven Western powers, were scheduled to take place on Monday after meetings scheduled for Sunday were postponed. In Russia, Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin said Saturday that if Russian peacekeepers were sent to Kosovo, they would not be under NATO command. "We have not even discussed this question," he said. "Under our law and under our morality, we will never be under NATO." Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Marrti Ahtisaari negotiated the Yugoslavs' acceptance of the peace plan, which came Thursday.
In Belgrade, Yugoslav newspaper headlines trumpeted the peace agreement Friday, although Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has made no public comment on the deal. The news that he has accepted the peace plan has left Belgrade in a kind of limbo between a war that is not yet over and peace that has not yet begun. Air raid sirens blared over Belgrade and in at least five other Serbian towns early Saturday, the official Tanjug news agency reported. The 10-week war has devastated Yugoslavia, leaving as many as 1 million people unemployed and much of its capital without electricity or running water. Yugoslavia reportedly wants NATO to rebuild the country, but some international members have warned that no aid will be forthcoming so long as Milosevic remains in power and no democratic reforms are instituted. "Naturally, there will be humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia," said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea Saturday. But he added, "As leaders of the European Union made clear yesterday, there will not be any help in reconstructing Yugoslavia under the present management." CNN's Walter Rodgers reported Saturday that some in Belgrade were beginning to question why Milosevic accepted essentially the same peace terms after 2 1/2 months of bombing that were offered before the campaign began. Tanjug reported missile attacks near the town of Lipljan, in Kosovo, and on Mount Rudnik in central Serbia. An area near the Kosovo town of Prizren was reportedly bombarded for more than an hour. NATO military spokesman Gen. Walter Jertz said that NATO flew more than 500 sorties overnight, striking targets near Vrdnik, Titovo Uzice and Ivanjica in Serbia and several targets in Kosovo. Earlier, NATO reported striking 30 artillery pieces, nine tanks and over two dozen other military targets in Kosovo. Jertz also reported fierce ground fighting between Yugoslav troops and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which is fighting for Kosovo's independence, along the Kosovo-Albania border. Yugoslavia wants guarantees that the guerrillas will not overrun the province when its troops leave the area. NATO officials said the issue was "difficult" and was to be addressed in future talks. "As the Serb forces pull out and the NATO forces enter Kosovo, we expect the KLA to use restraint and not to take advantage of the situation," Shea said. "We expect the personnel of the KLA to abide by the instructions of Gen. Jackson." KLA spokesman Pleurat Sejdiu said the separatist army planned to stick to the terms of the Rambouillet agreement it signed. "We have some reservations about certain points in this deal, but we are ready to cooperate very closely with NATO," Sejdiu told CNN. Correspondents Walter Rodgers and Lou Waters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: NATO: Bombing of Yugoslavia could end by Sunday RELATED SITES: Yugoslavia:
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