(11 May 1998) English/Nat
Two U-S envoys returned to Belgrade on Monday to persuade Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to open talks with Kosovo’s Albanian majority.
Richard Holbrooke and colleague Robert Gelbard flew in Monday from nearby Albania to try to keep the conflict in Kovoso from spreading throughout the Balkans.
They met Milosevic Monday afternoon, but after their talks said the distance between the two sides continues to be great.
Ethnic Albanians in the southern province are pressing for independence from Serbia – the larger of the two republics that make up Yugoslavia.
But so far, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has ruled that out. He’s also rejected foreign mediation.
But despite the rebuff, two U-S envoys returned to Belgrade on Monday to see if they can persuade Milosevic to open talks with Kosovo’s Albanian majority.
Richard Holbrooke and colleague Robert Gelbard are trying to keep the conflict in Kovoso from spreading throughout the Balkans.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We have just completed four hours of talks with President Milosevic and we will return to Pristina tomorrow morning to talk to (Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova) and then return here tomorrow afternoon to see President Milosevic. I would caution you however, that you should not conclude from the intensity of our travels any conclusions about how we are doing. I can tell you in all candor, while we don’t like to violate our rule that confidential talks must remain confidential, and therefore we will not go into any details, I can tell you in all candor that the distance between the two sides is very great and we will continue under direct instructions and encouragement under Secretary Albright and President Clinton to see if we can help bridge that gap. Thank you."
SUPER CAPTION: Holbrooke
In Kosovo, security appears to be deteriorating, with Albanian militants in control of large swaths of rugged countryside.
Armed ethnic Albanians halted an Associated Press reporter and an Associated Press Television crew at gunpoint when they attempted in two separate vehicles to travel the province’s main east-west road.
The artery was closed Friday night after reports of gun battles between militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army – a group fighting for independence since 1996 – and heavily
armed Serb police.
At least one militant was reported killed and four policemen wounded.
The Serb Media Centre in Kosovo said three Serbs were wounded when machine gun fire struck their car on a road near Srbica, 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest
of Pristina.
A police patrol also came under fire, with no injuries.
Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo’s 2 million people. Most seek independence from Serbia.
Serbs revere the province as the cultural heartland of their medieval kingdom and insist it remain part of Serbia.
Milosevic stripped Kosovo of broad autonomy in 1989, saying it was to protect the province’s Serb minority.
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